Pro-Palestinian protesters target British Museum over BP partnership
Pro-Palestinian protesters have staged a sit-in demonstration inside the British Museum demanding that BP stops drilling for oil off the Gaza coast.
In footage shared on social media, activists, some of whom were wearing masks and waving Palestinian flags shouted: “Your profits are covered in Palestinian blood”.
The demonstrators claim that BP and other oil and gas companies are fuelling the ongoing conflict in the region by signing a deal with Israel for 12 new oil and gas licences off the West Gaza coast.
In December, the British Museum announced a new 10-year £50 million deal with BP.
The demonstrators were seen sitting on the floor in the atrium of the building holding banners that read: “BP fuels colonial genocide”.
Energy Embargo for Palestine posted on X, claiming responsibility for the action.
A statement read: “We have just occupied the British Museum alongside comrades from the Free Palestine Coalition.
“We demand that the British Museum end its 10-year partnership with British Petroleum, an energy company profiting from Israel’s colonial genocide.
“On October 30th 2023, one month into the genocidal bombardment of Gaza, Israel granted gas licences off the coast of Gaza to BP and five other companies.
“We will not watch idly as energy companies based in Britain fuel Israel’s colonial genocide.”
The protesters also read the poem ‘If I Must Die’ - written by Dr Refaat Alareer, who was killed alongside his family in an Israeli airstrike in December - aloud to attendees of the demonstration.
Millie Devereux, 30, who was visiting the museum on Sunday, said: “As you go in, you’ve got the central atrium and they were sat right in the middle of the central atrium, just in front of the entrance.
“There were about 50 and some people were sitting down with them as well. It wasn’t causing any disruption at all, it was all very chilled.
“About 10 or 15 police officers were stood in a line when we were there.”
In a statement in December announcing its new deal with BP, the museum said: “A new multi-year partnership with BP will support the future transformation of the museum by contributing £50 million over 10 years.
“The partnership will also help deliver on plans to maintain public access for generations to come. The museum is very grateful for BP’s support at this early stage of the masterplan.”
The museum’s relationship with BP dates back to 1996, and climate campaigners have long criticised the decision to take money from an oil and gas firm.
More than 300 professionals working in the museum sector signed a February 2022 letter urging it to cut ties with BP, and numerous protests have previously been staged inside the museum itself.
Several major cultural sites in the UK, including the National Gallery and National Theatre, have previously ended lucrative sponsorship deals with energy firms amid protests.
The Metropolitan Police said officers attended the protest. They were later filmed escorting the chanting protesters from the building.
A British Museum spokesperson said: “The British Museum respects other people’s right to express their views and allows peaceful protest onsite at the Museum as long as there is no risk to the collection, staff or visitors.”
Climate protesters in Paris last month threw soup over the glass-protected Mona Lisa in the Louvre.
Activists have also targeted a landscape painting by Horatio McCulloch, My Heart’s In The Highlands, in Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, as well as a 500-year-old copy of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Summer in London’s Royal Academy.
