Pro-Palestinian campaigners are selling a "Palestine Poppy" in the green, red, white and black of the Palestinian flag ahead of Remembrance Sunday, and British veterans say it hijacks the country's day of mourning for its war dead, GB News reports.
The badge is on eBay for £1.74 each, and the Mail counts more than 1,200 sold so far. The group behind it calls the poppies "a symbol of solidarity and remembrance for the ongoing struggle of the Palestinian people and their fight for justice." Sales are not-for-profit, with a "small donation" going to charities in Palestine and to groups seeking to end "the occupation and war crimes through legal routes."
Retired Army officer and defense analyst Lt. Col. Stuart Crawford told GB News the badge is an attempt to "ride on the coat-tails of the familiar red poppy."
"The Remembrance poppy is avowedly apolitical," he said, while the Palestine version is "unashamedly political, designed to divide rather than unite."
Former Royal Navy officer Stuart Fawcett tied it to last weekend's march in London.
"Now, we see them hijacking our national symbol of remembrance," he told the broadcaster.
The march he means took place Saturday, Oct. 10. The Met Police said it made 20 arrests, six of them for criminal damage after protesters climbed the Battle of Britain memorial on the Embankment, where wreaths at the base were trampled and destroyed. Others were held for showing placards backing Palestine Action, a proscribed group, and for a racially aggravated public order offense after a woman was seen making a Nazi salute, Jewish News reports, citing the force.
Conservative MP Nick Timothy called the protesters "scum," and Lord Hannan asked what they had against the Battle of Britain pilots. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Carl Galvin, who ran the operation, said the march's timing near the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack raised the risk to community relations.
The poppy's website carries the slogan "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," which critics read as a denial of Israel's right to exist, the Mail notes. It also calls those killed or displaced in Gaza victims of "genocide," a label Israel and its supporters reject.
