Hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists blockaded the entrance to a UK government department building in central London on Wednesday to protest against Britain providing military support to Israel in its conflict with Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
An estimated 600 activists gathered outside of the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) at the Old Admiralty Office in the centre of London, preventing civil servants from entering the building and clashing with police, GB News reports.
Activists were seen waving banners demanding a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas terrorists and calling for the UK to stop selling weapons to the Jewish state.
The protest was organised by the Workers for a Free Palestine as its action for May Day, an ancient European holiday which was co-opted by socialists following an 1889 meeting of the Marxist International Socialist Congress in Paris. The leftist group also organised demonstrations in Lancashire, Scotland, and Wales on Wednesday.
“If arms company bosses and Britain’s political elite won’t impose an arms embargo, we, the workers, will continue enforcing it from below,” Workers for a Free Palestine said on social media.
Protesters gather outside the Business and Trade department in London to show solidarity with Palestine, as they campaign against military arms being manufactured in the UK and sent to Israel. Picture date: Wednesday May 1, 2024. (Photo by Elena Giuliano/PA Images via Getty Images)
Footage on social media showed police clashing with some activists, prompting at least three arrests. A Met spokesman said according to leftist Novaramedia: “We are policing a protest in Admiralty Place and Horse Guards Parade. Officers have made three arrests after protesters blocked access to a building. Protesters must stay within the law.”
It comes amid a spreading movement of student activists blockading universities, starting with Ivy League Colombia and Harvard in the United States last week, and the movement being picked up by young radicals in France.
Over the past week, pro-Palestinian activists — with the backing of the far-left La France Insmouise (LFI) party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon — occupied the prestigious Sciences Po research university in Paris and blockaded the entrance to the Sorbonne, forcing administrators to cancel classes and exams.
The leader of the LFI in the French National Assembly, Mathilde Panot, who faced questioning by police over allegedly making “apology for terrorism”, vowed to continue to back the disruptive pro-Palestinian protests, saying over the weekend: “I will support them as many times as they do it, and we will be there every time the people move to support the equal dignity of human beings.”