Day & Zimmermann: War profiteer – get out of Philly!

Philadelphia

Palestine activists marched from Philadelphia City Hall to Day & Zimmermann on April 18 to demand the war criminals cease supplying Israel with military supplies or get out of Philly. Day & Zimmermann is responsible for manufacturing much of the artillery munitions used by Israel in its ongoing genocide in Gaza.

With revenues of $2.7 billion in 2023, Day & Zimmermann is ranked by Forbes as “one of the largest privately held companies in the United States.” One of the leading producers of ammunition in the U.S., the company operates several government-owned facilities.

The company has made billions in profits selling Israel the ammunition used to kill and maim tens of thousands of Palestinian children and their families. Day & Zimmermann is the sole provider of three of the most frequently used munitions in Gaza: M795 155mm tank shells, M107 high explosive projectiles and M830A1 HEAT 120mm cartridges.

Day & Zimmermann outsources to several U.S. factories that produce artillery munitions used by the Israel Occupation Forces in Gaza. Its M830A1 rounds, fired by Israeli tanks in January 2024 killed 6-year-old Hind Rajab, her six family members and the medics who attempted to rescue her in the Gaza neighborhood of Tel al-Hawa. The serial number on an exploded round found inside the ambulance indicates it was produced by Mason & Hanger, a Day & Zimmermann subsidiary.

Speaking outside Day & Zimmermann corporate headquarters on behalf of the Philadelphia Palestine Coalition, Betsey Piette noted: “The people in this building aren’t the ones whose labor creates these weapons of war — that’s done by workers in D&Z’s factories in Texarkana, Texas, and Iowa.

“But the people whose offices are here — Chair and CEO Harold L. Yoh, III and the members of the board of directors of D&Z — profit both from the exploitation of the labor of those factory workers and the steady demand for these weapons by Israel. These CFOs and CEOs may not get their hands dirty in factories, but they have the blood of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians on their hands.”

The militant rally and march of around 100 people was organized by Philadelphia Students for Justice in Palestine.