Pro-Palestine protests close branches of Barclays across the UK

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The protests were in response to the bank's holdings in Israel's largest military company which provided drones used in recent deadly strikes on Gaza.

The flagship Barclays branch in Piccadilly Circus closed three hours early as 35 people from London's Palestine Action network held a sit-in occupation.

A member of the group said: "We shut down Barclays today to protest its investments in Elbit Systems and other companies that arm Israel.

"Barclays think it is acceptable to profit from Israel's massacres of Palestinians.

"It is time for the UK government to stop arming Israel and for UK companies to dissociate themselves from the arms trade with Israel."

Elsewhere three branches were closed by protesters blocking entrances in Manchester.

Demonstrations were also held in Leeds, Sheffield, Brighton, Edinburgh, Bradford, Birmingham and more than 10 other towns and cities across the UK.

Around 1.8 million people have signed a petition calling on Barclays to divest its £1.92million holding in drone supplier Elbit Systems.

Barclays also holds 4.2 per cent of shares in BAE Systems which has provided F16 fighter jet components and other arms to Israel.

Gaza based activist Abdulrahman Abunahel said: "As Palestinians we suffer immeasurably from attacks by drones supplied by Elbit Systems ? and other weapons supplied to Israel?. Barclays and other companies linked to the arms trade with Israel are profiting directly from Israel’s massacres.

"We call on governments around the world to do the very least they can to stop Israel from carrying out more massacres of our people by imposing a military embargo on Israel. Such steps would be in line with growing public support for our struggle and for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign." more

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