Elbit Systems holds lobbying gala at the German Bundestag

On 4th November, the arms manufacturer Elbit Systems Deutschland held a lobbying event at the German Bundestag. As the company recently announced on its social media profiles, it was delighted to have had “the great honour of hosting”, together with almost 200 guests and numerous MPs, the first “Parliamentary Evening” organised by Elbit on the roof of the German Bundestag.

A photograph posted alongside the announcement shows Bezhalel “Butzi” Machlis, President and CEO of Elbit Systems, David Federmann, Chairman of Elbit Systems, and Marian Rachow, CEO of Elbit Systems Deutschland, together with Thomas Daum, Vice Admiral in the German Armed Forces and Chief of the Cyber and Information Domain Service, and Marcus Faber. Faber was an MP for the economically liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) from 2017 to 2025 and briefly chaired the Bundestag’s Defence Committee. Since leaving parliament, he has been working as Vice President Political Affairs at Elbit Systems Deutschland.

The identities of the other guests, and in particular of the politicians and MPs who attended the lobbying event, remain unknown. Elbit Systems Deutschland only published its posts about the event after a delay of around a week, and so far hardly any media outlets have reported on it. Nevertheless, the mere fact that the arms manufacturer held such an event at the German Bundestag is indicative of the deepening ties between the company and Germany’s political establishment.

Elbit Systems Deutschland is a wholly owned subsidiary of Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms manufacturer. According to the German NGO Information Centre on Militarisation (Informationsstelle Militarisierung, IMI), Elbit Systems Deutschland has by now become an integral part of the wider group. An IMI study dated 30 September 2026 states: “In general, Elbit Systems Deutschland in Ulm appears to regard itself as the ‘centre of expertise for HF radio (high-frequency radio) for the entire Elbit Group’.” This technology is central to Israeli military operations and, consequently, an integral component of the genocide in Gaza: it is used, in particular, to transmit the coordinates of targets to be bombed. Conversely, Elbit advertises that its products have been “battle-tested” in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Lebanon.

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Immediately after the start of the genocide in Gaza, Germany became Israel’s second-largest arms supplier. At the same time, the Federal Republic’s importance as a customer for Israeli military equipment now is growing. In 2025, the German Armed Forces ordered numerous state-of-the-art weapons systems from Elbit, including missile defence systems, drones and lasers for guided munitions, worth a total of €700 million.

However, resistance to the company, which has played a role in and profited from the genocide in Gaza more than any other, is also growing in Germany. On 8 September 2025, following the example of the UK’s Palestine Action, five activists broke into Elbit Systems’ factory in Ulm, southern Germany, and destroyed and damaged equipment and other property inside. They filmed their action, allowed themselves to be arrested without resistance and have been held in pre-trial detention ever since. The German state has responded with the full force: it has repeatedly violated the defendants’ rights, charged them not only with criminal damage but also with forming a “criminal organisation”, and is staging a show trial in a notorious high-security courtroom built specifically for “terrorism” cases. Nevertheless, solidarity with the “Ulm 5” remains unwavering, and the case is attracting increasing international attention.

Meanwhile, efforts to establish Elbit in the small East German town of Sangerhausen have been thwarted. Over an extended period, the company and the town’s leadership used a variety of underhanded tactics to plan the establishment of a 140-hectare site there. The project was to be sold to the local population on the promise of 400 new jobs. In response, the alliance “Keep Elbit Out – No Arms Factory in Sangerhausen” mobilised opposition through public campaigning and a major demonstration. Local business owners and farmers also opposed the proposed site, citing fears of an intensifying shortage of skilled workers, unfair competition over wages and the loss of agricultural land. Officially, Elbit did not, of course, cite local opposition as the reason for its decision. Activists, however, spoke of a “victory over Elbit”.

The arms manufacturer has nevertheless announced plans for up to eight new sites in Germany in total. The intensification of its lobbying efforts should presumably also be understood against the backdrop of widespread opposition among large sections of the German population, both to the genocide in Gaza and to Germany’s rearmament policy.

READ: Israeli arms company drops plans for factory site in Germany’s Sangerhausen amid protests