“What’s happening in America’s college campuses is horrific… This is reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s.”
— Benjamin Netanyahu
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Stephen Kapos’ reply to Netanyahu:
As a Holocaust survivor my message to the brave student protesters in America is just keep doing it. Don’t give up. We are doing exactly the same and in the long term we’re going to prevail.
I’m out from the beginning at every march. A small group of survivors and descendants of survivors demonstrate disagreement with the use of the Holocaust experience as a cover by the Zionists and the state of Israel.
The way that the Israeli government is using the memory of the Holocaust in order to justify what they’re doing to the Gazans is a complete insult to the memory of the Holocaust.
And we stand repeatedly in the last few demos carrying placards hanging from the neck saying: “This Survivor of the Holocaust is against the genocide in Gaza.” And we also demonstrate against the conflating of Jewishness with Zionism, which is what the Israeli state is trying to do [and] which does nothing else but increases anti-Semitism. So we are trying to counter that by demonstrating that Jews and Holocaust survivors are against that.
We have tremendously warm reception and appreciation from the typical members of the march. We get handshakes and hugs, and some people stand, and some women cry seeing the placards. It’s a great and warm experience.
When the right-wing section of the present government is trying to press for the banning of these marches on the ground that they create no-go areas for Jews, and they are anti-semitic, we know that this is complete rubbish, and the very opposite is true.
Today’s marches are having a very hopeful aspect that it is so large, so persistent, so global, that eventually the Western leadership, which are trying to deny what is actually going on, will be forced to face up to it. And I think we are not far from that.
I think there was no parallel to that in the Jewish Holocaust experience. In fact, there was great abandonment certainly from the leadership of the country. There were some very few, very brave people, who risked everything to be on the right side of history, and to rescue as many as possible, but the majority of people were too afraid and looked the other way.
There is a question of historic responsibility towards injustice, genocide and fascism. If you are just indifferent, if you do not take a stand, you acquire a degree of guilt without any doubt, and I think it is imperative to assert opposition and even at some degree of disadvantage and risk, if you want to be guilt free when history judges what’s happening.
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Additional:
Stephen Kapos also recently spoke to host of Not the Andrew Marr Show, Crispin Flintoff, about his experiences as a boy, how this resonates with the situation in Gaza, why he has attended every Palestine demonstration since October, and how he has been invited to speak at the big national demonstration on Saturday 27th April:
France could be leading the American people down a path toward a nuclear conflict decidedly not in the interests of the American people – or of humanity itself, VIPS warns President Joe Biden.
March 24, 2024
ALERT MEMORANDUM FOR: The President
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
SUBJECT: On the Brink of Nuclear War
Mr. President:
France is reportedly preparing to dispatch a force of some 2,000 troops — roughly a reinforced brigade built around an armored battalion and two mechanized battalions, with supporting logistical, engineering, and artillery troops attached — into Ukraine sometime in the not-so-distant future.
This force is purely symbolic, inasmuch as it would have zero survivability in a modern high-intensity conflict of the scope and scale of what is transpiring in Ukraine today. It would not be deployed directly in a conflict zone, but would serve either as
(1) a screening force/tripwire to stop Russia’s advance; or
(2) a replacement force deployed to a non-active zone to free up Ukrainian soldiers for combat duty. The French Brigade reportedly will be supplemented by smaller units from the Baltic states.
This would be introducing combat troops of a NATO country into a theater of war, making them “lawful targets” under the Law of War.
Such units would apparently lack a NATO mandate. In Russia’s view, however, this may be a distinction without a difference. France appears to be betting – naively – that its membership in NATO would prevent Russia from attacking French troops. Rather, it is highly likely that Russia would attack any French/Baltic contingent in Ukraine and quickly destroy/degrade its combat viability.
In that case, French President Macron may calculate that, after Russian attacks on the troops of NATO members – NATO mandate or not – he could invoke Article 5 of the NATO Charter and get the NATO alliance to intervene. Such intervention would likely take the form of aircraft operating from NATO nations – and perhaps include interdiction missions against tactical targets inside Russia.
On Precipice of Nuclear War?
Doctrinally, and by legal right, Russia’s response would be to launch retaliatory strikes also against targets in NATO countries. If NATO then attacks strategic targets inside Russia, at that point Russia’s nuclear doctrine takes over, and NATO decision-making centers would be hit with nuclear weapons.
