PROTESTERS have been campaigning in Bromley to try and persuade supermarket chains to stop buying goods from companies which get them from illegal West Bank settlements.

The group, from Palestinian Solidarity Campaign’s South East London branch, handed out leaflets outside Sainsbury’s in Walters Yard to promote its cause.

Jonathan Coulter, who is promoting the work in the Bromley area, said: “This is a broad-based campaign that all responsible British citizens, companies and Government, should support, as do many Palestinians and Israelis.

“Israel has expropriated Palestinian lands and water resources, illegally colonised the Palestinian territories with more than 500,000 settlers and confined the indigenous population into ever smaller spaces policed by checkpoints, soldiers, an oppressive system of permits, and an illegal wall that weaves its away around settlements.

“While Israeli farms and companies prosper, impoverished Palestinian farmers are denied access to the land, the resources and markets for the goods they can produce.

“Apart from this, it is bad for Britain to turn a blind eye to this problem, given the political volatility of the middle-east.

“The Occupation increases the risk of large-scale regional conflict, while our perceived complicity with it increases security risks at home and that of de-stabilising relations with Muslim countries.”

Anyone interested in supporting the campaign is invited to a meeting at Bromley Friends Meeting House, Ravensbourne Road, at 3pm on April 28.

At the meeting Leah Levane will be giving an eyewitness account of her experiences when she spent three months in the South Hebron Hills last year.

Go to palestinecampaign.org/campaign/agricultural-produce/ for more details about the campaign or email Mr Coulter at jcoulter01@yahoo.com or call 07843 383259.