Protests and petition against arms fair in Twickenham Stadium

Twickenham Stadium - Wiki CC license: https://www.flickr.com/photos/t_abdelmoumen Tijani59

Source: PSC/VaticanNews

Twickenham Stadium - the home of English Rugby - is due to host a. major arms fair: 'International Armoured Vehicles' - from 22 - 25 January, attended by more than 150 organisations producing weapons and military technology used by Israel to carry out its ongoing genocidal assault on Palestinians and other wars around the world.

In his Christmas Message Pope Francis said: "how can we even speak of peace, when arms production, sales, and trade are on the rise?"

To sign a petition calling on the @RFU to revoke permission for the arms fairs to use the stadium see: https://palestinecampaign.eaction.online/NoTwickenhamArmsFair

Protests organised by Richmond & Kingston PSC group in conjunction with Campaign Against the Arms Trade, Pax Christi and many local groups and activists from a range of organisations will be taking place on these dates:

Saturday 20 January 12am - 2pm Twickenham Town Centre, Kings St TW1 3SD

(5 mins walk from Twickenham station, or buses from Richmond which is on District line, Overground North London line & South Western Rail)

and Monday 22 January 1.30 - 4.30pm outside Twickenham Rugby Stadium, 200 Whitton Rd TW2 7BA

(either walk from Twickenham station or get a 281 bus to the stadium from the station)

Pope Francis condemned the global arms industry for its role in the ongoing slaughter in the Gaza Strip and called for peace worldwide during his Urbi et Orbi message from Vatican City on Christmas Day. War is "an aimless voyage," he said, "a defeat without victors, an inexcusable folly" and that "saying 'no' to war means saying 'no' to weaponry" provided to humanity by the global arms industry.

"The human heart is weak and impulsive; if we find instruments of death in our hands, sooner or later we will use them," he warned. "And how can we even speak of peace, when arms production, sales, and trade are on the rise?"

Pope Francis compared the global expenditures on weapons-which according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reached upwards of $2.2 trillion last year-with the failure of governments to fund social goods like efforts to fight hunger, homelessness, and poverty.

"People, who desire not weapons but bread, who struggle to make ends meet and desire only peace, have no idea how many public funds are being spent on arms," the Pope said. "Yet that is something they ought to know! It should be talked about and written about, so as to bring to light the interests and the profits that move the puppet strings of war."