Anti-war activists to protest in three countries on Sunday over UK bases’ collusion in Gaza war

Anti-war campaigners plan to hold simultaneous protests in three countries this Sunday, 28 September, in protest against UK military operations in Cyprus collaborating in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

‘Bases Off Cyprus’

The UK-US: Bases Off Cyprus campaign will hold demonstrations at:

• the Ministry of Defence in London’s Whitehall at 2pm local time
• outside Nicosia District Court at 4pm before marching to the British High Commission and
• at Legends Mall in Reno, Nevada at 1pm Pacific time

A statement by the campaign explained that the gatherings will protest the UK government’s use of its Akrotiri RAF base to support Israel’s slaughter in Gaza:

Since October 2023, around 600 spy flights have been launched from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus over Gaza, supplying live intelligence directly to Israel.

RAF planes out of Akrotiri have flown daily spy missions over Gaza throughout much of the genocide and have been over key locations in Gaza at the moments that Israel has slaughtered British aid workers and gatherings of Palestinian journalists, raising questions that the government has refused to answer about British collaboration in unequivocal Israeli war crimes.

Increasing opposition

In an evident attempt to distance the UK government from Israel’s actions without materially changing its collaboration, Britain recently transferred the Cyprus surveillance operations from RAF aircraft to a private US contractor, the Sierra Nevada Corporation, a US defence contractor based in Reno. Mirroring its silence over RAF involvement in targeted murders, the UK government has refused to say how much it is paying the corporation for the flights, which continue to be controlled by the RAF. The UK government has been forced to confirm that it shares intelligence directly with the Israeli military but refuses to disclose footage footage to the British public that it has shot during Israeli atrocities, including the triple bombing that murdered British aid workers.

Local people in Cyprus have increasingly opposed the continued presence of an RAF base on Cyprus as collusion by their government in British and Israeli crimes and as an infringement on their territorial sovereignty since Cyprus gained its independence from Britain in 1960. The protest organisers criticise the Christodoulides government for allowing and aiding UK and US military operations. Protest organisers include Genocide-Free Cyprus, the Pancyprian Peace Council, Codepink, Far Right Watch, Palestinian Youth Movement, United for Palestine Cyprus, AFOA, Spirithkia, EDON and Proodeftiki and the UK’s Peace & Justice Project and Stop the War Coalition.

Featured image via the Canary