Youth Demand supporters are swarming in central London this Easter Monday. They are demanding that the UK government impose a total trade embargo on Israel, and make the super rich and fossil fuel elite pay damages to communities and countries most harmed by fossil fuel burning. [1]
At 11:05 this morning, around 22 supporters of Youth Demand disrupted traffic on Blackfriars bridge. The supporters could be seen holding signs which read ‘Stop Arming Israel’. Numerous cars forced their way through the blockade, whilst some members of the public shoved supporters off the road. The group dispersed after 20 minutes.
The team reformed at Elephant and Castle junction at around 12:20 dispersing after 5 minutes after a police appeared on the scene.
One of those taking part in swarming is Elsa Schönwiese, 24, a Physics and Music Student from London, who said:
“I’m taking action today because I can’t bear watching how everyday innocent people are getting killed and displaced and tortured in the most horrible way. And the UK is supporting this. Why? Because this government just keeps putting profit over people, over and over again.
Israel has targeted and killed more journalists than all the previous wars since the US civil war COMBINED. This is no accident, this is a strategic genocide. We have the privilege and therefore the responsibility to stand up for those who can’t. To disrupt business as usual until our government stops fueling this genocide. We have to do it for all those children, the mothers, the doctors, the teachers and the journalists, who have been murdered, just because they happened to be born there.”
Davide Annese, 27, Scientist- Synthetic Biology and automation specialist from Cambridge said:
“I am taking action because I’m tired of watching a livestreamed Genocide and nobody in the government doing anything about it. When my children read about this genocide in their history books I want to be able to say I did something.
I want our politicians to know that they will be held accountable for their complicity. I want to ask them ‘how do you sleep at night, knowing you are helping the genocide and slaughter of tens of thousands of children?’ I am disgusted and gutted by the lack of empathy of our governing bodies. We need to fight back for the lack of humanity, empathy and desentisization against these war crimes and crimes against Humanity.”
This Easter there has been no food or aid allowed into the Gaza strip for over 50 days as the Israeli military continues to blockade supplies. “For the vast majority of civilians, nighttime is the time of horror and unrelenting pain,” said Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from central Gaza. “Nobody is safe in their homes, in the makeshift tents, in displacement camps.” [2][3]
Young people will not accept these crimes against humanity and we will not be led by war criminals and arsonists. We cannot allow those in power to get away with facilitating the systematic annihilation of an entire culture. It’s time to take to the streets day after day and to demand better. Only sustained mass resistance can put an end to this genocide. Join us at youthdemand.org
ENDS
Youth Demand Press contact: 07762 987334
Press email: YouthDemandPress@protonmail.com
High quality images & video here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13vFus2e8TEI_bfhIYHXEIV-IZV86P9v9
Website: https://youthdemand.org
Twitter: https://x.com/youth_demand
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_youthdemand
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Notes to Editors
[1] Youth Demand is a youth-led resistance campaign fighting for an end to genocide in Palestine and across the globe as a result of the climate crisis.
Our demands:
Stop all trade with Israel:the UK government must impose a total trade embargo on Israel.
Make the rich pay: the UK government must raise £1tn by 2030 from the super rich and fossil fuel elite to pay damages to communities and countries most harmed by fossil fuel burning.
Youth Demand is part of Umbrella and a member of the A22 Network of civil resistance projects.
[2] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/19/israeli-bombardment-kills-92-in-two-days-gaza-government
