Grandmother arrested at pro-Palestine protest ‘proud to keep demonstrating'
The pair attended Musgrave Street police station in Belfast city centre on Wednesday for a pre-arranged interview under caution with officers.
Sue Pentel and Martine McCullough attend Musgrave Street police station in Belfast for a pre-arranged interview under caution after the pair were arrested earlier this year on suspicion of criminal damage at a pro-Palestine protest outside Barclay's Bank (Rebecca Black/PA)
Fellow campaigners staged a protest in solidarity with the pair outside the station, with applause and calls of 'we're with you' as they arrived.
Jewish grandmother Ms Pentel is a high-profile campaigner against Israel's military offensive on Gaza.
Videos circulated online of the arrest of Ms Pentel indicate the alleged offence related to the placing of stickers on the bank's ATM machine.
Barclays has been a target for pro-Palestine protesters who claim the bank is linked to companies supplying weapons to Israel.
Barclays has previously addressed the criticism, saying it provides financial services to nine defence companies supplying Israel but does not directly invest in such firms.
The bank has said it has become the target of a disinformation campaign over its ties to defence companies.
Ms Pentel said they are 'proud to peacefully protest outside Barclays'.
'We've been doing it for the last eight months,' she said.
'To protest the genocide, to protest the violence, to protest the way that Israel feels its OK to starve children, to stop humanitarian aid while the world looks on.
'Well, we won't look on, we won't remain silent.'
(l-r) Sue Pentel and Martine McCullough, and their solicitor Padraig O Muirigh arrive at Musgrave Street police station in Belfast for a pre-arranged police interview after the pair were arrested last month pro-Palestine protest outside a Barclays bank (Rebecca Black/PA)
She added: 'We understand that we've been asked to be interviewed under caution, and we're voluntarily going in about an incident on April 26 and all we can say is we're proud to demonstrate with our amazing colleagues every week outside Barclays.
'We have the right to peacefully protest, we want to thank our solicitor Padraig O Muirigh for his time and advice.
'We have the right to peacefully protest and we will continue to do it until the genocide stops.
'We're two grandmothers, when our grandchildren ask us what we did, we know what we'll say, we stood up, we spoke out, we weren't silent, and as a Jewish person I am absolutely ashamed of anybody either Israeli Jewish or London Jewish or wherever who doesn't stand up and who thinks this is OK.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
27 minutes ago
- The Guardian
How German media outlets helped pave the way for Israel's murder of journalists in Gaza
What is the role of journalism when Palestinian reporters are treated as criminals and left to die? Last October, I spoke with the journalist Hossam Shabat. He described families packing what little they had left in northern Gaza as Israel began implementing its 'generals' plan'. Six months later, Shabat was dead – killed by Israel, accused of being a Hamas operative. Israel does not try to hide these killings. Instead, it often smears its victims in advance – branding journalists as 'terrorists', accusations that are rarely substantiated. These labels serve a clear cause: to strip reporters of their civilian status and make their killing appear morally acceptable. Journalists are not legitimate targets. Killing them is a war crime. The latest round shook the world: five Al Jazeera journalists were assassinated in a press tent in Gaza City, among them Anas al-Sharif, whose face had become familiar to anyone following Gaza up close. Both the UN and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) had warned that al-Sharif's life was in danger. Weeks later, he was dead. Meanwhile, a growing consensus recognises Gaza as the site of a livestreamed genocide. Yet in Germany – a country that prides itself on having learned the lessons of its own genocidal history – some of the most powerful media institutions have played a part in enabling Israel's actions. Some German journalists have even justified the killing of their Palestinian colleagues. The clearest example is Axel Springer, Europe's largest publisher and owner of Bild, Germany's biggest newspaper. Hours after the killing of al-Sharif became public, Bild splashed his image under this headline: 'Terrorist disguised as journalist killed in Gaza' (which was later changed to 'Journalist killed was allegedly a terrorist'). Let that sink in. About a week before, Bild had published another piece: 'This Gaza photographer stages Hamas propaganda.' The article targeted the Palestinian photographer Anas Zayed Fteiha, accusing him of staging images of starving Palestinians as part of a Hamas campaign, despite the evidence that the subjects of the photos were indeed starving and waiting for food. In the article, Fteiha's title as journalist appeared in quotation marks, implying he wasn't a real journalist, and that images of starvation were exaggerated fabrications. The Bild story – along with a similar piece in the liberal Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) – was swiftly amplified on X by Israel's foreign ministry, which cited them as proof that Hamas manipulates global opinion. Fteiha was branded an 'Israel- and Jew-hater' serving Hamas. