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Anti-Israel activists break into US defense firm’s UK office

Police arrested two people in Scotland • In the Netherlands, a Dutch lawmaker was seen beside a “Go Hamas” sign.

Police stand at the entrance to the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in Aberdeen, Scotland, the U.K., on Aug, 16, 2012. Photo by Andy Buchanan / AFP) (Photo by ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Police stand at the entrance to the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in Aberdeen, Scotland, on Aug, 16, 2012. Photo by Andy Buchanan/AFP via Getty Images.

Police in Scotland arrested two people in Aberdeen on Sunday during the second break-in this summer into the local offices of a U.S.-based defense firm that works with Israel. Separately, a Dutch lawmaker was filmed at an anti-Israel event in the Netherlands next to a poster reading “Go Hamas.”

A group that calls itself “People against Genocide” posted about its activists breaking into the Ultra Intelligence & Communications in the Aberdeen area because it works with Israel’s Elbit Systems on at least one defense project, the Jordanian news site Roya News reported.

The anti-Israel group said its activists had broken into another U.K. facility of Ultra Intelligence & Communications last month, damaging satellite equipment worth $4 million. The group claimed the equipment was intended for Israel. Ultra Intelligence & Communications did not reply by press time to a query by JNS about the extent of the damage in those break-ins.

The British government last year outlawed the anti-Israel group Palestine Action, declaring it a terrorist organization, following repeated attacks on facilities belonging or tied to Israel. The ban has been the subject of several legal appeals but has been maintained.

In the Netherlands, a member of the provincial parliament of Utrecht was seen at a protest last week standing next to a sign that read “Go Hamas,” a local journalist reported.

Marjolein van Elteren, who heads the Utrecht region faction of the GreenLeft party and serves as a lawmaker in the Provincial Council of Utrecht, was wearing a banner that featured the cartoon character Miffy and slogans about Palestinians, the independent journalist Eppo Tjuchem reported. Miffy was created by the late cartoonist Dick Bruna from the Netherlands and the copyright for it belongs to the firm Mercis. The firm has said in the past that using Miffy without its permission constitutes an intellectual property violation.

Van Elteren has not replied by press time to a JNS query on whether she had seen the poster about Hamas, and whether she had obtained Mercis’s permission with regard to the banner.

Canaan Lidor is an experienced journalist and international correspondent for JNS, covering Europe, Australia and global Jewish affairs.
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