Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal aera in Gaza City on October 9, 2023. Israel continued to battle Hamas fighters on October 10 and massed tens of thousands of troops and heavy armour around the Gaza Strip after vowing a massive blow over the Palestinian militants’ surprise attack. Photo by Naaman Omar apaimages. licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
At the last march, a serious issue emerged when the Met Police placed a counter demonstration within a metre of the main demonstration, leaving pro-Palestine protestors exposed to abuse and direct threats. The Met apologised for their actions when we made these concerns public and indicated that Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist would meet with us to ensure that such scenes would not be repeated.
No such meeting has been offered despite our repeated requests. Of even greater concern, our requests over the past two days to address with the Gold Commander in charge how the counter demonstration will be managed to ensure safety, have been rebuffed.
Despite the late stage in preparations we have asked for the third time for such a meeting.
We will not allow these issues or the actions of counter demonstrators to distract us from ensuring that the demands for an end to UK complicity in genocide once more echo on the streets of London. The demonstration will be assembling at 12.30 pm at Russell Square and marching to Parliament.
ACHARITY director has questioned whether putting medical professionals “behind bars” is in the public interest as six medics face imprisonment for raising awareness of climate change’s impact on public health.
The medics, who in 2022 cracked panes of glass at JP Morgan’s offices in Canary Wharf, London, could lose their professional status.
They plastered posters on the office reading: “In case of medical climate emergency break glass,” during a record-breaking heatwave.
Despite acknowledging in a leaked report that climate change was a threat to the human race, JP Morgan has poured £339 billion into the fossil fuel sector since the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Psychiatrist Dr Juliette Brown, dementia nurse Maggie Fay, GPs Dr David McKelvey, Dr Patrick Hart, consultant Dr Alice Clack and mental health specialist Ali Rowe are on trial this week for criminal damage at Snaresbrook Crown Court.
The medics have been denied all legal defences by the judge, echoing clampdowns on other climate protesters.
Woman from Riposte Alimentaire arrested after sticking poster on impressionist painter’s Coquelicots
A climate activist has been arrested for sticking an adhesive poster on a Monet painting at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris to draw attention to global heating, a police source said.
The action by the woman, a member of Riposte Alimentaire (Food Response) – a group of environmental activists and defenders of sustainable food production – was seen in a video posted on X, placing a blood-red poster over Coquelicots (Poppies) by the French impressionist painter Claude Monet.
In the video she said of the poster covering Monet’s art that “this nightmarish image awaits us if no alternative is put in place”.skip past newsletter promotion
A Pro-Palestine protester lies on the ground in Bradford Photo: Neil Terry / Neil Terry Photography
THOUSANDS of people took to the streets in towns and cities across Britain at the weekend to demand a halt to Israel’s merciless onslaught and continuing slaughter in Gaza.
The actions marked almost eight months of weekly protest as Israel’s attack on the southern Gazan city of Rafah continued with the death toll passing 36,000 — over half of them women and children.
Protests in London were marred by the arrest of seven young people calling for a ceasefire and for a halt to Britain’s supply of arms to Israel.
The arrests happened as about 250 supporters of direct action group Youth Demand marched past Waterloo Underground station carrying placards and chanting “All eyes on Rafah!” and “Stop arming Israel!”
Youth Demand had warned earlier on social media that they intended to block roads and bridges in London.
Protester Olivia Burnett, from Leeds, said: “The time for non-disruptive marches is over.
“When you connect to what is happening to the people in Rafah, you realise we have to do whatever is necessary to end the hell they are living through.
“What are we willing to do to stop babies being burned alive? The answer must be: whatever it takes.”
Extinction Rebellion climate activists are blocking access to Farnborough Airport this morning (Sunday 2 June) to protest against the increasing use of highly polluting private jets by the super-rich and to call on the government to ban private jets, tax frequent flyers and make polluters pay.
Today’s blockade is part of a global week of action against private aviation under the banner Make Them Pay with actions in Denmark, Germany, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the US, and follows Europe’s largest private jet convention EBACE in Geneva this week. In Farnborough, protesters have barricaded the airport’s Gulfstream Gate with the iconic XR pink boat with “LOVE IN ACTION” painted on the side, Ively Gate has four protesters locked on to oil drums, and the airport’s departure gate has an activist mounted on a tripod blockading the entrance. Police have seized a second tripod.
