Activists pour hundreds of litres of blood-red dye into US Embassy pond in protest against arms sales to Israel

Update: Will McCallum, Co-Executive Director of Greenpeace UK, among six people arrested over protest

Activists from Greenpeace UK have poured 300 litres of blood-red dye into the US embassy pond to highlight the death and devastation caused in Gaza as a direct result of the US’ continued sale of weapons to Israel.

Photos and videos available here

Twelve activists tipped the non-toxic, biodegradable dye from containers emblazoned with the words ‘Stop Arming Israel’ into the large pond located in front of the embassy building in Nine Elms, south-west London [1]. The containers were delivered to the Embassy on bicycles with trailers disguised as delivery bikes.

Since taking office in January, Donald Trump has continued his predecessor’s policy of supplying weapons to Israel, approving nearly $12 billion in military sales, according to the US State Department. This is despite widespread concerns over the indiscriminate killing of civilians and other war crimes committed by Israeli forces. Greenpeace UK is urging the UK and US governments to announce a total arms embargo on Israel in order to stop the horrific unfolding genocide.

The protest comes as Israeli forces step up military activity in Gaza following the breakdown of the fragile ceasefire last month. The entry points into Gaza have also been closed by Israel since early March, blocking food, medicine and medical equipment at the border, and denying humanitarian access to people in need. It also comes after a string of recent comments from Trump that suggest a permanent displacement of Palestinian people from Gaza, that “the US will take over the Gaza strip”, and that Gaza could be the “Riviera of the Middle East.”   

Since the horrific Hamas attacks on October 7, and Israel’s subsequent air and ground campaign, 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, almost a third of them children [2]. 

Update: Will McCallum, the Co-Executive Director of Greenpeace UK, is among six people arrested today in connection with the protest. Mr McCallum has been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to cause criminal damage which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Five other activists were also arrested near the embassy on suspicion of criminal damage and conspiracy to cause criminal damage.

Israel’s war effort is heavily dependent on arms shipments from the US. America provides Israel with billions of dollars worth of military aid every year and is the supplier of two-thirds of all of Israel’s arms imports, including aircraft, armoured vehicles, missiles and ships. Additional military aid approved during the last two years includes $20 billion last August, and $8 billion this January, in the last weeks of the Biden administration. All currently active combat aircraft in the Israeli air force were supplied by the US. 

Polls show that the implementation of an arms embargo is popular, with a majority of both the US (52%) and UK (58%) public thinking that their respective governments should halt arms sales to Israel while the conflict in Gaza is ongoing.

Commenting on the protest, Areeba Hamid, co-executive director at Greenpeace UK, said:

“We’ve turned the embassy pond blood-red because US weapons continue to fuel an indiscriminate war that’s seen bombs dropped on schools and hospitals, entire neighbourhoods blasted to rubble, and tens of thousands of Palestinian lives obliterated.

“As the biggest supplier of weapons to the Israeli military, the US government bears a heavy responsibility for the horrors unfolding in Gaza. Despite widespread concerns over war crimes and even acts of genocide, both the Biden and Trump administrations have continued to fund billions of dollars’ worth of fighter jets, bombs and tanks, making the US complicit in the bloodshed. 

“The ceasefire Trump claimed credit for has collapsed and full-scale war is back. If Trump has any real interest in stopping the war, he should listen to the majority of Americans and stop arming Israel now. And the UK government should do the same.”

Sacha Deshmukh, CEO of Amnesty International UK said:

“Amnesty International has serious concerns about these reports. The right to peacefully protest is a fundamental human right. The police have an obligation to act proportionately and only make arrests when strictly necessary. It is not clear why they thought it was proportionate and necessary to arrest people for adding non-toxic biodegradable dye to a large open-air pond.

“Of even greater concern is the decision to arrest the CEO of a major national NGO on conspiracy charges. The use of conspiracy charges in this way is a growing trend in policing in this country, which turns participating in organising peaceful protests into a criminal act. It is having a chilling effect on free speech, and our right to peacefully protest.”

Commenting on the protest, respected historian and an emeritus professor of international relations at Oxford University, Avi Shlaim, author of Three Worlds: Memoir of an Arab Jew, said:

“These brave activists, who are clearly motivated by morality, ethics and, above all, justice, will end up on the right side of history. I stand in solidarity with all those, including many within Israel, who protest against Israel’s ongoing genocidal campaign in Gaza, as well as America’s unconditional support, in the form of arms, money and diplomatic protection.

“Israel does not seek a peaceful solution to the conflict, just death and destruction to Palestinians through brute military force. Only by ending the flow of weapons that are being used to inflict such horrors will they be forced to stop. An arms embargo must be enforced.”

The UK is also an exporter of weapons to Israel, having sold the country almost £500 million worth of military hardware since 2015. The UK government did suspend 30 of its 350 arms export licences to Israel in September last year. However, crucial F-35 fighter jet parts were excluded from the suspension and the move was heavily criticised by campaigners.

Countries such as Spain, Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands have all already banned arms sales to Israel, since the start of the war in Gaza. 

Campaign Against Arms Trade’s Media Coordinator, Emily Apple, said:

“The largest and most significant part of the UK’s arms exports, in partnership with the US, is components for the F-35 combat aircraft that Israel is using to drop 2000 lb bombs on Gaza. Despite admitting that Israel is not committed to upholding International Humanitarian Law, and the clear risk that Israel is using F-35s to commit war crimes, our government chose to exempt this contract from its partial arms embargo.

“The UK is prioritising US trade relations and arms dealers’ profits over Palestinian lives and international law. This has to stop. The horror Palestinian people are facing in Gaza is beyond words, and it’s beyond time that both the UK and UK governments take the only legal and moral option available and impose a full two-way arms embargo.”

Max Hammer, a spokesperson from Na’amod, a movement of British Jews seeking to end the British Jewish community’s support for the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, said:

“The international community should be doing everything in its power to put a permanent end to Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza, which has created one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of the 21st century. Instead, the US government has aided and abetted Israel’s atrocities at every turn.

“By failing to implement an arms embargo, policymakers in both the US and the UK have ignored the calls of human rights groups, international courts, and the general public, including large parts of the Jewish community. As Israel escalates its genocide in Gaza in blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement, Greenpeace’s courageous action should serve as a warning to both the UK and US governments: anything short of a full arms embargo entails full complicity.”

In addition to a global embargo on all arms sales to Israel, Greenpeace has been calling for both the Israeli government and Hamas to unequivocally agree to support and abide by the UN Security Council Ceasefire resolution in full. We call on Hamas to immediately release all hostages. We call for the Israeli Government to immediately end the blockades on the supply of food, water, medicine and fuel to the people of Gaza and release all illegally detained civilians.

ENDS

Contact: Greenpeace UK Press Office – press.uk@greenpeace.org or 07971177378 or  020 7685 8255

Notes to editors

Please find all photos and videos of the protest here. Additional pictures and footage will be added over the morning as they become available. 

1. The dye used is a non-toxic, biodegradable, food-grade pond dye. It is designed to be used in ponds.
2. The death toll figures do not necessarily represent all victims as thousands are still buried under rubble and are therefore unaccounted for. A Lancet study found that the true figure could be as much as 40% higher than the official health authority figures.