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Anti-Israel activists are selling Palestinian-colored versions of Britain’s red poppy ahead of Remembrance Day on November 11, drawing outrage from veterans and political figures who accuse them of politicizing the commemoration of fallen soldiers.
The £1.74 ($2.32) pin echoes the shape of the traditional poppy but carries the colors of the Palestinian flag. Remembrance Day and Remembrance Sunday, which falls on November 8, honor fallen soldiers and veterans of the British Commonwealth, and the red flower recalls the poppies that grew across the Flanders battlefields after World War I.
The activists’ website calls the product the “Palestine Poppy” and describes it as a commemoration of those killed and displaced during “the Gazan Genocide of 2023-2025.” It also envisions the badge becoming an “anti-apartheid symbol.”
The genocide accusation against Israel echoes the centuries-old blood libel, which falsely accused Jews of murdering Christian children for ritual purposes. The charge now casts the Jewish state, embodying the collective Jew, as the perpetrator of atrocities against innocent civilians.
A video on the site features the slogan :From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” widely interpreted as calling for the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state.
Profits from sales are earmarked for pro-Palestinian groups, including Friends of Al-Aqsa, which was identified in a 2024 Home Office-commissioned review as an anti-Israel campaign group. Its founder, Ismail Patel, has defended Hamas as “no terrorist organization,” met the terrorist group’s former leader Ismail Haniyeh, and praised the terrorist who murdered Israeli tour guide Eli Kay in Jerusalem in 2021 as a “martyr.” Following backlash, Labour removed a Friends of Al-Aqsa event from its official party conference program in September.
Retired Lt. Col. Stuart Crawford, a British Army veteran and defense analyst, told GB News, “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.”
The Royal British Legion sells some 35 million paper poppies and badges annually, raising funds to support veterans, serving military personnel and their families. A spokesperson for the charity said, “People are free to choose to wear different poppies.”
Shadow Defense Minister David Reed also criticized the initiative. “The greatest disrespect we can show to those who sacrificed their lives for us is to turn their remembrance into a political battleground,” he said. “The fallen deserve our gratitude, not our agendas. This must not go unchallenged.”
Reed added that he would personally challenge people wearing the badge and encouraged others to do likewise.
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