Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, 22, was arrested today in London and then released on bail for a sign expressing her support for Palestine Action activists in prison and her opposition to the genocide taking place in Gaza. She was standing outside the London headquarters of Aspen Insurance, linked to Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms manufacturer, which has several factories in the UK.
Like her, thousands of people of all ages, including many elderly people, have been arrested in recent months for publicly supporting Palestine Action, an organisation that Starmer’s British government has banned on charges of terrorism, despite the fact that it has never committed acts of violence against people, but only acts of civil disobedience and denunciations of the links between the United Kingdom and Israel.
Eight of its activists, who have been in preventive detention for months, have been on an indefinite hunger strike for over 50 days and are in serious health conditions.
With her usual frankness, Greta Thunberg said she was disgusted by Starmer’s Labour government, which, like so many other Western governments, is complicit in the genocide carried out by Israel, and she reiterated the demands of the young prisoners on hunger strike: release on bail, a fair trial, an end to censorship, the lifting of the ban on Palestine Action and the closure of Elbit Systems.
