All the windows of a Barclays Bank branch in Bristol city center were smashed and graffiti sprayed in a coordinated attack by a group targeting the bank.
Palestine Action said its activists smashed the bank’s windows in Broadmead, along with Barclays branches across the country, from Glasgow to Brighton. The group, which is based in Bristol and focuses on the city’s arms industry’s links to Israel, said it had taken steps to demand that the bank “divest itself of Israel’s arms and fossil fuel trade”.
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Palestine Action stages a direct action blockade of firms such as Elbit Systems, the Israeli arms company that has its UK base in Aztec West on the outskirts of Bristol, and activists have held regular protests in the city center for the past year. in businesses and shops they claim have ties to Israel.
But the overnight action is an escalation of the targeting of Barclays in particular, with police now investigating the damage caused by the crime. A spokesman for Palestine Action said: “Barclays is funding the crisis of climate collapse and genocide in Palestine.
“Decades of polite campaigning, petitioning, letter writing and lobbying MPs have failed. We will continue to escalate until Barclays pulls its finger and stops funding genocide and climate destruction,” they added.
Among the broken windows, activists spray-painted the names of Palestinians killed in Israeli military action in Gaza on the walls of the Barclays branch.
A Barclays spokesman said: “We provide essential financial services to US, UK and European public companies that supply defense products to NATO and its allies. Barclays does not directly invest in these companies.
“The defense sector is vital to our national security and the UK Government has made it clear that supporting defense companies is compatible with ESG considerations. Decisions to impose arms embargoes on other countries are a matter for the respective elected governments,” the spokesman added.
“While we support the right to protest, we ask that activists do so in a way that respects our customers, colleagues and property,” a Barclays spokesman said.
Palestine Action said it had recently “partnered” with a group called Shut The System, an “underground climate movement”, saying it had done so to “run this nationwide campaign of property damage”.
“Palestine Action aims to stop the Palestinian genocide by undermining arms suppliers to the Israeli military, including Elbit Systems, along with financial companies involved with these arms suppliers,” the spokesman said. “Shut the System targets the banks and insurance companies that enable the expansion of fossil fuels.
“Both groups have adopted radical direct action tactics that include sabotaging key infrastructure to physically prevent continued support for destructive and deadly business operations. Collaboration between groups is designed to maximize efficiency,” they added.
At the end of April, Avon and Somerset Police arrested nine people from Palestine Action on suspicion of conspiracy to cause harm. Police are now investigating this latest attack.