Second Day of Action Against Israeli Company Importing Valentine's Day Flowers

Thirteen Palestine solidarity protesters from London and Brighton are
blockading the UK base of an Israeli agricultural export company Agrexco
(UK) Ltd, Swallowfield Way, Hayes, Middlesex.

This is the second day of action against Agrexco on one of their busiest
weekends of the year. Agrexco are dealing with large amounts of Israeli
flowers in the build up to Valentine's Day. On Saturday over a hundred
protesters stood in front of the gates of the depot and deliveries had to
be rescheduled.

Agrexco is Israel’s largest exporter of agricultural produce into the
European Union, and is 50% Israeli state owned. It imports produce from
illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

This morning activists locked themselves to both gates of the Hayes depot.
They were met with violence by privates security guards from First Class
Protection. The blockade is currently stopping all motor vehicle traffic
in and out of the building.

Before taking part in this action many of the defendants had witnessed
first hand the suffering of Palestinian communities under the brutal
Israeli occupation. They do not accept the UK's complicity in the illegal
occupation of Palestine and see the presence of this company as a
violation of human rights.

BACKGROUND

Carmel-Agrexco is 50% owned by the state of Israel, and imports produce
from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. At the same time
Israeli forces have blocked Palestinian exports on grounds of ‘security’.

Israeli state sponsored settlements have appropriated land and water
resources by military force from Palestinian farmers in a deliberate
policy of colonial settlement.

In a hearing in September the judge ruled that Agrexco (UK) must prove
that their business is lawful.