Pro-Palestinian activists organized a sit-in at the foyer of the British Museum in London to protest the museum's $63.3 million sponsorship deal with the oil and gas corporation BP.
The agreement aims to fund the museum's restoration over the next decade, enhancing access to exhibits from its permanent collection.
However, the group Energy Embargo for Palestine objected to the partnership, citing BP's involvement in receiving gas licenses from Israel on October 30, 2023.
"We will not stand by as British-based energy companies fuel Israel's colonial genocide," the group declared in a statement on social media.
Demonstrators arrived at the British Museum wearing scarves and held a banner reading: "30 thousand people died. 200 cultural monuments destroyed." They also displayed Palestinian flags in the museum's lobby and chanted the slogan "From the belly of the beast, hands off the Middle East."
BP has been a sponsor of the British Museum since 1999, facing periodic criticism as a result. Previous protests, including a week-long demonstration by the environmental activist group BP or Not BP in February 2020, have targeted the museum. In 2019, writer Ahdaf Suyef resigned from the museum's board in protest against its collaboration with BP.
The British Museum released a statement acknowledging people's right to peaceful protest on its grounds as long as it does not endanger the museum's collections, staff, or visitors.
