A Jewish-owned business in north London has been daubed in red paint and its shop window smashed by pro-Palestinian campaigners in an incident police are treating as racially aggravated.
Three men were caught on CCTV in the early hours of Thursday attacking an investment group in Stamford Hill, an area with a large community of Orthodox Jews.
They also spray painted the words “Drop Elbit” in red, a reference to Elbit Systems UK, an Israeli arms manufacturer.
Palestine Action claimed responsibility for the attack. The group said it was targeting a business that is registered as the landlord of an Elbit weapons factory in Kent.
A spokesperson for the company, which requested anonymity for fear of further attacks, said it had no connection with Elbit and that the incident had terrified employees. They said: “I turned up this morning and saw the place vandalised. For Jewish people it is very, very scary now.”
Police have taken statements from employees and are investigating CCTV footage of the attack.
The Metropolitan police said officers were called to the property at 7.23am. In a statement the force said: “Inquiries are ongoing and no arrests have been made at this stage. This incident is being treated as racially aggravated criminal damage.”
They added: “We understand the concern this may cause members of the Jewish community. Officers are working with community leaders and patrols have increased across the local area.”
In a statement, Palestine Action said: “During the early hours of Thursday, activists from Palestine Action targeted the London-based landlords of Elbit’s Instro Precision weapons factory. The registered address … was covered in red paint and the front windows were shattered, to demonstrate against the company’s involvement in arming the Gaza genocide.”
It added: “Instro Precision is a weapons maker owned by Elbit Systems, Israel’s biggest weapons producer.”
Max Geller, a spokesperson for Palestine Action, denied that targeting the Stamford Hill business was antisemitic. He said: “We treat all businesses which work with Israel’s biggest weapons firm equally, irrespective of the identities of those businesses’ owners.
“We are 600 days into a genocide perpetrated by companies operating in Britain. Whether businesses supply Elbit or provide them with the premises to build Israeli weapons, we will target them until they drop Elbit.”
The group claims Instro Precision was granted more than a dozen weapons export licences last year for the shipment of arms to Israel. Palestine Action says it targets all those who profit from the operations of Israel’s biggest weapons producer and demanded the landlord evict Instro Precision.