A fourth group of protesters are playing cat and mouse with the airport authorities, moving between the airport’s other gates to block them. At all three main gates, protesters are releasing colourful smoke flares, chanting slogans and engaging with members of the public, accompanied by the XR Rebel Rhythms band of drummers.
The activists are supported at all three main entrances to the airport by scores of demonstrators holding banners reading “FLYING TO EXTINCTION”, “PRIVATE FLIGHTS = PUBLIC DEATHS”, “STOP PRIVATE FLIGHTS”, “PRIVATE FLIGHTS COST THE EARTH” and “TAX FREQUENT FLYERS”.
Climate activists are targeting Farnborough Airport in an escalating campaign because it is the UK’s largest private jet airport. Last year 33,120 private flights landed and took off from its runways, carrying an average of just 2.5 passengers per flight, making them up to 40 times more carbon intensive than regular flights. Currently 40% of flights to and from the airport are empty. The airport is now seeking planning permission to increase the number of planes taking off or landing from a maximum of 50,000 a year to up to 70,000 a year.
Farnborough Airport claims to be a centre for business aviation yet around 50% of Farnborough flights headed to the Mediterranean during summer months, rather than business locations, with around 25% heading to Alpine destinations during the winter months. Last year a service was launched specifically to shuttle dogs and their owners to Dubai and back.
The demonstration includes campaigners from Extinction Rebellion, who have joined forces with local residents, Quakers, and campaign organisations Farnborough Noise Group, Blackwater Valley Friends of the Earth, and Bristol Aviation Action Network to voice their opposition to the airport’s expansion plans.
Dr Jessica Upton, 54, from Oxford, a Veterinary surgeon and foster carer said: “I’m here today because private airports are an abomination. Expanding Farnborough would be putting the indulgent wants of the rich minority over the needs of the majority. Local people need cleaner air and less noise pollution, and the world’s population urgently needs rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to survive. Private airports disproportionately contribute to climate breakdown and closing them would boost our chances of sticking to the Paris Climate Accords, the supposedly legally binding international treaty agreed to and signed by our government.“
Daniela Voit, 37, from Surbiton, a Shiatsu Practitioner and Teacher, said: “Last year we hit a global average temperature rise of 1.5oC degrees celsius over an entire year. For decades we were told a 1.5oC rise needs to be avoided to avoid catastrophic changes to our lives due to the planetary warming caused by humanity’s CO2 emissions. We can see the consequences of this temperature rise all over the world – currently immense flooding in Brazil and Afghanistan and temperature of 52C in Pakistan. To carry on flying in private jets, one of the biggest causes for CO2 emissions per person, in a time of climate crisis is reckless. The rich 1% that are flying from Farnborough Private Jet Airport seem to think they are exempt from taking responsibility for what they are doing to our only home. Banning Private Jets is one of the first things we need to do to stop further temperature rises. This is vital to ensure the survival of all life – human, animal and plant – on this planet that we call our Mother Earth.” Make Them Pay demands:
1) Ban private jets. Flying in a private jet is the most inefficient and carbon-intensive mode of transport. Flights on private jets can be as much as 40 times more carbon-intensive than regular flights, and 50 times more polluting than trains. A four-hour private flight emits as much as the average person does in a year. Private jet use is entirely inappropriate during a climate emergency.There’s strong public support for banning private jets and banning this mode of travel was a key recommendation of the Climate Assembly.
2) Tax frequent flyers. Various citizens’ assemblies, for example in the UK, Scotland, and France, have recommended that frequent flyers and those who fly further should pay more.
They believe this would “address issues of tax fairness, as currently those who don’t fly are subsidising those who do” and that “this would deliver significant behaviour changes across society and have a positive impact on reducing overall carbon emissions caused by flying.”
Taxes on air travel would be a socially progressive way of raising climate funds and have been proposed by the group representing the most vulnerable countries at COP27 as an effective way to raise climate finance and pay for loss and damage, alongside debt cancellation.
3)Make polluters pay. It is only fair that the wealthiest in society and the highest-income, highest-emitters pay for their climate damage, and pay the most into climate Loss and Damage funds for the most affected peoples and areas to mitigate and adapt to the worst impacts of climate change.
The top 1% of the global population by income are responsible for more emissions than the bottom 50% combined. So not only is it a question of morality that the wealthiest in society pay the most, and commit to the most rapid emissions reductions – it’s also a mathematical necessity and a question of practicality and science.
