Energy Embargo for Palestine and the Free Palestine Coalition protest inside the British Museum.

Stand with Gaza: Palestine solidarity reports round-up

Jonny Jones • February 14, 2024

Protests and actions in solidarity with Palestine are still happening regularly across Britain. rs21 members round up some of the events that have taken place over the last week.

Wednesday 7 October saw a Stand with Gaza workplace day of action called by Stop the War and CND, with workers, students and activists taking action for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Activists at workplaces across the country held demonstrations at the workplace gates, on their lunch breaks.

Postal workers marking the Stand with Gaza day of action.

Unison at Transport for Greater Manchester.

That morning, amongst the suited and booted financiers leaving Canary Wharf at 7:30am, around 100 regular folk marched in a bloc towards the entrance of Barclay’s HQ. Setting up with flags, drums, and banners outside the entrance, these hundred activists were there to protest Barclays’ complicity in the genocide. Bank employees passed a line of suited masked figures attempting to give them ‘blood soaked’ money, as activists chanted about the bank’s complicity.

Protest at Barclays Bank HQ.

At noon, around 100 students and staff from KCL UCU walked out, to rally outside the Strand Building. Speeches for were given by members of the UCU branch executive, highlighting KCL’s institutional relationship with Israel, its silence in the face of the genocide, and attacks on freedom of criticism of Zionism. Reference was made to the murder of Dr Maisara Alrayyes, A KCL Alumni, by Israel, as well as the wider attacks on fellow academic and health workers. Speakers also spoke from Palestine Action about their successful actions against arms facilities. Students and staff read poetry written by themselves, Dr Refaat Alareer, and Mahmoud Darwish. The ongoing suspension of three KCL SU Officers was also raised. Overall, there was appetite to build longterm resistance to Zionism and institutional support for Israel by KCL – to renew a push for ending all links with Israeli universities, work with arms companies, and relationships with the British and Israeli industrial complex.

Protest at Kings College London.

At UCL, activists also remembered Refaat, unfurling a banner that rechristened the student centre the Dr Refaat Al Areer Student centre while dropping leaflets highlighting the institution’s complicity in Israeli war crimes.

Banner dropped at UCL student centre.

On Sunday 11 February, Energy Embargo for Palestine and the Free Palestine Coalition protested inside the British Museum, calling on the British Museum to end their new 10-year partnership with British Petroleum. This action comes after Israel’s granting of licenses for gas exploration off the coast of Gaza to BP and five other companies. The British Museum temporarily closed the museum to the public during the action, effectively meaning that the protest ‘shut down’ the museum. Dozens of police were called to the location, both inside and outside of the building.

A spokesperson for Energy Embargo for Palestine said: “Amidst Israel’s genocidal campaign, over 200 sites of cultural and historical importance in Gaza have been destroyed by Israel. Cultural institutions in Britain must end their complicity with energy companies that profit from the colonial genocide and Israel’s settler-colonial project”.

After the assault on Rafah on Sunday, an emergency protest was called in London with thousands protesting outside 10 Downing Street. Protests followed around the country that evening and the next. Protesters in Cardiff blocked the road outside Cardiff Castle.

On Tuesday 13 February, a No Tech For Apartheid demonstration was held outside Google’s London HQ, supporting Google and Amazon workers who have demanded their employers end their Project Nimbus contract with Israel and their complicity with surveillance of Palestinian people.