Pro-Palestine campaigners gather for Glasgow demonstration despite Storm Bert

CAMPAIGNERS have repeated calls for the UK and Scottish governments to stop funding Israeli companies after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu.

Around 1000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators attended a rally in Glasgow on Saturday, despite the impact of Storm Bert as it caused disruption across Scotland.

Organised by Stop the War Glasgow, the march left Glasgow Green and travelled across the city, eventually ending on Bath Street.

🎥 WATCH: Pro-Palestine campaigners braved Storm Bert to attend a demonstration in Glasgow on Saturday ❄️@GlasgowStopWar estimated around 1000 protesters showed up ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/Bj3s6D0Pt9

— The National (@ScotNational) November 23, 2024

It was initially planned to end with a rally at Glasgow Green, but this was later moved indoors due to poor weather conditions.

On Thursday, the ICC ruled that there are reasonable grounds on which to arrest the Israeli leader – as well as former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas commander Mohammed Deif – for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The arrest warrants mean that the UK Government is legally obliged to arrest Netanyahu if he sets foot on British soil – with the Rome Statute from which this obligation springs incorporated into UK domestic law with the International Criminal Court Act 2001.

Yet despite the ruling, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has refused to comment on whether the UK Government would arrest Netanyahu, with the PM’s spokesperson declining to get into “hypotheticals” when asked on Thursday.

Keir McKechnie, chairperson of the Stop the War Coalition in Scotland, told The National that Starmer’s position was “an absolute disgrace”.

(Image: Colin Mearns) “It’s an absolute disgrace that Keir Starmer – despite the fact that nearly 50,000 people have been massacred in Palestine, that the war has now moved to Lebanon – that they continue not to recognise the mass murder of the Palestinian people,” McKechnie said.

Starmer previously said that he does not believe that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

(Image: Colin Mearns) “I'm well aware of the definition of genocide, and that is why I've never described this as and referred to it as genocide,” he said during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.

McKechnie continued: “We’re here to call out the complicity of the Starmer government, who incredibly and shamefully refuse to recognise the genocide and continue to spend billions arming the state of Israel.

“The key demand here is that not a penny of British Government money or taxpayers’ money should be spent on arming Israel.”

'As long as they're bombing, we'll be marching'

Looking ahead, McKechnie said the pro-Palestine movement needed to “escalate” their campaign against the UK Government’s funding of Israel.

However, he also called on the Scottish Government to “stop funding Israeli companies” through organisations such as the Scottish Enterprise.

(Image: Colin Mearns) It comes as charity Amnesty International revealed that no arms company in receipt of a Scottish Enterprise grant – even those linked to states who have breached international law and who have been accused of war crimes - has ever failed a human rights check.

“We’re saying: Stop all the funding, break all the economic, political and cultural ties with this genocidal state,” McKechnie continued.

“We’ll continue the anti-war movement to build the pressure. As long as they’re bombing, we’ll be marching.”