Pro-Palestine protesters glue themselves to parade float during Pride in London
Youth Demand halted the parade for an hour (Alishia Abodunde/Getty Images)
Youth Demand halted the parade for an hour (Alishia Abodunde/Getty Images)
Youth Demand supporters halted the Pride in London parade by throwing red paint and glueing themselves to the float of US-based company CISCO, which has ties to the Israeli military.
Youth Demand describes itself as a youth-led resistance campaign fighting for an end to genocide in Palestine and across the globe as a result of the climate crisis.
The group demands the UK government impose a trade embargo with Israel and raise £1 trillion from fossil fuel giants to pay damages to countries harmed by fossil fuel burning.
On Saturday (5 July) London Pride took place for its 53rd year, with the parade route running from Hyde Park Corner, through Piccadilly Circus, to Trafalgar Square and culminating at Whitehall Place.
At around 12.30pm BST, four Youth Demand supporters threw red paint over the Cisco float as it passed along Piccadilly, before sitting down in the road and gluing themselves to it, chanting “we charge you with genocide”.
The parade was delayed for an hour as the group were removed and five arrests were made by the Metropolitan Police.
The protest relates to the on-going conflict between Israel and the Palestinian nationalist group Hamas.
In October 2023, Hamas undertook an attack on the Nova music festival which left 1,195 people dead and at least 250 Israeli citizens and soldiers taken hostage. Israel’s following bombardment of Gaza has killed in excess of 60,000 people, with around 17,500 of these being children. A further Palestinians 111,500 have been estimated to have been left injured with 14,000 more missing and presumed dead.
Israel has faced international criticism for its continued military action in Gaza, which has included the blockade of humanitarian aid causing food and medical shortages in the region and soldiers opening fire on civilians seeking food at aid distribution sites.
In a press release shared by the group shared statements from those involved in the demonstration.
Reya Wood, 22, a student from Swansea said they protested to “highlight the company’s complicity in genocide and how they are hiding their crimes behind a veil of pink washing”.
“As a queer woman, this action is particularly meaningful to me,” Wood said. “I refuse to stand aside and allow my queer identity to be exploited for commercial gain at the hands of war criminals.”
London student Monday-Malachi Rosenfeld, 22, also said they demonstrated because “queer liberation and Palestinian liberation go hand in hand”, adding: “We cannot have one without the other.”
Rosenfeld said: “There can be no celebration or joy when companies like Cisco are supplying technology that is helping Israel to slaughter, displace and starve queer Palestinians, their families and tens of thousands of others in Gaza.
“London Pride has no business accepting sponsorship from companies profiting from genocide, who pretend to care about queer people.
“The UK government needs to impose a total trade embargo on Israel and prosecute Cisco for enabling genocide.”
In a social media post, the group said: “Technology corporation CISCO has a long standing partnership with the Israeli military and enables the mass murder of Palestinians through advanced military communication networks facilitated by their Unified Communication systems.
“They have willingly supplied their technology to strengthen Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza and have NO place at London pride.
“They are not only complicit in war crimes but actively enabling military communications in an apartheid state. We demand a total trade embargo on Israel and an end to the pinkwashing of complicit corporations.”
