Palestine Action has targeted the Foreign Office in an early morning display of solidarity with the Palestinian people. The group sprayed the department’s office red to highlight the blood it has on its hands over Israel’s war crimes in Gaza. However, Palestine Action was also drawing attention to the Foreign Office’s complicity in the entire situation in the Occupied Territories, which stretches back 106 years.
Palestine Action: hitting the Foreign Office
Palestine Action has been at the forefront of direct action and resistance in the UK over Israel’s colonialism. It often focuses on arms company Elbit, which has factories in the UK and supplies the Israeli army. However, on Thursday 2 November it had the Foreign Office in its sights.
The group said in a statement:
Today, on the 106th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, activists from Palestine Action targeted Britain’s foreign office… [It] was sprayed in messages including ‘Britain Guilty’ and ‘Fuck Balfour’.
Security at the Foreign Office could do little more than look on, as Palestine Action continued its targeting:
The group sprayed “fuck Balfour” across the building:
Palestine Action explained:
Written in 1917 by then UK foreign secretary, Lord Arthur Balfour, the Declaration signed away the land of Palestine to the Zionist colonial project – a land Britain never had the right to give away. After the declaration, until 1948, the British burnt down indigenous villages to prepare the way for the Nakba; with this came arbitrary killings, arrests, torture, sexual violence including rape against women and men, the use of human shields and the introduction of home demolitions as collective punishment to repress Palestinian resistance.
The Nakba (‘Great Catastrophe’) saw British armed and trained Zionist militia forcibly displace over 750,000 Palestinians, destroy over 500 Palestinian villages, and massacre many families. The genocide underway right now in Gaza, which has already claimed the lives of over 8,500 Palestinians, injured tens of thousands more, while the 2.1 million in Gaza are starved, thirsted, and displaced, would not be happening if not for Balfour and Britain’s ongoing political and military support for the Zionist project.
Showing solidarity with Palestinians
The group also targeted the offices of arms firm Leonardo in London:
Leonardo supplies Israel with Apache Helicopters and parts for their F-35 fighter jets, used to bombard Gaza.
Today, we’re shutting them down in London! pic.twitter.com/GB3YaKfv4k
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) November 2, 2023
It is an Italian company that has offices worldwide. Palestine Action said in a press release:
Israel’s F-35 fighter jets, are being used in its ongoing bombardment and massacre of Palestinians in Gaza [4], using ‘high-energy military laser’ targeting systems produced by Leonardo UK [5]. Leonardo furthermore supplies Israel with Aermacchi M-346 aircraft and components for its Apache attack helicopters [6], which have also been deployed in the violent ethnic cleansing of Gaza [7].
It briefly occupied Leonardo’s office:
After shutting down two Israeli weapons sites on Tuesday, actionists are now occupying Leonardo's London HQ #StopArmingIsrael https://t.co/CxYaJggqXK
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) November 2, 2023
Overall, as the group summed up:
The deep military-industrial ties between Britain and Israel show that the Balfour Declaration is not a historic document: instead, the declaration is the first proof of Britain’s commitment to the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. This is a commitment they continue to act on, arming the Israeli regime with the means to commit its genocide via Leonardo not least of all.
As of 2 November, Israel had killed nearly 9,000 people in Gaza – including over 3,600 children. These atrocities cannot continue – and the more groups like Palestine Action highlight Britain’s complicity in Israeli war crimes, the better.
Featured image and additional images via Palestine Action
