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palestine solidarity campaign
Thousands Protest London Weapons Fair Over UK Complicity in Gaza Genocide
"The people who run these companies are war criminals," said one campaigner. "They should be investigated for crimes against humanity, not invited to profit from the unspeakable devastation they have caused."
Sep 09, 2025
Thousands of demonstrators rallied Tuesday outside a major London arms fair to protest what one campaigner called the United Kingdom's "peak complicity in genocide" in Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed more than 64,600 Palestinians—mostly women and children—and wounded over 163,000 others since October 2023.
The Independent reported at least three arrests for alleged assaults on police officers outside the the biennial Defense and Security Equipment International (DSEI) UK trade show, which is being held at Excel London at the Royal Victoria Dock. At least one person was also reportedly taken away in an ambulance.
Video posted to social media showed police officers shoving people to the ground, as well as DSEI attendees smirking and recording on their phones as they passed demonstrators.
Protesters chanted "shut it down," waved Palestinian flags, and held up signs with messages like "stop arming Israel," "only war criminals past this point," and "we hope that the screams of babies will haunt them in their sleep."
Ajahn Santamono, a Buddhist monk taking part in Tuesday's protest, lamented to Middle East Eye that "people who contribute to genocide and mass murder are protected and supported, while people of conscience who try to protest this are the ones who are arrested, criminalized, and treated with violence."
On Monday, members of the direct action group Shut the System sabotaged fiber optic internet cables and splashed red paint over portions of the DSEI venue.
"How can anyone with a shred of humanity build their fortune on mass slaughter?" the group asked. "Shut the System's answer—they are a symptom of a global financial system that prioritizes extreme, psychopathic profiteering for growth's sake alone, above solid healthcare and the natural support systems underpinning all life on Earth."
More than 50 Israeli arms manufacturers and US weapons giants including Lockheed Martin—which makes the F-35 fighter used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to bomb Gaza—are among the approximately 1,600 exhibitors taking part in DSEI.
The United States is far and away the world's leading enabler of Israel's war on Gaza, which is the subject of an ongoing International Court of Justice genocide case and International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Some of the IDF's most powerful arms—including 1,000- and 2,000-pound bombs that have been repeatedly used to massacre Palestinian civilians—are provided by the United States and the tens of billions of dollars in armed aid it lavishes upon Israel.
"The US and Europe-backed slaughter of families in Palestine is the frontline of our struggle for climate and social justice globally," said Shut the System. "If we can't stop this genocide, power holders will use it as a blueprint to commit genocides elsewhere."
The advocacy group Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) said ahead of DSEI that the UK government "keeps insisting it is doing everything in its power to hold the Israeli government to account for its actions."
However, a report published by the group last week shows that "this is an outrageous and offensive lie."
The report notes that "the UK is deeply complicit in supporting Israel's genocide in Gaza: through arms sales, [Royal Air Force] reconnaissance flights over Gaza, from which it is suspected intelligence is shared with Israel, training of Israeli soldiers, and other forms of military cooperation."
According to the report:
Despite the government's decision on September 2, 2024 to suspend arms export licenses to Israel... they are still allowing the supply of crucial components for Israel's 45 F-35 combat aircraft, so long as they are supplied indirectly via the US or other countries, rather than directly to Israel. These are used to bomb Gaza, at an extraordinary level of intensity, requiring a constant supply of spare parts. By its own admission at the time of the decision, the government accepts that these UK-supplied components may well be used by Israel to violate international humanitarian law in Gaza.
CAAT media coordinator Emily Apple said that the UK has "reached peak complicity in genocide in allowing 51 Israeli arms companies to exhibit at DSEI."
"It is allowing companies to market their genocide tested weapons to human rights abusing countries around the world," Apple added. "The people who run these companies are war criminals. They should be investigated for crimes against humanity, not invited to profit from the unspeakable devastation they have caused in Gaza."
Other actions Tuesday included a Quaker meeting at Waterloo Station attended by around 200 people, part of No Faith in War Day.
