In brief
A square on the World Travel Market grounds in London turned into a protest site when the Palestine Solidarity Campaign organized a demonstration outside the Israeli pavilion, claiming it was promoting tourism in illegally occupied territories. Organizers urged Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband to honour a previous promise to ban such promotions.
On Tuesday, the World Travel Market in London erupted into a protest when a group of British anti‑war activists stood outside the Israeli pavilion, accusing it of marketing tourism to Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.
The demonstrators were organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which says the Israeli pavilion’s Expo presence violates commitments the United Kingdom has made to ban promotion of illegal settlements.
In a statement directed to Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, the group reminded the minister that he had previously pledged to prohibit such promotion in the United Kingdom, asking him to reaffirm that promise.
"The presence of entities linked to the Israeli regime’s settlement enterprise at the London tourism expo has become a controversial issue in recent days, sparking reactions from human rights activists and a number of British MPs," the campaign added.
The protest, captured on eyewitness footage shown by multiple local media outlets, has drawn attention to the role of tourism in supporting disputed settlements, although its effectiveness in influencing policy remains to be seen.
