Hundreds of activists gathered outside Downing Street in central London on Friday morning to protest the arrival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a meeting with his British counterpart Rishi Sunak, news agencies reported.
“This Friday, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is in London to meet UK government officials,” the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign tweeted, adding:
“Netanyahu’s government maintains a brutal apartheid system over the Palestinian people… Palestinians need our solidarity now more than ever.”
PSC, alongside others including Friends of Aqsa, led the demonstration opposite London’s Downing Street on Friday morning, according to The New Arab.
“For 15 years Netanyahu has personally overseen the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian towns and villages and the targeted killing of Palestinian men, women and children living under illegal Israeli occupation… today we are holding him to account for these war crimes,” said Shamiul Joarder, Head of Public Affairs at FOA.
“The ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Putin, but what about Netanyahu? Sunak should be holding Netanyahu to account, not signing agreements to strengthen ties with an apartheid state and welcoming a war criminal to Downing Street”.
Netanyahu also faced protests by hundreds of people waving Israeli flags and signs calling for the defense of Israeli democratic institutions.
Netanyahu’s visit comes after a ‘2030 roadmap for UK-Israel relations’ was signed earlier this week. Yet, the first 3 months of 2023 have seen some of the worst Israeli violence against Palestinians in decades. Israeli soldiers and illegal Jewish settlers have killed at least 89 Palestinians, including 17 children.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
