Protesters in London urge UK to sanction Israel over Gaza genocide

Protesters gather outside Foreign Office

Pro-Palestinian activists gathered in London on Friday, urging the British government to take “meaningful action” and impose sanctions on Israel over its genocide in Gaza. Demonstrators assembled outside the Foreign Office, calling on the government to increase pressure on Israel to lift restrictions on humanitarian aid to Gaza, where tens of thousands of tents have recently been flooded.

Carrying Palestinian flags, protesters chanted slogans including “We want justice, we want action, we want boycott, we want sanctions,” and “From London to Palestine, occupation is a crime.” They also chanted “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

During the demonstration, a message demanding an investigation into British complicity was projected onto the Foreign Office building. “We demand a full inquiry into British complicity in the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza,” it read.

Calls to halt arms sales to Israel

Speaking at the protest, Chris Nineham, vice-chair of the Stop the War Coalition, vowed to continue demonstrating until Palestinians achieve liberation. “We will not stop protesting until this nightmare (in Gaza) is over,” he noted, urging the government to halt all arms sales to Israel.

Nineham argued that Israel and Western powers were becoming increasingly isolated internationally as opposition to their wars grew. He also said wars in the Middle East were a major factor behind one of the biggest midterm defeats suffered by a US president. “60% of Americans now say that disapprove of what Israel is doing in the Middle East,” he noted.

Union leader accuses Israel of weaponizing aid

Fran Heathcote, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, said Palestinians were facing destitution and flooding after three years of war and genocide. “Yet again we’ve seen the Israeli government blocking aid,” she said, accusing Israel of weaponizing the withholding of humanitarian assistance and using it as “a tool of genocide.”

Heathcote added: “So we have a very clear message for the UK government: Stop all arms sales to Israel and apply meaningful sanctions.” While welcoming sanctions imposed by the new UK government over “settler terrorism” in the occupied West Bank, she stressed that the “campaign of terror” was not merely the work of isolated individuals or armed groups. “It is enabled and supported” by the Israeli government and by the Israeli army, she said.