from Issue 73, Summer 2023
A few months ago, an old friend, Tom, messaged me complaining about the lack of good books at the police station. He’d been arrested. I asked what happened, and with characteristic understatement, he replied that he’d been ‘involved in the Elbit stuff.’
Elbit Systems are Israel’s largest private weapons manufacturer – and one with multiple factories in the UK and close relationship to the British state. Its UK factories, despite repeated denials by their spokespeople, manufacture drones that are then deployed by Israeli military. In May, their factory in Leicestershire became subject to a siege by Palestine Action activists – aiming to shut it down. Through targeting production and supply chains, Palestine Action hit Elbit where it hurts – in their stock prices. It comes at a cost: around fifty activists were arrested.
I asked Tom why he thought it was worthwhile braving arrest to take a stand against the arms industry. He said: ‘We have more power than we think, to stand up to the arms industry in our backyard. They are making obscene profits out of death, and resisting that just feels so urgent. But it’s a highly sensitive industry, and every disruption we cause cuts into those profit margins. And I think everyone who was there would say that the response from Elbit Systems showed that these companies are terrified of direct action like this.’
I have to wonder why I failed to be there. To make peace, as the Gospel calls us to do, is to strike out against the manufacture of death. It means making a serious attempt to stop the use of arms. In our society, if we seriously believe in peace, we need to resist the arms industry, an industry which reaps nearly $600 billion in sales from a global culture of war. To target Elbit Systems is the start of that.
My friend’s arrest reminded me that there is no belief outside of action. I might say all manner of very worthy things about the plight of Palestinians, the evils of war, and the British state’s complicity in the massacre of innocents. But if I am not willing to put my skin in the game, to suffer for the end of suffering, the words mean nothing.
It is easy, all too easy, to make excuses for ourselves – of course I have a busy white-collar job and of course I don’t want to lose it. But God did not call us to self-preservation; he called us to lay down our lives for each other and ultimately for Him. Rosa Luxemburg, a revolutionary socialist, was put on trial in February 1914, as she insisted that German workers must refuse to fight in a war against their French brothers. Someone asked her why she didn’t run away; she said: ‘I assure you that I would not flee even if I were threatened with the gallows… I consider it absolutely necessary to accustom our party to the idea that sacrifices are part of a socialist’s work in life.’
If sacrifice is desirable for socialists, it’s unavoidable for Christians. The Lord tells us to ‘take up your cross and follow me’ – and the early Christians knew this was no metaphor. Every time I fail to turn up, to bear witness to injustice and attempt to stop it, I am rejecting the Cross. The actions of those surrounding Elbit day after day reveal to me that an easy life is not a good one. May the Lord deliver me from my continued moral cowardice.