Activists across six countries smashed windows and sprayed paint over the offices of Allianz, an Israeli arms insurer, last night. Activists took action in the UK, France, Germany, Austria, Spain, Netherlands, Italy and Taiwan. They used hammers, fire extinguishers of paint and graffiti cans to deface the offices of the insurer for underwriting Elbit Systems, Israel’s main arms supplier.
The actions follow the renewal of Allianz’s contract with Elbit Systems on 1st November and mark the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration in 1917, when the British government and Zionists signed over Palestinian lands to occupation and then waged over 30 years of British military assaults against Palestinians.
A spokesperson from Shut Elbit Down in Austria said: “Allianz insures Genocide! By investing in the global arms trade and by insuring deadly arms companies like Elbit Systems they are complicit in the world’s wars and genocides as well as ecocide and we demand: Drop Elbit or expect more visits from our activists!”
A spokesperson from Shut The System in the UK said: “Palestine is a crux point for our shared struggle for justice against imperialist forces. They massacre communities so that greed-driven multinationals can ravage the land for oil, gas and minerals, devastating the support systems for all life on Earth. We will not stop until we bring down the deadly giants that threaten us all.”
A spokesperson in Germany said: “Allianz is spreading propaganda in the Berlin Metro. Don’t be fooled by these advertisements; this insurance company uses their bloody money to finance genocide and ecocide. Boycott Allianz!”
Allianz is one of Europe’s largest insurance companies, fueling destruction worldwide through its underwriting practices. It insures Elbit Systems, Israel’s main weapons provider, as well as Textron, complicit in the genocide in Gaza and US nuclear weapons, and Chevron, which bankrolls the genocide as Israel’s largest gas producer.
