Stop the Arms Fair!

by New Worker correspondent

Londoners gathered at vigil last week organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) to oppose the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair in London. The vigil in Cundy Park in East London highlighted DSEI’s role in arming Israeli apartheid, and other repressive states around the world.
The PSC protest on Tuesday 5th September was just the start of a wave of protests against the biennial arms fair that opened on Monday at the Excel Centre in London’s Docklands. The fair, one of the largest arms festivals in the world, is attended by hundreds of arms companies to showcase weapons and military technology on the international market. Over the years the DSEI arms festival has faced sustained opposition from a variety of anti-racist and international justice groups who say the arms fair fuels the transfer of weapons and military technology used in assaults against indigenous and other marginalised communities across the world.
The protesters condemned the presence of Israeli military officials and Israeli arms companies, which develop and use weapons in violence against Palestinians, before selling them as ‘battle-tested’ to other states. This year alone, Israel has killed over 200 Palestinians in military incursions, air raids and assassinations.
They called on London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who has previously stated his opposition to the fair, to act to bring a halt to the event. Protesters also turned their fire on the Government, which helps organise the event through the Ministry of Defence and the Department for International Trade.
PSC Director Ben Jamal, said “The DSEI arms fair provides a venue to Israel’s apartheid regime to buy weapons, and allows Israeli arms companies to sell their lethal weapons developed through Israel’s attacks on Palestinians to other repressive states. The arms fair must be shut down.
“In addition, we call on the British government to end the arms trade between the UK and Israel through the introduction of a comprehensive military embargo, as Palestinian civil society has repeatedly demanded”.