BRITISH firms and organisations involved in Israel are facing a growing backlash of direct action by Palestine supporters demanding they break their links with the increasingly isolated state.

During Saturday’s huge London demonstration marking the anniversary of Israel’s attack on Gaza, a coalition of more than 50 organisations and over 1,000 activists took direct action against “complicit companies and institutions” along the route of the national march.

Targets included branches of Barclays Bank and the British Museum.

The coalition said that the activists — all wearing red to identify them as a unified bloc — took action that included mounting blockades and occupations.

London for a Free Palestine, the Palestinian Youth Movement, Black Lives Matter UK, Sisters Uncut, Queers for Palestine, Workers for a Free Palestine and Palestine Pulse are among the coalition members.

A Workers for a Free Palestine statement said: “If the government and the bosses won’t cut their blood-soaked ties to genocide, we will organise to disrupt their operations and hit their profits until they do.”

Barclays holds £2 billion in shares and provides more than £6.1bn in loans to weapons firms supplying arms used by Israel in its attacks on Gaza and the West Bank, the coalition said.

The coalition also highlighted that the British Museum had announced a new 10-year £50 million partnership with oil giant BP in December. BP is working with Israel to exploit Gaza’s offshore gas resources.

The coalition accused complicit companies, and the British government, of “emboldening the regime to escalate the already devastating conflict into a full-scale regional war.”

A Palestinian Youth Movement statement said: “Over the past year, the global pro-Palestine movement has taken to the streets and university campuses, shut down arms factories, bridges, and government departments, and brought together millions of people calling for an immediate ceasefire and arms embargo against Israel. 

“We will continue to fight until Palestine is free, from the river to the sea.”

A Sisters Uncut statement said: “The Israeli government consistently uses sexual assault, violation and degradation as a weapon of war. 

"It has attacked the reproductive rights of the Palestinian women. Palestine is a feminist issue because we believe all people everywhere deserve to be free.”