We do not believe Russia will initiate a nuclear attack against the U.S., but rather would leave it up to the United States to decide if it wants to risk destruction by preparing to launch a nuclear strike on Russia. That said, Russian strategic forces have improved to the point that, in some areas – hypersonic missiles, for example – its capability surpasses that of the U.S. and NATO.
In other words, the Russian temptation to strike first may be a bit stronger than during past crises, and we are somewhat less confident that Russia would want to “go second”.
Another disquieting factor is that the Russians are likely to believe that Macron’s folly has the tacit approval of some key U.S. and other Western officials, who seem desperate to find some way to alter the trajectory of the war in Ukraine – the more so, as elections draw near.
What Needs to Be Done
Europe needs to understand that France is leading it down a path of inevitable self-destruction.
The American people need to understand that Europe is leading them to the cusp of nuclear annihilation.
Since Russian leaders may suspect that Macron is working hand in glove with Washington, the U.S. needs to make its position publicly and unambiguously clear.
And if France and the Baltics insist on sending troops into Ukraine, it must also be made clear that such action has no NATO mandate; that Article 5 will not be triggered by any Russian retaliation; and that the U.S. nuclear arsenal, including those nuclear weapons that are part of the NATO deterrent force, will not be employed as a result of any Russian military action against French or Baltic troops.
Void of such clarity, France would be leading the American people down a path toward a nuclear conflict decidedly not in the interests of the American people – or of humanity itself.
FOR THE STEERING GROUP,
VETERAN INTELLIGENCE PROFESSIONALS FOR SANITY
William Binney, former Technical Director, World Geopolitical & Military Analysis, NSA; co-founder, SIGINT Automation Research Center (ret.)
Richard Black, former Virginia State Senator; Colonel, USA (ret.); Former Chief, Criminal Law Division, Judge Advocate General (associate VIPS)
Marshall Carter-Tripp, Foreign Service Officer (ret) and former Office Director in the State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research
Bogdan Dzakovic, former Team Leader of Federal Air Marshals and Red Team, FAA Security, (ret.) (associate VIPS)
Graham E. Fuller, Vice-Chair, National Intelligence Council (ret.)
Philip Giraldi, C.I.A., Operations Officer (ret.)
Matthew Hoh, former Capt., USMC, Iraq and Foreign Service Officer, Afghanistan (associate VIPS)
James George Jatras, former U.S. diplomat and former foreign policy adviser to Senate leadership (Associate VIPS)
Larry C. Johnson, former C.I.A. and State Department Counter Terrorism officer
John Kiriakou, former C.I.A. Counterterrorism Officer and former senior investigator, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Karen Kwiatkowski, former Lt. Col., U.S. Air Force (ret.), at Office of Secretary of Defense watching the manufacture of lies on Iraq, 2001-2003
Douglas Macgregor, Colonel, USA (ret.) (associate VIPS)
Ray McGovern, former U.S. Army infantry/intelligence officer & C.I.A. analyst; C.I.A. Presidential briefer (ret.)
Elizabeth Murray, former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East, National Intelligence Council & C.I.A. political analyst (ret.)
Todd E. Pierce, MAJ, U.S. Army Judge Advocate (ret.)
Pedro Israel Orta, former C.I.A. and Intelligence Community (Inspector General) officer
Scott Ritter, former MAJ, USMC; former U.N. Weapons Inspector, Iraq
Coleen Rowley, FBI Special Agent and former Minneapolis Division Legal Counsel (ret.)
Lawrence Wilkerson, Colonel USA, ret.), Distinguished Visiting Professor, College of William and Mary (associate VIPS)
Sarah G. Wilton, CDR, USNR, (ret.); Defense Intelligence Agency (ret.)
Kirk Wiebe, former Senior Analyst, SIGINT Automation Research Center, NSA
Robert Wing, former Foreign Service Officer (associate VIPS)
Ann Wright, retired U.S. Army reserve colonel and former U.S. diplomat who resigned in 2003 in opposition to the Iraq War
Click here to read the same piece as it was originally published by Consortium News.
The following request is reproduced in full from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Following this link will take you to a campaign page from where you can simply add your details to a standard letter.
It only takes 2 minutes. Don’t worry if you’ve not written to your MP before, you don’t need to be an expert… but just a few words from a constituent like you can make all the difference.
