A campaign group which unfurled a giant banner bearing the words, “yes it’s a genocide” in Parliament Square has received nearly £30,000 in compensation after it was destroyed by a waste management firm.
The group, Led By Donkeys, displayed the 40-metre-by-40-metre protest piece in December 2024, and filmed it from the sky, uploading the video to its social media.
But the banner was subsequently removed by the Greater London Authority (GLA) and handed over to Veolia, a waste management contractor, which destroyed it three months later.
Ben Stewart, a co-founder of Led By Donkeys, told The Guardian: “The Parliament Square banner was in collaboration with one of the world’s leading genocide scholars, but still the authorities threw process out the window and simply seized and destroyed our property.”
Israel has consistently denied allegations that it is committing genocide in Gaza.
After the banner’s destruction, the campaign group spent 19 months attempting to recover the cost from the GLA without success.
“Pursuing compensation was never about the money, it was about defending space to protest Israel’s war crimes,” Stewart said.
“Palestine protests are treated differently in Britain to all other forms of activism. Direct action is regarded as terrorism and words on a placard are rendered illegal [referring to the mass arrest of demonstrators holding signs in support of the proscribed Palestine Action group].
“Over the years we’ve delivered banners, put up billboards and done guerrilla projections across the country, but the only time our equipment has been seized and destroyed was when it related to Palestine.”
Ultimately, Veolia agreed to pay the full cost of the banner, £27,216, in compensation after receiving a legal letter from the group.
A Veolia spokesperson told The Guardian: “We were asked by our client (the GLA) to collect the banner and store it temporarily at one of our local depots.
“Regrettably, after around 12 weeks, the banner’s condition deteriorated and became a health and safety hazard for our operations, and the depot had to dispose of it.
“We have reimbursed Led By Donkeys for the full cost of the banner, due to the unintentional damage caused.”
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