Greenpeace chief arrested in pro-Palestinian protest outside US Embassy in London
McCallum among 5 people detained after activists poured red dye into pond outside embassy
LONDON
A co-executive director of Greenpeace UK was arrested Thursday during a protest outside the US Embassy in London.
“Five people have so far been arrested nearby on suspicion of criminal damage and conspiracy to cause criminal damage. The pond is accessible via a public footpath. There was no breach or attempted breach of the secure perimeter of the site,” a Metropolitan Police spokesperson said in a statement.
Will McCallum was among the five detained after Greenpeace activists poured red, biodegradable dye into a large pond outside the embassy in Nine Elms in south-west London.
The dye symbolized the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip, which activists blame on US-supplied weapons.
Greenpeace confirmed McCallum was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to cause criminal damage -- a charge that can carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Other activists were arrested under similar charges.
The protest involved 12 Greenpeace activists who used bicycles disguised as delivery bikes to take containers labeled “Stop Arming Israel” to the embassy.
The containers held a non-toxic, biodegradable pond dye that the group said disperses naturally and causes no lasting damage.
Greenpeace UK has been calling on the UK and US to impose an arms embargo on Israel.
More than 50,800 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in a brutal Israeli onslaught since October 2023, most of them women and children.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
