Huda Ammori, co-founder of Palestine Action, speaks about British arms companies' complicity in the oppression of the Palestinian people at the National Alternative Remembrance Ceremony 2021.

Huda is an activist and writer with Palestinian and Iraqi heritage. She is the co-founder of Palestine Action, a direct action network launched in August 2020, which seeks to end British complicity with Israel's apartheid regime. Their main target and campaign is against Elbit Systems, Israel's largest arms company, with 10 bases across Britain. Elbit's weapons are marketed as "battle-tested" on Palestinians, built in Britain, and exported to the world's most oppressive regimes. In the first year of the campaigns existence, Elbit was forcibly closed down for over 3 months and reported extensively by independent, national, and international media. Despite facing numerous charges and experiencing severe police intimidation tactics, Huda remains determined to fight for an end to British involvement in the oppression of the Palestinian people and other indigenous groups across the world.

Previously, Huda completed extensive research exposing British institutions investments and ties in companies which facilitate the oppression of indigenous groups across the world - as well as co-ordinating national campaigns to end their complicity. The success of these campaigns has involved the University of Manchester, University of Leeds, HSBC and others ending their investments in corporations which profit from colonialism, death and destruction.

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Every year the National Alternative Remembrance Ceremony makes a stand for a different approach to remembrance, one that confronts the injustices of war, remembers all its victims, both military and civilian, and stands up for peace.

This year the event was live streamed from Tavistock Square in London, after a year online due to the pandemic. Around 100 people attended in the square, with hundreds more watching online.

Speakers:
Hamit Dardagan, co-founder of Iraq Body Count and the charity Every Casualty Worldwide
Huda Ammori, activist, writer and co-founder of Palestine Action
Hosted by Anya Nanning Ramamurthy, organiser of London youth climate strikes and PPU council member

The ceremony highlighted the importance of a peaceful and inclusive culture of remembrance at a time of growing instability caused by the climate crisis and the COVID pandemic. It also marked twenty years since 9/11 and the invasion of Afghanistan, with speakers focussing on the catastrophic impacts of the 'war on terror'.