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation quickly piled on, joined by rightwing influencers. In this case, German media had become a direct pipeline for Israeli talking points, quickly recycled into the international arena and repackaged as 'evidence'. Fteiha said in response: 'I don't create suffering. I document it.' Calling his work 'Hamas propaganda', he continued, 'is a felony against the press itself'. Just days before the Bild and SZ articles were published, one of Germany's largest journalists' associations, Deutscher Journalisten-Verband (DJV), issued a statement warning of 'manipulation' in press photography. It specifically cast doubt on images showing emaciated children in Gaza, claiming their condition 'apparently is not attributable to the famine in Gaza'. The DJV offered no evidence for this claim – largely because no such evidence exists. Facing backlash online, the association cited a July article in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, whose author had speculated whether images of emaciated infants were really the result of starvation – or rather of preexisting conditions such as cystic fibrosis. The piece suggested that publications had been either negligent or manipulative in publishing these photos without further detail. Omitted was the fact that hunger and preexisting conditions can't be neatly separated and that no preexisting condition alone could produce such extreme emaciation. Bias isn't new in the German media landscape. At Axel Springer, support for the existence of the state of Israel is second on the list of the company's guiding principles, its so-called essentials. In September last year, Bild helped derail ceasefire negotiations by publishing an 'exclusive' report – excerpts from a Hamas strategy leaked to Bild by Benjamin Netanyahu's aides. In it, Bild claimed Hamas was 'not aiming for a quick end to the war', which neatly absolved Netanyahu of any responsibility for the breakdown in talks at the time. (In response to queries about the story, a Bild spokesperson told +972 magazine that the publication does not comment on its sources.) As it turned out, the Hamas document had been broadly misrepresented by Bild. The timing couldn't have served Netanyahu better: the story landed as mass protests put pressure on his position. Shortly after the Bild report was published, Netanyahu cited it in a cabinet meeting to cast the demonstrators as pawns of Hamas. The Bild article remains online, uncorrected. The problem, however, extends far beyond Bild and Axel Springer. Across legacy German media, failures to provide fact-based, balanced coverage of Israel and Palestine have been far reaching – and became glaringly obvious after the 7 October attacks. Fabricated claims, such as that Hamas had beheaded 40 babies, along with various other pieces of deliberate misinformation, remain uncorrected. Outlets across the political spectrum in Germany routinely omit historical context, frame Palestinian deaths in passive, depoliticised terms, and display a near-blind faith in Israeli military 'verification' – while ignoring a well-documented record of misinformation by Israeli state sources. In January, the ostensibly leftwing Die Tageszeitung ran a piece headlined: 'Can journalists be terrorists?' The article cited the Israeli military four times – and did not quote a single journalist in Gaza. Across the German media landscape, such narratives contribute to stripping Palestinian journalists of credibility, and – in the worst case – handing Israel readymade justifications for targeting them. Germany's 'never again' pledge should carry weight given its deeply genocidal history. Yet it rings hollow when the country's dominant outlets launder or supply propaganda to legitimise mass killing in Gaza. This is not journalism in the service of truth – it is journalism in the service of violence. Breaking this cycle would require a serious reckoning with the editorial cultures and political loyalties that have enabled German journalism to be weaponised in this way. The killing of journalists in Gaza makes one thing painfully clear: Israel does not want a record to be left. When the history of this genocide is written, there will be chapters on the media's role. Germany's section will be uncomfortably large. No one should claim they didn't see it happening. Hanno Hauenstein is a Berlin-based journalist and author. He worked as a senior editor in Berliner Zeitung's culture department, specialising in contemporary art and politics