As part of the No Faith in War day, 200 people joined our Meeting for Worship, creating a grounded space in the face of the violence embodied by the DSEI arms fair.Tomorrow, join us to hand in a demand to stop DSEI. Meeting Waterloo train station, 11am: tinyurl.com/stop-dsei📸 Michael Preston
[image or embed]
— Quakers in Britain (@quaker.org.uk) September 9, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Anti-DSEI protests are set to continue Wednesday, when the Palestine Solidarity Campaign is planning a 5:00 pm "pots and pans protest" meant to "greet the arms traders with a wall of noise."
The protests against DSEI follow last weekend's arrest of nearly 900 supporters of the banned UK-based group Palestine Action in London's Parliament Square.
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'Genocide Is a Red Line': Thousands Encircle UK Parliament to Demand Sanctions on Israel
"U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer admitted this week that the situation in Gaza is 'getting worse by the day' but has yet to match these words with concrete actions."
Jun 04, 2025
Thousands of people formed a "Red Line for Palestine" encircling the U.K. Parliament in Westminster on Wednesday to demand an arms embargo and sanctions on Israel for its ongoing genocidal violence against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The protesters are also calling for the reinstatement of U.K. aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the government's support for International Criminal Court investigations, and an immediate and permanent cease-fire in Gaza, according to a statement from organizers.
The red line protest during Parliament's "question time" was organized by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Muslim Association of Britain, Palestinian Forum in Britain, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and Stop the War Coalition.
"The U.S.-backed aid distribution in Gaza has shut down operations today, citing 'security risks,'" organizers noted. "This follows widespread criticism over its ties to Israel and alleged downplaying of civilian casualties. Meanwhile, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer admitted this week that the situation in Gaza is 'getting worse by the day' but has yet to match these words with concrete actions."
While people in the streets took aim at Starmer and U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who are both part of the Labour Party, some members of Parliament joined the protest.
Scottish MP Brian Leishman, a member of Labour's Socialist Campaign Group, said on social media that he was "proud to stand with fellow MPs and the thousands of people that joined the Red Line for Palestine protest outside Parliament today calling for an end to genocide and for countries to stop arming Israel."
MP Colum Eastwood, former leader of Northern Ireland's Social Democratic and Labour Party, similarly said that he was "proud" to join the protest, while MP Zack Polansky, a candidate to lead the Green Party, said he was "proud to stand with so many fellow Jewish people against the genocide."
Party MP Ellie Chowns described her experience participating in the demonstration as "incredibly moving and powerful," while Independent MP Shockat Adam declared: "Starving children is a red line. Genocide is a red line. When humanity is on the line, silence cannot be the response."
Independent MP Adnan Hussain said he was "honored to have joined" the action and shared footage in which he appeared with MP Jeremy Corbyn, a fellow Independent who used to be Labour's leader. In the Sky News clip, Corbyn talked about the bill he's introducing to demand an independent public inquiry into the U.K.'s "complicity with active genocide" in Gaza.
"Many of us remain disgusted by the continued supply of components for the F-35 fighter jet program," Corbyn told The New Arab. "I am shocked the government openly admits to making 'exceptions' to its partial suspension. Does this breach its legal obligations to prevent genocide? One thing is clear: This government still supplies weapons to a state whose leader is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity."
The Hague-based tribunal in November issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and a Hamas leader who has since been declared dead. Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice over its annihilation of Gaza.
Polling shows Israel's destruction of Gaza is unpopular with the British public. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign not only was an organizer of Wednesday's protest but also commissioned a poll from Opinium Research and released the results on Wednesday. The survey, conducted from May 30 to June 2, found that 57% of Brits believe the U.K. should impose a full arms embargo.
The survey also found that 54% support sanctioning Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, 53% think Israel should be expelled from the U.N., and 50% support boycotting Israeli products in supermarkets. Middle East Eye reported that "the new poll comes after a similar survey showed public support for Israel in European countries had fallen to its lowest recorded level."
The polling also comes as the official casualty counts in Gaza—which experts warn are likely significant underestimates—climbed to 54,607 Palestinians killed and 125,341 wounded, with most of the enclave's more than 2 million struggling to access food, water, shelter, and healthcare in the face of Israel's bombings and blockade of humanitarian aid.
U.K. organizers plan to follow Wednesday's red line action with a National March for Palestine on Saturday, June 21.
