Excerpt from “The Drone Eats with Me” by Atef Abu Saif
“Who will convince the drone operator that the people of Gaza are not characters in a video game? Who will convince him that the buildings he sees on his screen are not graphics, but homes containing living rooms, and kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms; that there are kids inside, fast asleep; that mobiles hang over their beds; that teddy bears and toy dinosaurs lie on the floor; that posters line the walls? Who will convince him that the orchards his craft flies over in the dark aren’t just clusters of pixels? Someone planted those trees, watered them, watched them as they grew. Some of those trees are ancient, in fact, maybe older than the Torah itself, older than the legends and fantasies he read about as a boy.”
UBC’s investment in Airbus makes the university complicit not only in the genocide of Palestinians but also in the militarization of the EU’s borders against refugees.
Airbus and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) partnered in 2018 to supply the Heron TP attack drones (also known as Eitan). The Heron drones have not only been used extensively to murder Palestinians but also to keep refugees away from Europe’s mainland.
Airbus and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) partnered in 2018 to supply the Heron TP attack drones (also known as Eitan).[1] These drones have not only been used to murder Palestinians but also to Weaponize Europe’s Borders Against Refugees.
Heron TP Eitan is an advanced version of Heron, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed in 1994 by IAI for surveillance.[2] Capable of 52 hours of flight, at altitudes of up to 10.5 kilometers. Unveiled at Israel’s Tel Nof Air Force Base in 2007, the Heron TP Eitan was designed with the additional function of conducting long-range precision strikes.[3]
Palestinian civilians and medics run to safety during an Israeli strike over a UN school in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip on January 17, 2009. Photographer: Mohammed Abed, via worldpressphoto.org
Just over a year after its unveiling, The Heron TP Eitan drone was first ‘tested’ by Israel in the genocidal airborne attack against Gaza between 2008 and 2009. During this attack called ‘Operation Cast Lead’ by the Israeli military, Israeli forces killed at least 1,330 Palestinians, including more than 430 children, and wounded 5,450 in less than a month.[4]
Human Rights Watch’s 2009 report documented Israeli forces’ repeated and precisely targeted drone attacks that killed and injured Palestinian civilians.[5] In May 2021, Israeli forces used Heron TP attack drones during their 11-day escalated assault on Gaza, killing at least 260 Palestinians, including 67 children. Israeli forces have also extensively used these attack drones since Oct 2023 to target and surveil Palestinians in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and occupied East Jerusalem.[6]
In 2020, the EU announced partnerships worth US$91 million with Airbus, IAI, and Elbit to militarize its borders and keep refugees away. The Airbus-run Heron drone became a tool for Frontex, the EU border agency, as a new contactless form of surveillance over the Mediterranean Sea.[7]
Excerpt From “The Palestine Laboratory”, Antony Loewenstein
Economic researcher Shir Hever has investigated the Israeli presence in the EU and says that the growing use of drones, including those from Israel, has a clear political aim. ‘Drones cannot rescue anyone and they can only take pictures,’ he told me. ‘If an actual armed boat or suspicious looking vessel is approaching, the drone operator alerts a patrol boat, which will arrive at the scene, but if it looks like a leaky refugee boat, the drone operator could always take his time, and the patrol boat will leave too late so that there is no one left to save. This is the key difference and the real reason that the drones are a technological upgrade for the coastguard—it gives them the option to let refugees drown.
UBC’s estimated investment in Airbus in 2023 alone is $6,566,283 (portfolio percentage 0.2998%).
In 2022, the Israeli military admitted to their use of Airbus-contracted “Eitan” attack drones in hundreds of strikes and bombings of Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, and Sudan. In 2022, Airbus derived 20% of its revenue from arms sales.[8][9]
Excerpt from “The Drone Eats with Me” by Atef Abu Saif
“At 6 p.m., a young man was driving his toktok when a rocket struck him directly, leaving a crater in the ground and unimaginable remains. This was northeast of Jabalia Camp […] A young man who sold kids’ food — sweets, chocolates, crisps — became, in the eyes of the drone operator, a valid target, a danger to Israel. Every single human being in Gaza, whether walking on foot, riding a bicycle, steering a toktok, or driving a car, is a threat to Israel now. We’re all guilty until proven otherwise, and how are we ever going to do that, whether alive or not? Your innocence doesn’t matter — you have to abandon that. Survival is your only care.”
Airbus Press Release, Airbus signs contract for HERON TP drones with the German Armed Forces ↩︎
Heron, The Database of Military and Israeli Security Export ↩︎
Drone Wars UK, Israel and the Drone Wars: Examining Israel’s production, use and proliferation of UAVs ↩︎
[Ibid] ↩︎
Human Rights Watch, Precisely Wrong, Gaza Civilians Killed by Israeli Drone-Launched Missiles ↩︎
Report, Short Study: German Arms Exports to Israel 2003-2023 ↩︎
The Guardian, Airbus to Operate Drones searching for Migrants Crossing the Mediterranean ↩︎
The SIPRI Top 100 arms-producing and military services companies in the world ↩︎