Veterans have accused pro-Palestine campaigners of ‘hijacking’ Britain’s national symbol of remembrance by selling special red, white, black and green poppies.
The ‘Palestine poppy’ is designed to commemorate those killed in the conflict with Israel, and according to its backers adapts the Palestinian flag as a symbol of ‘solidarity’ with its people’s ‘ongoing struggle’.
Some of the proceeds from sales benefit charities working in the region – one of which was banned from last month’s Labour Party conference over its founder’s past comments about Hamas.
Three weeks before Remembrance Sunday, British veterans have condemned the campaign, saying the symbol should be about unity and not division.
Former Army officer and defence analyst Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Crawford told GB News it was an effort to ‘hijack’ or ‘ride on the coat-tails of the familiar red poppy’.
He said: ‘The Remembrance poppy is avowedly apolitical despite what some misguided people might say, and commemorates our war dead by bringing people together in the act of remembrance.
‘The so-called “Palestine Poppy” is about as far away from remembrance as it’s possible to be.
‘It is unashamedly political, designed to divide rather than unite.’
Backers of the Palestine Poppy say it ‘a symbol of solidarity and remembrance for the ongoing struggle of the Palestinian people and their fight for justice’
Thousands of protesters took to central London last weekend just days after the third anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attacks
Former Royal Navy officer Stuart Fawcett also criticised the Palestine poppy, pointing to protesters scaling the Battle of Britain memorial and trampling on wreaths during a demonstration in London last week.
‘Now, we see them hijacking our national symbol of remembrance,’ he told the broadcaster. ‘Nothing is sacred to this mob that makes a pursuit of distorting the truth.’
On sale for £1.74 each on eBay, where more than 1,200 have so far been bought, the Palestine Poppy features the green, red, white and black of the Palestinian flag.
According to the group which is behind it, the poppies are ‘a symbol of solidarity and remembrance for the ongoing struggle of the Palestinian people and their fight for justice’.
Wearing it is intended to show ‘unity with the beleaguered, oppressed, and occupied people of Palestine’, it adds.
However its website features the controversial slogan ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ – frequently interpreted as denying the right of the state of Israel to exist.
It also describes those killed or displaced in Gaza since the October 7 attack by Hamas in which 1,200 Israeli civilians were murdered and a further 251 taken hostage as victims of ‘genocide’ – a label furiously denied by Israel and its supporters.
But military veterans say the poppy ‘hijacks’ the spirit of remembrance as it is ‘designed to divide rather than unite’
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The website also highlights how an estimated 12,000 Palestinians fought against the Nazis during the Second World War, and that the poppy is the national flower of Palestine.
The poppies are being sold on a not-for-profit basis, with a ‘small donation’ towards charities ‘working on the ground in Palestine’, plus organisations seeking to ‘bring about the end to the occupation and war crimes through legal routes’.
Among the charities named is Friends of Al-Aqsa, which has attracted controversy over its chairman, Ismail Patel.
He previously praised Hamas for ‘standing up to Israel’ and insisted it is ‘no terrorist organisation’.
Mr Patel was due to chair a gathering at a fringe event at last month’s Labour conference in Liverpool but the listing was later removed from its official schedule.
The Royal British Legion (RBL) describes the red poppy and the act of remembrance as ‘unifiers of people and communities across the UK and the Commonwealth’.
According to its mission statement it is a ‘non-partisan and non-sectarian organisation’ which commemorates all those affected by service in the Armed Forces ‘without considering the politics of conflict’.
However the charity was accused of ‘going woke’ in 2024 after releasing a poppy badge with a Pride flag attached.
The RBL told GB News that ‘people are free to choose to wear different poppies’.
The Palestine Poppy group was approached for comment.
Every year the RBL sells around 35million paper poppies and pin badges to support the Armed Forces community.
Other organisations sell different coloured poppies, for example black to commemorate the contribution of black, African and Caribbean communities to the war effort, and purple to remember animals which have died in wars.
