Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called for the halt to British arms sales to Israel at a rally in central London last weekend. Demonstrating in Whitehall, Palestinian supporters called on the Group of Seven (G7) leaders currently meeting in Cornwall to support Palestinian rights.
As part of the ‘Resist G-7: Day of Action for International Justice’ rally demonstrators marched past Downing Street on Saturday calling for an end to British complicity in Israel’s war crimes against the Palestinians .
“At today’s Justice For Palestine demonstration in London, I also called for a halt to arms sales,” Corbyn tweeted. “UK-made weapons are killing civilians – including children – in conflicts abroad. This must stop,” he said.
The rally came as the informal club of seven leaders of the global imperialist camp – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States – were meeting in Cornwall face-to-face for the first time in two years to tackle the global health crisis and climate change.
At the march, Raghad al-Takriti, the president of the Muslim Association of Britain, said the message to the G-7 leaders is clear. “It is to uphold international law. It is adherence to international law…it’s time for these leaders to talk about enforcement, to end the siege on Gaza … and to stop their complicity, their arms deals with Israel,” she said.
Thousands of protesters took part in the demonstration called by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Friends of Al-Aqsa. PSC said: “All governments have an obligation to end their complicity and help dismantle apartheid. Instead of aiding and abetting Israel’s racist rule over the Palestinian people, the G7 must end all military-security cooperation with Israel, and employ targeted sanctions until Israel complies with international law.”
The protest was the latest in a series of pro-Palestine rallies which have taken place in London since clashes erupted in occupied Arab East Jerusalem over Israel’s planned expulsion of Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, the attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, and Israel’s military assault on Gaza.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been arrested in Israel and the occupied West Bank for protesting against Israel’s policies. Some have been killed and many more wounded in confrontations with the Israeli police and armed Zionist settler gangs.
Last week members of the Palestine Action movement took over a Canadian-owned aerospace factory in Cheshire which manufactures military technology for Elbit Systems, an Israeli arms company .They scaled the roof of the APPH complex in Runcorn and daubed the building in red paint. They claim the factory produces landing gear for Elbit drones which were used in the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza last month. Héroux-Devtek, the company which runs the APPH plant, has disputed these claims.
Palestine Action has been targeting Elbit facilities in Britain for months, demanding their closure and claiming that the parts and weaponry they produce are being tested and used against the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
