NOTE: Protests outside the factory in Leicester by Palestine Action continue, now going on for more than 150 days.
Pro-Palestine advocate @swilkinsonbc provides an update on the ongoing 153-day-long siege against Leicester’s Israeli arms factory that makes the drones. #ShutElbitDown pic.twitter.com/wBPAI9qg2T
— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) October 15, 2023
To Symbolise Complicity in Genocide.
Today, Palestine Action sprayed the BBC’s Headquarters with blood red paint, in response to it’s recent coverage of Palestine, which has been complicit in manufacturing consent for the occupation’s genocide of Palestinians. The action occurred before a protest for Palestine was due to begin at the BBC HQ. Since October 7th, the BBC has given biased and inaccurate reporting on the Israeli massacre of the Palestinian people. It has only ever invited Palestinians to comment when Israelis are killed, with little regard for Palestinians killed by Israel, such as in the case of Palestinian ambassador Husam Zomlot who was expected to condemn Israeli deaths immediately after informing the BBC he had lost 6 family members [1].
It has not reported on the racist lies spouted by international media, including claims of mass rape and decapitated babies, all of which have either gone unconfirmed or been retracted once the damage has been done [2].
It’s “guides” to the “conflict” do not mention the 75 year long occupation and oppression of Palestine by the Zionist entity [3]. These guides make Al Nakba (which translates as ‘The Catastrophe’ in English) sound like an unfortunate tribal conflict which accidentally resulted in Palestinians fleeing, and not the deliberate and carefully planned campaign of ethnic cleansing carried out by Zionist militias, who were supported and armed by the British [4]. Words upon words are dedicated to the settler colony’s declarations of genocide, the support given by imperialists and the feelings of Zionists whilst large scale loss of Palestinian life is treated almost like a footnote.
These actions come at a time when Palestine Action has expanded its reach, starting what it calls Palestine Action Underground, which targets any and all partners of Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms suppliers. Providing a guide and a map of over 50 Elbit sites [5][6], Palestine Action asks those who want to do something about the Israeli arms trade to form autonomous groups able to independently strike at the facilitators of Israel’s systemic and military violence. This action follows that principle, holding the media accountable for facilitating Israeli terror.
A Palestine Action spokesperson:
‘We at Palestine Action cannot stand by and let Western media justify and manufacture consent for genocide through racist, callous coverage. The media has long been an insidious weapon of Western imperialism against Palestine and other Arab countries, with the use of colonial myths and orientalist tropes laying the ground for millions of people to be murdered. As the Palestinian poet Mohammed El-Kurd said, “This is the Iraq war all over again. The media has the bloodiest hands in all of this.”[7]’
Endnotes:
[2] http://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/12/middleeast/israel-hamas-beheading-claims-intl/index.html
[3] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-44124396
[4] http://decolonizepalestine.com/intro/the-mandate-years-and-the-nakba/
[5] http://b6x8a4d7.rocketcdn.me/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Pal_Manual_2.pdf