Protest to be held outside Castledawson factory on anniversary of Geneva Conventions

The Mid Ulster Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (Mid Ulster IPSC), along with the Derry IPSC are to hold a protest on Tuesday (August 12) at 7pm outside F-35 part manufacturer Moyola Precision Engineering, in Castledawson. 

On the 76th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, the protest will call for Moyola to immediately divest from manufacturing parts for F-35s, the same warplanes currently committing genocide in Palestine. Protesters will hold InvestNI and those who run it responsible for public funds going to complicit factories across the country. 

Mid Ulster IPSC spokesperson Pádraig MacNiocaill said: “Following numerous protests, including one in July which caused the factory to close for several hours, Moyola Precision Engineering has removed references to F-35 part manufacture from their website.  This is an attempt to hide what Moyola is producing, and is a sign that the pressure is working. We do not want parts for warplanes bombing children made in Mid Ulster. 

“Israel use F-35 fighter jets as a primary source of bomb delivery on Gaza, and Moyola Precision Engineering, recipient of InvestNI funds, proudly boasted of their supply of F-35 parts as well as critical components for missiles and guidance platforms. 

“If there has been a change in their manufacturing of parts for warplanes, they need to be upfront about it and not try to hide it from their website.”

The protest will feature speakers Saoirse O’Neill from the Mid Ulster IPSC, Stephen Devlin father of Jordan Devlin of the Filton23, and Goretti Horgan of the Raytheon 9. 

Mr MacNiocaill continued: “Article IV of the Genocide Convention states that ‘persons’ may be held liable for genocidal acts.

“According to the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, the prohibition to commit genocide is an international law norm from which no party, including corporations can derogate. In situations of armed conflict, international standards apply to corporations and individual business leaders, who must consider whether their operations contribute to violations.

“Shareholder should not be held above the lives of an occupied and oppressed people. We therefore call on the company to divest from products which can be used in the Gaza genocide, particularly F-35 parts.

“Invest NI, part of the Department for the Economy run by Minister Caoimhe Archibald, has given over £19 million pounds of public money to companies based in Belfast, Crumlin, Newtownabbey, Dunmurry and Castledawson who make parts for F-35 warplanes. 

“Currently in Gaza 2.2 million people are being deliberately starved to death by Israel and slaughtered by the unrelenting bombing with arms supplied by the US, EU and UK.”

Goretti Horgan of the Raytheon 9 said:  “The arms trade should not be supported by taxpayers' money. Benefits for sick and disabled people are being cut, PM Keir Starmer tells us, so he can spend more on weapons of mass destruction, many of which - like the F-35 parts made in Moyola - are being used to carry out the genocide in Gaza.”

Pádraig MacNiocaill added: "We demand a complete divestment of the manufacture of complicit parts from Moyola Precision Engineering. They have existed before they took on the F-35 programme. They can find income that isn’t soaked in blood. We will not rest until Moyola Divest!"