As Barclays announced its profits soaring to over £2bn, activists posted up outside its headquarters to call out its complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Barclays’ profits: protesters hold vigil for Gaza outside HQ
Fossil Free London staged a silent protest outside Barclays HQ in Canary Wharf. They were there to call out the banking giant’s continuing complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Protesters coincided it with the morning of Barclays’ quarter three profits announcement:
BREAKING: We’re holding a silent demo outside Barclays HQ on their profits day to highlight that they fund and profit from the Palestinian genocide.
Their Q3 profits were up 23% on 2023’s at £1.6bn.
STOP FUNDING BOMBS
STOP FUNDING BIG OIL pic.twitter.com/kkWfgFAYbi
— Fossil Free London (@fossilfreeLDN) October 24, 2024
People laid down children’s toys and flowers in front of the headquarters entrance. They held a silent vigil to commemorate the children Israel has killed in Gaza:
Standing together, protesters held up placards and banners exposing the banking giant’s violent investments in arms and big oil:
Barclays bankrolling bombs and big oil
On Thursday 24 October, Barclays published its third quarter profits. The multinational banking giant raked in pre-tax profits of £2.2bn, up 18% on last year.
Yet Barclays’ eye-watering increase in profits came after over a year of Israel’s genocide in Gaza – in which arms companies the bank holds shares has played a central role.
By February 2024, Barclays had £2bn in shares in eight of the nine companies providing military equipment to Israel.
This included £2.7m in Elbit Systems. Elbit provides 85% of Israel’s military drone fleet and land-based equipment. Alongside this, it supplies bombs, missiles, and other weaponry. It markets these as “battle-tested” after bombardments in occupied Palestine.
Barclays has provided over £6.1bn in loans and underwriting to the arms and military technology companies Israel has violently deployed against Palestinians. These include arms firms like BAE Systems, Boeing, and Raytheon.
Meanwhile, Barclays is also making a killing bankrolling the climate crisis. Between 2016 and the end of 2023, Barclays has poured US $235.2bn into fossil fuels. This is according to the latest ‘Banking on Climate Chaos’ report, which placed Barclays among its ‘Dirty Dozen’ – the top twelve worst banks for financing the polluting sector.
Moreover, it has invested over US $190bn in fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement. Whilst Barclays committed to stop financing new oil & gas expansion ‘projects’ in a renewed energy policy in February, this restricts just 10% of their fossil fuel funding.
Drop Barclays over its complicity
Spokeswoman for Fossil Free London Joanna Warrington said:
There are no words to describe our heartbreak of watching clip after clip of misery and atrocities unfolding in Gaza, and knowing that those bleeding children and weeping parents are in that nightmare due to the complicity of banks like Barclays, here in our own city.
Across civil society, from bands playing at festivals to charities with bank accounts, Barclays is being dropped.
We were outside their HQ to silently demonstrate the truth to employees: Barclays funds bombs and big oil, and thousands to millions are suffering globally as a result.
Featured image and additional images via Fossil Free London
