Israeli defense companies are feeling the heat at Poland’s MSPO defense exhibition, with officials questioned by local police and booths sprayed with red paint.
The Jerusalem Post has confirmed that several employees of Israeli defense companies were summoned for questioning by police after a local Polish journalist filed a complaint regarding the involvement of those companies in the Gaza war.
Three of those questioned were from Elbit Systems and others from Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. Of the 10 questioned by police, two of them had already left Poland prior to be called in.
Also during the exhibition that took place in the city of Kielce, two people were arrested for throwing foul-smelling red paint on Elbit Systems’ booth.
According to the website Notes From Poland, Kolektyw Bas, a group that describes itself as “tired of remaining silent in the face of the genocide in Palestine” was responsible for the vandalism.
The website published a video that shows a man shouting that the Israeli defense company is cooperating in “the murder of defenceless Palestinians,” and comparing the presence of the company at the exhibition to “collaborating with Nazi Germany” and saying that “there’s no place for something like this in Poland.”
The demonstrators, a 21 year-old woman and 26 year-old man involved in the vandalism also held up Palestinian flags during the protest before being detained by military police while shouting “Free Palestine!”
The website said that police have launched an investigation into the event.
According to the defense exhibition’s website, MSPO “is one of Europe and the world’s most important events, targeted at defense industry business insiders, military decision-makers and experts.” The exhibition brings together “leading companies, institutions and delegations from dozens of countries” in order to “establish important relations to enhance global defense, safety and security.”
Exhibitors include companies from around the world. Israel’s contingent features Elbit Systems, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries, Bird Aerosystems, D-Fend Solutions, Smart Shooter and more.
Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine has rattled Europe’s strategic landscape, and has led nations to rearm at levels unseen since the height of the Cold War. However, the war’s intensification, including the humanitarian situation in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to expand military operations and to occupy Gaza City has sparked a strong wave of international condemnation.
Polish groups Kaktus (Polish-Palestinian Initiative for Justice) and Nomada was quoted by local media urging authorities to exclude Israeli firms from the exhibition, saying that “Poland, as a signatory to the Genocide Convention, the Rome Statute and the Arms Trade Treaty, cannot promote and legitimize entities whose technologies are directly used to attack civilians in Gaza.”
Despite its reputation for cutting-edge military technology and battlefield-tested systems, Israel’s defense industry has been facing hurdles, including being banned from European weapons exhibitions.
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For the past two years, France has blocked Israeli defense companies from exhibiting at arms fairs in the country. Israeli defense companies have also been banned from participating in this year’s NEDS trade fair in Rotterdam.
Israeli government and military officials have also been denied participation at the upcoming DSEI exhibition outside of London. Israeli companies, including Israel Aerospace Industries, Rafael and Elbit and dozens of smaller companies, will nevertheless participate.
"At a time when Israel is engaged on multiple fronts against Islamist extremists and terrorist organisations - forces that also threaten the West and international shipping lanes - this decision by Britain plays into the hands of extremists, grants legitimacy to terrorism, and introduces political considerations wholly inappropriate for a professional defense industry exhibition,” Israel’s Defense Ministry said.