A company will be the subject of protests and a vigil over its connections with Israel.

The issue is back in focus following last month's rocket and missile exchange between the country and Palestinian fighters in the Gaza region.

There will be two anti-arms protest gatherings this Saturday, from 12.15pm outside the Guildhall in New Street, Sandwich, and from 1.15pm at Discovery Park, Ramsgate Road, where Instro Precision is based.

Speakers will include representatives of the SE Kent Trades Council and Jewish Voice for Labour. Vigil activities will include ribbon tying and reading the names of Palestinians killed last month.

The protesters say that almost 300 Palestinian people, including around 70 children, were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and inside Israel, in May.

Thousands more were injured, and tens of thousands of people were made homeless by Israel’s destruction of residential buildings in Gaza.

The protesters accuse the company of supplying Israel with weapons used to kill Palestinian people in Gaza.

Instro is owned by Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest military company.

Elbit is involved in the production of high-spec equipment including aerial drones, armed ground robots and smart helmets.

The activists are also demanding that the business park, as landlord, evicts Instro.

Saturday's double event is instigated by the SE Kent Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

The campaigners,supported by a coalition of groups, are also demanding that the business park, as landlord, evicts the company.

Also expected there are members of groups including Kent Anti-Racism Network, Campaign Against the Arms Trade East Kent and Unite the Community Kent branch.

This will be the eighth time Instro Precision has been targeted by demonstrators in recent years and the third occasion after it moved to its present factory in Artillery Way, Discovery Park, in 2019.

A 500-signature petition was handed in by local people in December 2016 asking Discovery Park management not to allow Instro to build its factory on the site in the first place.

Activists took direct action agains the company in July 2019 and that August a group stormed the premises and stopped work there for 24 hours.

There had also been protests at the company's previous base in Broadstairs.

Instro Precision, on its website, says its main customers are contractors in defence and homeland security.

It supplies support equipment such as tripods and manual pan and tilt heads for military observation equipment and vehicle sensors.

A spokesman for Discovery Park said: "We are aware of the activities planned for Saturday. We seek to maintain a safe and secure site for everyone at all times and that will be the case on Saturday as on all other days."

Kent Online has also invited Instro Precision to comment.

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