Members of top British supermarket chain Co-op have overwhelmingly backed a motion to halt trade with Israel and remove “all Israeli products off the shelves”- a move activists have hailed as a major turning point in the long-running campaign against Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land.
According to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) on Saturday, three-quarters of Co-op members voted in support of the chain to cease all trading with Israel in line with the organisation’s ongoing ‘Don’t Buy Apartheid’ campaign and the broader Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
They urged the board to “show moral courage and leadership.”
The ‘Don’t Buy Apartheid’ campaign calls for a boycott of all Israeli produce and major brands such as Coca-Cola and its subsidiaries, including Schweppes, Sprite, and Fanta.
In a previous statement, PSC claimed these companies were “supporting Israel’s land theft and ethnic cleansing”.
With 73% of members voting for the motion, both members and pro-Palestine activists urged that the UK supermarket chain enforces the motion and ensure that Israeli goods are removed from its shelves nationwide.
Members in support of the motion had also noted that the Co-op previously led the way in boycotting Russian goods in March 2022, in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine, and called on the chain to apply the same “ethical values and principles” to Israel.
While the chain has previously released a statement affirming its commitment not to source products from illegal Israeli settlements in the Palestinian Occupied Territories, PSC said after the vote that “any trade with Israeli agricultural exporters supports their role as participants in Israel’s colonisation and military occupation of Palestinian land”.
Paul Neill, a leading British activist who helped push the motion forward, expressed optimism that the Co-op would adopt the measure.
“We are delighted to say that the motion was passed by a clear majority of Co-op members, reflecting widespread condemnation among the British public for the actions of Israel,” he said in a statement.
“This is a historic moment for a UK supermarket chain and sets a precedent for other supermarkets and retailers.”
Lewis Backon, PSC’s campaigns officer, also welcomed the outcome, stating: “Meaningful solidarity actions could not be more urgent as Palestinians continue to face Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip, and its military attacks, land grabs and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.”
“The Co-op AGM vote shows ordinary people in this country are committed to the cause of justice and freedom for Palestine in their everyday lives and refuse to support Israel’s apartheid economy. The Co-op must now listen to its members and implement the motion by taking all Israeli goods off the shelves.”
The Co-op Group confirmed the outcome in a public statement: “At our AGM on 17 May 2025, a members’ motion on trading with Israel passed.”
It continued: “Whilst the motion is advisory, we are currently reviewing our sourcing policies, which we do from time to time. This is to ensure they reflect both our values and principles and the views of our members, which they have made clear today.
We expect our review on the sourcing policy to complete towards the end of the summer.”
The development marks a broader shift in public support for justice for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and apartheid- particularly following the outbreak of the Gaza war, which has killed over 53,000 Palestinians and triggered global outrage.
According to rights groups, the conflict has resulted in some of the highest known death tolls among children, journalists, and health and humanitarian workers of any war in recent history.
In the UK, solidarity with Palestine has grown, with activists targeting major British banks such as Barclays, local government pension funds, and universities over ties to Israel.
Israel is also facing increased international pressure to lift its aid blockade, reinforced in March, as UN agencies warn of catastrophic shortages of food, clean water, fuel, and medicine.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has worsened significantly since Israel resumed its offensive following the collapse of a two-month ceasefire in March.
UK
Let’s push for widespread sanctions to stop Israel’s genocide
By Richard Burgon MP
This month marks the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, when over 700,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes.
The “Nakba”, which in Arabic means ‘the catastrophe,’ was a time of immense suffering — and it is right that we mark it each year.
But the Nakba is not just an historic event. It is not merely a stark warning from the past — it is an ongoing reality.
As UN officials have made clear: the Nakba of 1948 and the displacement in Gaza today are not separate events — they are part of the same ongoing project of dispossession and displacement.
Once again, on the anniversary of the Nakba, Palestinians in Gaza are being forced to flee en masse — with nowhere safe to go.
This is not just a humanitarian crisis. It is a political project — one that seeks to remove a people from their land.
Genocide Livestreamed in Gaza
We are now witnessing a genocide, livestreamed in real time — with tens of thousands murdered with impunity, children starved, hospitals bombed, and war crime after war crime carried out.
Yet some governments — including our own — are not merely standing by. They are actively helping to arm Israel, including with the world’s most powerful fighter jets.
The hypocrisy is glaring. Widespread sanctions are rightly imposed on Russia for its illegal invasion, yet refused when it comes to Israel.
We must change that.
I was proud to attend the launch of The Hague Group — a new coalition of governments pushing for coordinated sanctions on Israel.
We need more initiatives like that. We must build a global movement for justice in Palestine — including sanctions on Israel — until freedom is secured, just as was done in the fight against apartheid South Africa.
