British police arrest Greta Thunberg during pro-Palestinian protest in London | Israeli-Palestinian conflict News

Police arrest three people outside Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit’s insurer, including Thunberg, for holding up a sign.

British police arrested Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and two others during a pro-Palestinian protest in central London, according to campaign group Defend Our Juries.

The group said Thunberg was arrested Tuesday during the Prisoners for Palestine protest held in the heart of London’s Square Mile financial district, outside the offices of Aspen Insurance, which provides cover to Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems.

The group said Thunberg arrived after the protest began and shared video footage of the activist holding a sign reading: “I support Palestine Action prisoners. I oppose genocide.” Thunberg has called Israel’s war in Gaza a genocide and has twice joined flotilla campaigns to try to break Israel’s siege of Gaza.

City of London Police, which polices the financial district, confirmed that a 22-year-old woman, a description matching Thunberg, was arrested for holding up a sign “in support of a banned organization (Palestine Action) contrary to section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000.”

It is the latest show of solidarity with activists from the Palestine Action group, six of whom are currently on hunger strike in British prisons and two of whom are now in hospital. The direct action group has been banned as a “terrorist organisation” by the UK government.

Defend Our Juries said Tuesday’s protest was intended to draw attention to Aspen Insurance’s “complicity in genocide” and to express solidarity with prisoners affiliated with Palestine Action.

Two other people, a man and a woman, were also arrested during the demonstration when they had “glued themselves nearby”, according to the City of London police, who described damage with “hammers and red paint” to “a building on Fenchurch Street”, where the offices of Aspen Insurance are located.

Defend Our Juries confirmed the damage, saying in a statement that two activists “covered the building’s facade in symbolic blood-red paint, using recycled fire extinguishers” before attaching themselves to the building’s facade in an effort to “draw attention to Aspen’s complicity in the genocide, disrupt their activities, and shut down the building.”

The group said Aspen Insurance, a global insurer and reinsurer, was targeted because of its affiliation with Elbit Systems UK, a subsidiary of Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms producer. He describes his drones as the “backbone” of the Israeli army.

Palestine Action protesters targeted one of the UK branch’s operations in Bristol last year. Among their five main demands, the group’s hunger strikers want the manufacturer, which has several factories in the UK, to close.

Defend Our Juries said in its press release that Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister David Lammy had “refused to speak to the hunger strikers’ legal representatives or their families.”

Days earlier, Thunberg had expressed solidarity with the hunger strikers on Instagram, saying: “It’s up to the state to step in and stop this by responding to these reasonable demands that pave the way for freedom for all those who choose to use their rights to try to end genocide, something the British state has failed to do itself.” »

A spokesperson for Palestine Action said of his arrest that it was unclear whether police had “made another of their mistakes in interpreting Palestine Action’s crazy ban” or whether they had “turned into suspected terrorists anyone expressing support for prisoners incarcerated beyond the legal deadline to act to end genocide.”