Firms Profiting from Gaza Genocide Take Part in London Weapons Fair

David Cronin 

Rights and Accountability 

7 January 2024

Wargaming. Firepower. Lethality. Robotics.

All these topics will be discussed at a major weapons fair in London later this month.

Such an event would be sinister at any time. That it is being organized while a genocide is being carried out in Gaza adds a new layer of immorality.

Rafael and Elbit Systems – leading players in Israel’s arms industry – are sponsors of International Armoured Vehicles, as the exhibition and conference is called.

The short profiles of these firms in the event’s official program – see below – do not mention that they are Israeli.

Representatives of Elbit are scheduled to give a presentation titled “Iron Fist.”

Iron Fist is the brand name of surveillance equipment and interceptors which Elbit has made for a spanking new armored vehicle known as the Eitan.

The Eitan is being used by Israel during its current invasion of Gaza.

Innovators assist genocide

Not content with the horrors it is inflicting on Palestinians at present, Israel is hoping to unveil new killing machines in the near future.

On New Year’s Day, the weapons trade publication IsraelDefense published a puff piece about the “Technological Brigade for Land.”

The “human and professional composition of the brigade is extraordinary,” it stated. Boasting “thousands of servicemen and women” and “484 engineers,” few other divisions in Israel’s military “have professional staff at such high levels.”

The brigade has been “working closely with the combat units fighting in Gaza to provide them with real-time technological innovations,” IsraelDefense reported.

The Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz has a reputation for being more independent and critical. Some of its recent coverage has nonetheless amounted to free advertising for Israel’s war industry.

A Haaretz article which appeared a few days ago noted that the war in Gaza and expected increases in military spending are “providing new opportunities for defense startups.”

Never mind that starvation is rising in Gaza, the war is a boon to Israel’s small businesses, the paper’s supposedly liberal readers were told. Or at least that was the subliminal message.

The trendy topic of artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to feature prominently in the discussions at the aforementioned London weapons fair.

It is a safe bet that its participants will be eager to find out more about Gospel – an Israeli system using AI to identify targets.

Gospel had previously been tested during the May 2021 attack on Gaza, which The Jerusalem Post dubbed “the world’s first AI war.”

Supporters of Israel like to gloat about how their beloved nation has fostered a culture of “impatient innovation.”

Israel’s impatient innovators are now rushing to assist a genocide.