ETHICAL Evictions activists attempted to remove arms manufacturer General Dynamics from the company’s Hastings premises last week, citing “illegal and immoral” activity linked to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The protest was backed by Hastings & District Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which has challenged the council’s leasing of the Castleham Road site. 

The conditions of the lease allow its termination if the tenant engages in illegal or immoral conduct.

Campaigners say General Dynamics components are used in Israeli missiles targeting Gaza and point to warnings by the United Nations and International Court of Justice about genocide and complicity.

The group delivered a symbolic eviction notice signed by “the people of Hastings,” accusing the firm of facilitating war crimes. 

Activists in the guise of bailiffs were obstructed by private security guards and police but eventually reached the front door, where management refused to engage with them. 

Laurie Holden of the local Palestine Solidarity Campaign group, who was cleared of charges earlier this year over a protest at the same site, said: “General Dynamics supplies the arms, the ordnance, the technology and components to keep this genocide going. 

“And after 19 months of watching Israel murder, starve, bury and shred thousands of innocent men, women and children, the people of Hastings have had enough.”

An Ethical Evictions spokesperson vowed that the protesters would return, saying: “That was their first warning.”