Today a group of Londoners joined in protest against the sale by British supermarkets of Israeli goods and produce from illegal Israeli colonial settlements in the West Bank. The action took place in a West London Tesco. The group assembled around a trolley full of goods labelled 'produce of Israel', explaining the issues around the sale of Israeli goods to the public, alternating facts and chants, drawing the attention of both customers and staff. The action was entirely peaceful and protesters left of their own accord, however two participants were later arrested by the police.

This action shortly follows the worldwide commemoration of the ’Nakba’ (literally, ’Catastrophe’) of 1948 when Zionist paramilitary militias ethnically cleansed around 750,000 Palestinians from the land of Palestine in order to found the state of Israel.

The Nakba continues to this day. Ongoing Israeli colonisation and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank seeks to annex ever more Palestinian land to Israel, while emptying it of its indigenous population. In recent months, Israel has stepped up settlement expansion, while violence from settlers has also increased, attacking Palestinians, beating elderly shepherds grazing their flock, uprooting orchards of olive trees and vines and invaded Palestinian villages while chanting ‘death to Arabs’, all of this in the last month alone (see Alternative Information Centre Settler Violence Reports on www.alternativenews.org).

The London protesters insisted that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are morally and politically corrupt, but also that these settlements are illegal under international law.

Tesco and other British supermarkets sell products from Israel and from illegal Israeli colonial settlements in the West Bank. Profits and tax revenues from the sale of these goods fund continuous Israeli violence against Palestinians, of which the recent massacre in Gaza which left 1,500 dead and 7,000 injured over the space of three weeks is only the latest episode.

You can do something about this. It worked for South Africa. It’s common sense. Boycott Israeli Goods!

The two people arrested after the action have both been bailed to return to the police station at a later date. They have not so far been charged with any offence.