PRESSURE mounted on Barclays to sever its ties with Israeli arms firms today, as growing numbers of customers joined calls to boycott the bank.
More than 1,500 people closed their accounts in protest against the bank’s “bankrolling of Israel’s genocidal attack on Palestinians,” on a boycott day spearheaded by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).
According to PSC, Barclays has invested over £1 billion in companies supplying weapons and military technology to Israel and provides nine firms with over £3bn in loans and underwriting.
The companies include General Dynamics, which produces the gun systems that arm fighter jets used by Israel to bombard Gaza, and Elbit Systems, which produces armoured drones, munitions and artillery weapons used by the Israeli military.
The bank previously faced a similar boycott campaign over its financial support for South African apartheid. It was eventually forced to divest in 1986.
Palestinian children wait in line to receive food in Rafah, Gaza on February 09, 2024. (Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images)
One Palestinian human rights group called Israel’s evacuation orders “a pretext to push Gaza’s population closer to the border with Egypt in preparation for their mass deportation.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday ordered the Israel Defense Forces to craft a plan to “evacuate” the population of Rafah, a small city near Gaza’s border with Egypt that’s packed with at least 1.4 million people—most of whom fled there to escape Israeli bombs and troops.
Human rights advocates immediately sounded alarm, stressing that the forcible transfer of civilians is a crime against humanity and that there’s nowhere safe for Gazans to flee as Israeli forces bomb the area and snipers fire on civilians in Khan Younis, a city to Rafah’s north.
“Make no mistake—the entirety of Gaza is a ‘combat zone,'” Frankie Leach, head of media at ActionAid U.K., wrote Friday.
Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, was among those asking where the 1.4 million people currently in Rafah are supposed to move.
“Does he plan a mass deportation to Egypt (a blatant war crime)?” Roth wrote on social media.
The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, a Palestinian organization, called Israel’s evacuation orders “a pretext to push Gaza’s population closer to the border with Egypt in preparation for their mass deportation.”
“Time is running out: The international community must act now to halt the ground invasion of Rafah,” the group added.
Humanitarian aid organizations and United Nations officials have been bracing for an Israeli invasion of Rafah for weeks, warning that any large-scale attack on the densely populated city would be a grave violation of international law.
“A full-scale military operation in Rafah would have devastating consequences for civilians in Gaza who have endured more than four months of trauma, extreme hunger, lack of water, disease, and extremely limited medical resources due to the conflict and siege of the enclave,” CARE International said Friday. “Such an escalation would also bring existing humanitarian operations to a standstill, impacting all of Gaza. The limited aid that is currently able to trickle into the enclave does so from Rafah, and most humanitarian organizations currently operate from there.”
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said late Thursday that an Israeli ground assault on Rafah “would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences.”
“The only thing that will stop this situation spinning even further out of control is an immediate and permanent cease-fire.”
Netanyahu’s office claimed in a statement Friday that “it is impossible to achieve the war objective of eliminating Hamas and leaving four Hamas battalions in Rafah.”
“On the other hand, it is clear that a massive operation in Rafah requires the evacuation of the civilian population from the combat zones,” the statement continued. “That is why the prime minister directed the IDF and the defense establishment to bring to the cabinet a dual plan for both the evacuation of the population and the disbanding of the battalions.”
Yousef Munayyer, a Palestinian American political analyst, wrote in response that “the Israeli PM is ordering ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian refugees amassed in Rafah.”
During the first week of its latest assault on the Gaza Strip, Israel instructed the entire population of northern Gaza—roughly 1.1 million people—to evacuate to the south, then proceeded to bomb evacuation routes and supposed “safe zones.”
Now Israel’s military is preparing to move on the enclave’s last-remaining refuge for displaced people. In recent days, Israeli forces have ramped up airstrikes on the Rafah, destroying houses and killing civilians—including children.
Israel ordered Palestinians to flee to Southern Gaza. They did, and were bombed in Khan Younis. Israel then ordered Palestinians to flee further south. They did, and now they may be about to be bombed in Rafah
Overcrowding in Rafah, a city that’s about a quarter the size of Baltimore, has become so severe that many people are sleeping on the streets and outside of hospitals in makeshift tents. Hundreds of people have been forced to share a single toilet, and many are starving.
“Now, they may be forced to flee once more as Israeli forces prepare to invade the area. A military assault on the city would lead to thousands of new civilian deaths and injuries,” Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) said in a statement Friday. “Urgent action must be taken now if this new crisis in Rafah is to be averted. World leaders need to use all tools at their disposal to demand an immediate and permanent cease-fire, and protection for civilians in Gaza. We reiterate our continuous warnings about the very real prospect of mass displacement of Palestinians into Egypt.”
Rohan Talbot, director of advocacy and campaigns at MAP, wrote in response to Netanyahu’s order that “we’ve warned of this since week one.”
“This is what impunity gets you,” Talbot added.
The U.S., Israel’s top ally and arms supplier, has said it would oppose an Israeli military incursion into Rafah unless adequate steps were taken to protect civilians.
But aid groups warned that it’s impossible to protect civilians without an immediate end to Israel’s bombing and ground assault.
“Where on earth is Gaza’s exhausted and starving population supposed to go?” asked Riham Jafari, advocacy and communications coordinator at ActionAid Palestine, in a statement on Friday. “People are now so desperate that they’re eating grass in a last attempt to stave off hunger. Meanwhile, infections and diseases are running rampant amid such overcrowded conditions.”
