The Romania-focused “Elbit Out!” campaign launched on October 5 in Bucharest, with a public discussion on the government’s continued complicity with the genocide in Palestine, followed by a march through the capital.

The campaign seeks to highlight the government’s obligation to uphold international law and stop Israel’s crimes against humanity, joining a wave of worker-led and grassroots actions pushing European governments to act against the genocide and protect the kidnapped volunteers of the Global Sumud Flotilla.

Military trade expands during genocide

As the world marks 2-years since the beginning of the latest phase of genocide against the Palestinians, an ample coalition of local and regional Palestine solidarity movements have decided to focus their efforts on expelling Elbit from Romania. The country is a strategic hub for Elbit Systems, and these factories are a pillar of the company’s expansion in Europe.

Elbit Systems, the main private supplier of weapons to the Israeli army and provider of technologies tested on Palestinians, has three subsidiaries and five factories in Bacău, Măgurele, and Brașov. In 2024, the turnover of these subsidiaries exceeded 800 million lei (around EUR 160 million), accounting for approximately 30% of the total turnover of Elbit’s subsidiaries in Europe – making this the second largest market after Israel.

Romania is an attractive location for weapons manufacturers: labor costs are low, workers are feebly unionized and worker protections are weak. Foreign investors also enjoy advantageous tax regimes.

Read more: Belgian court bans military shipments to Israel in activist victory

But welcoming Elbit is not the only way in which the Romanian government supports the Israeli economy and, by extension, the genocide in Palestine. It also continues to sell and buy military equipment from Israel, among other types of trade, and offers diplomatic support for the interests of Israel in international fora, such as the Council of the European Union and the United Nations.

Military trade between Romania and Israel exploded in the midst of the Gaza genocide. According to the data analyzed by the “Elbit Out!” campaign, in the last two years Romania exported military equipment worth approximately EUR 80 million to Israel, including bombs, armored vehicle components, targeting systems, and radar equipment. In 2024 alone, Romanian military exports to Israel doubled compared to 2023, reaching a historic record of over EUR 55 million. At the same time, imports of Israeli military technology increased, reaching over EUR 35 million in the same year.

“We can stop the complicity”

The “Elbit Out!” campaign is supported and endorsed by the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) coalition, Stop ReArm Europe, the International Peoples’ Assembly, and other international organizations. The launch event in Bucharest welcomed keynote speakers Giorgia Gusciglio, co-coordinator of BDS Europe, and Dr. Shahd Hammouri of Law for Palestine. During her speech, Gusciglio talked about the successes and challenges the BDS campaign faces in its far-reaching work and welcomed the collaboration with the Romanian coalition in its efforts to push Elbit Systems out of the country. Additionally, Hammouri outlined the legal measures that can be taken against governments aiding genocide and offered assistance to Romanian legal experts who may decide to build a case against the Romanian government.

They were joined on the panel by members of the organizing coalition, who spoke about the connection between Europe’s militarization and the erasure of Palestine to make way for colonizers and real estate developers, the successes of popular pressure for Palestine, the vital cooperation with trade unions, how mobilization is unfolding across Europe, and the goals and strategies of the “Elbit Out!” campaign.

Read more: Workers shut down Italy again in solidarity with Palestine

Vlad Muresan, coordinator of the “Elbit Out!” campaign on behalf of Palestine Solidarity Cluj, remarked: “In 2025, the genocide in Gaza was finally called by its name in Romania in the mainstream. We saw letters and public statements, but also a lot of resignation, people convinced that nothing could be done. Our campaign comes as an answer to this: we are not powerless. Romania plays a direct role in the genocide, through arms exports and through Elbit’s factories here, which produce weapons tested on Palestinians. We can stop this complicity if we unite our voices and actions and demand that the Romanian state follows the example of Spain or Slovenia and imposes a military embargo on Israel. We are not far from the problem, it is right here, in Romania.”

Co-organizer of the campaign from the group Moldova for Palestine, Alexandra Gheorghe, emphasized the campaign’s regional significance in the context of dual citizenship. “Our responsibility is to demand that the Romanian government respect international law and not make our country complicit in the genocide in Gaza.”

Eniko Vincze of Căși Sociale ACUM added that ”the criminal military industry that extracts profit from the Palestinian genocide and the real estate industry engaged in postwar reconstruction, which expropriates land for the Gaza Riviera project, have in common the fact that they are both financialized, dominated by financial actors and markets. Profit is fabricated through financial channels, and are intrinsic drivers of capitalism and imperialism.”

Appetite for action against complicity in genocide

During the discussion, there were many expressions of hope and solidarity with the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza. Especially the youth declared their conviction that a better world is possible with and only with a free Palestine. One participant said: “It is essential we start reaching out to workers sooner rather than later. They hold the key to the success of this campaign.”

The crowd then spilled onto the streets of Bucharest, building a 1200-strong march for Palestine. Organizers and supporters from across Romania and neighboring countries held speeches. The atmosphere was effervescent and characterized by a clear appetite for action: against the genocide in Palestine and against a complicit neoliberal government.

The current Romanian government implements harsh austerity measures that bring key sectors of society, such as education, health and infrastructure, under attack, while spending billions of public money on weapons, including from Israel. Members of the campaign co-organizers Colectiva Urzica observed: “Palestine and the remilitarization of Europe are intimately linked. Manufacturers test their weapons by killing children in Gaza, then advertise them as tested-in-battle to European governments willing to destroy their societies so the war industry can profit.”

Read more: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s hallucinations

The “Elbit Out!” campaign represents a first in Romania and is a very important development in the regional struggle for peace and against genocide. It brings together a previously disorganized movement, converging it around a central cause – the liberation of Palestine. It also aims to deepen relations with trade unions in the military manufacturing and transport sectors, helping to politicize a new anti-war generation.

The campaign will continue with a range of public talks, a petition, open letters to officials, a possible lawsuit against the Romanian state for failing to prevent crimes against humanity. It will also include a large international conference in mid-May 2026 in Bucharest, as a counterpoint to the Black Sea Defense, Aerospace and Security exhibition, a military industry trade fair. The conference will bring together international figures of the struggle for a free Palestine, including workers, trade unionists, legal scholars, journalists and militants.

The post Nationwide campaign against Elbit Systems launches in Romania appeared first on Peoples Dispatch.

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