Hundreds Block Entrance to Ontario Factory That Provides Circuit Boards to Israeli Military

By World BEYOND War, February 26, 2024

Hundreds are right now blocking entrances to a TTM Technologies factory in Scarborough, Ontario, that supplies circuit boards to Israel for fighter jets and targeted missile systems.

Follow twitter.com/wbwCanada and twitter.com/LAATCanada for photos, videos, and updates during the blockade.

High resolution photos and some video are available for download here.

Over two hundred trade union members and allies from across the Greater Toronto Area have formed picket lines and blocked the morning shift from entering the Scarborough manufacturing plant of TTM Technologies. Linking arms in front of entrances and driveways, they held banners and signs that read Stop Arming Genocide, Workers Against War, TTM Arms Israeli War Crimes, and Arms Embargo on Israel Now.

The blockade at TTM kicks off a series of actions set to roll across the country this week, interrupting the operation-as-usual of weapons companies arming Israel.

The TTM Technologies plant has produced printed circuit boards for export to one of Israel’s largest military companies, Elbit Systems. The circuit boards were slated for use in a range of military equipment, as well as in F-15 and F-16 fighter jets – war planes that Israel has deployed over the past four and a half months to carry out its deadly assault on Gaza. They were also destined for inclusion in the power distribution system for Elbit’s Lizard laser guidance kits which convert general purpose bombs to precision strike munitions.

“Today we are upholding our trade union principles in the name of the Palestinian workers who have asked us to do all we can to stop the flow of arms to Israel as it commits genocide in Gaza. This is the picket line, and like all picket lines where workers are demanding justice and fairness, we ask that you do not cross” said Pamela Arancibia of Labour for Palestine.

At a global level, TTM Technologies, which is headquartered in the United States, supplies components to numerous major military companies and weapons systems, including Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet, part of the Israeli Air Force fleet attacking Gaza relentlessly from the air.

The picketers are demanding that the Canadian government impose an immediate and total arms embargo on Israel, which would mean ceasing to authorize the permits that allowed TTM Technologies to export printed circuit boards to Elbit, and suspending or canceling all existing military goods and services permits for Israel.

“Circuit boards made right here at TTM Technologies are built into the Israeli military’s war planes and targeted bomb systems”, said Rachel Small of World BEYOND War. “While Israel commits genocidal violence in Gaza and while the Canadian government refuses to give a straight answer about the record-breaking amount of Canadian military exports to Israel it has approved since October, we gather as hundreds here today, and many thousands across the country, to take matters into our own hands.”

Since October 7, Israel’s attack on Gaza has killed more than 29,400 Palestinians, injured more than 69,400, and displaced at least 80% of the population. Documents obtained by The Maple through an access to information request showed that from October to December Canada authorized at least 28.5 million dollars worth of export permits to Israel – more than in all of 2021 or 2022. On Monday, Israel was preparing for a ground invasion in Rafah, where some 1.5 million Palestinians have sought shelter after fleeing other areas for safety.

“UN experts and respected civil society organizations, including Amnesty International and Oxfam, have called for the Government of Canada to stop military exports to Israel or risk being complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity,” said Simon Black of Labour Against the Arms Trade. “We are tired of waiting for the Government to act, so we are taking action to shut down companies supplying the Israeli military. And we are calling on unions to declare military goods destined for Israel as ‘hot cargo’ and refuse to manufacture, transport or load such goods.”

On Friday February 23, UN Experts released an emergency statement entitled “Arms exports to Israel must stop immediately” that highlighted Canada’s complicity and arms trade with Israel.

“Today marks exactly one month since the world’s top court ruled that there is a plausible case that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and effectively put Canada and other governments on notice: if you continue arming Israel, you are failing to meet your legal obligations to prevent genocide, and you can be judged complicit, not only by Palestinians and their allies around the world, but at the Hague,” said Dalia Awwad, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement.

For more information about TTM Technologies as well as Canada’s complicity in Israeli state violence, please view this document brief here.