{"id":362234,"date":"2025-08-21T14:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T14:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/362234\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T14:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T14:18:09","slug":"jonathon-porritt-ex-adviser-to-king-charles-uk-complicit-in-gaza-genocide-israel-palestine-conflict-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/362234\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonathon Porritt, ex-adviser to King Charles: UK complicit in Gaza genocide | Israel-Palestine conflict News"},"content":{"rendered":"

London, United Kingdom \u2013<\/strong> Jonathon Porritt, a 75-year-old Oxford-educated environmentalist, is among the hundreds of people that the UK has cracked down on over their support of Palestine Action<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He was arrested and charged earlier this month, under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act, for holding up a sign at a rally decrying the government\u2019s decision to outlaw the protest group.<\/p>\n

\u201cI oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action,\u201d read the cardboard placard that he, and many of the 520 others arrested, raised.<\/p>\n

His bail hearing is scheduled for late October.<\/p>\n

But Porritt is not a hardened criminal.<\/p>\n

He spent 30 years advising the king on environmental issues when the monarch held the Prince of Wales title. He has also chaired a sustainable development commission set up by former Prime Minister Tony Blair, and throughout his career has worked in politics, academia and directed Friends of the Earth. In 2000, he was awarded a CBE, a high-ranking order, for services to environmental protection.<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera spoke to Porritt about his activism, Palestine, the role of business and the effect of weapons manufacturing on climate change.<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera: As the crisis in Gaza worsens, you have urged the UK to take action to stop Israel\u2019s onslaught. With more than 700 other business leaders, you recently<\/a> called for targeted sanctions against those accused of violating international law, including war crimes. Does that include Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, since he is wanted for arrest by the International Criminal Court?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jonathan Porritt:<\/strong> It would certainly include members of his cabinet who have been very forthright in the comments that they\u2019ve made, which clearly breach any understanding of the rights of people to exist \u2026 and indicate a readiness to ethnically cleanse Gaza and indeed to prepare to do the same in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s very clear that those sanctions do now need to be brought forward, and I think it is important that it\u2019s business leaders that are suggesting that you just can\u2019t allow those kinds of blatant attacks on the Palestinian people to continue.<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera: On an individual level, many people appalled at Israel\u2019s conduct in Gaza have joined a campaign to boycott Israeli goods, in an attempt at hitting the economy that fuels the war. Is this an effective way to stem the violence?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Porritt:<\/strong> It is something I do on an individual level. And this is purely personal, but I would be deeply unhappy buying anything exported into the UK from Israel. I feel that the government of Israel at the moment and its track record in terms of the way it\u2019s dealt with the situation in Gaza and the West Bank is so repugnant to me personally that I feel uncomfortable supporting the economic standing of that country, so that\u2019s my own personal choice.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t go out of my way to suggest that everybody needs to do that.<\/p>\n

I think lifestyle decisions are really important, ethical decisions are really important, but do they actually change very much? Probably not, is the reality, and an awful lot of people simply don\u2019t know the issues behind these choices.<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera: Your arrest earlier this month made headlines. What do you think figures such as King Charles and Tony Blair, who you\u2019ve worked with, would make of your radical activism?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Porritt:<\/strong> I was comfortable taking on establishment roles as chair of the commission [launched by Blair], for instance, [and] helping to set up the Prince of Wales\u2019s business and sustainability programme, all that kind of stuff. But my life started as an activist in the Green Party and in Friends of the Earth, so they probably always knew that I was more predisposed to that tactical route than to the inside track that I nonetheless spent 30 years pursuing.<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera: With several wars raging, is the link between militaries and weapons companies, which are major carbon polluters, and climate change being talked about enough?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Porritt:<\/strong> No, and this really bugs me a lot.<\/p>\n

The investment in nuclear weapons<\/a> of one kind or another, upgrades going on all over the world, and increasing the number of warheads again \u2013 this is just crazy, and on the 80th anniversary of Hiroshima<\/a> you think, how can that possibly be?<\/p>\n

And then, then you look at the environmental impacts of all of that, of course, including the CO2 footprint of vast increases in expenditure on arms<\/a>, and it\u2019s just the worst possible way of trying to increase security for people in their own country \u2013 to make these hugely carbon-intensive and destructive investments and yet more weapons of mass destruction.<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera: The UK has proscribed Palestine Action as a terror organisation, but its backers say outlawing the group is a way to silence dissent as Israel wages war in Gaza. It is now legally challenging the proscription. What does Palestine Action stand for, in your view?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Porritt:<\/strong> What Palestine Action actually stands for is a readiness to use violence against property as part of its campaigning tactics against, in particular, those arms companies [that are] deeply complicit in the continuing genocide in Gaza. They see as being proportionate when set against the devastation going on in Gaza.<\/p>\n

That choice about tactics is morally based, wholly defensible \u2026 and in no way indicative of a formally designated terrorist organisation.<\/p>\n

In the last few years, there\u2019s been an astonishing legal crackdown on basic rights in this country, particularly the right to the freedom of speech and the right to freedom to protest<\/p>\n

The designation as a terrorist organisation \u2026 is to try and silence Palestine Action. That\u2019s where I come back to the now incontrovertible proof of the UK government\u2019s complicity in this genocide, and because of that complicity \u2013 its continuation of licences for arms<\/a> quite clearly being used to massacre<\/a> innocent people across Gaza \u2013 if you look at that complicity, they needed something extra. They needed an even bigger stick to shut Palestine Action up so that the citizens of the UK were not permitted to recognise just how abhorrent this government\u2019s behaviour is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"London, United Kingdom \u2013 Jonathon Porritt, a 75-year-old Oxford-educated environmentalist, is among the hundreds of people that the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,393,299,4884,7424,839,12,1144,1814,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-362234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-israel-palestine-conflict","14":"tag-middle-east","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-northern-ireland","17":"tag-palestine","18":"tag-scotland","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115067191839321173","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}