Persistent, organised pressure works”: Q&A with Greenwich Palestine Alliance’s Lubna Speitan
public interest law centre - Published On: 28th January 2026
Challenging unlawful state practice and systemic injustice - Link to the article
Public Interest Law Centre, acting on behalf of Claimant, Lubna Speitan, a founding member of Greenwich Palestine Alliance, has instigated judicial review proceedings against Greenwich Council, challenging its failure to divest its Local Government Pension Scheme from the crimes being perpetrated against the Palestinian people by the State of Israel. Lubna is a Greenwich resident and long-standing human rights campaigner, with family in Gaza and the West Bank.
PILC spoke to Lubna about the campaign.
What prompted you to start the campaign to get Greenwich Council to divest from Israeli investments?
It was born from a combination of profound personal grief and institutional hypocrisy. As Israel’s assault on Gaza began, our Council lit the town hall in blue and white in solidarity with Israel. This incensed residents, especially as we were mourning after an Israeli missile strike had just killed 25 of our own relatives.
We met the Council Leader and Deputy, who offered sympathy but refused any meaningful action, including divestment. The hypocrisy crystallised shortly after, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. After a solemn tribute, we requested a one-minute silence for Palestinians and our family. By order of the Mayor/leader, Councillors, with exception of a few, walked out, and security removed us. Those who stood with us were ordered to leave. One councillor falsely accused a protester of ‘antisemitism’ and another goaded them. Following challenge, they later retracted with a public and written apology.
Greenwich Council had swiftly raised flags, worn badges, organised fundraisers and resident schemes for Ukraine and supported sanctions on Russia. For Palestinians, there was only silence, obfuscation and removal. When the Council then claimed they had “no power or duties over international matters” while they invested employee pension funds in firms profiting from occupation, apartheid and genocide we knew we had to act.
What are your main aims with the campaign?
Our primary and immediate aim of this campaign is to compel the Council to divest all funds, including pension investments, away from companies complicit in the illegal occupation of Palestine and Israel’s continued violations of international law. More broadly, we aim to dismantle the double standard in how our institutions apply human rights.
This is about confronting a system that treats Palestinian lives as less worthy of protection and solidarity. It is a campaign for consistent ethical practice and against institutionalised racism. A campaign to end apartheid and genocide.
Why is it important for councils to divest from Israel?
It is a fundamental matter of ethical governance and historical precedent. Councils have a fiduciary duty to invest public money responsibly, not in activities that cause harm. Our own local history proves this: divestment from South Africa was a crucial, tangible step Greenwich council took against apartheid. It showed local government can be a powerful lever for global justice.
Today, it is a critical moral litmus test. Allowing our community’s wealth to fund oppression normalises atrocity and makes us indirectly complicit. If we refuse to act now, we betray the legacy of those who fought against injustice and undermine our own principles.
Councils must ensure our money builds peace, not apartheid and genocide.
What have you learned throughout this process?
have learned how deeply entrenched selective morality, hypocrisy and prejudice is embedded in our systems. The readiness to erase Palestinian suffering, while financially participating in it, reveals both a profound double standard and cowardice. I have also seen how the false equation of criticising Israel with ‘antisemitism’ is weaponised as a silencing tactic, creating a climate of fear to paralyze action. But most importantly, I have relearned a vital lesson from the anti-apartheid movement: persistent, organised pressure works. It took years of lobbying, protests, and public shaming to force divestment from South Africa. Today, with our persistent campaigning and our legal victory, we have forced Greenwich Council to admit its position was unlawful, proving that the same determination can affect change. This sends a message to all councils that you can indeed take action to fully divest from Israel and the maintenance of its apartheid and genocidal occupation.
What advice would you give to other local activists and residents who want their councils to divest?
Remember your history and be relentless. Past victories did not happen overnight.
Organise Collectively: Build broad coalitions with unions, faith groups, and community organisations. This is how we won before.
Use All Avenues: Lobby Council and Pension Committee meetings relentlessly. Submit formal questions. File legal challenges on procedural grounds, as we did.
Make Specific Demands: Be clear: “Follow your own precedent on South Africa: end all investments linked to Israeli apartheid.”
Assert Your Power: Write to your MP and Councillors. Remind them they are elected to represent your conscience and that their position is not permanent.
Confront Silencing Mechanisms: Wear your badges and expressions of solidarity proudly and challenge all attempts to silence or deny this right. Engage unions and local solidarity groups for support in taking action.
Never Stop: Public pressure is a sustained campaign, not a one-off event. The anti-apartheid movement teaches us that persistence is the ultimate key to victory.
What advice would you give to sympathetic council workers who also want their councils to divest?
To sympathetic workers and councillors: history is watching, and it repeats itself. During the South African anti-apartheid struggle, it was workers and councillors of conscience who pushed from within.
Organise through your trade union. Get ethical investment on the agenda and explicitly demand no investments in apartheid, occupation and genocide. Call for ‘full, immediate and permanent divestment from Israel’. Union pensions and collective bargaining are powerful tools. Use your voice internally. Ask the difficult questions in meetings, share information on procurement and investments, and support public campaigns from your position.
Find courage in our legacy. Greenwich Council once did the right thing on South Africa because people inside and outside demanded it. You can be part of that righteous history again. Private sympathy is not enough; public action is what builds a legacy of justice.
