Why Palestinian protests are erupting in insurance offices in the UK

National World - LocalTV

With a number of insurance companies finding protestors inside their offices this week protesting the war in Palestine, we’ve put together a rundown of the situation as it is now.

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to Manchester World, my name is Theo Huston-Betts and today's topic is about

00:03the protests that erupted this week around the country related to the war in Palestine.

00:07As a quick refresher, fighting erupted in the Middle East in 2023 after Hamas,

00:11the militant group who governed Palestine, responded to what they viewed as years of

00:15repression by Israel with an attack that shocked the world. The group, which is assigned terrorist

00:19status in the UK, were responsible for the deaths of 1,200 Israelis and the capture of 250 more,

00:24drawing criticism from all over the world. While many back the concept of Israel having the right

00:28to defend itself, it's now pretty hard to claim that what's happened since amounts to self-defence.

00:33Because while those 1,200 Israeli deaths rightfully drew the ire of the global community,

00:37Al Jazeera, a reputable news source in the Middle East, reported earlier this week that Israel is

00:41now responsible for the death of 50,000 Palestinians, with the UN and International

00:46Criminal Court and many smaller regional organisations accusing Israel of committing

00:50war crimes such as collective punishment, meaning punishing ordinary people for the

00:53behaviours of Hamas, as well as starvation, summary executions and the killing of journalists.

00:58Needless to say, the Israeli government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, vehemently deny the breach

01:04of international law and claim to be acting in self-defence. Interestingly, prior to the

01:08fight in breaking out in the Middle East, Netanyahu's approval ratings reached an incredibly

01:12low point with his attempts to reform Israel's judiciary and take power away from the courts,

01:16prompting multiple protests of over 100,000 people on the streets of Jerusalem,

01:20which is equivalent to around 1% of the nation's entire population. Back to the war though,

01:25and protests have been ongoing in this country ever since the initial Israeli airstrikes in

01:28response to the first attack, and pressure now seems to be mounting, particularly after the

01:32attack on Palestinian director Hamdan Belal, who won an Oscar this year for his documentary

01:37No Other Land. The documentary portrayed the challenges of life on the West Bank,

01:40and Belal had made clear that regardless of the success of the film, he knew he'd be returning

01:44to a dangerous situation. That was proven correct earlier this week when he was surrounded and

01:48attacked by a group of 15 armed illegal Israeli settlers, but one of his fellow directors of No

01:52Other Land later posted that Belal's ambulance was then intercepted, and he hasn't been seen since.

01:57While many of the protests here have been marches and minimally disruptive,

02:00this week in Manchester, Lancaster, Preston, Blackburn, Guildford, London and Birmingham,

02:04the offices of groups such as Aviva, Allianz, AIG and AXA were targeted by

02:09groups protesting the war. We have footage of one of the protests here.

02:23The point of the protest was to draw attention to the role that insurance companies play in

02:34allowing Israel to function in the way that they are. With ever increasing focus now on the war

02:39and the killings that are occurring in Palestine, pressure is mounting on insurance companies that

02:42are accused of giving Israel the opportunity to fund their war effort, and all eyes seem to be

02:47turning towards the government to see the next steps that this country will take. It may be that

02:50the tide of public opinion is turning away from support of Israel's war effort and towards

02:54preventing the needless waste of human life in the region. That's all for now, follow Manchester World for more.

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