Statement

At a time when we have helplessly been watching a genocide unfold in Palestine, on our phone screens, for two years now, we, the seven people being sued in civil court by the Belgian company OIP, are writing this text to share our positions with you.

On March 4, 2024, 149 days into the genocide in Gaza, more than 70 people decided to participate in a blockade of OIP, a subsidiary of Elbit, located in Oudenaarde, Belgium, to highlight its complicity in the genocide of the Palestinian people.

OIP is active in the production of, among other things, optical instruments and weapons.

OIP rejects all connections with the Israeli army and/or the Palestinian genocide. However, the company is entirely owned by ELBIT and its profits are directly transferred to the latter. Today, we no longer need to prove links between the deadly company Elbit and the Palestinian genocide. However, OIP uses the defense of only selling to the countries 'accepted by the Belgian state' and not being responsible for the export of its products. In other words, OIP does not provide us proof of not being complicit, they only pass the buck to the Belgian state.

While Gaza is undergoing one of the cruelest sieges in our history—a racist policy of total eradication of a population, proven targeted killings of journalists, the destruction of internal and external aid and healthcare systems, a policy of colonial settlements, a system of apartheid, kidnapping, premeditated famine, torture, OIP cynically decides to seek damages of €65,162.20 for less than six hours of blockage.

Only seven of us have received a formal notice following the action on March 4, 2024.

In an initial formal notice, OIP demanded between €10,000 and €100,000 for “material and emotional damages.” Today, this formal notice has turned into a civil lawsuit, in which the deadly company is demanding €65,162.20 from us for lost production, lost revenue, and its employees’ wages.

To put everyone's concerns into perspective, while some employees were very upset about not being able to work, there were 66,148 deaths and 168,716 injuries in Gaza as of October 1, 2025, according to figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health. We would like to clarify we are conscious of the fact this official number will sadly be proven to be a great understatement.

OIP-Elbit, a multinational arms company, is doing nothing more than using the court to intimidate us. By claiming "our blockade is unreasonable", they are aiming to discredit the validity of our action and to attack our right to freedom of expression and our right to organization.

It is also important to add that this case will be heard in civil court, which is rather unusual. The case was dismissed in criminal court. In other words, the Belgian justice system does not consider that we have violated the right to freedom of expression. However, OIP is re-opening the case with the aim, we assume, of setting a legal precedent.

Thus, if we lose, denouncing, blocking, or demonstrating against this Elbit subsidiary will be punishable by law. We are once again faced with an example of a large private multinational arms company exploiting fundamental rights—in this case, Belgian rights—to serve its own interests. However, OIP is not above the law.

Who will benefit from this precedent? If tomorrow OIP can continue its activities on Belgian territory without hindrance, what other multinational corporation will be able to see its business flourish with legal support, while its profits are made on millions of corpses?

Will we still have the right to block companies? Will we still have the right to denounce the harmful actions of multinational corporations?

We, harassed by OIP/Elbit, have decided to exercise our freedom of expression under the rule of law: to block and slow down their production in order to denounce their complicity with merchants of death, responsible for colonialism and genocide.

We, the 7 against Elbit, are taking a firm stance against this repression, intimidation, and instrumentalization of the court and are saying loudly and clearly:

We will not pay for genocide!
We will not be complicit with a company linked in any way to the Palestinian genocide.
We have the right to denounce complicity, even if it is approved by the Belgian state, between merchants of death and colonial situations of genocide.

We need your support, because there may be a before and after this trial! Help us publicize this case and share our posts as widely as possible on your networks!