Around 40 activists from Brighton and Hove Action for Palestine stood outside the L3Harris site in Moulsecoomb to protest against the supply of arms to Israel in the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
The site is used to build parts including bomb racks for fighter jets being used by Israel in the war against Hamas.
Activist Hermoine, who did not provide her last name, said: “Palestinians live in our city and there is an arms factory that makes weapons used to bomb their loved ones. This is horrific.
“We stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and anyone being bombarded with weapons made in our country. We don’t want a weapons factory on our doorstep and we don’t agree with workers having to be complicit in a genocide.”
Israel has rejected accusations of genocide in the Gaza conflict at the United Nations’s highest court, stating that the war in Gaza is a legitimate defence of its people and that it was Hamas militants who were guilty of genocide.
Israeli legal adviser Tal Becker told a hearing of the International Court of Justice: “In these circumstances, there can hardly be a charge more false and more malevolent than the allegation against Israel of genocide.”
The latest protest at the Moulsecoomb site comes as hundreds of people objected to a planning application to permanently extend the factory, after an extension to the site was built in 2018.
More than 500 objecting comments have been received on the application, with campaigners planning to deliver a further 200 handwritten objections to Hove Town Hall.
One objection said: “It mocks the spirit of our city. We are a city that celebrates life. How dare we let profiteers of death thrive as our neighbour.”
L3Harris holds an export licence to send bomb rack units and explosive munition release systems made in Home Farm Business Park to the United States, where they are used to create F-35 Lighting II fighter jets.
F-35 manufacturer Lockheed Martin said that jets have been sold to Israel through the US government’s foreign military sales process from 2010.
Social media posts from the Israeli Defence Force suggest F-35 planes are among those being used in the Gaza conflict.
L3Harris has been approached for comment.
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