University of Manchester Friends of Palestine and Youth Front for Palestine led a demonstration through the Manchester, UK streets and into the stores of food retailer Pret A Manger to protest their plans for 40 new stores in Apartheid Israel. This was on the same day Israeli forces murdered 10 Palestinians in a raid on Nablus, injuring over 100 people.
Supported by Manchester Palestine Action and Manchester PSC, they marched into the University of Manchester Pret a Manger with flags and a banner that read, “Pret A Manger, Don’t Serve Israeli Apartheid” and made powerful speeches to the workers and customers inside. They chanted, “Pret, Pret, Pret a Manger, how many Palestinians killed today.”
The shop is popular with students, and many spoke powerfully inside, calling on people to boycott Pret, highlighting the contradictions of investing in an Apartheid state like Israel and still claiming to be socially responsible. As one speaker said, “Nobody wakes up and says, ‘you know what, I feel like financing oppression today.’ So why do we allow Pret to play us like that? Because that’s what they’re forcing normal workers and normal customers to do. That’s what they’re forcing you guys to be complicit in. They’re making us all murderers. We can’t let one company play us like this.”
International organisations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UN Special Rapporteurs and Others have stated that Israel is practising apartheid policies.
The organisation Friends of Al Aqsa is calling on people to pressure Pret before confirmation of the deal to build 40 stores in Israel is due in March 2023. Take the campaign to your local store and sign the petition here.
