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SvennoJ on 27 April 2025
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Pro-Palestine activists disrupt London Marathon to protest against Israeli siege, war on Gaza

Two pro-Palestine demonstrators and supporters of the Youth Demand group have been arrested after throwing red powder paint during the London Marathon to protest against Israel’s war and blockade on Gaza.

An image shared by the group shows two people standing in the middle of the road wearing T-shirts that said: “Youth Demand: Stop Arming Israel.”

In a statement, Youth Demand said: “Gaza is running out of food. Arming genocide crosses the line. We won’t be bystanders.”

Marathon staff removed the protesters, and the race passed unobstructed, the Metropolitan Police said, adding that the paint appeared to be chalk-based and was not expected to present a hazard to the runners.



‘I refuse to be complicit in a genocide funded by our politicians’: UK activist

We have some more information from Youth Demand, the group whose supporters briefly disrupted the London Marathon to protest against Israel’s war and blockade on Gaza.

The group, which describes itself as a youth-led civil movement “calling for the government to impose a full trade embargo on Israel”, identified the two activists who threw red powder paint in front of the men’s elite race as it crossed Tower Bridge as Willow Holland, 18, from Bristol and Cristy North, a live-in carer from Nottingham.

In a statement, it quoted Holland as saying: “Thousands are being killed in Gaza, our government is making no effort to stop it and no other course of action, marches or rallies, has worked. I refuse to be complicit in a genocide funded by our politicians.

“Profit should never be prioritised over basic decency, we’re taking action for human lives and human rights. We don’t want blood on our hands, we don’t want to be forced into complicity with a genocide. We need more people in resistance, refusing to be complicit whilst upholding international law, now more than ever.”

Meanwhile, North said: “The people in Palestine are running out of time. We have tried all other avenues to get the government to stop arming Israel and yet our government is still enabling a genocide. They are making the UK people complicit in breaking UK domestic law by using our taxes to arm a genocidal state, breaking humanitarian international law.”

Protest in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza takes place in central Sweden

Activists in Sweden’s fifth largest city, Vasteras, have organised a march in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The protesters carried small, blood-stained shrouds, representing the bodies of children killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza. The majority of the protesters walked in silence on Saturday while others chanted slogans using megaphones, and a drummer led the march.

Protesters made their way through the centre of the city, carrying banners that read, “Sweden, stop selling weapons” in Swedish and “Not war, it’s genocide” in English.