PRO-PALESTINIAN protesters urged Wimbledon to drop Barclays as a sponsor today, accusing the bank of complicity in alleged war crimes in Gaza. 

About two dozen protesters from Palestine Solidarity Campaign demonstrated by the main entrance of the All England Club as thousands of fans arrived for the opening day of the tournament.

“They’re the bank for the arms companies that are obviously supplying weapons to Israel,” protester Khalid Zalmay told the Associated Press. “We should not be arming Israel, we should not be allowing anybody to facilitate arming them, and I think ties should be cut with Israel, the same way that ties were cut with Russia.”

One protester held a sign that said Barclays is a “sponsor of Wimbledon and genocide.” 

They chanted: “Barclays bank, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide,” and held banners criticising the bank’s alleged investments in defence companies linked to the Israeli military.

Damian McCarthy, 53, a lawyer and organiser with the PSC, told the PA news agency: “I’m a local resident — and a lot of people in Wimbledon think the genocide in Gaza is appalling.

“We want to raise awareness. Barclays’ investment in genocide is wrong.

“It’s not about Wimbledon, it’s not about tennis, it’s about the investment in genocide, and we’ve got to stop it.”

An artist taking part in the protest unveiled an installation in memory of Hind Rajab, a five-year-old girl killed in Gaza in January 2024 after her family’s car was hit by an Israeli tank shell.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people in the October 7 2023 attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war.

Israel’s military response has led to the death of 56,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. It says more than half of the dead were women and children.

Wimbledon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Barclays said it is “proud of our partnership with Wimbledon” and defended its business practices.

“We provide a range of financial services and products to companies supplying defence products to the UK, Nato and its allies,” the company statement said. “As Nato, the EU and UK seek to increase their defence capabilities in response to increasing geopolitical threats, the provision of financial products and services to the defence sector is becoming increasingly important.”