Words alone from our government and others are not enough. Widespread sanctions are needed to stop Israel’s war crimes.
Ending the Illegal Occupation
And that is what international law now demands.
Last year, the world’s top court — the International Court of Justice — found that the Israeli occupation is illegal.
The Court demanded that it end immediately.
Crucially, the Court also ruled that all states have clear obligations under international law. That includes obligations not to provide aid or assistance to Israel, and not to enter into economic or trade dealings that maintain its illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Fulfilling that means we need sanctions against Israel’s occupation.
My New Bill For Sanctions
That is why I am bringing forward a Parliamentary Bill for widespread sanctions on Israel, with my colleague Imran Hussain MP.
Last year, for UN Day for Palestine, we organised a letter signed by over 60 parliamentarians from seven parties — demanding such sanctions.
That was ignored. So our next step is our Bill, which will be published in the coming weeks.
It calls for an arms embargo — including an end to the export of parts used in F-35 fighter jets sold to Israel and used to bomb Gaza with 2,000-pound bombs.
But it goes further. It also demands:
• Travel bans and asset freezes against all individuals and entities involved in maintaining Israel’s unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
• A ban on trade with all illegal Israeli settlements. The government says these settlements are illegal — so why allow trade with them?
• The scrapping of the 2030 Roadmap — a special partnership between the UK and Israel that seeks to deepen economic, trade, and security ties. How can this possibly remain on the agenda after all the war crimes we have seen?
The Bill also calls on the UK Government to undertake a comprehensive review of all current trade, security, military, and diplomatic relations — to ensure they do not in any way entrench Israel’s unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
If the Government carries out such a review, they’ll find that even more sanctions are needed to bring Israel into compliance with international law.
In my view, we need the scale of sanctions imposed on Russia to be imposed on Israel.
That is the only way to force Israel to abide by international law, to stop the war crimes and to end its illegal occupation of Palestine.
We Are The Defenders of International Law
To end, I want to make a broader point about what we are fighting for.
Of course, we are fighting to save the lives of the Palestinian people — targeted in the face of Israel’s crimes against humanity.
But we are also fighting to defend the entire system of global justice and human rights law.
Because when governments across the world allow Israel to tear up the rule book of international law, the consequences are real — and dangerous.
If we allow a world where such war crimes are tolerated, where international rules are applied only to our opponents and not allies, and where anarchy replaces law — then we are all less safe.
By imposing widespread sanctions on Israel, our government would be taking a stand in defence of international law — and sending a message that no state, including Israel, can trample international law with impunity.
Richard Burgon has been MP for Leeds East since 2015 and served as Shadow Secretary of State for Justice from 2016 to 2020.
Image: Official portrait of Richard Burgon MP. Source: https://members-api.parliament.uk/api/Members/4493/Portrait?cropType=ThreeFour, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
JCB’s crimes exposed at 80th anniversary event
On Sunday 18th May, British bulldozer manufacturer JCB, notorious for profiting from the destruction of homes in occupied Palestine, India and Kashmir, was due to celebrate its 80th anniversary at its headquarters in Rocester in the British midlands with a so-called ‘sportive’, a cycle ride which aimed to raise money for the children’s charity NSPCC. However, the sportive did not go according to plan.
Activists from the Stop JCB Demolitions Campaign disrupted the event to expose JCB’s complicity in ethnic cleansing and genocide, while shaming NSPCC for accepting funds from a company which has destroyed children’s lives in Palestine, India and Kashmir, plunging them into homelessness, poverty and lasting trauma.
Despite strict security, the activists managed to enter the sportive. When the event began with the cyclists being flagged off, several cyclists revealed striking black and yellow T shirts with the message “Stop Bulldozer genocide In Palestine, India and Kashmir”. Simultaneously supporters of the campaign shouted slogans and held banners accusing JCB of complicity in genocide and NSPCC of a callous and racist lack of care for children in Palestine, India and Kashmir. Despite the JCB security guards’ best efforts, this scene was enacted over and over again through the 50 km route of the sportive.
JCB’s Chairman, billionaire Anthony Bamford or Baron Bamford of Daylesford and Wooton is a ‘super donor’ to the British Conservative Party and a close friend of Boris Johnson.
More recently, Bamford has been getting closer to the far-right Reform Party. In March this year party leader Nigel Farage entered a major Reform rally on a JCB machine lent to him by Bamford. Earlier Bamford had treated him to a £8,000 helicopter flight to tour a JCB site.
So why is the NSPCC, the children’s charity whose aim is the “prevention of cruelty to children” accepting funds from a company which is complicit in ethnic cleansing in Palestine, India and Kashmir?
