By North Hampshire Palestine Solidarity Campaign
This January, as war crimes continue, the arms industry returns to Farnborough for the International Armoured Vehicles Conference (IAVC), taking place at the Farnborough International Exhibition Centre on 20th–22nd January 2026.
Defence iQ markets IAVC as a major international gathering for the armoured vehicles community, drawing military, government and industry figures to discuss “protected mobility”, capability development, and the future of armoured warfare. But for many of us locally, the very community expected to host this, it is not a welcome gathering. It is part of the criminal infrastructure that has enabled a genocide in Gaza and the ongoing illegal military occupation of the West Bank. This event poses as a space to discuss the need for “survivability” and the modernisation of technologies that claim to advance our security; however, this is merely the glamourisation of the killing of innocent civilians. This is an event where delegates are free to network and make sales, while the reputations of manufacturers are polished, regardless of the suffering they have inflicted upon Palestinians for nearly a century.
Tanks, armoured bulldozers, armoured personnel carriers, and the wider ecosystem of surveillance and “protected mobility” are not abstract technologies. They shape life and death. They enable invasions of neighbourhoods, demolitions of homes, and the permanent enforcement of military control that underpins the illegal occupation. When those systems are promoted and traded in Britain, it implicates us, morally and politically.
Let us not forget: in late January 2024, Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian child, was trapped in a car in Gaza City after it was fired upon. Hind cried for help while she could see Merkava tanks emerging towards her, shooting in her direction. Her call for help, surrounded by the bodies of her relatives, was heard around the world. The ambulance sent to rescue her was later found destroyed; Hind and the two rescuers were found dead, and the car she hid in was riddled with bullets. Merkava tank technology is built with major contributions from the likes of Trophy APS and Elbit Systems; all of whom exhibit at the IAVC.
This event hides behind language like “innovation” and “protection”, but the reality is brutal. These vehicles terrorise Palestinian families in their homes at night in the West Bank, where military convoys cut through neighbourhoods, arrest young boys, and humiliate fathers to assert control over entire families, eliminating any feeling of security. It is with this very ecosystem of military technology that jets fly over civilian populations and drop bombs on children. The current death toll is nearing 72,000.
This is why we are saying: not in our name, not in our town.
A local coalition against the arms trade
We oppose this event. The local Palestine Solidarity Campaign branch — North Hampshire PSC — is working with community groups who share the same values and refuse to normalise war-profiteering on our doorstep. That includes Quakers, Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), Friends of the Earth (FOE), Extinction Rebellion (XR), Stand Up to Racism and many others across our communities.
The IAVC was previously hosted at Twickenham Rugby Stadium. After years of campaigning against this abhorrent event by the local community, including NGOs, schools, businesses, community groups and residents, pressure ultimately led to the end of Defence iQ’s lease, and the IAVC subsequently shifted to the more strategic location of Farnborough, given that it neighbours the military town of Aldershot. This has now given local opposition a greater challenge in lobbying against the event, especially as the Farnborough International Exhibition Centre also hosts a major arms fair every second summer and is widely criticised for its lack of ethical consideration. It is a venue that appears far less concerned about its reputation, or about local community pressure, than Twickenham may have been.
What we’re calling for
We will be protesting again on 22nd January at 5pm outside the Farnborough exhibition centre. Follow @NorthHampshirePSC on Instagram to learn more and to stand with the local community refusing to normalise Britain’s role in the arms trade.
A petition hosted by Palestine Solidarity Campaign demands that the British government cancels IAVC and imposes a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel. It argues that arms fairs like IAVC help facilitate the UK–Israel arms trade, and that those connected to mass atrocity and apartheid should not be welcomed here to do deals, but instead face accountability through international courts.
North Hampshire PSC Contact: northhampshirepsc@gmail.com http://www.instagram.com/northhampshirepsc/
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