Over 70,000 emails have already been sent to MPs demanding they call for a #ceasefireNOW using our previous e-actions. Our allies in parliament have subsequently tabled an amendment to Tuesday’s King’s Speech, demanding an immediate ceasefire be called for. We only have a few days to get as many MPs as possible supporting this amendment before it is debated. Even if you’ve already emailed your MP previously, please do it again now.
Israel’s ongoing bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip has killed over 10,000 Palestinians, over 40% of whom are children. Over a million people have been forcibly displaced, nearly half of Gaza’s entire population. Nowhere in Gaza is safe; residential buildings have been levelled, UNRWA schools sheltering the displaced have been hit.
International scholars and Palestinian human rights organisations are warning of the possibility of genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Urgent action is needed to deter and prevent the crime of genocide and stop further catastrophic loss of life.
This couldn’t be more pressing or urgent. Demand your MP supports an immediate ceasefire and a lifting of the siege on Gaza.
Alexei Sayle [from 3:20 mins]: It’s defeating that lie that Jewish people are terrified by these demonstrations. And then there’s thousands of Jews on this demonstration. If anybody’s terrified they should come on the demonstration, feel the love, you know. It’s a beautiful atmosphere and obviously that some monster like so Braverman should say that it’s “a hate march” is disgusting.
Mike Cushman (Jewish Voice for Labour, JVL) [from 0:50 mins]: I’m marching with the Jewish block, which is hundreds if not thousands strong; the biggest it’s ever been. Because Jews say we don’t want murder in our name. We think there should be a ceasefire now. An end to apartheid. End to the occupation.
Samara (Na’amod) [from 1:15 mins]: We’re a group of Jews in the UK that stand against occupation and apartheid in Israel-Palestine, and we’re trying to mobilise our community to stand for human rights for all.
Max (Na’amod) [from 1:25 & 2:55 mins]: More and more Jews in the UK have come to oppose the Israeli government’s relentless bombing of Gaza, which it continues to do with impunity. A lot of Jews in the UK who maybe previously did not have the vocabulary to express their discomfort with the Israeli government’s increasing shift towards the right, and increasing pursuit of occupation and apartheid, now see a movement like Na’amod grow, and see a movement that is empowering the idea that Jewish values are in line with the support for Palestinian liberation…
Jewish liberation and Palestinian liberation are interlinked struggles. The fight against anti-Semitism and the fight against islamophobia are interlinked.
The Israel bombardment of Gaza does not keep Jews safe. More and more Jews are showing the moral courage to oppose the bombardment and stand for Palestinian human rights.
Glyn Secker (Jews for Justice for Palestinians & JVC) [from 1:55 mins]: When we got that that Jewish section, the Jewish block together, and we joined the march it was very emotional actually. Because it’s the first time that I’ve really seen different Jewish groups come together.
Julia Bard (Jewish Socialist Group, JSG) [from 2:10 mins]: We’ve found common ground with a lot of Jewish groups to oppose what’s happening and because the self-proclaimed leaders of the Jewish Community, who claim to speak in our name, are giving blanket support to Israel when they know that there are war crimes being committed. And we can’t stand by and let them claim to speak in our name, when there are so many of us as you can see.
All the Jewish people here, and many, many more in the Jewish Community, are quite horrified by what’s being unleashed by a government that contains self-proclaimed fascists.
Jonathan Rosenhead (JVL) [from 2:45 mins]: You could say that people are being sacrificed in their thousands to keep Netanyahu in office. He’s trying not to get arrested for corruption and they’re not going to get rid of him as Prime Minister while there’s a war on.
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Jeremy Corbyn [from 23:00 mins]: I was in Coventry on Thursday night. The main discussion was how do you hire a coach to get to London on Saturday. That discussion was repeated in towns and cities all over the country. And over three-quarters of a million of us are here today in solidarity with the people of Palestine.
They said we shouldn’t be marching on Remembrance weekend. Well I simply say this: we march in memory of all those that have died in all wars, in all conflicts, and we march today for a ceasefire to save life in Gaza as well; for the future and give a future to the Palestinian people.
Suella Braverman and Rishi Sunak tried to prevent this march taking place. They tried to say that we couldn’t have a demonstration in London, but to the credit of the organisers of today’s fantastic march they simply said NO!
