France says no to Israeli-made drones after BDS pressure

France says no to Israeli-made drones after BDS pressure
France's military has chosen to not buy to Israeli weapons after a petition against the purchase gathered thousands of signatures online.
2 min read
09 February, 2016
Israel has deliberately targeted children with drone attacks [Getty]
The French military has decided to not buy Israeli-made drones after coming under pressure from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement [BDS] - a pro-Palestinian group.

France was widely expected to buy the Watchkeeper drone, which is produced by Israel's biggest arms maker Elbit Systems and the UK subsidiary of France's Thales, but has instead gone with the Patroller drone made by domestic consortium Sagem.

The Watchkeeper drone is based on a model Israel has used to carry out hundreds of lethal attacks on Palestinian civilians - more than 800 Palestinians were killed by Israeli drones between 2006 and 2011.

"[We] acknowledge French army's decision to not choose the Watchkeeper after a tender was given to Sagem," BDS France said in a statement.

"Although the choice of Sagem does not represent total independence from Israel, dropping the Thales-Elbit drone is a success for the BDS campaign," the activist group said.

The group added, however, that it could not celebrate the military buying drones, which could be used to kill civilians "as the Israeli army has done in Gaza".

More than 8,000 people had signed an online petition launched by BDS France in September calling on the defence ministry not to pick the Israeli drone.

Last year, activists staged a "die-in" protest outside the Elbit Systems pavilion at the Paris Air Show, one of the world's biggest annual events for military and civilian aircraft sales.

Drones are increasingly being used for surveillance and extra-judicial execution in parts of the Middle East, especially by the US, but in nowhere more than Gaza has the drone become a permanent fixture of life.

More than 1.7 million Palestinians, confined by Israel to a small territory in one of the most densely populated areas in the world, are subject to intermittent death raining down from the sky.

During the 2014 Israeli aggression against Gaza, Israel deliberately targeted children with drone attacks.

The BDS movement tries to persuade businesses, artists, governments and academic institutions to boycott Israel over its decades long occupation of the Palestinian territories.