Report by BDS Activist

Upon arriving in Covent Garden at 9.45pm, not too far from the Fountain Bar where ‘Tel-Aviv Summer Bash’ was taking place, we noticed a few party-goers were queuing up outside of the venue. Although there were only three of us present with a simple banner reading ‘Stop stealing Palestinian land’ and some leaflets we managed to get enough attention to cause a stir. We were welcomed with shouts of ‘There is no Palestine, only Israel…Go home’ by a young man in an attempt to impress his friends. Then, this young man and about fifteen of his friends approached us, hurling abuse and telling us we had no right to be there.  What they seemed to have forgotten however was that in reality we were in fact in London, not Israel, where free speech and the right to protest is a right for all.

By 11pm the owner of the Foundation Bar and a number of other bars in the Leicester Square and Covent Garden area, very kindly re-assured us that we had every right to stand and protest and that it would be better for us to come in sight of the club so that his security could neutralise any situation if we were approached or intimidated by any members of the public again. Seeing us converse with the owner of the Fountain Bar, the pro-Israeli crowd turned against him and pathetically began swearing unaware that he was the owner of the bar.  After being on the receiving end of comments such as ‘What the f**k you doing there you white c**t’ and ‘F**k all Palestinians’ the owner promised to immediately stop the party and assured us that these people would not be welcome at his bar in the future.

Looking retrospectively, it just goes to show that just three individuals can make a massive difference with respect to informing the public about Israel’s countless war crimes and continuous oppression of the rights of innocent people, including women and children.

It took us 90 minutes altogether to end a party that was scheduled from 9pm till 3am. We were able to show the British public how illogical, irrational and brainwashed the Israelis are when discussing Occupied Palestine.

We encourage you to get in touch with London BDS for information about future protests and events. After all, in the words of Edmund Burke, “All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing”.