PBI-Canada participates in community screening of “The Lab” in the lead-up to the CANSEC arms show
On Sunday May 18, PBI-Canada participated in a community screening of The Lab. The screening and discussion was organized by Labour for Palestine Ottawa with the support of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, the Anti-Imperialist Alliance, Anakbayan Ottawa, Shut Down CANSEC, and others.
The synopsis of the documentary by Yotam Feldman and Gum Films notes: “Since 9/11, the Israeli arms industries are doing bigger business than ever before. Large Israeli companies develop and test the vessels of future warfare, which is then sold worldwide by private Israeli agents, who manipulate a network of Israeli politicians and army commanders, while Israeli theoreticians explain to various foreign countries how to defeat civil and para-military resistance. All based on the extensive Israeli experience. The film reveals The Lab, which has transformed the Israeli military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank from a burden to a marketable, highly profitable, national asset.”
The 59-minute documentary can be watched online here.
Israel has supplied weapons used in the genocide in Guatemala (including the Galil rifles used in the Dos Erres massacre); fighter jets, small arms, artillery, ammunition, transport aircraft and reconnaissance aircraft for repression in Honduras; Colombia has purchased Israeli-manufactured weapons, drones and spying technologies for decades; Mexico “has looked toward Israel for help in repressing dissent, Indigenous communities and activists”; the Indonesian government has reportedly used the Israeli spyware Pegasus against activists; and that Kenyan security forces may have used gas grenades manufactured by an Israeli company against recent popular protests.
The documentary also notes that Israeli weapons were used in extrajudicial executions by police in Brazil, while the discussion also mentioned that Israel supplied weapons to the right-wing terror in El Salvador, apartheid South Africa, and repression in the Philippines (Israel’s second largest arms export market that accounted for 12 percent of Israel’s arms exports during the period of 2019 to 2023).
France bans Israel from Eurosatory arms show
The Lab also included an interview filmed at the Eurosatory arms show in Paris (presumably in June 2012) in which former Israeli Minister of Defence then Minister of Trade and Industry Binyamin Ben-Eliezer is asked by filmmaker/journalist Yotam Feldman: “Why the demand for Israeli weapons?”. His response: “People like to buy things that have been tested. If Israel sells weapons they’ve been tested, tried out.”
Notably, Defense News reported in May 2024: “France has banned Israeli firms from participating in Eurosatory, Europe’s largest defense show, a little over two weeks before the event kicks off in Paris, with the government citing Israel’s military actions in Gaza.” Once Eurosatory was underway in June 2024, Euronews reported: “For the first time, Israel was barred from the event due to its ongoing offensive in Gaza.”
More than 70 Israeli companies had been scheduled to participate in Eurosatory, including Israel’s three largest weapons manufacturers, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Elbit Systems and Rafael Advance Defense Systems.
Shut Down CANSEC, May 28
The film was shown in the lead-up to the community mobilization against the CANSEC weapons show in Ottawa this coming May 28.
Along with Elbit, the International Defense Cooperation Directorate of the Israeli Ministry of Defense (SIBAT) is expected to exhibit at CANSEC 2025.
IAI North America (the U.S subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd.) and Elbit are members of CADSI, the Ottawa-based association that organizes CANSEC. The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Action Center for Corporate Accountability has listed both IAI and Elbit as companies profiting from the genocide in Gaza.
Further reading: Front Line Defenders documents the killing of 31 Palestinian human rights defenders, many by Israeli airstrikes (May 18, 2025).
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