"Israel's attacks on Gaza and the West Bank are intensifying. Their starvation policy continues," says the march's webpage. "The U.K. government has at last accepted that Israel's actions are unconscionable. Now they must act—words are not enough."
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Thousands March to US Embassy in London With Message for Trump: 'Hands Off Gaza'
An 87-year-old Holocaust survivor called the U.S. president's plan to permanently force Palestinians out of Gaza "completely immoral and illegal, and also impractical and absurd."
Feb 15, 2025
Thousands of people marched to the United States Embassy in London on Saturday to protest President Donald Trump's ethnic cleansing plan for the Gaza Strip, a proposal that has been roundly condemned as unlawful and monstrous by the U.N., international human rights organizations, and Palestinians living in the enclave decimated by relentless Israeli bombing.
The march came after Trump doubled down on his proposal for the U.S. to "take over" Gaza after forcibly and permanently displacing Palestinians from the territory.
"Think of it as a big real estate site, and the United States is going to own it and we'll slowly—very slowly, we're in no rush—develop it," Trump told reporters last weekend.
Marchers carried signs Sunday expressing contempt for the president's proposal, which Amnesty International denounced as "inflammatory, outrageous, and shameful."
Protesters march to the U.S. Embassy in London on February 15, 2025. (Photo: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Stephen Kapos, an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor, told AFP on Saturday that Trump's proposal is "completely immoral and illegal, and also impractical and absurd."
"It's not going to happen," Kapos added, "but it does a lot of damage simply stating that as an endgame."
The mass demonstration in London, organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and other organizations, followed news that Hamas freed three additional Israeli hostages on Saturday in exchange for the release of more than 360 Palestinians who were held in Israeli prisons.
The exchange was part of a tenuous cease-fire deal reached in January after 15 months of incessant U.S.-backed Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
The assault's impact on Palestinians in Gaza was, and continues to be, catastrophic. According to an article published in The Lancet earlier this month, Israel's war on the Gaza Strip "generated a life expectancy loss of more than 30 years during the first 12 months of the war, nearly halving prewar levels."
"Actual losses are likely to be higher," the researchers noted, stressing that their estimate was conservative and "did not account for the indirect effect of the war."
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Thousands March in London to Demand End of Fossil Fuels and Gaza Genocide
"We won't stop until political leaders divest from war and destruction—and invest in a just, ecological, and equitable transition," said one campaigner.
Nov 16, 2024
Thousands of climate justice advocates took to the streets of London on Saturday to demand the U.K. government "end its reliance on fossil fuels, commit to paying climate reparations, and end its complicity in the genocide in Gaza."
Organizers said more than 60 groups—including Extinction Rebellion, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Amnesty International U.K., Palestine Solidarity Campaign, War on Want, and Just Stop Oil—took part in the March for Global Climate Justice. The demonstration took place amid yet another shambolic United Nations Climate Change Conference and as Israeli forces continue a war on Gaza that U.N. experts this week called "consistent with the characteristics of genocide."
More than two dozen associated protests were held in cities and towns across Britain and Ireland, including Dublin, Edinburgh, Manchester, and Sheffield. Over 150 actions around the world are planned for what organizers are calling a Global Day of Action for Climate Justice on Saturday.
"Thousands of us united today in a historic mobilization on the streets of London, across Great Britain, and worldwide to demand an end to the era of fossil fuels and an end to the genocide in Gaza," Climate Justice Coalition national coordinator Angus O'Brien said in a statement.
"The issues we face are global, and so is our response," O'Brien added. "We won't stop until political leaders divest from war and destruction—and invest in a just, ecological, and equitable transition."
Lauren MacDonald, the lead campaigner at Stop Rosebank, said: "Every day we are witnessing the worsening effects of climate change as they creep closer and closer to home. All this while governments insist on pandering to the demands of mega-polluters in an endless cycle of ignorance that endangers us all."
"Oil money has been linked to violence throughout history—and this is no different now," MacDonald continued. "Even the Rosebank oil field here in the U.K. will see £253 million in revenue flow towards a company that has been flagged by the U.N. for human rights violations in Palestine."
