PALESTINE activists have accused an Elbit Systems-linked insurer of trying to suppress the footage of their removal when they disrupted a major insurance conference.

Students with the No New Workers campaign alleged today that they were violently removed from the central London event where they demanded key sponsor Sompo Insurance “stop insuring genocide.”

Activists accused security at the firm’s headquarters of “manhandling” a 17-year-old student, who was “pushed and dragged” away from the Insurance Linked Securities conference.

They also said a phone that was used to film their action was seized by security officers, who then refused to return it after multiple requests.

It was later recovered once police arrived at the scene, campaigners said, alleging that organisers later approached them requesting that they don’t release any of the footage they captured.

Their action took aim at Sompo for continuing its business with Elbit, which has been accused of complicity in Israel’s war crimes and its genocide in Gaza.

No New Workers spokeswoman Shana Sullivan demanded insurance firms “take their responsibilities to keep people and our planet safe seriously.”

She said: “We cannot compromise when insurers like Sompo are complicit in ongoing war crimes and genocide by taking on clients like Elbit Systems.

“There must be a hardline for anyone with a conscience, and it disgusts us that it is the young and less powerful who must point this out.”

Protesters have since released the recording and have written a letter to four senior firm executives which said they “were shoved and dragged from the room for our efforts” to open a dialogue on the companies’ tied to Elbit.

Sompo Insurance was contacted for comment.