Over the years the NSPCC has been frequently asked to stop taking funds from JCB and provided with evidence of the callous home demolitions carried out by JCB. As the UK Palestine Mental Health network puts it: “It would appear that children’s services provided by the NSPCC in the UK are financed in part by profits from state crime and the abuse and traumatisation of children overseas.”
In India, state governments controlled by Narendra Modi’s Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have consistently used JCB bulldozers to demolish Muslim homes, shops and places of worship, an ongoing project disturbingly named ‘bulldozer justice’. In fact, JCB is so closely intertwined with this project that it has come to symbolize attacks on Muslims. The harm to children is incalculable.
For example, on 2nd February 2024 the demolition of a madrasa and 600 year old Mosque in Mehrauli, South Delhi left more than 20 orphaned children who lived in the madrasa displaced and traumatised. There was no notice given before the JCB bulldozers moved in.
In Kashmir, in the name of development drives, houses have been demolished across large areas, affecting whole communities and of course numero,us children, permanently damaging their physical and mental health.
The Stop JCB Demolitions Campaign which is a coalition of organisations based in Britain, including South Asia Solidarity Group and Nijjormanush, produced a report titled Stop JCB’s Bulldozer Genocide: A report on human rights violations in Palestine, India and Kashmir, referencing a large number of cases where JCB has been involved in serious human rights violations.
The campaign has also filed a complaint with the UK National Contact Point, a government body promoting OECD guidelines on responsible business conduct, alleging that the manufacturer had failed to address the adverse human rights impacts from the use of its products in India.
The Stop JCB’s Demolitions Campaign has two main demands, firstly that JCB must end its relationship with the Israeli Ministry of Defence and cease all activities in occupied Palestine; and secondly, that JCB must commit to ensuring that its products are not used for human rights violations in India and Kashmir through robust monitoring and prevention systems. This includes making compulsory the use of its existing LiveLink technology to trace and locate JCB machines. JCB’s failure to use this technology is a deliberate violation of its human rights responsibilities.
Mukti Shah, Stop JCB Demolitions Campaign, said: “The fact that JCB continues to operate on behalf of the Israeli state in ethnically cleansing Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and that they have also failed to make use of the technology they already have to prevent horrific human rights violations in India and Kashmir, despite an Indian Supreme Court ruling is utterly shameful.”
Josh, a cyclist who took part in the sportive, said: “I am glad to be here exposing the crimes of JCB, a British company which hypocritically poses as family-friendly when in fact it is destroying communities in Palestine, India and Kashmir. As for the NSPCC, the fact that they are accepting JCB’s blood-stained money shows that they think only some children matter. This is blatant colonial racism.”
Further information from southasiasolidaritygroup@gmail.com
Protesters hang 80-foot banner reading “Stop Arming Israel” from Waterloo Bridge
At 08:30am on Tuesday 13th May, pro-Palestine activists hung an 80-foot (25m) banner reading “Stop Arming Israel” from Waterloo Bridge in view of rush hour commuters.
The protest took place metres from the Royal Courts of Justice where the legal challenge to the UK government’s continued arms sales to Israel begins today. Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq and the Global Legal Action Network have taken on this case in service of a larger global campaign of over 230 global civil society organisations demanding an end to the production of F-35 fighter jets. Legal proceedings against the UK government argue that ongoing arms exports to Israel contravene both UK arms exports policies and the duty to prevent genocide under international law.
Last Wednesday, the Palestinian Youth Movement released a report detailing how Britain has approved arms export licences to Israel worth at least £500,000 since exports were allegedly suspended in September 2024. The report also accused Foreign Minister David Lammy of misleading Parliament over the supposedly “defensive” nature of British arms exports to Israel.
Human rights and legal experts have repeatedly called Israel’s military campaign in Gaza a “genocide”. These include UN human rights chief Craig Mokhiber and 800 scholars of international law.
At least 67,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023. Thousands more have been injured or remain missing, believed trapped under rubble. Millions of people have been displaced, and 92% of children are suffering from malnutrition, with thousands likely to die from starvation. Humanitarian organisations like Oxfam have stated that by blocking food and water supplies Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war.
Leila Malik, from the group London for a Free Palestine, which organised the action said: “How many more Palestinians will Britain help Israel to slaughter before we say enough is enough? Whatever the outcome in the courts, the will of the British people is clear – we want an end to Israel’s impunity and to our complicity in genocide. That starts by implementing a two-way arms embargo now.”
London for a Free Palestine is on Instagram@london4pal
Tell FIFA to ban Israel!
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign is calling on people to take action to demand that Israel is banned from FIFA at its upcoming Congress on 15th May. Send your email here.
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