Tony Benn once said the most powerful word in politics is NO!
We are going to march and we’re here today and we’ve asserted that right to march, to demonstrate for free speech and solidarity with people who at this very moment [their] lives are being destroyed and they are being bombed. But the solidarity around the world is amazing.
You look at the marches in Latin America, in the United States, all over Europe, in Africa and Asia, and today we just got word that a ship bound for Israel was stopped from leaving in Sydney by Australian dockers and trade unionists. They heeded the call made by Palestinian trade unionists to stop the arming of Israel, which is being used to bomb people in Gaza. And so it is those acts of solidarity around the world that are so very, very important today.
Now like all of you, I’m sure you find it very stressful watching on television; Al Jazeera virtually live-streaming from Gaza most of the time.
When you see a jet flying in and bombing a hospital, or homes, or schools, and then you see a stream of people, not unlike the stream of us that marched here today from Hyde Park. Those people are the refugees of tomorrow; the people of Gaza are the refugees of yesterday from 1948.
And if Israel gets its way, people will be driven out of the Gaza Strip southwards through the Rafah Crossing into the Sinai and a new Gaza will be formed; a new place under military control, and a new place where the hopes and determination of people are constantly frustrated by the inability to move, to work, to travel, to do all the things we want to do.
And then you look at the destruction that’s going on, and look at that solidarity. Firstly, let’s send a message of solidarity to everyone all over the world who are demonstrating for the people of Palestine, including those people in Israel that are opposing Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and their bombardment of Gaza. They deserve our solidarity too.
[Applause from the crowd]
And then think of the 10,000 who have died already, including 4,000 children. The teachers who died and will never teach again, the doctors who cared for people will never get that chance again, the poets, the writers, the engineers, the street cleaners, the taxi drivers; all those lives snuffed out. And then think of children that are dying, who will never see another summer, will never learn to music, never learn sport, never learn the joys of life. Destroyed because Israel claims its self-defence includes the bombing of schools and hospitals.
We said no, absolutely NO! The lives of Palestinian people come first. Therefore a ceasefire has to be demanded. And instead of sending weapons of war to Israel, which is what is happening by the United States and by all the other countries – those I’m glad to say are often being frustrated by demonstrations and by action.
And yesterday we were commemorating the lives of medical people, doctors and nurses, orderlies and so on, who had died in Gaza, and somebody held up a very important, very small, homemade placard in respect of Britain sending warships to the Mediterranean saying: “Don’t send warships send hospital ships instead to deal with the injured and those that are trying to survive.”
Our demonstrations are united around the world, and when Sunak and Braverman denounce us as being part of a “march of hate”, the only march of hate I’ve seen recently is the far-right trying to divide and destroy our communities.
We’re here together! We’re every community. We’re every faith. We’re every religion. We’re every language. We are a people who will not be divided by this, because our unity is in solidarity with people under occupation. Yes, supporting the people of Gaza today, but also supporting the people of the West Bank under occupation, supporting those that have lost their homes and their land to the settlers, who are now behaving with unspeakable violence towards Palestinian families.
And if I may say so, never ever forget the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in refugee camps in Syria, in Lebanon, in Jordan, and part of that diaspora around the world, but if nothing else, the horror story of the past month, the horror story of the bombardment, of the loss of life on all sides, has united people in a growth of understanding of what this conflict is really about.
And what other wars are about as well. Fuelled by an arms trade. Fuelled by greed. Fuelled by politicians who can’t look beyond the next piece of triangulation and self-preferment. So I ask you this next Wednesday, our Parliament, the House of Commons will be voting on amendments to the King’s speech debate. There are amendments down there on calling for a ceasefire.
So I ask you this. You may not have ever done it before. Email your MP. Tell them: “Put aside your greed, put aside your cynical calculations of what advances you, what advances the arms industry, what advances somebody else”, and simply say this to them, “a ceasefire now in Gaza would save thousands and thousands of lives. A ceasefire now in Gaza would open up the prospect for real peace and real justice for the people of Palestine.”
And so those who think we are simply going to demonstrate today. All of you behind me, beside me, beyond me, and so on there. All of those that think we’re simply going to go away. Dream on!
We are not forsaking the Palestinian people. We’re not going away! We’re not disappearing! Our solidarity is with them demanding ceasefire now! And peace for all of the peoples of the Middle East. Thank you for coming here today.
