Peace campaigners who have been gathering outside Kendal town hall each Saturday morning for the past nine months were delighted this week (Saturday 27 July 2024) to learn that fellow campaigners from Lancaster have made a banner for use in campaigning to stop James Cropper PLC / TFP supplying materials for F35 war planes, including those used by Israel in its attacks on Gaza. The group continue to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and an end to UK arms sales to Israel. The new banner was designed and sewn at the Lancaster Sewing Café. It carries the message, “STOP SUPPLYING GENOCIDE: NEVER AGAIN TO ANYONE” and makes symbolic reference to James Cropper PLC with ten images of red Remembrance Day poppies which Croppers also make at their Burneside mill.
Spokesperson, Philip Gilligan said “It is a tragic irony that the same company that makes poignant symbols of remembrance for those who have died or suffered in wars also makes components used in the manufacture of war planes which play such a major role in Israel’s ongoing assault on the people of Gaza. The International Court of Justice has judged Israel’s actions to be plausible war crimes amounting to genocide. Israel's attacks have forced .1.7 million people from their homes and killed 40,000 people, including at least 14,500 children. They have caused horrific health crises and an ever worsening famine. It is horrifying to know that F35s containing materials made in Burneside have been dropping GBU-31 bombs on densely populated areas of Gaza for the past nine months. Each of these bombs exposes people to death and injury in an area the size of 58 football pitches. CNN reports that, in just the first month of the Gaza war, Israel’s jets dropped more than 500 GBU-31 bombs, and it is beyond distressing to know that the planes raining death and destruction on defenceless children in Gaza were manufactured using materials supplied by James Cropper PLC. This brings shame to all communities in Westmorland and Furness.”