Apartheid Avenue: Amnesty activists rename London street housing Israeli embassy

Apartheid Avenue: Amnesty activists rename London street housing Israeli embassy
Activists from Amnesty International have put up an "Apartheid Avenue" road sign outside Israel's embassy in London to mark Israeli Apartheid Week.
2 min read
21 March, 2022
Protests have become increasingly common outside the Israeli embassy in London over the past few years [Getty]

The road leading up to the Israeli embassy in the British capital London has been renamed to "Apartheid Avenue" by activists from Amnesty International, to mark Israeli Apartheid Week, according to a tweet by Kristyan Benedict, a campaign manager for the global rights group.

Benedict tweeted an image of a renamed street sign at the entrance to Kensington Palace Gardens in London, which houses the Israeli embassy. 

The sign was erected as part of a film shoot to mark Israeli Apartheid Week, when pro-Palestinian activists rally outside the embassy to highlight Israel’s discriminatory tactics. Activists say these routinely involve human rights abuses against Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and besieged Gaza Strip.  

“Racist systems like apartheid aren’t relics of the past but the reality for millions of Palestinians,” tweeted Amnesty International alongside a teaser for the upcoming film.

Israeli forces have displaced thousands of Palestinian families from their homes since the country's creation in 1948 and continue to occupy the West Bank and besiege the Gaza Strip.

Israel has built hundreds of illegal settlements on Palestinian land, and its occupying forces routinely detain and violate the rights of Palestinians.

Amnesty International published a report earlier this year calling for Israel to be prosecuted for its crimes at the International Criminal Court, adding that "Israel’s cruel policies of segregation, dispossession, and exclusion across all territories under its control clearly amount to apartheid."