When the war ended, I don’t know if I was more relieved that we’d won or that I didn’t have to go back. Passchendaele was a disastrous battle—thousands and thousands of young lives were lost. It makes me angry. Earlier this year, I went back to Ypres to shake the hand of Charles Kuentz, Germany’s only surviving veteran from the war. It was emotional. He is 107. We’ve had 87 years to think what war is. To me, it’s a licence to go out and murder. Why should the British government call me up and take me out to a battlefield to shoot a man I never knew, whose language I couldn’t speak? All those lives lost for a war finished over a table. Now what is the sense in that?
— Harry Patch, the last surviving trench combat soldier of the First World War from any country, in an interview given to The Sunday Times in November 2004.
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There is nothing more appropriate than marching for a ceasefire on the day a ceasefire was signed. The real people desecrating Armistice are those who will be laying wreaths in Whitehall while leading us potentially into another global war.
Tony Blair who killed up to a million people including British soldiers. Suella Braverman who wants to take Britain back to 1930s Germany. Rishi Sunak providing cover for genocides. Keir Starmer who’s doing the absolute same. The ultimate hypocrites. Shame on all of you!
Says ex-soldier and peace activist, Joe Glenton:
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Joe Glenton [cont.]: I’m pretty sure that many of those who died in the war would look now at what’s going on in Gaza and be absolutely disgusted that a government is allowing that to continue. Five, six, 7,000 children have been killed. It’s as simple as that.
That is what informs the humanitarian impulse which has got people out on the streets again and again and again in increasingly big numbers. There’s no nefarious dark urges. It’s just people who are disgusted by what they’re seeing.
Fundamentally, that is because Israel is losing the narrative. The truth that it is a violent ethno-state which is determined to cleanse Gaza of Palestinian people is just increasingly obvious to people.
And it’s not just a left or right thing. All kinds of people have seen what’s happening and will be there at these protests motivated by again the same thing: a basic humanitarian impulse.
It’s not rocket science. It’s just a normal, well-balanced sense that children shouldn’t be bombed.
I understand that will be jarring for people in government. The kind of psychopaths who run the country, but that is what it is. It’s not out of hate, it’s out of concern, and out of a humanitarian impulse.
They really wanted to ban a “don’t mass murder kids” march. The police were under pressure from of all people the “free speech warriors”: the biggest snowflakes around!
Suella Braverman, I don’t know if she’s trying to beat Priti Patel for her sheer Tory head girl nastiness, but she’s doing quite a good job of it. She has routinely branded pro-Palestine sentiment as “hate marches”, which is just transparently wrong. But her contempt for all life on Earth doesn’t just extend to Palestinians. Only recently this week she’s been trying to ban homeless people sleeping in tents.
A message to Suella Braverman from Ahmed Masoud projected on to the Houses of Parliament (before the police stepped in):
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Joe Glenton [cont.]: There is a massive disengage here between the ruling class in this country and just your normal people on the street. And there often is when there’s a crisis, but I think the crisis of Gaza has really brought that to the fore even more. More fundamentally, what it tells us is that they have no answers. Neither the Tories nor Labour have any answers to the real crisis.
The Tories, in particular, are trying to turn this into a culture war, and the reason they do that is because they haven’t got any bloody arguments. And so they try and reduce it down to an argument about identity: what’s British; what’s not.
This protest will be full of all kinds of people. There will be veterans. There will be black people. There’ll be white people, old and young, Jewish, Muslim. Because they don’t want to see children get blown up. It’s not hard lads!
One of the common fallbacks, which looks increasingly stupid, is that these protests are a place where Jewish people are not welcome, and anybody who is either intellectually honest, or has been to one, knows that Jewish people have always been at the forefront of resistance to these wars.
‘Jewish Voice For Peace’ members spoke recently with independent journalist Katie Halper about getting arrested outside of Chuck Schumer’s home, protesting at the Statue of Liberty and shutting down New York’s Grand Central Station:
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Joe Glenton [cont.]: The idea that all Jewish people define themselves by an allegiance to Israel is itself anti-Semitic.
Inserted video footage within Joe Glenton’s presentation:
Protester explaining to the police: This woman’s family died in the Nazi Holocaust.
