Barclays banks smashed up across UK in coordinated attack

Activists shattered glass storefronts and smeared red paint across branches of the bank over claims it has links to Israel's weapons trade.

Activists have wrecked Barclays branches around the country in a coordinated protest over the Palestine conflict.

Sites in cities including Bristol, Mancheser, and Stockport were targeted overnight and early on Monday morning by members of Palestine Action, who smashed the branches’ glass fronts and sprayed red paint over them.

The group claims to have shut down 20 branches across England and Scotland, though the extent of damage was not immediately clear.

Activists in Edinburgh said they had pelted one branch with rocks ‘marked with the names of Palestinian martyrs’ as well as slogans like ‘child killers’ and ‘Barclays, murderers & proud’.

The stunt was carried out in partnership with Shut the System, a recently launched climate protest group.

Palestine Action accused Barclays of ‘funding genocide in Palestine’ by being ‘investors in Israel’s largest weapons firm, Elbit Systems’.

Barclays rejects the claims, saying it ‘does not directly invest’ in any weapons suppliers and that providing other financial services to them is ‘compatible’ with government guidelines.

Why is Barclays being targeted over ‘Israel links’?

Palestine Action’s website does not explain its accusations, which were made in a number of posts on X without further detail.

They appear to be inspired by calls led by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) to boycott Barclays over similar allegations.

The PSC published a report in May claiming that ‘holds over £2 billion in shares, and provides £6.1 billion in loans and underwriting’ to companies whose weapons are being used by Israel in attacks on Palestinians.

This research was carried out by Dutch sustainability consultants Profundo, who say the data was accessed using widely available finance databases.

Barclays responded to the claims in a statement to shareholders, saying the criticism ‘mistakes what we do’.

‘We trade in shares of listed companies in response to client instruction or demand and that may result in us holding shares.

‘We are not making investments for Barclays and Barclays is not a “shareholder” or “investor” in that sense in relation to these companies.’

Barclays has said the claims may stem from its prior ownership (ended in 2009) of Barclays Global Investors, an asset management firm which ‘did have significant investment positions in defence companies’.

However its statement did not directly address the claims around its loans and underwriting business, which is separate from its role handling share trades for third-party clients.

These services amount to financing, not funding – a key distinction separating banks from ‘investors’.

But they would nonetheless raise revenue from any arms manufacturers who are clients, which is one of the reasons campaigners oppose such activities.

A large part of Palestine Action’s activism is targeted at Elbit Systems, an Israel-based arms manufacturer with a site on the outskirts of Bristol which has been repeatedly vandalised.

The group claims Barclays is an ‘investor’ in Elbit Systems, but the bank says this is wrong for the same reasons outlined in its statement.

Elbit Systems insists ‘nothing from the [UK] site goes to the IDF’. Somerset Council recently withdrew claims that Elbit UK supplies the IDF as ‘factually incorrect’ and apologised.

Following Monday’s protests, spokesperson for Palestine Action said: ‘Barclays is funding the crises of climate collapse and genocide in Palestine.

‘Decades of polite campaigning, petitions, letter writing and lobbying MPs have failed.

‘We will continue to escalate until Barclays pulls its finger out and stops funding genocide and climate destruction.’

A spokesperson for Barclays said: ‘We provide vital financial services to US, UK and European public companies that supply defence products to Nato and its allies. Barclays does not directly invest in these companies.

‘The defence sector is fundamental to our national security and the UK government has been clear that supporting defence companies is compatible with ESG considerations.

‘Decisions on the implementation of arms embargos to other nations are the job of respective elected governments.

‘While we support the right to protest, we ask that campaigners do so in a way which respects our customers, colleagues and property.’

This is a developing news story, more to follow soon… Check back shortly for further updates.

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