LONDON (Reuters) – Pro-Palestinian activists targeted UK offices of German financial services firm Allianz on Tuesday, daubing exteriors with red paint in protest against the company’s alleged links to Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems.
Palestine Action claimed responsibility for the protest in a post on social media platform X, and said demonstrators had attacked 10 offices of Allianz in the UK and had “occupied” the insurer’s UK headquarters in Guildford, south of London, since overnight.
“Without insurance, Elbit couldn’t operate in Britain,” Palestine Action said in its post.
UK-based spokespeople for Allianz, one of Europe’s biggest financial services groups, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Police cordoned off Allianz Commercial’s office in the heart of London’s City financial district after the vandalism, which coincides with the first anniversary of the start of the Gaza war, triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages to Gaza on Oct. 7 last year, according to Israeli figures. Nearly 42,000 people have been killed in retaliatory attacks on Gaza since, Palestinian health authorities say, and most of the 2.3-million population has been displaced.
Besides urging customers to boycott certain financial firms, demonstrators have expanded protests to include defacing buildings using red paint to symbolise the bloodshed in Gaza.
Allianz is the latest global financial firm to have suffered vandalism of this nature, with British lender Barclays also a frequent target for pro-Palestine political protesters.
Barclays has faced criticism for providing financial services to defence firms that allegedly produce equipment used by the Israeli Defence Force.
Barclays has repeatedly denied using its own money to invest in defence companies and says it is only trading in such companies in response to client instruction or demand.
(Reporting By Sinead Cruise, additional reporting by Sachin Ravikumar; Editing by Susan Fenton)
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