How pro-Palestine protestors plan to ‘fill the Just Stop Oil void’ and bring London to a standstill

Pro-Palestine protesters are looking to shut down London for an entire month with a campaign of mass civil disobedience.

Youth Demand, an off-shoot of Just Stop Oil, intend to cripple the capital by blocking the roads as they look to fill the void left after the environmental group said it would end its campaign of stunts.

The group is calling for the British Government to impose a complete trade embargo on Israel and make the ‘super rich’ pay £1 trillion in climate damages to the Global South.

Inspired by Just Stop Oil’s protests, which angered the country, hundreds of their supporters will block roads and traffic.

But instead of sticking to one location, they will continuously disperse to different spots when police arrive, a tactic known as swarming, as they look to create maximum disruption. 

Activists are receiving legal training during planning sessions throughout the country.

In February, an undercover Mail investigation revealed that the militant pro-Palestine and eco-activist group are planning to target the British Museum and other major London landmarks.

Plans to ‘swarm’ London were announced at a strategy launch event in the City at the start of February, with Youth Demand leader Sam Holland, 22, adding: ‘Just one swarm team last summer cost the Met police £25,000.

Youth Demand intend to cripple the capital by blocking the roads as they look to fill the void left by Just Stop Oil

The group have previously vandalised the Ministry of Defence building with red paint

Five Just Stop Oil protesters were handed sentences for planning road-block protests on the M25 in 2022

‘If we do 10 actions a day for a month straight it will cost the city millions of pounds.

‘We’re disrupting until they meet our demands.

‘We’re not [just] protesting, we’re resisting and forcing change from the government.’

On Thursday, dozens of police battered down a door to arrest six women, who were plotting their April action, at a Quaker meeting group.

More than 30 police officers made the arrests at a welcome talk held at the Westminster Meeting House at around 7.30pm on Thursday, Youth Demand claimed.

The group want to ‘follow in the footsteps’ of other ‘civil resistance’ groups, and fill in the gap of Just Stop Oil, according to The Telegraph.

‘Just think of the economic impact of London being shut down for a month, combined with the massive costs of policing us,’ one organiser said.

‘When we get to a location, we get on the road [for] 10, 15, 20 minutes – there’ll be flares, flags, banners, keffiyehs, chants, drums, music.

Youth Demand activists plastered a photograph of a Gazan mother clutching her child over Picasso masterpiece at the National Gallery

Supporters blocked roads in London with slow march protests and spray painted the road in front of the cenotaph 

Just Stop Oil targeted the Ashes at Lord as well as Wimbledon, the British Grand Prix and the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield

Eco-zealot activists threw soup over two of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings at the ‘Poets and Lovers’ exhibition at the National Gallery

 ‘It’s maximum disruption and minimum risk.’

Previously, supporters of the group have vandalised the Ministry of Defence and Labour HQ with red paint, blocked roads in London with slow march protests and spray painted the road in front of the cenotaph.

Sir Keir Starmer’s wife was ‘forced out of her own home’ after members camped outside their house last year, while ten activists were arrested after police foiled their plot to disrupt the King’s Speech at the State Opening of Parliament.

Youth Demand supporters last year pasted a photo of a mother and child in the Gaza strip over a Picasso masterpiece at the National Gallery.

On Thursday, Just Stop Oil claimed it was ‘hanging up the high vis’ and ending its stunt campaigns after three years of protests that infuriated the country.

Long suffering Brits have missed funerals, cancer appointments and seen tens of thousands of journeys disrupted by the eco-zealots as part of their campaign.

 Protesters have received criticism for disruptive and often illegal methods of activism.

They shut down the M25 and Dartford crossing in November 2022 before targeting the Wimbledon tennis championships, the Ashes at Lord, the British Grand Prix and the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield.

Activists employed a slow march tactic to slow and disrupt traffic at a protest in London 

Protesters invaded multiple sporting events including the Snooker Championship in Sheffield last year

In January, two supporters defaced Charles Darwin’s grave in Westminster Abbey by spraying ‘1.5 is dead’ over the marble headstone.

Last summer, five protesters were handed sentences for blockading different parts of the M25 motorway orbiting London in November 2022.

In September, three supporters threw soup over two of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings at the ‘Poets and Lovers’ exhibition at the National Gallery just hours after fellow activists were jailed for doing the same thing to his famous Sunflowers masterpiece.

After covering the paintings in soup, the trio took off their jackets to reveal Just Stop Oil t-shirts and one said: ‘Future generations will regard these prisoners of conscience to be on the right side of history.’

Two supporters had previously glued themselves to the frame of The Hay Wain, an 1821 painting by English artist John Constable, at the National Gallery.   

The environmental campaign group bragged it is stopping direct action as Labour has caved in and made its main demand government policy.

Just Stop Oil’s goal was to wean Britain off fossil fuels – a policy which is now being implemented by Ed Miliband’s Department for Net Zero.

The government, however, has strongly denied it has given in to the group’s demands.

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