Members of Extinction Rebellion Wimborne staged a protest outside Mission Systems in Wimborne, Dorset, over the company’s links to the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Mission Systems is owned by US multinational Eaton, which manufactures parts for the F-35 fighter jet used by the Israel Defence Force. These jets are central to the bombardment of Gaza, where more than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023. Despite this, the UK government refuses to ban the export of all UK-made F-35 components, making it complicit in genocide.
Dressed in business suits and bowler hats, protesters carried placards marked with red handprints to symbolise “blood on their hands.” Slogans included UK Government complicit in Gaza genocide, War fuels the climate crisis, and Eaton: profiting from genocide.
“Eaton is making money from slaughter,” said Marsh Donnell, Retired IT Manager. “The loophole in the UK’s partial arms embargo means F-35 parts keep flowing into a global supply pool from which Israel draws. This is complicity in mass killing.”
War, they point out, also drives climate change and ecological collapse. “From the carbon emissions of bombardment to the destruction of farmland and biodiversity, war fuels the climate and nature crises,” said Diana Thorneycroft, local climate activist.
XR Wimborne is calling on the public to contact their MPs repeatedly to demand a full arms embargo, sanctions and a trade boycott of Israel until the genocide ends. “This is urgent and ongoing,” said Judy Wateridge, local conservationist. “MPs use the volume of emails they receive to press the issue in Parliament so they need to hear from us every week.”