1st police officer: Obviously under law, people have the right to peaceful protest, but that [the banner hung from her neck] could incite hate towards a specific community.
Jewish protester: That is not hate. That is the right to protect from the Israeli extermination of Gaza, and you know what is hate is? It is to assume that Jews are supporting it. That is hate. That is anti-Semitic. For you to even imply that Jews support this Holocaust, which is happening as we speak in Gaza.
Fellow protester: That is the truth.
2nd police officer: Come on you. At the moment it is 1:51. I’m arresting you.
Fellow protester: No, no, shame on you!
Update:
Interview with Yael Kahn, who was arrested by the Metropolitan Police (above) for carrying a placard. The video of her arrest has been viewed over 4 million times on social media. Interviewed by Crispin Flintoff (embedded below), she tells the story of her arrest and how standing up for Palestinians and speaking out against Israel has become her life’s work.
Yael also mentions Rabbi Meir Kahane, who was elected to the Knesset in 1984 and believed that Israel’s Arabs should be deported or put to death. Itamar Ben-Gvir is Kahane’s disciple and is now Police Minister. He used to march to the chant ‘death to the Arabs’ and his wikipedia entry is here:
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Joe Glenton: Where is the free speech union or whatever it’s bloody called? Where is Nigel Farage, the ultimate “free speech warrior”?
Nigel Farage [on GB News]: Free speech is being suppressed in the most astonishing way.
Joe Glenton: Absent!!!
They vanish like mist burned off by the sun.
When they do turn up, it is surprisingly – or perhaps not – to demonise the people expressing their right to protest, expressing their free speech.
Nigel Farage [more recently on Sky News]: I want this march stopped. It’ll be a disgrace if it goes ahead. But I worry that the people that run my country now are so gutless that they may fail to act.
Joe Glenton: Funny how they become almost overnight authoritarians when it’s something they don’t agree with.
All year round, the rest of the time, they are of course positioned themselves as fervent defenders of the right to say whatever you want, no matter how offensive it may be.
It’s disturbing how particular slogans for example “from the river to the sea” – but there’s a suggestion I think that that slogan is a call to reverse the situation, so that there is a maybe a Jewish ghetto and the Gazans are oppressing them – and it’s amazing to me how that slogan has become somehow more of an affront – just a slogan! – than the literal bombing of children and of hospitals and of schools in Gaza. A slogan is more offensive to some people than the actual practical day-to-day bombing of an open-air prison 25 miles long with a million children in it. Thousands of who have already died.
It’s bizarre to me those two things can even be compared and yet they are. ‘Cancel culture’ is a thing, as it turns out. Generally speaking, it’s the right who are complaining about it. Until it comes to Palestine, where discussion about it; its historical context; its daily material reality, is banned.
Particularly true also when it comes to its advocates. How many people have we seen shouted down, ejected from political parties, banned from platforms, censored and attacked in the press, for expressing support for the struggle of Palestinian people, locked as they are into Gaza, surrounded by walls, and a Western-backed modern military?
It’s the ultimate cancellation: that of the Palestinian people; and I think anyone who’s remotely fair-minded can see that.
As we are approaching Remembrance, we will be remembering British soldiers killed in the line of duty. We should include in that the 700 British soldiers killed in Palestine. Remember that Israel was born out of terrorism. That people committed terrorist acts. Zionists were actively fighting an insurgency which killed more British soldiers then died in Afghanistan.
And I hope that when we remember all the other British soldiers and servicemen who’ve died we should remember them.
Movietone News: The King David Hotel itself. It was in the wing in the right of the picture that the terrorists placed their explosive. And the result of the crime: the tragic scene is like a serious incident during the Blitz.
The hotel housed the British Army Headquarters and the Palestine government offices and casualties were very heavy. Mr Atlee and the House of Commons declared: “The British government will not be diverted by acts of violence in their search for a just and final solution of the Palestine problem.”
There is a sense in the media that this started on the 7th of October, and that, of course, is not true. Some people would say it goes all the way back to 1948. Others correctly would say it goes back even further to the Balfour agreement, when the British, in classical British style, promised a bit of land which wasn’t theirs in the first place, to two different people. A promise which could never be reconciled with reality.
We cannot divorce our own historical tinkering in the Middle East from what we see playing out today.
Movietone News: Undoubtedly the people of Britain anxiously wait for the announcement of a policy which will prevent the loss of any more innocent lives.
