Youth Demand grind Westminster to a halt – and the BBC is next in their sights

The Met Police have made more arrests, and complicit members of the public shown further aggression towards Youth Demand protesters continuing to boldly take action across London against Israel’s ongoing genocide.

However, Youth Demand shows no signs of slowing down. Ahead of an action to call out the BBC for its blatant pro-Israel bias, activists were once again disrupting major roads around the capital.

Youth Demand out again despite state aggression and repression

On Tuesday 15 April, Youth Demand activists turned out in number to grind London to a halt once more.

At around 9.30am, around 50 Youth Demand supporters, in two teams, stepped onto the road at South Kensington, and Victoria Street near Westminster Cathedral:

At South Kensington, public hostility to the protesters was once again palpable. Notably, despite being on the road for only six minutes, members of the public made multiple assaults on the activists.

As the Canary has been documenting, this has become an increasing occurrence at public protests. Youth Demand protesters alone have been subjected to numerous assaults – many within the last week alone.

The team at Victoria left the road after 10 minutes.

The teams regrouped and then entered the road once more at Westminster Abbey and Warren Street at around 10.50am:

Once more, the team at Westminster Abbey left the road after 10 minutes. This was due to further significant aggression from the public. Similarly, the team at Warren Street left the road after 5 minutes. During this time, a passerby stole a phone from someone filming the action and proceeded to delete footage from it.

One of those taking action was Gannon Rice, a 20 year-old student, who said:

How much longer will we prioritise the right to individual accumulation over the lives of human beings? How long are we prepared, as a society, to sit and watch our leaders facilitate the mass murder of children? People say if you want change – vote. Well the UK has recently seen a change of government and things are worse than ever. In that scenario history shows us that the only leverage we have as ordinary people is through nonviolent disruptive action. We are told individuals can’t make a difference to enact change, but with many of us together we can make a difference. Join us at youthdemand.org.

Youth Demand gearing up to take it to the BBC’s front door

As the Canary previously reported, on Saturday, cops nicked eight Youth Demand protesters across multiple sites in London. It marked yet further state repression, police forces have deployed utilising the Tories draconian anti-protest laws. However, Youth Demand has only rightly seen this as a sign its tactics are working – because it’s clearly rattling the government powers-that-be and its violent enforcement apparatus. As one Youth Demand Instagram post poignantly put it:

the state is afraid of the power of the people who refuse to be complicit in this genocide.

So, Youth Demand have upped the ante, with further disruptions.

On Monday, the Met also arrested four Youth Demand supporters. Significantly, this was after they had left the road, obeying police instructions to move. They were arrested for breach of Section 7 of the Public Order Act, public nuisance and willful obstruction of the highway:

 

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All have been bailed to leave London. That brings the total number of arrests since Saturday to 12.

Tonight at 6.30pm, Youth Demand will be hosting a rally with other Palestinian solidarity groups outside BBC Broadcasting house, Portland Place. Crucially, together, the groups will call out the broadcaster for its kowtowing to the political establishment status quo.

In particular, the BBC has been little more than a servile mouthpiece for Israeli propaganda. Throughout the genocide, it has propped up the war criminal and apartheid regime and its co-conspirators in the British government with unfettered and blatant bias.

So, Youth Demand and pro-Palestine groups are right to target it for its shameful complicity.

‘We will not permit our leaders to be complicit’

Today’s actions come as the death toll in Gaza rises to over 51,000 Palestinians confirmed dead. Meanwhile, Israel has wounded 116,274 throughout its abhorrent genocide. The government media office in Gaza has updated its death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead. All the while, Israeli authorities have blocked the entry of all humanitarian aid to Gaza’s 2.3 million people since early March.

A Youth Demand spokesperson said:

Out of the over 51,000 Palestinians dead, 17,400 were children, 1720 of them under 2 years old. Half of the remaining 2.3 million people in Gaza are children. Meanwhile, the UK government continues to actively support this genocide, allowing the British military to provide logistics and reconnaissance for Israel, whilst 15% of every F35 fighter jet dropping bombs on Gaza has been made by British industry. We will not permit our leaders to be complicit with war crimes and crimes against humanity. We need a total trade embargo with Israel right now.

Sign up to take action at youthdemand.org.

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