“We should support… the Israeli government in being able to defend themselves.”
On BBC Question Time last night the CEO of PureGym, Humphrey Cobbold, blamed Hamas for starting the current conflict and said the UK should still supply defensive weapons to Israel. pic.twitter.com/e7r9XqnnKu
— 5Pillars (@5Pillarsuk) May 10, 2024
Muslims have started to boycott PureGym following pro-Israel comments made by the company’s CEO Humphrey Cobbold on BBC Question Time last night.
In response to a question about whether the UK should continue to arm Israel, Cobbold said he was “deeply concerned” about what is happening in Gaza and added there should be an “insistence on Israel providing safe harbour and doing everything that can be done and more than they’ve done in the past in order to look after the citizens of Gaza, who are not to blame.”
However, he said we “should not forget the origin and trigger” of the bombardment in reference to the October 7 attacks and when pressed by host Fiona Bruce on whether he believed the UK Government should halt arms sales Cobbold replied: “I certainly think any weapons that are required for defence and for the Iron Dome, I see no reason why we wouldn’t do that.
“We saw horrendous attacks on Israel from Iran that were dealt with partly by British and American forces as well as we saw and I think defensive weapons should still be allowed to go through.
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“On the broader question, we send very little in terms of armaments to Israel in reality. It’s the Americans that do that.
“As I stand at the moment, I think we should support in general the Israeli government in being able to defend themselves against… remember Hamas is a prescribed terrorist organisation that has insisted on deciding to eradicate Jews and eradicate Israel and we’ve got to remember that when we deal with this.
“And that’s absolutely not the fault of the Palestinian people in general. They deserve more protection than they’re getting I agree with that but we must remember those facts.”
The clip of Cobbold has gone viral on social media with many Muslims now calling for PureGym to be boycotted.
For example, Sapience Institute founder Hamza Tzortzis said: “I have cancelled my @PureGym membership because their CEO is pro-genocide. To all my followers: please cancel your membership and join another gym.”
And Ayo خليل said: :I have just cancelled my membership, I know of many others cancelling their membership today and many who will be cancelling and boycotting once word spreads.”
