The Global Alliance for Palestine (GAFP), a recently launched international coalition of pro-Palestine groups, has announced a worldwide day of action on 10 October, calling for an arms embargo, sanctions and what it describes as an end to international complicity with Israel.
The organisation’s Executive Director has stressed the importance of campaigning for Palestinian rights as the devastating war in Gaza approaches its third year.
Speaking to The New Arab, GAFP head Robert Andrews highlighted the potential of “the power of synchronised global action” as the organisation prepares a major campaign for the weekend of 9–11 October 2026, with the Global Day of Action taking place on Saturday, 10 October.
According to GAFP, hundreds of organisations worldwide are expected to participate, with the initiative seeking to coordinate actions across cities in several countries.
The Alliance said the 10 October mobilisation aims to put Israel’s ongoing genocide and its war crimes back on the media agenda amid continuing hostilities between the US and Iran.
Andrews said the coordinated actions planned for 10 October would call for an arms embargo, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), and greater accountability over Gaza and the West Bank.
“In terms of policy changes, we are pushing for policies that adhere to international law and that essentially move away from the racist discourse or any discourses vis-à-vis the Palestinians that we see across multiple different contexts,” he told The New Arab.
“So it's not that we are hoping that this mobilization will suddenly lead to an arms embargo against Israel or enhanced BDS measures, but we are looking to contribute to the variety of efforts taking place within the solidarity movement to try and push for these things to happen.”
Citing activist efforts such as Gaza-bound aid flotillas seeking to challenge the decades-long illegal Israeli blockade of the territory, Andrews said the Alliance aims to amplify opposition to political silence, as Israeli attacks continue in Gaza despite an October 2025 ceasefire.
“We see this particular action in particular as one cog in the huge machinery that the movement is building in order to pressure the occupation state in the international context,” he said.
“We're hoping that success for us means widespread mobilization in different corners of the world and in different contexts where the Israeli government is seeking to gain more of an influence,” Andrews added.
“So we're really hoping for strong mobilization, for example, in the Latin America region, amidst the the the backdrop of the Abraham Accords and the growing relations between Israel and countries in Latin America.”
Andrews said the Alliance would help coordinate a range of protest activities across continents, bringing together grassroots movements, student protests, workplace actions, rallies and civil disobedience across the world.
“I think for us to have to have coordinated action is important because it allows for synchronized visibility,” Andrews told The New Arab.
“So the idea is instead of each organization working in their own space at their own time, it's to bring organizations together on one day under one clear message.”
He said that the action would take place on one weekend "with a number of organizations pushing the same message, which is 'End the Genocide, Defend the Land'.”
Andrews also said the Alliance had put measures in place amid governments disproportionately restricting and penalising expressions of solidarity with Palestinians.
“We have a team where we offer advice, and we can offer control. We have specialists that work with specific regions, so we have public relations offices that are specific to certain regions,” he told The New Arab.
“So we offer guidance and we offer support in the case that any organization is unclear about the the legal standing when it comes to protests- when it comes to actually organizing physical activities.”
He continued: “In terms of restrictions, we've obviously seen a huge attempt by by state institutions to minimize the visibility of pro-Palestine demonstrations. A big part of the crackdown has been a result of the efficiency of the pro-Israel lobby in pushing decision makers to restrict Palestine demonstrations, often on dubious grounds.”
Andrews also noted that in parts of the Middle East, “physical mobilization is simply impossible due to authoritarianism, government crackdown and the fear of violence.”
“Where their local circumstances are completely inhibiting them from organizing protests, we encourage them to do other actions on the day as as part of the mobilization,” Andrews added.
Prominent figures including former UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Palestinian activist and politician Mustafa Barghouti, and Greek economist and former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis are also said to be contributing members of the Alliance’s Steering Committee.
Andrews said that, particularly in the period preceding the Day of Action, the committee would participate through “national and international media engagements, the creation of key campaign broadcasts, and the orchestration of widespread digital outreach”.
He said the upcoming mobilisation would demonstrate the scale of the campaign to governments, institutions and the Israeli government itself.
“We want the Israeli government to understand that there is huge support for Palestine rights campaigns and for the rights of Palestinians, and that will not change,” he told The New Arab.
“It's far too long now that we have not seen real accountability against the state of Israel for its genocide against the people of Gaza, and at the same time, simultaneously, we've seen the huge double standard when it comes to imposing measures against other countries, such as Russia that are deemed to be committing human rights violations, so that is the message.”
Israel has killed over 73,000 people in Gaza since October 2023, 1,286 of them since the ceasefire came into effect in October 2025, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Meanwhile, the West Bank, home to around three million Palestinians and some 500,000 settlers, has witnessed an increase in settler violence and seizures of land and resources.