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Pro-Palestine activists hold protest outside global trade conference in London

MARCH 27, 2025

The UK Secretary of Business and Trade, Jonathan Reynolds, is the focus of a demonstration calling for an end to the arms trade with Israel, report London for a Free Palestine.

This morning pro-Palestine protesters are disrupting a global trade conference over the continuation of Britain’s arms export licences to Israel. The protest was directed at the keynote speaker Jonathan Reynolds MP, Secretary of Business and Trade, who is responsible for granting the licences. 

Reynolds is planning to give an 11am keynote speech on ‘Britain’s role in the global trade landscape’ at the establishment thinktank Chatham House. But the minister’s role in enabling genocide in Palestine means his attendance at the £500-pound-a-ticket global trade conference is being targeted by protests.

The British government last year announced the suspension of 30 arms export licences out of 350, in an admission that Israel is violating international law. However, Britain continues to grant export licenses for arms to Israel, including refusing to halt the export of parts for F-35 fighter jets, used in the ongoing genocide against the Palestinians.

Protesters were heard chanting “Reynolds, Reynolds you decide, justice or genocide?’ whilst carrying Palestine flags, placards and banners saying ‘Stop Arming Israel’, at the scene, following a wave of protests sweeping the country.

Last week, Israel resumed its genocidal violence against Palestinians, and has killed over 50,000 people since its assault began. Commenting on Israel’s blocking of vital aid into the besieged coastal enclave for a week, a London for a Free Palestine spokesperson said “It was now a case of people who were not killed by bombs, becoming at risk of death by starvation.”

The demonstration today was organised by the Campaigns Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), London for a Free Palestine (LFP) and the Palestinian Youth Movement Britain (PYM), a transnational, independent, grassroots movement of young Palestinians dedicated to the liberation of their homeland and people, who have also criticised the government’s treatment of the ‘Filton18’ protesters on trial today, and the recently announced cuts to disability support.

The Filton 18 are Palestine Action activists who targeted an Elbit Systems Israeli arms facility on the outskirts of Bristol. They have been treated like terrorists – subjected to repressive sanctions in jail as they await trial. One, Fatema Zainab Rajwani, spent six days in solitary confinement before she was moved to a regular cell in HMP Bronzefield. The 20-year-old spent two weeks behind bars before she was even allowed to speak to her mother on the phone, and three weeks before she was allowed visitors in jail – where she was routinely woken in the middle of the night to be interrogated by counter-terrorism police.

A spokesperson for LFP has said: “Business Secretary Reynolds grants licenses for continued arms export to Israel. This includes refusing to halt exports of F-35 fighter jet parts, a decision being challenged in court in May. There will be no business as usual for genocide enablers! We do this to keep the spotlight on the British state’s complicity, to stand in solidarity with Palestine and keep pressure on Jonathan Reynolds to stop arming Israel. Until he does, he will be just another war criminal.

“Right now, people are being killed in Palestine by weapons with components from Britain. Peace activists like the Filton18, who attempt to stop these exports are facing trial on trumped up terror charges, while the real criminals are giving speeches, and letting atrocities happen. The protest today is intended to send a message to the Secretary for Business and Trade that there can be no trade deal with the genocidal state of Israel.”

On the cuts to disability announced yesterday by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, CAAT’s Media Coordinator, Emily Apple, said: “It is utterly abhorrent that this government is punishing sick and disabled people whilst rewarding companies that are complicit in war crimes and the gravest violations of international law. We should be promoting welfare, not warfare, and ensuring there is real and meaningful security for the most vulnerable people in society.

“The companies that will reap the benefits of [the cuts] include those complicit in the genocide Israel is committing in Gaza. The market value of arms companies in the UK has soared over the past three years, as their shareholders profit from war. These companies should be held accountable for their appalling breaches of international law, not emboldened to profit even further from the devastation they cause.”

A student, Luis, who joined the demonstration after seeing it on social media, said: “I saw this [event] was happening, and after being at the ‘Balls to the spring budget’ protest yesterday, it struck me that all these issues are connected. Austerity, genocide and the clampdown of protesters – this government is on the wrong side of history. After this, I’ll head to the Old Bailey to show my support to the Filton 18.”

London for a Free Palestine is a London-wide activist network currently campaigning for local London council divestment from Israeli companies upholding genocide.