A screenshot from footage showing Palestine Action Activists outside Allianz Commercial offices in London, March 10, 2025
CAMPAIGNERS targeted the offices of insurance giant Allianz in the City of London today over the firm’s complicity in the Gaza genocide.
Palestine Action activists scaled the premises’ main entrance and doused it in red paint, rebuking the firm for insuring and investing in Elbit Systems, Israel’s biggest weapons manufacturer.
A spokesperson for Palestine Action said: “By providing insurance, Allianz is directly enabling the production of Israeli weapons in Britain which are ‘battle-tested’ on Palestinians.
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Today also saw the launch of the Boycott Bloody Insurance campaign, with a groundbreaking report showing how major global insurers actively enable Israel’s ongoing assault on Palestinians.
The report, Ensuring Genocide: The Insurance Industry and Israel’s War Machine, reveals that insurers including Allianz, Aviva, AXA, Zurich, and RSA collectively invested over $1.7 billion (£1.3bn) in companies supplying military equipment used by Israel since October 7 2023.
“Insurance giants claim to protect communities, but they’re funnelling our money into war, exploitation, and violence,” said Monika Nielsen, lead researcher at the new campaign, which “demands accountability from insurers profiting from human suffering.”
According to a report released by Brown University’s Costs of War project, from October 7, 2023 to September 30, 2024, the US sent 17.9 billion dollars in military aid to Israel, which accounts for the largest amount of military funding ever granted to Israel in a single year. Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people, as well as its 76-year project of colonization of Palestine would not be possible without the vital military, financial, diplomatic, and political support of the United States.
The US presidential elections, which will see Democrat Kamala Harris face off against far-right Republican Donald Trump, are set to be held on Tuesday, November 5. The elections are being held over a year into Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, and the result of the elections may cast a shadow on the current situation in particular, and the Palestinian cause in general.
To discuss more about the impact of US policy, and the possible repercussions of the US presidential elections on the Palestinian cause, Peoples Dispatch interviewed prominent Palestinian politician, physician, and activist Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi.
Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi is the Secretary General and co-founder of the Palestinian National Initiative, and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC).
Peoples Dispatch: What has the last year of Israeli genocide revealed about US policy towards the region?
Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi: It has revealed that the United States can restrain Israel if it wants, but it did not, which makes the United States complicit in the genocide being carried out by Israel against the Palestinian people. A clear example that proves that the US has an influence on Israel, is its ability to restrain the Israeli aggression on Iran.
Peoples Dispatch: Were people expecting more from Democrat Joe Biden?
Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi: The Palestinian people were completely disappointed by Biden and his administration, including his State Secretary, Defense Secretary and National Security Advisor, who all came to take part in Israel’s war cabinet meetings, and gave their blessing to Israel during its genocidal aggression on Gaza. They further sent American fleet, ships, aircrafts to support Israel. Biden has provided Israel with no less than 17.9 billion dollars of military equipment, and more than 50,000 tons of explosives and weapons. All of that was used in committing the genocide against the Palestinian people.
Peoples Dispatch: Are any major changes expected if either Kamala or Trump gets elected? Does the outcome of these elections impact the Palestinian struggle?
Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi: Trump’s election may make the situation even worse, while it is still unclear about Kamala Harris, who maybe will be more sensitive regarding the changes that are happening inside the Democratic Party, where the majority of the younger generation are against the policy of Biden in relation to what has been happening in Gaza and to Palestinians in general.
However, so far she could not make any definite decision or take any definite position to stop the genocide against the Palestinian people. Like Biden, Harris continued with the biased approach towards Israel. This needs to be completely changed, because when it comes to the reputation of the United States it has been negatively affected by the policy of this administration, not only in Palestine but also worldwide. We shouldn’t forget that Kamala Harris was the US vice president during the genocide, she was not outside the administration. Perhaps, she will adopt a different approach in comparison to Biden, but that needs to be proved in reality and in action.
Peoples Dispatch: With regards to the broader region, one of Trump’s pet projects while president was advancing normalization with Israel. What is your view of how Israel’s genocide has impacted the process of normalization? Have there really been major setbacks? Will these setbacks be recovered or is it irreversible?
Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi: The war crimes in Gaza did not affect the existing normalization agreements between three Arab countries and Israel. Unfortunately, it has not changed at all, but the war crimes in Gaza and the genocide have restrained other countries from proceeding in normalization with Israel. Even the countries that maintained normalization agreements with Israel, are very embarrassed about the current situation, because their peoples are against normalization. It is not apparent yet whether the genocide will have further impact on normalization. The largest popular protest against normalization is happening in Morocco, and it is the most important country among the three countries that normalized with Israel”, the prominent Palestinian politician said, referring to Morocco, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain, which signed the US-backed normalization agreements with Israel known as “the Abraham Accords” in 2020.
Keep reading Peoples Dispatch for analysis and news on the US elections from a perspective you won’t see on mainstream media.
Stephen Flynn has hit back at the Speaker for refusing to allow the party an emergency debate (Image: PA)
THE SNP have accused the Westminster system of “failing the people of Gaza” after the Speaker denied the party an emergency debate on calls for an immediate ceasefire.
Lindsay Hoyle rejected the party’s application for a fresh debate on the issue on Monday afternoon, despite explicitly offering one after his decision to allow a Labour amendment during the SNP’s opposition day debate meant there was no formal vote held on the SNP’s motion.
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The SNP tabled a new motion for an emergency debate so the UK Parliament could vote for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Israel and push the UK Government to take “concrete steps” to help make a ceasefire happen.
Following Hoyle’s decision, a furious Flynn said: “Yet again, Westminster is failing the people of Gaza by blocking a vote on the urgent action the UK Government must take to help make an immediate ceasefire happen.
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Read the SNP’s full emergency debate motion below:
That this House officially reaffirms its position, as of 21st February 2024, to support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Israel; further reaffirms its horror at the October 7th 2023 terrorist attacks by Hamas and the subsequent collective punishment of the Palestinian people in Gaza; demands the release of all hostages taken by Hamas; condemns any military assault on the 1.5 million refugees sheltering in Rafah; further demands the Government immediately halts all transfers of military equipment and technology, including components, to Israel, and to suspend the issuing of new licences; calls on the international community to ensure the rapid and unimpeded humanitarian relief is provided in Gaza; further calls for an end to settlement expansion and violence; urges Israel to comply with the International Court of Justice’s provisional measures; and urges all international partners to work together to establish a diplomatic process to deliver the peace of a two-state solution; recognises that statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people and not in the gift of any neighbour; instructs the Government to vote for an immediate ceasefire, or wording with that effect, during the next relevant motion brought before the United Nations Security Council.