Earlier this week, green groups including Oil Change International, Friends of the Earth Palestine/PENGON, and Tipping Point U.K. highlighted how fossil fuel companies including Britain's BP "enable and profit from Israel's genocide in Gaza" and perpetuate "a long history of the industry's complicity in mass atrocities worldwide."
Joanna Warrington, a campaigner at Fossil Free London—a group known for its bold direct action protests—said Saturday that "in gleaming London offices, fossil fuel giants like BP line their pockets while our planet burns and millions suffer."
"Every day, they stop at nothing to maximize their profits, fueling genocide, corrupting politics, and pushing our climate closer to collapse," she continued. "We are marching today to demand that the U.K. government breaks free from the grip of mega polluters, stands up to their relentless greed, and stops enabling the violence and destruction they profit from."
"Another world is not just possible—it's essential," Warrington added, "and it starts with holding fossil fuel corporations accountable."
MacDonald asserted that "if we want to maintain a liveable climate, and sever the toxic links between fossil fuels and atrocities across the globe, we must do everything we can to make a rapid and fair transition away from oil and gas."
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Over Half a Million Marchers Expected in London Nov. 11 to Demand Gaza Cease-Fire
"We want to send a clear message from the march that we represent the majority of the population in our calls for a cease-fire and that the movement in support of the Palestinians is growing in strength."
Nov 10, 2023
Organizers are expecting hundreds of thousands of people from across the United Kingdom to join an "inspiring, peaceful, and united show of solidarity" with Palestinians enduring the Israeli war on Gaza by marching from London's Hyde Park to the U.S. Embassy on Saturday.
"More than 500,000 people are expected to converge in London, making it one of the largest political marches in British history," the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), one of the organizers, said in a Friday statement reported by The Guardian.
Stop the War Coalition (STWC) convenor Lindsey German said Thursday that "our local groups in towns and cities across the U.K., along with coach companies, are telling us that every one of their coaches have been booked to bring people to London. This is comparable only to the 2 million strong protest against the Iraq War in 2003."
The other organizations behind the National March for Palestine on November 11—which is Armistice Day—are the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Muslim Association of Britain, and Palestinian Forum in Britain.
"We want to send a clear message from the march that we represent the majority of the population in our calls for a cease-fire and that the movement in support of the Palestinians is growing in strength," says STWC's event webpage.
The Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) air and ground assault of Gaza—launched last month in response to a Hamas-led attack—has killed over 11,000 people, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Israeli troops on Friday attacked multiple hospitals in the besieged enclave, including the largest, where tens of thousands of civilians have sought shelter.
Throughout the bloodshed and Israel's destruction of civilian infrastructure including homes, schools, and places of worship, people around the world have taken to the streets to call for a cease-fire, with some also demanding International Criminal Court action on "escalating Israeli war crimes and genocide of the Palestinian people" in Gaza.
"Our call for a cease-fire is rooted in a sincere wish to see an end to all violence, especially that which targets civilians, while recognizing that this cannot be achieved unless the root causes of that violence, the 75 years of ongoing Nakba against the Palestinian people, are adequately addressed," the STWC webpage explains.
Nakba, or "catastrophe," is a term Palestinians use to describe the ethnic cleansing of over 750,000 people from Palestine during the creation of the modern state of Israel in 1947-48. During this latest monthlong war, at least two plans from Israeli officials to permanently expel Palestinians from Gaza have been circulated.
Right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a Monday interview with an American reporter that after the current assault ends, Israel plans to control Gaza for an "indefinite period," adding that his nation will "have the overall security responsibility because we've seen what happens when we don't have it."
U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has refused to support a cease-fire in Gaza, leaving some British Muslims feeling "disappointed and disheartened." The Conservative leader has also fired a government aide who called for cease-fire and condemned related demonstrations, saying this week that "my view is that these marches are disrespectful."
Faced with pressure to stop Saturday's march, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said Wednesday that "the laws created by Parliament are clear. There is no absolute power to ban protest." Noting Armistice Day events, he added that marchers had shown a "complete willingness to stay away from the Cenotaph and Whitehall and have no intention of disrupting the nation's remembrance events."
