After a struggle lasting several years, US aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney has finally decided to shut down the BTL (formerly Blades Technology Iscar) plant in Nahariya. The plant has 900 employees of whom 600 will lose their jobs and 300 will be transferred to the production lines of a similar plant in Tefen.
The plant was founded in 1968 by Stef Wertheimer after the then French President Charles de Gaulle imposed an arms embargo on Israel following the Six Day War. The protracted struggle to continue BTL’s activity has now ended with a feeling of bitterness and heartache for most of the workers.
The struggle has been waged by the Histadrut General Federation of Labor for more than four years. At the beginning of 2025, a one-year extension was obtained delaying closure of the plant. In reality, the extension has lasted 18 months.
Pratt & Whitney acquired the plant in 2014 from the Wertheimer family for an undisclosed amount, a year after the Wertheimers completed the sale of of its holdings in Iscar to Warren Buffett. The deal was worth $6 billion (in two stages).
“There have been strikes, and arguments in Knesset committees and the factory yard,” says a source familiar with the details of the struggle. “In the end, you can’t force a giant like Pratt & Whitney to operate the plant in Nahariya against its will. That’s why it chose to reduce production in Israel and close Nahariya.”
The source says that about 600 workers “will retire or take early retirement, and those who don’t will receive increased compensation. The collective agreement reached with Pratt & Whitney will be implemented.”
The remaining 300 workers who are supposed to move to US company’s additional plant in Tefen will work on a production line for manufacturing blades for jet engines “that produces almost the same thing,” he says. He adds, “The great pain is that an important plant in Israel has closed. A plant that employed a lot of workers. It hurts because what you produce in industry in Israel today (blades) – you won’t be able to make them tomorrow. And the State of Israel has already been in the midst of an embargo. So it’s the state’s problem. But unfortunately the (former) ministers of economy and defense were unable to convince the Americans to keep the plant.”
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on June 16, 2026.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2026.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on June 16, 2026.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2026.
