Youth Demand and Palestine Action have teamed up today to paint the Ministry of Defence headquarters in London, while other supporters are marching through London. They are demanding that both the Tories and Labour Party commit to imposing a two-way arms embargo on Israel and end all future licensing and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK, including revoking oil and gas licences issued since 2021. [1]
Two action takers from each group sprayed red paint over the Government building on Victoria Embankment Gardens at 2pm. Shortly afterwards, they were joined by supporters who had been marching through central London, holding a banner that read ‘YOUTH DEMAND AN END TO GENOCIDE’.
The situation is still developing.
Audrey Xiarui Corno, 21, is a dancer from Peckham and supporter of Palestine Action who took action today. They said:
“The United Kingdom has been complicit in this genocide from the beginning. We still don’t have the exact figures of how much has been produced and traded – but what we do know is private arms companies like Elbit Systems have made RECORD profits since October.”
“Elbit Systems is one of Israel’s biggest arms manufacturers, which holds active contracts with the Ministry of Defence. I am ashamed of this country. What we have is not a Ministry of Defence but a Ministry of Murder.”
The Ministry of Defence is training the Israeli military in Britain. The UK government has admitted that nine Israeli military aircraft have landed in Britain since October 7th. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has refused to say what those planes are carrying or what they are doing. [2] [3]
Today’s action comes after Keir Starmer’s home was visited by Youth Demand supporters yesterday, erecting a banner that read ‘STARMER STOP THE KILLING’ and leaving childrens shoes at his door to symbolise Palestinian children killed by Israel. On Monday, Youth Demand supporters spray painted the Labour Party headquarters in London. [4] [5]
Also taking action is Irfan Mamun, a student from Oxford who said:
“I’m taking action to demand two things from the UK government, to call for a halt to buying and selling weapons with Israel and to stop all new oil and gas licences in the UK. I feel deeply conflicted with what’s happening in Gaza and with what’s happening with the climate crisis. We know tens of thousands of innocent Gazans are being killed and if we continue on our current trajectory hundreds of millions will be killed by the climate crisis whilst billions will be displaced.”
“People around the UK are infuriated by this, we see all this suffering happening and yet we have a cruel and apathetic government which chooses to do nothing. Politics is broken and I don’t feel comfortable taking this action, but it feels so urgent that it must be done. We want a safe future for all people across the world.”
Today’s action comes as it was revealed that in the months since October 7, Israel’s assault has killed over 13,800 children in Gaza and injured over 12,000 children, according to counts by UN officials and the Gaza Ministry of Health cited by Save the Children. This means that Israel has killed or injured at least 25,800 children in Gaza, or over 1 in every 50 children living in the region before the assault. The death toll in Gaza has now risen to over 33,000. [6]
Meanwhile, yesterday it was revealed this is the 10th consecutive monthly record in a warming phase that has shattered all previous records. Over the past 12 months, average global temperatures have been 1.58C above pre-industrial levels. Global surface temperatures in March were 0.1C higher than the previous record for the month, set in 2016, and 1.68C higher than the pre-industrial average, according to data released on Tuesday by the Copernicus Climate Change Service. Gavin Schmidt, the director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, noted that temperature records are being broken each month by up to 0.2C. He said: “It’s humbling, and a bit worrying, to admit that no year has confounded climate scientists’ predictive capabilities more than 2023 has.” [7]
Young people will not accept the future those in charge have in store for us. We will not die quietly whilst our leaders commit us to a future of suffering and mass death. Young people are coming together to fight back. Join us at https://youthdemand.org
ENDS
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Notes to Editors
[1] Youth Demand is a new youth resistance campaign fighting for an end to genocide. Youth Demand a two-way arms embargo on Israel and an end to new oil and gas drilling. Youth Demand is part of Umbrella and a member of the A22 Network of civil resistance projects.
[2] https://www.declassifieduk.org/u-k-is-training-israeli-military-in-britain/
[5]https://youthdemand.org/2024/04/08/youth-demand-an-end-to-genocide-by-painting-labour-party-hq/