Western Telegraph
an hour ago
- Western Telegraph
UK landmine charity wins global humanitarian prize
The Mines Advisory Group (MAG) has been selected as the 2025 recipient of the Conrad N Hilton Humanitarian Prize, an annual award which honours a non-profit organisation leading efforts to alleviate human suffering. The group, set up in 1989 in Cockermouth, Cumbria, and now based in Manchester, has worked in more than 70 countries across the world to clear and raise awareness of landmines, as well as being part of international efforts to stop the use of the explosives. Bosses say their work is more important than ever as new and ongoing conflicts have led to a spike in the number of landmine casualties. MAG chief executive Darren Cormack said eight out of 10 people killed or injured by landmines were civilians and 40% were children. He said: 'Predominantly, civilians are most at risk where landmines and unexploded ordnance litter communities. 'They pose an immediate risk to life and limb in contexts where war is ongoing, so Syria, Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar, Ukraine, and we're in a desperate race really to get safety messages to those communities who are at risk, to avoid the risk and to clear the landmines and unexploded ordnance from harm's way.' The group was part of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, backed by Princess Diana, which in 1997 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its work. Their campaign led to the Ottawa Treaty, an international convention banning landmines, but, some countries are planning to withdraw from the agreement. Mines Advisory Group chief Darren Cormack pointed to ongoing conflicts (MAG/Dalia Khamissy/PA) Mr Cormack said the treaty was 'one of the most successful instruments of international humanitarian law' and the group believed it was 'vitally important' it was maintained. He said: 'We have seen that it is an effective way of ultimately protecting civilians who are at risk many, many years after conflicts have ended. 'Yes, there are pressures right now that some states are certainly under and we're seeing that in Europe and the Baltic states – Poland, Ukraine – who are considering withdrawing. 'Our position is we would regret that and believe it is something that should be upheld.' Executive director of MAG US, Shari Bryan, said: 'As levels of conflict rise across the world and as several countries have expressed intent to exit the Ottawa Treaty amidst escalating conflict in eastern Europe, our work has never been more important.' The prize of three million dollars (£2.2 million) will support MAG's work, which has a community-centred approach, with the majority of its 5,500 staff coming from areas affected by conflict. Mr Cormack said: 'Too often we're in a race to find a landmine before a child does and what this funding will enable us is to find different ways of potentially doing what we do.' Peter Laugharn, president and chief executive of the Conrad N Hilton Foundation, said: 'The selection of the Mines Advisory Group as this year's Hilton Humanitarian Prize recipient serves as a reminder that compassion and peace should still be at the top of our global agenda. 'Through its extraordinary efforts to help communities return to safety and prosperity after conflict, the Mines Advisory Group exemplifies the kind of humanitarian excellence our prize has sought to celebrate and inspire over the last three decades.' UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: 'Landmines kill indiscriminately and remain lethal long after conflicts are over, so I was privileged to see how the Mines Advisory Group are tackling this critical issue first-hand during my visit to Laos last year. 'Their expert teams not only clear landmines but also run life-saving educational programmes for returning communities to reduce the risk of injury or death. 'It is a source of great pride to see a UK-based organisation receive this prestigious prize, and to support their vital work in this time of conflict and geopolitical instability.' A prize ceremony will be held in New York in October.
ITV News
an hour ago
- ITV News
Putin is bluffing, Zelenskyy tells Trump at talks ahead of Alaska summit
Pro-Ukraine allies, including the UK and Europe, met US President Donald Trump virtually ahead of the US and Russian leaders' summit on Friday.
