Kick Israel out of DSEI petition

Dear Supporter,

As you may be aware, 2025 is a DSEI year. In other words, it’s a year when the world’s worst arms dealers return to London in September for one of the world’s largest arms fairs.

While there are so many reasons for opposing DSEI – we are launching our campaign against this year’s monstrosity with a Kick Israel out of DSEI petition.

The petition, addressed to the Foreign Office, the Department for Business and Trade, Clarion Events, the ExCeL centre, and the Mayor of London, demands that Israeli arms companies, delegations and speakers are banned from the event.

Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Not only has Israel completely shattered the fragile ceasefire, the atrocities it is committing are escalating.

It is clear that if Israeli companies and Israeli delegations are allowed to exhibit at and attend DSEI then the government, Clarion, and the ExCeL Centre will all be complicit in the most horrific war crimes.

Every company and government body responsible for Israel’s inclusion at DSEI is complicit in aiding and abetting Israel’s genocide and the commission of war crimes.

Israel always plays a prominent role at DSEI, with the UK government inviting an official Israeli government delegation. If this happens in 2025, it will be our government rolling out the red carpet to legitimise and enable war criminals coming to shop for even deadlier weapons to wage their genocide against Palestinian people.

In 2023, in addition to Brigadier General Dr Danny Gold, head of the Directorate of Defense, Research, & Development for the Israeli Ministry of Defense giving a keynote speech, Israel had its own country pavilion with 48 domestic Israeli arms companies exhibiting at the event. These are companies that are directly responsible for, and directly profiting from, Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the war crimes it is committing in the West Bank and Lebanon. For example, Elbit Systems provides 80% of the drones that the Israeli military use in Palestine.

Despite Israel’s horrific war crimes, despite the International Court of Justice (ICJ) finding that it was plausible that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, despite the International Criminal Court (ICC) issuing arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, despite this government imposing a partial arms suspension and finding that Israel is not committed to complying with international law, it looks like it will be business as usual for Israel at DSEI 2025. Israel is already confirmed as having a country pavilion at DSEI 2025. This will be a huge opportunity for Israeli companies to market military equipment that is no longer just “battle-tested” but now genocide tested, on a global level.

We believe that banning Israel from the event is a clear moral and legal objective, and one that we hope is achievable. We want to see this disgusting arms fair shut down entirely, but the outrage against Israel’s genocide is so great that we believe there is a real opportunity to put pressure on the government and the arms fair organisers to at least go this far.

Nonetheless, even if we achieve this aim, our protests and opposition to DSEI will continue. Even if Israeli delegations and companies are banned, there are plenty of domestic arms companies, such as BAE Systems – the main UK producer of the 15% of F-35 combat aircraft that is made in the UK, and which Israel is using to drop 2000lb bombs on Gaza – will still have a massive presence. They will be joined by top arms companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon who supply the many of the arms Israel is using in Gaza.

Furthermore, DSEI is a one-stop-shop for human rights-abusing regimes to stock up on military equipment to wage wars abroad and repress their populations at home. From Saudi Arabia, to Qatar to Turkey, DSEI will roll out the red carpet for delegations from human rights-abusing regimes across the world.

Particularly in the current climate – when this government is pushing to rebrand the arms trade as “British defence”- DSEI will be a major event in its calendar to further push a militarist agenda and fuel the next wars.

We will be on the streets between 9th-12th September opposing it.

We hope that you’ll be able to join us.

In the meantime, please sign and share our petition, and if you’re able, please make a donation (one-off or regular) to make sure our campaign and protests are as big and as successful as they can be.