Parents Hold Playgroup at Arms Company Office in Protest at Gaza Genocide

Dozens of parents and children staged a noisy playgroup at the London office of arms manufacturer BAE Systems on Friday to highlight its complicity in Israel’s killing of thousands of Palestinian children.

Pushing prams and toting a parachute banner, Parents for Palestine flooded into the lobby of the glittering Blue Fin building, which houses BAE’s Digital Intelligence division. The group released 100 black balloons in memory of children killed in Gaza, called out BAE with chants and songs, and urged the building managers to evict the “murderers” who work alongside them. 

“Our government allows BAE to export arms knowing full well they’ll be used to perpetrate a genocide,” said Rees Nicolas, one of the organisers, there with four-month-old Sylvia. “As parents, we couldn’t stand by and let this happen.”

Outside, the group taped photos of murdered Palestinian children to the building’s pillars and played ‘sleeping bunnies’ with a five-metre parachute, painted with the words “BAE, stop arming Israel”.

Looking on, parents described their heartbreak at the civilian death toll and eagerness to teach their children to stand up to injustice. 

“As a parent, it’s been particularly affecting seeing how many children are suffering as a result of Israel’s massacre of Gaza,” said Naila*, bouncing her eight-month-old daughter on her hip. “No one can be unaffected by seeing those photos of the premature babies in Al-Shifa Hospital, but having a baby gives you a new perspective on the kind of pain so many parents and families are going through in Gaza.”

Muna, a Palestinian mother from Jerusalem, brought her four-year-old son Joud to the protest. “I wanted my child to see that Palestine is a global issue, that we don’t just stand for Palestine because we’re Palestinian,” she said. “Everyone is standing with Palestine because it’s a cause for liberation and justice. It’s about human rights, about children’s right to live in a safe environment.”

BAE Systems, Europe’s largest arms company, supplies the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) with key components of fighter jets, munitions, armoured vehicles and missile launching kits. Activists say BAE has made as much as £300m selling weapons components to Israel since 2016.

Many of those parts are for the F-35, the Lockheed Martin-designed plane that is Israel’s most advanced fighter jet. The IDF is deploying F-35s in its airstrikes on Gaza, which have killed at least 14,500 people and devastated infrastructure in the Strip, and uses the jets to support invading troops.

For BAE, this devastation is good business. Shares in the company are up 9% since 7 October to an all-time high, and the company is now valued at £33bn. In total, the British government has authorised the export of £472m of weapons to Israel since 2015.

The playdate is the third action Parents for Palestine have organised in recent weeks. In late October, the group placed hundreds of teddy bears outside the Foreign Office, while in early November it strung a clothesline of baby-grows on Portcullis House. 

Those behind the protest say they’re not interested in simply mourning Gaza’s dead. They also want to draw public attention to the culpability of British companies and politicians in those deaths, and demand an end to British arms sales to Israel.

“This isn’t just a vigil. We’re here to make BAE’s continued presence on the South Bank untenable,” said Nicolas. “With the stroke of a pen, BAE or the British government could stop profiting from murder and hamstring Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. The fact they don’t makes them responsible for an ongoing genocide.”

The protests have also provided a space for activism for parents of young children, who say they’ve not always able to attend other protests or long marches. Naila told Novara Media her family had attended two of the big marches for Palestine in London, but could only stay an hour before it became too stressful. “It’s nice to come to something that’s smaller and family friendly,” she said.

“As parents, as families looking after children, we actually have an important voice. It’s important for us to show solidarity with parents and families in Palestine,” she added.

As the group peacefully left the building, packing up toy instruments and flyers, those black balloons still knocked against the ceiling 12 storeys above. “Those are going to be there for a while,” one parent said.

*Names have been changed.