Coventry: Day of Action - Stop Arming Israel
Saturday's vigil outside HSBC in Coventry
As part of a National Day of Action , members of Pax Christi and Coventry Friends of Palestine held a silent protest outside HSBC in Coventry City Centre on Saturday, to say: Stop Arming Israel. Pedestrians and drivers showed their support in clapping, giving thumbs up, waving and tooting horns. Our posters raised interest, with passers by slowing to read them and a number stopped to ask what we were doing and why. Wearing masks, and being socially distant, we were still able to engage with those who wanted to know more. One elderly woman was appalled that, as a customer of HSBC, her savings were being used to support the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
HSBC owns shares in military and technology companies selling weapons and equipment to Israel worth £830million including:
- £99.5 million shares in Caterpillar, whose specially modified bulldozers are used to demolish Palestinian homes, construct Israel's illegal settlements and separation wall;
- £180 million shares in BAE Systems, involved in manufacturing the F-16 fighter jets used by Israel to attack Palestinians in Gaza;
- £69 million shares in Raytheon, whose 'bunker buster' bombs are being used by Israel to target Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
For the last ten days, Israel has carried out air strikes on Gaza. A three-year-old girl, 11-year-old boy, and a woman were hospitalized after sustaining serious injuries in an attack on the Bureij refugee camp. Another woman was hospitalized in a separate airstrike in the Beit Hanoun Area in northern Gaza.
As part of the punitive measure in response to incendiary balloon attacks, Israel has banned fishing of Gaza's coast and closed the last goods crossing - cutting off deliveries of fuel to the territory's sole power plant. Electricity is now limited to just four hours a day. Doctors have warned that the frequent power cuts endanger the lives of about 100 newborn babies in intensive care incubators.
Despite systemic violations of human rights, the UK government continues to approve exports of UK-made weapons and military technologies that are sold to and used by Israel.
Help increase the pressure on the UK government to end its arms trade with Israel and its complicity in Israel's occupation and war crimes: email your MP to demand a two-way arms embargo on Israel: https://waronwant.org/urgent-actions
For the last seven years Coventry Justice and Peace Group have been campaigning for Coventry City Council, as the City of Peace and Reconciliation, to take a lead in getting the West Midlands Pension Fund to divest from these Arms Companies. Check to see if your Local Authority or Diocese are investing in companies that produce lethal weapons and benefit from the occupation of Palestine and campaign for ethical investments.
Further links:
https://paxchristi.org.uk/campaigns/israel-and-palestine/
https://paxchristi.net/2020/06/19/pax-christi-international-opposes-israels-plans-for-annexation/
Ann Farr
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