Activists protest French company Safran's arms sales to Israel

By Hafsa Alami

PARIS (AA) — Activists from the Stop Arming Israel organization in Paris held a protest early on Monday in front of the headquarters of Safran, a French aerospace and defense industry company.

Marking a global day of action against arms companies "complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and West Bank," a member of Loic, one of the groups under Stop Arming Israel, told Anadolu that it was "mobilized in front of Safran Electronics and Defense headquarters in response of this call."

The group is there to "denounce the company's complicity in the ongoing war," the member added.

Two lawmakers of the France Insoumise (French Unbowed) political party also attended in support to the protestors, condemning the French company's complicity and lack of transparency on the amount of weapons France is sending to Israel.

"All over Europe and the world, there are mobilizations to ask those who supply weapons to the Israeli state who are today massacring Palestinians, to stop being accomplices to the genocide. This is why today, several parliamentarians from France Insoumise are present in front of Safran headquarters to demand that the complicity stop," Thomas Portes, one of the deputies, representing the Seine Saint Denis department in Paris, told Anadolu.

Jerome Legavre, the other lawmaker, told Anadolu that Safran sells weapons, ammunition, and components "all over the world, used in particular by the Israeli army to decimate and exterminate the Palestinian population of Gaza."

In 2010, Safran and Elbit Systems, a leading Israeli arms manufacturer, announced the creation of a joint venture in the tactical drone market, while Safran's French drone, the Patroller, was under development.

The French company announced two years ago that the Israeli government had renewed its confidence in it by placing a major order for electronic components for the Israeli Arrow 3 anti-missile system.

On Oct. 16, Palestinian union collective Workers in Palestine launched a global appeal to "end all complicity. Stop arming Israel." The initiative is meant to render Israel unable to continue its offensive in Gaza by cutting off its supplies from foreign arms companies.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack led by Hamas in which some 1,200 people were killed.

Over 31,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in Gaza, and over 72,600 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to ensure its forces do not commit acts of genocide, and guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.