Professional-Palestine protesters blockaded a number of Barclays shops on Saturday as they demonstrated towards the corporate’s monetary hyperlinks to Israel.
The protesters referred to as for patrons to shut their accounts as a result of firm providing banking companies to arms producers and different companies related to Israel.
Some shops shut their doorways utterly, while others have been capable of keep open because of the efforts of safety and police.
The Palestine Solidarity Marketing campaign, which organised the protests, said: “Barclays is bankrolling Israel’s genocidal assault on Palestinians by way of its substantial monetary ties with arms corporations that promote weapons to Israel.
“Our analysis has discovered that Barclays invests over £2 billion in, and offers monetary companies value £6.1 billion to, corporations arming Israel.”
Protests have taken place at Barclays shops sporadically since October seventh 2023 as a result of resultant army motion taken by Israel in Gaza.
Yesterday, shops in London, Brighton, Coventry, Leeds, Oxford and Glasgow all noticed protests staged outdoors
Protesters held banners calling for “Palestine to be freed” while counter-protesters displayed banners stating that “Hamas are terrorists”.
Barclays has defended its coverage of providing banking companies to companies within the weapons and defence trade.
A spokesman for the financial institution mentioned: “Barclays is dedicated to respecting human rights as outlined by the Worldwide Invoice of Human Rights and takes account of different internationally accepted human rights requirements and frameworks.
“We’ve got a broadcast assertion on defence and safety which units out our coverage positions and governs any enterprise actions within the defence and safety sector, together with setting restrictions on sure financing actions and requiring enhanced due diligence as acceptable on shoppers within the sector.
“As a common financial institution, Barclays offers a spread of shopper companies in relation to the shares of publicly listed corporations, together with these within the defence and safety sector.”