Sunak, who met with Rowley this week, said of the commissioner: "He has said that he can ensure that we safeguard remembrance for the country this weekend as well as keep the public safe. Now, my job is to hold him accountable for that."
Meanwhile, STWC welcomed the Met leader's acknowledgement that police lack the power to ban the upcoming demonstration, and declared that "any other decision would have represented a capitulation to political pressure by the government and would not have been accepted by the movement of solidarity with the Palestinian people."
"Saturday's march too will be peaceful and will restore the focus to where it should be—the suffering in Gaza and the urgent need for the British government to support a cease-fire," the coalition added. "We urge the largest possible turnout for Gaza on Saturday."
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As Gaza War Enters 'Second Stage,' Hundreds of Thousands March for Cease-Fire
"This is not about Hamas. This is about protecting Palestinian lives," one demonstrator said.
Oct 28, 2023
The day after Israel unleashed its most intensive bombing campaign against Gaza since October 7, hundreds of thousands of protesters marched in cities around the world calling for a cease-fire and the protection of Palestinian lives.
Gaza lost all telephone and internet communication Friday night as Israeli officials said the country had entered the "next stage" of the war on Saturday as it expanded its operations on the ground.
"[L]ast night Israel launched a major bombardment and cut off all communications. This is an act of pure barbarism," Ben Jamal, the director of Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), told Middle East Eye from a march in London. "So we are marching today, not knowing how many Palestinians are dead, how many children now lie under the rubble."
PSC estimated on social media that half a million people attended the London march, which went from Embankment past U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's official residence at Downing Street to Westminster. Aerial footage showed streets and bridges thick with crowds. Sunak has stopped short of calling for a cease-fire, and Great Britian has emphasized Israel's right to defend itself after the surprise October 7 attack by Hamas that killed around 1,400.
"The superpowers at play are not doing enough at the moment. This is why we're here: we're calling for a cease-fire, calling for Palestinian rights, the right to exist, to live, human rights, all our rights," London marcher Camille Revuelta told Reuters. "This is not about Hamas. This is about protecting Palestinian lives."
Protests also took place in cities across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, including what +972 Magazine journalist Oren Ziv said was the first anti-war protest in Tel Aviv.
Israeli officials said Saturday they had expanded their ground operations in Gaza after smaller raids Wednesday and Thursday night, while Hamas promised to meet them with "full force," Al Jazeera reported.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday night that Israel had entered the "second stage" of the war with an expanded ground operation, according to The Associated Press.
He said the goals of the incursion were "to destroy the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas and bring the hostages home."
"The most important thing for us is for them to stop killing kids. They need to stop."
Friday's bombardment was heavy enough to cut most forms of communications to Gaza, leaving families, aid organizations, and news rooms unable to reach their loved ones or staff. Al Jazeera journalist Hani Mahmoud succeeded in reporting Saturday morning that Friday night had been "the most difficult and bloodiest night since the beginning of this war."
Mahmoud said Israel launched a major attack around 7 pm local time Friday near al-Shifa hospital in the north of Gaza and that "we have been hearing reports that hundreds of people have been killed in those areas and emergency services were not able to get to them in time to help."
"The problem with cutting Gaza from the outside world has made people feel it could be a genocide in the making without them knowing what has happened to their relatives," Mahmoud said.
The Gaza Health Ministry reported 377 more deaths since late Friday night, according to AP. The total death toll is now at more than 7.703 killed in Gaza, 3,595 of them children, Al Jazeera reported.
"The most important thing for us is for them to stop killing kids. They need to stop," Abdul Mahfuudi, who joined the London protest with his own children, told BBC News.
Saturday marked the third weekend in a row of Palestine solidarity marches across the U.K. Demonstrators also rallied in Manchester, Belfast, and Glasgow, among others.
Beyond the U.K., crowds marched for a cease-fire in Copenhagen; Rome; Stockholm; Istanbul; Wellington, New Zealand, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Reuters reported.
In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeated his denials that Hamas a terrorist organization and said that Israel was an "occupier," according to Al Jazeera.
"The main culprit behind the massacre unfolding in Gaza is the West," he said.
Despite bans, a small group of protesters also gathered in Paris and thousands marched in Berlin, according to Reuters and Al Jazeera.
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