“The only thing that will stop this situation spinning even further out of control,” Jafari added, “is an immediate and permanent ceasefire—it’s the only way to stop more lives being lost and to allow enough lifesaving aid to enter the territory.”
Palestinians receiving dialysis treatment are pictured at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al Balah, Gaza on February 8, 2024. (Photo: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“There is a particularly cruel circular logic at play here: Israeli forces, as they bomb and besiege Gaza, are creating an urgent need for medical care among civilians while simultaneously denying them access to it.”
A pair of human rights experts on Friday urged the International Criminal Court to prosecute any Israelis who have played a part in the assault on Gaza’s healthcare system, which is in tatters after months of relentless airstrikes, shelling, and a suffocating blockade.
“Since Hamas’ horrific October 7 attack, Israel has repeatedly targetedhealthcare facilities, ambulances, and access roads,” Annie Sparrow, a practicing clinician in war zones, and Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, wrote in an op-ed for Foreign Policy.
“It has arrested healthcare workers, blockaded fuel needed for generators, and withheld critical medical and surgical supplies—all of which are intended to undermine Gaza’s healthcare system,” they added. “There is a particularly cruel circular logic at play here: Israeli forces, as they bomb and besiege Gaza, are creating an urgent need for medical care among civilians while simultaneously denying them access to it.”
Sparrow and Roth called on the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is currently investigating alleged war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel, to “prosecute Israelis responsible for bombing hospitals, denying access to medicines and vaccines, and causing excessive civilian harm.”
“These attacks could be part of a plan to make Gaza uninhabitable and drive Palestinians out, an outcome that senior Israeli ministers—whose support Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to remain in power—continue to promote,” they wrote.
The near-total collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system under Israel’s assault, combined with the scarcity of clean water and other necessities, has left millions of Gazans at growing risk of disease. There is no longer a single fully functional hospital in the Gaza Strip, according to the United Nations.
“Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system is not only an important part of the genocide charges [brought by South Africa]—it is also a blatant war crime that should be prosecuted outright by the International Criminal Court,” Sparrow and Roth wrote Friday, noting that while the International Court of Justice “resolves disputes between states, the ICC adjudicates criminal prosecutions of individuals.”
“Targeting healthcare achieves little militarily while amplifying the death toll and suffering caused by indiscriminate bombardment,” the pair continued. “Such attacks flout the core purpose of international humanitarian law—to relieve civilian suffering—and are thus often an omen of broader atrocities to come.”
Destroying Gaza’s Healthcare system is a war crime.
The ICC should prosecute Israelis responsible for bombing hospitals, denying access to medicines and vaccines, and causing excessive civilian harm @ForeignPolicy
The World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday that it has documented more than 350 attacks on healthcare in the Gaza Strip since October 7. The attacks killed at least 645 people and injured 818 more, according to newly released WHO data.
“These attacks have affected 98 healthcare facilities, including 27 hospitals damaged out of 36, and affected 90 ambulances, including 50 which sustained damage,” WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva.
The WHO’s new figures came shortly before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Israel’s military to craft a plan to forcibly “evacuate” civilians from Rafah, a densely crowded city whose hospitals are overwhelmed with injured patients and displaced people.
Netanyahu’s order intensified concerns that an Israeli ground invasion of Rafah is imminent.
Catherine Russell, head of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), warned that a Rafah assault could be catastrophic for the enclave’s already starving and desperate population.
“We need Gaza’s last remaining hospitals, shelters, markets, and water systems to stay functional,” Russell told The Associated Press. “Without them, hunger and disease will skyrocket, taking more child lives.”
Protesters outside the University of ManchesterPhoto: Neil Terry Photography
WORKERS and students walked out across the country today to demand the government back a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, as the death toll climbs to over 27,000.
As part of the day of strike action, called by the Stop the War Coalition and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, workers gathered for a lunchtime rally outside Parliament organised by civil servants’ union PCS. Members of NEU and the UCU also walked out across the country.
Media workers protested outside BBC headquarters over its coverage of Israel’s war crimes as the death toll for journalists tops 85.
A Media Workers for Palestine spokesperson said: “A number of the BBC’s own journalists have accused the corporation of investing greater effort in humanising Israeli victims of the war compared with Palestinians and failing to provide key historical context in its coverage.
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Students and lecturers joined the action and walked out of universities across the country including in Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow and Manchester.
HUNDREDS of activists blocked the Barclays headquarters in Canary Wharf today, protesting against the bank’s involvement in Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza.
The protest comes amid growing pressure for a permanent ceasefire as the Palestinian death toll exceeds over 27,000.
According to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Barclays has invested over £1 billion in companies supplying weapons and military technology to Israel.
The campaigners say the bank also provides the firms with over £3bn in loans and underwriting.
Rallying in front of the bank’s headquarters, a coalition of protesters from London for a Free Palestine, the Palestinian Youth Movement, Queers for Palestine and Black Lives Matter told passers-by to close their bank accounts and “stop banking on apartheid.”
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London For a Free Palestine activist Rebecca Rumford said: “British people cannot continue banking with Barclays as it actively funds the genocide on Palestinians.
“We ask everyone with a Barclays account to close it this February 9, until the bank cuts ties with Israel.”
