On Tuesday 25 March, climate crisis and anti-genocide protesters across England came together to target insurance companies complicit in death and destruction around the world.
A press release from Boycott Bloody Insurance explained that:
groups from the climate justice, Palestine liberation and migrants rights movements, held protests in cities across England. Protests took place in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Lancaster, Guildford, Blackburn and Preston. With groups targeting the offices of Aviva, AIG, Allianz and Axa.
In London, police arrested two people who climbed a building in order to drop a banner. Protesters also entered insurers’ offices and occupied their foyers, while others marched in city centres.
BREAKING: Offices Occupied, Buildings Climbed, protests across England… 📍 London, Manchester, Birmingham, Lancaster, Guildford, Blackburn & Preston 📢 Insurers underwrite weapons, detention centres, fossil fuels, & genocideWe are calling on orgs to #BoycottBloodyInsurance
— Boycott Bloody Insurance (@insuranceboycott.bsky.social) 2025-03-25T13:05:19.759Z
✊@Allianz offices occupied in Lancaster.
😡 Allianz underwrites Elbit Systems, the main supplier of arms to Israel#BoycottBloodyInsurance pic.twitter.com/Yk2OoB8O47
— Boycott Bloody Insurance (@BoycottBloody) March 25, 2025
Participants in the campaign come from Coal Action Network, Palestine Youth Movement, Parents 4 Palestine, Energy Embargo for Palestine, Tipping Point UK, Youth Front for Palestine, and Axe Drax.
Insurers invest “over $1.7 billion in companies supplying military equipment used by Israel”
Boycott Bloody Insurance recently released a report showing how “major global insurers actively enable Israel’s ongoing assault on Palestinians”. In a press release, it explained that “insurers including Allianz, Aviva, AXA, Zurich, and RSA” have been investing “over $1.7 billion in companies supplying military equipment used by Israel since 7 October 2023”. The latter include “Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Elbit Systems, and BAE Systems”, which Boycott Bloody Insurance said have a direct link to Israel’s war crimes, “including attacks on civilians in Gaza using white phosphorus and precision-guided munitions”.
Amid the actions of 25 March, Boycott Bloody Insurance’s Andrew Taylor said:
Insurers underwrite weapons, detention centres, and fossil fuels, causing environmental destruction, human rights abuses and genocide. We are calling on organisations across the UK to boycott deadly insurance companies. Change starts in our communities. Deadly insurers profit from our local councils, churches, charities and schools. We need to hurt insurers’ bottom line to force them to stop cashing in on death and suffering.
The campaigners stress that “Allianz underwrites Elbit Systems, the main supplier of arms to Israel”, “AVIVA underwrites PetroChina, the third-biggest fossil fuel company globally by revenue, as well as, G4S and Serco who run many of the UK’s migrant detention centres”, “AXA gives cover to Drax, UK’s single largest carbon emitter”, and “AIG underwrites BP, the 8th largest fossil fuel company globally and supplier of a third of Israel’s total oil supply during the genocide”.
Palestinian Youth Movement member Yara Derbas insisted:
Insurance, just like logistics, is crucial for arms transfers to oppressive regimes. Our actions target the corporate complicity enabling Israel’s ongoing crimes. This isn’t just about Palestine—it’s about global justice and ending corporate exploitation.
A member of the Shareholders Show Up, meanwhile, highlighted that immigrants are “held hostage indefinitely” as if they’re criminals while the highly controversial private company Serco “is being given chance after chance, despite numerous allegations of racism and abuse, and previously being fined for fraud and false accounting related to GPS tagging”. They asked “why is Aviva insuring this?”
Featured image and additional images supplied
