One of the Just Stop Oil protesters who vandalized Stonehenge on Wednesday said that American males taunted him at the site of the demonstration.
The disruptive climate protest group — which indirectly receives funding from wealthy American liberals via a U.S.-based nonprofit — hosted a Friday Zoom call for Rajan Naidu, a 73-year-old activist for Just Stop Oil who took part in a protest in which he and another activist sprayed orange paint on the prehistoric monument.
Naidu recalled that a group of young Americans, led by males, made fun of him and his organization while he staged the protest, chanting “Oil!” and otherwise mocking the demonstration and its intentions.
“We were completely focused on our task. We were aware of them, we were aware of the shouting and we didn’t make, we didn’t make eye contact with anybody in the world,” Naidu said on the Zoom call, recounting his experience.
“We avoided eye contact because people were trying to send hostile messages to us. There was a group of young American people, mainly males, who just kept up a continuous barking and shouting (of) what they thought were clever, provocative things, because this action was in support of Just Stop Oil.
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“They started chanting ‘Oil,’ and boasting that they would go back and use even more oil. So that was one kind of reaction. And other people were silent.”
🚨 BREAKING: Just Stop Oil Spray Stonehenge Orange
🔥 2 people took action the day before Summer Solstice, demanding the incoming government sign up to a legally binding treaty to phase out fossil fuels by 2030.
🧯 Help us take megalithic action — https://t.co/R20S8YQD1j pic.twitter.com/ufzO8ZiDWu
— Just Stop Oil (@JustStop_Oil) June 19, 2024
Naidu, who was arrested for the stunt, according to National Review, said that his background “is in social justice and human rights.”
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The Daily Caller News Foundation joined the call to ask Naidu whether he believes such acts of protest attract ordinary people to his cause, and also to explain why Stonehenge — a monument that is older than the advent of fossil fuels by several thousand years — made an appropriate target to deface in protest against fossil fuels.
Within several minutes of joining the call and submitting questions for Naidu to answer, the call’s organizers kicked the DCNF out of the Zoom meeting.
Just Stop Oil activists have drawn plenty of attention in recent years, staging disruptive protests in roadways, major sporting events and museums to bring attention to their cause.
One stunt involved geriatric activists attempting to break the glass casing protecting one of the few copies of the Magna Carta in existence today.
Based in the U.K., it is one of several similarly-styled European climate activist groups that receives funding from the A22 Network, which itself receives funding from the Climate Emergency Fund (CEF), according to A22’s website.
CEF sponsors numerous analogous climate activist organizations in the U.S., including Climate Defiance and chapters of Extinction Rebellion, according to its website.
The charitable foundations of oil heiress Aileen Getty, Abigail Disney and Hollywood mainstays like Adam McKay and Jeremy Strong are among CEF’s donors, according to its 2023 annual report.
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