
LONDON: Around 80 percent of the British public support a full arms embargo on Israel, and just 16 percent oppose expelling the country from the UN, according to a poll conducted by Opinium.
Around three-quarters of respondents want public sector pensions to disengage from investments linked to Israel.
The findings come in the aftermath of Co-op members voting at their annual general meeting last week for the supermarket to stop selling Israeli products. Two-thirds of those surveyed by Opinium back similar boycotts by other UK supermarkets.
Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said in a statement: “The polling … speaks to Israel’s growing isolation and the significant public support for sanctions.
“By continuing to arm and support Israel even as it enacts a genocide and a policy of forced starvation, the British government is holding on to an increasingly fringe position, completely out of sync with public opinion, and with the views of those who supported it at the last election.”
On Wednesday, thousands of activists are set to form a kilometer-long cordon around the Houses of Parliament in London, linked by a stretch of red fabric, to call for an end to UK military aid to Israel and the imposition of sanctions on the country.
Jamal said: “Those bringing the demand for an arms embargo to Parliament … in a symbolic red line are doing so knowing that the demand is supported by the majority of their fellow citizens.”
The PSC said in a press release: “For nearly 3 months Israel imposed a total blockade preventing all humanitarian assistance, resulting in deaths by starvation, widespread malnutrition and hunger amongst 2.3 million people.
“Israel has now imposed a severely limited and militarised aid operation, condemned by international aid organisations, that has resulted in scores of Palestinians being shot dead as they search for food.”
Reuters