Two anti-Israel activists ran onto the London Marathon route on Sunday. They threw red powder to disrupt the event and protest ties between Israel and the United Kingdom amid the war with Hamas.
A staffer intervened and removed the two Youth Demand activists from the path of the marathoners after they jumped the barriers and threw the powder at the Tower Bridge, according to a Metropolitan Police X post. Police officers arrested the protesters on suspicion of causing a public nuisance.
The Met assured the public that the red chalk-based powder would not present a hazard to runners.
Youth Demand said in a statement that the activists called for a "full trade embargo" on Israel and reparations by oil and gas companies to countries and communities harmed by climate change.
The activists, wearing shirts that read "stop arming Israel," were identified by Youth Demand as Bristol resident Willow Holland and Nottingham resident Cristy North.
The allegations
The activists claimed that they had interrupted the marathon because they had no other course of action after standard protests had failed to sway the government.
They alleged that a supposed genocide in Gaza was funded by the government, with North asserting that British leaders were "using our taxes to arm a genocidal state, breaking humanitarian international law."
Holland said that she refused "to be complicit in a genocide funded by our politicians. Profit should never be prioritised over basic decency. We’re taking action for human lives and human rights. We don’t want blood on our hands, we don’t want to be forced into complicity with a genocide. We need more people in resistance, refusing to be complicit whilst upholding international law, now more than ever."
