Around 20 branches of Barclays Bank were vandalised by pro-Palestinian and climate activists who said they were protesting against the British bank’s business relations with Israel and its financing of polluting industries.
Windows were smashed and buildings, including in London, sprayed red to “demand that the bank withdraw from the Israeli arms trade and fossil fuels,” the pro-Palestinian protest group Palestine Action said in a statement to CNN on Monday.
In Edinburgh, stones bearing the names of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip were thrown through the windows of a branch of Barclays Bank (BCS), the statement said.
“Frustration with Barclays’ limited progress in ending its genocidal and climate-destructive funding has contributed to the emergence of this new radical side of activism,” Palestine Action said. “The targeted action will continue until Barclays completely eliminates this funding from its business model.”
Shut the System, an environmental activist group, posted several images on X on Monday – apparently their first activity on the platform – showing heavily damaged Barclays branches.
“Shut the System and Palestine Action have taken radical direct action out of frustration with Barclays’ meager progress in changing its climate-destructive and genocidal funding,” one post said.
CNN has contacted Shut the System for comment.
Several pro-Palestinian groups have called for protests against Barclays, claiming the bank invests billions of dollars in companies with links to the Israeli military.
A report published in May 2024 by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Campaign Against Arms Trade and War on Want said Barclays “owned interests in and/or provided loans and financial services to at least nine companies known to produce weapons and military technology that are sold to Israel and used in its military attacks against Palestinians.”
A Barclays spokesperson told CNN that the company “provides vital financial services to publicly traded companies in the US, UK and Europe that supply defence products to NATO and its allies.” However, he pointed out that Barclays does not invest directly in these companies.
“The defence sector is vital to our national security and the UK government has made it clear that support for defence companies is consistent with environmental, social and governance considerations. Decisions on implementing arms embargoes against other countries are a matter for their respective elected governments,” the spokesman added.
“While we support the right to protest, we ask activists to do so in a way that respects our customers, colleagues and our property.”
Three men were arrested on Monday in connection with criminal damage at a London branch of Barclays, the City of London Police announced on X.
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