A coalition of peace and anti-militarism organisations will protest the five-day Farnborough International Airshow this Monday 20 July.
The arms fair in Hampshire will feature over 1,000 company exhibitors, including many complicit in the current Israeli genocide in Palestine, with their products having also been used in attacks in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.
Over 50 countries and territories are expected to attend. Among past attendees are countries with dismal human rights records of systematic war crimes and internal repression. They include Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
The event’s principal “strategic” sponsor, Barclays has been a regular investor in Elbit Systems. It was recently revealed that Elbit Systems enabled the Israeli military to “identify” over 850,000 targets from the start of Israel’s genocide until the end of 2025.
Elbit is Israel’s largest arms company and its Hermes drones have conducted surveillance and attacked Palestinians over the past 15 years. It describes its drones as the “backbone” of the Israeli drone fleet.
Protests against the airshow will be supported by Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Raised Voices Choir, local members of Quakers, GRAFP, and BWV Friends of the Earth.
The protest and vigil is echoed by a wider campaign supported by over 50 groups, which calls for a boycott of Farnborough Airshow, in line with boycott, divestment, sanctions (BDS).
Barclays is complicit in other ways. It is a primary dealer of Israeli government bonds as its current administration simultaneously commits the crimes of apartheid and genocide. The bank also invests or lends over £8 billion to companies involved in supplying weapons to Israel, including to BAE Systems.
Alongside BAE, also exhibiting at Farnborough are Boeing, L3 Harris, Leonardo, Lockheed Martin and RTX Raytheon, which all contribute to the Lockheed-manufactured F-35 fighter jet. Given its systematic use by Israel to commit war crimes in Gaza, the F-35 has been dubbed the “genocide jet”.
Saudi Arabia’s BAE-supplied Eurofighter Typhoons were used throughout the war in Yemen, which saw over 377,000 people killed due to the bombing and deliberate destruction of infrastructure, including healthcare, water and food supplies. On Monday, Saudi Arabia resumed its bombing of Yemen, this time targeting its airport.
Both an Italian Air Force Typhoon and a US Air Force F-35 will be demonstrated at the airshow. In January, US F-35s played a key role in the military operation to kidnap and render the Venezuelan president and his wife, with airstrikes killing and injuring more than 200 people.
Rafael, Israel’s largest missile maker, will also be exhibiting. The Israeli military has used Rafael’s Spike guided missiles to target individuals inside buildings in Gaza, which have also been linked to an April 2024 attack against humanitarian workers in Gaza.
Commenting, Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) spokesperson Kirsten Bayes said:
‘This arms fair promises to be ‘Nightmare in Farnborough’ redux: a veritable horror show of company exhibitors and countries steeped in the crimes of genocide, man-made famine and authoritarian repression
‘The companies exhibiting include the who’s who of the F-35 ecosystem, a fighter jet whose use in war crimes – from Gaza, Iran, Lebanon and Venezuela – is so systematic that it has been rightly dubbed the “genocide jet”
‘So many of the companies exhibiting, from Elbit to Rafael, are mired in the Israeli military’s deliberate killing and maiming of the tens of thousands of Palestinian children, as a UN Commission of Inquiry recently found.
‘The UK should never host such a depraved group of suffering-profiteers. CAAT is proud to support conscientious protestors and demands for a boycott to end our national complicity in the gravest crimes.’
