Demonstration against the EDO MBM/ITT factory in Brighton. Approximately250 demonstrators have gathered in Brighton to protest against the presence of the EDO MBM/ITT factory in the town. According to the SMASHEDO campaigners, EDO MBM/ITT has been producing weapons components, which have been used and are still used in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and by the Israeli forces against the Palestinians. During the demo, some clashes occurred between the protesters and the police: 2 protesters got injured and 10 demonstrators got arrested.

We Won’t Be Silent: Resisting the UK’s arms trade with Israel

Journalist and filmmaker Medyan Dairieh presents a feature-length documentary filmed over more than 18 years across Gaza and the United Kingdom. This long-term project documents the relentless struggles of Palestinians amid Israel’s latest wars on the Gaza Strip, while also highlighting the bustling activism in Britain against the networks of arms manufacturing producing weapons and other military equipment used by Israel in its attacks on Gaza.

Following the devastating 2008 war in the Gaza Strip, life slowly resumed in the besieged enclave. Fishermen went back to the sea, and students returned to their classes in bombed-out schools, with a sense of resilience persisting in one of the most densely populated areas on earth, where refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War constitute the majority of the population. In the wake of Hamas’s landslide victory in the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, Israel had imposed a severe blockade on the Palestinian enclave, further isolating the territory.

Thousands of miles away, in the seaside city of Brighton along the southern coast of Britain, nurse Tanya sits on the beach with her children. This vibrant coastal city is one of the UK’s most prominent tourist destinations, attracting a large number of visitors each year, while also being known as a very progressive place. Yet, tucked away on a hill near one of its universities lies the “L3 Harris” weapons factory, in stark contrast to Brighton’s peaceful image. The factory produces advanced systems for arming warplanes, including smart bombs carriers, racks for air-launched warheads, and a sophisticated aerial bomb release system.

For nearly two decades we have been following activists and documenting their actions and campaigns against the arms industry, with the investigation gaining critical urgency with the latest war on Gaza. We then focus on Israel’s use of high-explosive bombs in the Gaza Strip following a new U.S. supply of an arms package to Israel which included thousands of heavy bombs, each weighing 2,000 pounds (about 900 kilograms).

The investigation of the filmmaker explores the production of these bombs, ammunition components, and release mechanisms in UK-based factories, aiming to uncover the complex network of connections between British, American and Israeli companies, as well as the ways of delivering weapons and advanced military technology to Israel. That includes the relationship with leading companies in the military technology sector, including the F-35 fighter jets, advance missiles, and air defence systems used by the Israeli forces.

The documentary features expert voices, including university professor Anna, who details the types of weapons and component systems manufactured in Britain and used in the latest war on Gaza. We also delve with Anna into the specifics of the UK arms trade with Israel, shedding light on how UK export laws and licensing are often bypassed to allow continued arms trade with Israel.

Tanya is a nurse who attends protests against arms sales to Israel, and also shares her long-standing experience in campaigning for over 17 years. Church minister Lianne leads chanting at a demonstration against the supply of weapons to Israel, after leading a church service and prayers at her church. She later joins Anna and Tanya outside the arms factory, where hundreds of Gaza supporters, many of them wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh, try to shut down the weapons factory L3 Harris by forming a human chain at its gates.

In the Gaza Strip, we met Jamila when she was 14 years old and had lost both legs in an Israel bombardment during the 2008 Israeli War on Gaza. She has continued talking to us about the consecutive devastating wars in Gaza until the outbreak of the latest one with its incessant brutality and horrors.

The documentary then takes viewers to the coastal town of Hastings in southern England, where Laurie and fellow activists gather outside another weapons factory they accuse of complicity in war crimes and genocide committed by Israeli forces in Gaza. Their protests target “General Dynamics,” a major arms manufacturer whose bombs have been allegedly used in the bombing of civilians in Gaza. As tension escalates not just in Gaza, but also in the West Bank, which is no longer shielded from such events, activists demand the closure of these factories and an end to the UK’s complicity in fuelling Israel’s war on Gaza and its ongoing attacks and violence in the West Bank.

Director: Medyan Dairieh

Editors: Zakariya Yahya and  Muhammed Ibrahim Ali