
Elbit Systems is an Israeli weapons and surveillance equipment manufacturer with facilities around the world. The company’s production of weapons used in Israel’s genocide in Gaza against Palestinian civilians has provoked outrage and opposition in the U.S. and abroad that’s included protests as well as property destruction at some of their facilities.
When residents in Charleston County, South Carolina learned about a secret agreement to build and operate an Elbit factory in nearby Ladson, activist groups came together to launch a coalition called Elbit Out of South Carolina. Although Elbit promised to create 300 jobs in exchange for government tax breaks, opponents of the company say few of those jobs have materialized.
Similar protests against Elbit have been organized in Florida, Virginia, New Hampshire, as well as in the UK. In August, the Boston Globe reported that a series of protests in Cambridge, Massachusetts against the arms manufacturer led to the company moving out of their offices. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Chris Tittle, an organizer with the coalition and a member of Democratic Socialists of America, who talks about the protest campaign against Elbit systems and the U.S. tax breaks the company receives.
CHRIS TITTLE: They’re receiving money from our state and local governments that should be funding our local school system, to produce truck-mounted cannons – weapons that have been used in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, not just in Palestine but increasingly in Lebanon and the West Bank, but Elbit Systems is a company that has produced and sold arms all around the world.
MELINDA TUHUS: What kinds of things has your organization done to oppose the existence of this company in your community?
CHRIS TITTLE: We have been picketing in front of its factory every single week for the past few months. We’ve been going door to door talking to our neighbors about Elbit Systems, as well as the fact that our county council and our state government have subsidized it and overwhelmingly, when our neighbors find out about it, they are outraged. Whether or not they’re particularly engaged with what’s happening in Palestine, people understand that their tax money shouldn’t be going to subsidize a billion-dollar company, let alone one that’s producing dangerous weapons that are being used all over the world and that are being used in our country as well.
Elbit Systems is a major supplier of surveillance technology that’s being used at the Mexico border right now to surveil migrants. Their technology has been used to surveil native American communities. The fact that it’s based in our community – that means our economy is tied to genocide and U.S. imperialism.
What it’s also revealed is how deeply our government and our economy is invested in this Israeli genocide. It’s not just our federal government that’s providing direct munitions and billions of dollars in financing to Israel, it’s our local governments and economies, too, that are subsidizing the production of the weapons that are being used.
MELINDA TUHUS: So, just so I’m clear. You said there was a secret agreement. Was this thing up and running before people even realized what was happening or what it was all about?
CHRIS TITTLE: Effectively, yes. I certainly didn’t learn about it until sometime last year and that was thanks to the organizing of communities elsewhere around the world where Elbit Systems has set up factories.
So, when we learned about this in the spring of 2024, we had been as a community organizing in favor of a ceasefire resolution by our local municipalities and in support of an arms embargo on Israel. But when we learned that it wasn’t simply a symbolic gesture to be in solidarity with the people of Palestine, but that our economy was materially linked to what was happening there, we immediately realized that we had an obligation to do something about it.
And so we’ve since hosted public workshops on who Elbit Systems is, what their weapons have been doing around the world, the intricacies of this tax break package that our county and state has negotiated with the company – it’s all very intentionally obscure.
In fact, we still have no idea how much money Elbit Systems is receiving in tax breaks, because none of it has been disclosed by the county and there’s literally no oversight by the state in how these tax deals are enforced. Elbit Systems is supposed to be providing up to 300 jobs over the course of a number of years, in exchange for what will likely be millions of dollars that they don’t have to pay. We know for a fact that they have a tiny fraction of that 300 people currently employed. In fact, when a reporter last year asked them about this, they said they only had 50 people employed.
And like I said, we are out in front of this factory every single week. We see the workers when they’re driving in and out. There’s not that many of them and some of them have out of state license plates as well. That’s blood money. We’re not okay trading in jobs for genocide. That’s something our community is not okay with. And like I said, as we go door to door, particularly in communities surrounding that factory, when most people learn about that they are very upset to hear it.
We do know that Elbit Systems is not immune from the pressures of community outrage. They have permanently closed several of their factories, in some cases in response to more militant tactics, but also communities in Boston, for example, have used similar peaceful protest and community organizing tactics that ultimately put enough pressure on Elbit Systems there to close an office space.
For more information, visit Elbit Out of South Carolina at www.elbitoutofsc.com.
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