Monday, 1 September 2025 at 6.00 pm Council Chamber, Muriel Matters House, Breeds Place, Hastings, East Sussex, TN34 3UY
Join us at the Hastings Council Cabinet meeting for the public question time session from 6pm to 6.30pm, to ask Hastings Council to evict General ‘Genocide’ Dynamics from council land.
General Dynamics, one of the worlds’ biggest arms manufacturers, lease their site from Hastings Council and the lease includes a clause that it can be revoked if they carry out ‘illegal or immoral activities’.
General Dynamics have been directly criticised by the UN for supplying arms to Israel, a regime carrying out documented war crimes. We do not want war criminals on council land.
One of our supporters previously submitted the question below to the full council meeting and received a shocking response from ‘Democratic Services’ on behalf of the council saying that to even question what General Dynamics is doing could be ‘defamatory’ and stating categorically that General Dynamics is carrying out ‘lawful business’.
Join us to hear the answer to the original question and to put your own question to the council about this:
- What legal advice did the council receive about the lawfulness of General Dynamics business?
- Why can we not ask public questions about a company using public land to arm a genocide?
- How much money does HBC get from rent from General Dynamics?
- Are councillors even aware of the response by ‘democratic services’ and who are DS even accountable to?
[1] MY QUESTION TO HBC (SUBMITTED 2 MAY 2025)
Hastings Borough Council (HBC) is currently renting a property in Castleham Road, St Leonards to one of the world's largest military contractors, General Dynamics. General Dynamics is known to have supplied Israel with artillery ammunition and bombs for attack jets used in Israel's assault on Gaza.
Does the Leader of the Council accept that:
(1) Section 52 (1) of the International Criminal Court Act 2001 makes it 'an offence against the law of England and Wales for a person to engage in conduct ancillary' to 'genocide, a crime against humanity or a war crime'. One such ancillary act is 'aiding' the commission of these offences.;
(2) That therefore if: (a) General Dynamics is using the Castleham Road site to produce components or similar that are being used by Israel in its assault on Gaza; and (b) Amnesty International is correct in its December 2024 assessment 'that following 7 October 2023, Israel committed and is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.'; then General Dynamics would be engaging in illegal activity at that site.;
and
(3) That if this is so then General Dynamics has violated the terms of its lease with HBC, under which General Dynamics has committed 'not to use the demised premises or any part thereof or permit or suffer the same to be used (a) for any illegal or immoral purpose.......'.
Given the above, will HBC be writing to General Dynamics, asking it to confirm whether any of the components that it has been (or is) making at the Castleham Road site are being, or have been, supplied to Israel, either directly or indirectly, for use in its assault on Gaza?
[2] REJECTION EMAIL
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: Public Question submitted
Date: 11/07/2025 14:24
From: Democratic Services <democraticservices>
Dear Mr xxxx,
Your question has been rejected on the basis that it is potentially defamatory of General Dynamics in the context of your questions which are predicated upon unsubstantiated allegations. It is therefore not an appropriate question to ask the Leader of the Council to respond to. For the record, General Dynamics is carrying out a lawful business in accordance with the terms of the lease.
Kind regards,
Democratic Services</democraticservices>
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