Human rights defenders block access to Eurosatory arms fair near Paris to protest Israeli weapons companies

Photo by Association France Palestine Solidarité.

This morning, the Dublin, Ireland-based Front Line Defenders and HRD Memorial released their Global Analysis 2025/26 report that documents that Palestine was the second most deadly country for human rights defenders in 2025 (160 HRDs were killed in Colombia, 43 in Palestine, 43 in Mexico, that along with other killings total at least 358 human rights defenders from 28 different countries).

Guerre à la guerre (War on War) has been organizing against the Eurosatory arms show, the world’s largest land and air defence trade show, that is taking place this week in Villepinte situated north-east of Paris.

Their listed activities include: “Monday, June 15, in Villepinte to protest the opening of the trade show!”

Anadolu Français now reports: “Pro-Palestinian activists on Monday blocked the road leading to the Eurosatory international arms fair, held in Villepinte, near Paris, to protest against the participation of Israeli companies in the event.”

That article continues: “Gathered near the exhibition center, the demonstrators waved Palestinian and Lebanese flags as well as placards bearing the slogan ‘Stop the war profiteers.’ …The demonstrators also staged a sit-in on a roundabout near the exhibition centre. …The mobilization took place to the sound of several songs and music, including the Italian song ‘Bella Ciao’.”

Additional photos from Anadolu.

Video still from Sputnik Africa.

Agence France-Presse additionally reports: “Israeli private companies are allowed this year to display ‘defensive’ weapons, while in 2024 France had initially decreed a ‘total’ ban on Israeli participation, due to the war in Gaza. With their high-performance ‘Iron Dome’ missile defence system, the Israelis will be able to promote capabilities ‘that have never been so needed’, according to the show’s curator. He warned against ‘ambiguous stands’ also displaying offensive weapons, which are banned, implying that such participants would be banned from the show.”

BHRC report

In their report Navigating a global crossroads: Human rights defenders and business in 2025, the London, United Kingdom-based Business and Human Rights Centre (BHRC) documented: “Protesters at arms fairs targeting companies selling weapons to Israel were detained in the United States, Turkey, Switzerland and France, whilst activists in New Zealand faced violence for protesting the militarisation of aerospace technology and its uses against civilian populations.”

Overall, the Business and Human Rights Centre documented 46 attacks against human rights defenders raising concerns about arms and weapons companies and their complicity in conflict and genocide.

The Ottawa-based Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI), whose members include the world’s largest weapons companies, has posted on social media that it will be at Eurosatory this week.

Movement building

On May 7, 2026, PBI-Canada participated in the “Shut It Down: Global Actions Disrupting the Arms Trade” webinar featuring movement activists from Stop Arming Israel-France, Desarma Madrid, Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT-United Kingdom), alongside Labour Against the Arms Trade and the Shut Down CANSEC campaign in Canada. The webinar was organized jointly by the Shut Down CANSEC campaign and the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS).

PBI-Canada also participated in two other webinars this year focused on the implications and consequences of the arms trade organized by the Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC-Quakers) that featured speakers from Project Ploughshares (based in Waterloo, Ontario) and the Quaker Peace Hub (based in Birmingham, England).

We will continue to look for updates and analysis posted on Instagram by Guerre à la guerre here.

For more about the Shut Down CANSEC campaign, click here.

As part of its commitment to the holistic accompaniment of human rights defenders and journalists, Peace Brigades International-Canada is observing the intersection between the export of weapons, the implications of those weapons on organizations, defenders and communities around the world, and the increasing criminalization of those who are challenging the arms trade.