Police arrest three individuals exterior insurer of Israeli arms maker Elbit, together with Thunberg for holding placard.
British police have arrested Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and two different individuals at a pro-Palestine protest in central London, in line with marketing campaign group Defend Our Juries.
The group mentioned Thunberg was arrested on Tuesday on the Prisoners for Palestine protest held within the coronary heart of London’s Sq. Mile monetary district exterior the places of work of Aspen Insurance coverage, which offers protection for Israeli defence contractor Elbit Methods.
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The group mentioned Thunberg had arrived after the protest started, and it shared video footage of the activist holding an indication studying, “I assist the Palestine Motion prisoners. I oppose genocide.” Thunberg has known as Israel’s struggle in Gaza a genocide and has twice joined flotilla campaigns to attempt to break Israel’s siege of Gaza.
The Metropolis of London Police, which polices the monetary district, confirmed {that a} 22-year-old lady, an outline similar to Thunberg, was arrested for displaying a placard “in assist of a proscribed organisation (on this case Palestine Motion) opposite to Part 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000”.
That is the most recent protest in solidarity with activists from the Palestine Motion group, six of whom are at the moment on hunger strike in British prisons with two now hospitalised. The direct motion group has been proscribed as a “terrorist organisation” by the UK’s authorities.
Defend Our Juries mentioned Tuesday’s protest was held to attract consideration to Aspen Insurance coverage’s “complicity in genocide” and to specific solidarity with prisoners affiliated with Palestine Motion.
Two others, a person and a lady, had been additionally arrested on the protest though they’d “glued themselves close by”, in line with the Metropolis of London Police, which described harm with “hammers and purple paint” to “a constructing on Fenchurch Avenue”, the place the places of work of Aspen Insurance coverage are situated.
Defend Our Juries confirmed the harm, saying in a information launch that two activists “coated the entrance of the constructing with symbolic blood-red paint, utilizing re-purposed fireplace extinguishers” earlier than attaching themselves to the entrance of the constructing within the intention of “drawing consideration to Aspen’s complicity in Genocide, disrupting their enterprise, and shutting down the constructing”.
The group mentioned Aspen Insurance coverage, a world insurer and reinsurer, was focused due to its affiliation with Elbit Methods UK, a subsidiary of Elbit Methods, which is Israel’s largest arms producer. It describes its drones as “the spine” of the Israeli army.
Palestine Motion protesters had focused one of many UK subsidiary’s operations in Bristol final 12 months. Amongst their 5 key calls for, the group’s starvation strikers need the producer, which has a number of UK factories, to be shut down.
Defend Our Juries mentioned in its information launch that Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister David Lammy has “refused to talk to authorized representatives of the hunger-strikers, or their households”.
A number of days earlier, Thunberg had voiced solidarity with the starvation strikers on Instagram, saying: “It’s as much as the state to intervene, and put an finish to this by assembly these affordable calls for that pave the best way for the liberty of all those that select to make use of their rights attempting to cease a genocide, one thing the British state has did not do themselves.”
A Palestine Motion spokesperson mentioned in relation to her arrest that it was not clear whether or not police had “made one other one in all their errors in decoding the loopy ban on Palestine Motion” or whether or not they had “turned anybody expressing assist for prisoners locked up past the authorized time restrict for taking motion to cease a genocide into alleged terrorists”.
