Protesters gathered outside the Grosvenor House Hotel in Mayfair last night to protest the annual arms fair dinner by lobbying group ADS.
The dinner was a major networking event for the arms industry, bringing together over 1100 contractors, MPs and military personnel.
The protest was organised by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, against arms manufacturers’ direct involvement and profiteering from the war in Gaza.
Kristen, a protestor, said: “We know that control of the food supply was so important to the Israelis and that they were prepared to starve the Palestinian people to do it.
“That same pattern was done in Yemen, where the Saudis were armed with British weapons. So it’s horrendous that they’re basically having dinner here to celebrate the profits they’ve made from starving Yemen, Gaza and Syria.
The dinner was sponsored by BAE Systems, Britain’s largest weapons manufacturer, which supplies Israel with attack aircrafts, tanks, missile launchers and parts for fighter jets, drones and warships.
Security guards and Met police formed a human barrier to protect attendees as they were escorted in.
Confrontations with the police saw protestors dragged and pushed to the ground. Two peaceful protestors were arrested at the end of the evening.
A focus on the arms manufacturers has significantly increased over the last two and a half years, as reports exposing the UK’s deep military relationship with Israel continue to be released.
A March investigation by Declassified showed that the RAF has conducted at least 518 surveillance flights around Gaza since December 2023, raising concerns about whether British intelligence has played a role in Israeli military operations that have resulted in mass civilian casualties.
In response, the Ministry of Defence maintains that surveillance aircraft were always unarmed, did not have a combat role, and were tasked solely to locate hostages.
A spokesperson from the CAAT stressed that the contacts and conversations that occur at these events lead to deadly consequences, and the protest aims to ensure that those attending are required to confront the reality of their deals.
“You don’t make an arms deal next to a production line, you make it over dinner. We’re here and were saying we’ve seen the results of the previous arms deals being made at this place in previous years, and we can shut it down.”
ADS CEO noted in his commencement speech that exports across aerospace, defence, security and space had grown by half in the last decade.
Secretary of State for Defence, The Rt Hon John Healey MP, and 50 parliamentarians were in attendance.
UK Arms Trade and the War in Gaza
Research from the CAAT estimates that since the beginning of F-35 fighter jet sales to Israel in 2016, the UK has supplied around £572 million worth of components for Israel’s 45 F-35 aircrafts.
While the government has described Israel’s actions against Gaza as being “intolerable” and “egregious”, many arms export licences to Israel remain in place.
In September 2024, the UK government announced a partial suspension of arms exports to Israel, which covered 29 licences for military equipment, which were assessed to be for use by the Israeli military in Gaza.
However, that same year, the UK issued £142 million worth of Single Individual Export Licences for export to Israel.
This was the highest value of licences in many years, with the majority of licences occurring after the government’s partial suspension.
War in Yemen
Over 100,000 people are estimated to have been killed since the war broke out in Yemen in 2015, including 12,000 civilians in direct attacks.
The war has caused one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, with 14 million Yemeni people at risk of famine, starved as a result of the Saudi-led coalition’s bombing.
The Campaign Against the Arms Trade has repeatedly taken the UK government to court over its licensing of arms exports to Saudi Arabia, given the overwhelming evidence of violations of International Humanitarian Law.
Bombing has targeted schools, hospitals and food supplies.
In 2019, the Court of Appeal ruled in CAAT’s favour, temporarily halting hundreds of millions of pounds of arms sales to the Saudi-led coalition.
However, the issuing of new licenses was resumed under former Secretary of State for International Trade Liz Truss in 2020.
Speaking on the protests, Dr Ian Overton, Executive Director at Action on Armed Violence, said: “The real power does not sit with individual protesters but with the systems that normalise, protect and profit from the arms trade and the wider military-industrial complex.
“When those systems are challenged, the response is increasingly often not debate but force. That is dangerous territory.
“If peaceful dissent is met with disproportionate policing, the risk is not merely the suppression of protest but the slow erosion of democratic norms themselves.”
Responding to the protest, a spokesperson from ADS said: “The right to peaceful protest is pivotal in our society – and is something ADS and our sectors wholeheartedly support.
“Our sectors are vital contributors to UK prosperity. We are dedicated to supporting industry, civil society and our armed forces to navigate an increasingly challenging geopolitical environment.
Featured Image Credit: Charlotte Lang
