Demonstrators have apologised to a café owner after a ‘boycott’ chant at a protest in Blackburn targeted it.
Crowds gathered in Blackburn on Sunday afternoon to protest the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas and the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
People had congregated opposite the railway station and then made their way through the town centre to Church Street, carrying Palestinian flags and banners.
A recent focal point of pro-Palestine demonstrations had been Barclays Bank in Darwen Street, due to the bank's links to a number of military manufacturers whose products have been used by Israeli forces.
The branch closed in May and a small team of staff have relocated to Freckleton Business Centre, a short walk from its old location, to run Barclays Local which deals with queries from customers who wish to have face-to-face meetings.
The demonstration in the town centre
The protest made its way to the new location of a ‘pop up’ branch of Barclays in St Peter’s Street.
Here, crowds were told to ‘boycott the Chaii Caffe’ which, shares the same building as other businesses based at the centre.
Demonstrators were made up of people from across Lancashire who had travelled to Blackburn to be at the protest.
Later, one of the march's leaders said he wished to apologise for the chant and appeared to have got ‘carried away in the heat of the moment’.
Police and volunteers were on hand to marshal the unplanned event
An organiser said: “I came to attend a demonstration for Palestine today.
“We ended up marching to this side towards Chaii Caffe. I was talking about Barclays and I did small speech on them and I got carried away in the heat of the moment.”
He said he ended up saying ‘boycott Chaii Caffe’.
He added: “I shouldn’t have said what I said and I take ownership for my actions and I apologise to the owners of the Chaii Caffe.”
Chaii Caffe bosses said they had accepted the apology, which was made on the same day as the protest and said the matter was now closed.
Since the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians, a number of protests have taken place outside Barclays branches around the country, accusing it of 'funding and profiting from' the conflict.
In recent months, several banks had their windows smashed and red paint thrown on shopfronts by vandals.
Barclays denies the accusations and said in a statement it was not a ‘shareholder’ or ‘investor’.
Barclays said in a statement on its website: “We have been asked why we invest in nine defence companies supplying Israel, but this mistakes what we do.
“We trade in shares of listed companies in response to client instruction or demand and that may result in us holding shares.
"We are not making investments for Barclays and Barclays is not a ‘shareholder’ or ‘investor’ in that sense in relation to these companies.”
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