Joe Glenton: A lot of the discussion this week against the march in solidarity with Palestine has talked about how disrespectful it would be, and how it would desecrate the memory of our troops, and there might be a risk the Cenotaph is vandalised. But what has gone completely unmentioned is the presence in Gaza of Commonwealth war graves.
You can go onto the Commonwealth war graves website, and it lists among the problems of running it: the threat of missiles, and the electricity being cut off. And so our own ally, who we seem to support without question, completely to the hilt, is currently bombing the area of a Commonwealth war grave in Gaza with weapons, many of which are made in Britain and in America.
These Commonwealth war graves, which we are all told are sacred and must never be desecrated, are attended by Palestinians, maintaining the war graves – in that case of British Indian troops, colonial troops who fell in Gaza over a 100 years ago. I think that’s significant, because it goes unmentioned again.
The way you honour the dead to my mind is that you try and keep their numbers to an absolute minimum.
These people who claim to be deeply invested in the memory of our troops are perfectly happy to cynically instrumentalise our own war dead to ensure that Israel can keep massacring civilians in the open-air prison that is Gaza.
The way people are talking at the moment, it almost seems that a protest is somehow unBritish. That it’s somehow an affront to Britishness to march about things, but, of course, that’s absolutely not true. It’s absolutely a British thing.
You can say many things about the tradition of protest in Britain, but one of the things you can say is that it’s very, very old, and it’s older than quite a lot of things. It’s older, for example, a lot older, than the state of Israel which was only founded in 1948.
It goes back to the suffragettes. It goes back through the Chartists. It goes back to the English Civil War, and so on and so on. It has always been the case – so the idea that people should not protest is first of all deeply authoritarian, but it’s also not remotely, not remotely, in-keeping with any notion of a British character.
Lord Nicholas Soames [on LBC]: A lot of people died during the war to assert freedom. I think [Saturday’s march] must be allowed to go ahead; it’s nowhere near the Cenotaph. It’s in the afternoon. And most of those people – 90% of those people – are not there to make trouble. They’re there to express a deeply held view.
Joe Glenton: Normal people are marching on Armistice Day in this country for peace; in support of a ceasefire.
The US, which loves to frame itself as some kind of peacekeeper, and an arbiter of international affairs, has responded by sending a nuclear submarine into the Mediterranean, alongside its various other massive deployments – permanent and temporary – around the region.
If what you do is a test of your commitment to peace, logically one must have to be on the side of the people who are out protesting in the streets.
There is definitely an aspect of virtue signalling. There is a desperation, and it’s embarrassing for senior politicians to associate themselves with the military at all times in an attempt to get some kind of reflected glory from it; and that is the case all year round, but never more so than when the poppies come out. And it’s frankly embarrassing as a veteran.
Veterans throughout Britain can see this. We’re not stupid. We know the kind of rogues’ gallery of former Prime Ministers who will be shouldering in to be on camera at the official wreath-laying ceremony. People who are desperate to be associated, desperate to have a photo taken with our boys, and yet are absolutely committed to war and militarism.
And we should all be very frank about their actual commitment to peace, their actual commitment to respecting the war dead.
To quote Harry Patch, the last First World War soldier who actually fought in the trenches for the British: “War is organised murder.”
A portrait of Harry Patch aged 109 taken in 2007
Harry Patch: War is a calculated and a condoned slaughter of human beings. War has no use to anyone. It would have been better to have given the Kaiser and his government a rifle each and the same with the other side. Put them in a field and let them fight it out. It wasn’t worth it.
Joe Glenton: And he went further than that. He said, “Remembrance was nothing more than show business”, and it is his words that I always try and recall every time Remembrance comes around.
And Remembrance is for a moment of serious reflection, not glorification of war, which is what it’s become; but a moment for reflection on the victims, of the casualties, of all wars.
But it’s particularly important now when the world is so fraught, and particularly with one eye on history. And it’s not catastrophist to say that any small thing could set off the war into a wider conflagration, and things are extremely fraught in that region. We are deeply involved in this, and it’s not over-the-top to suggest that this could spill into something much wider.
We have to think about this in the context of Ukraine. We have to think about the precipice we are on there. Nuclear powers are involved.
China and Russia have an interest in the region.
This is a very dangerous situation and we need to be very, very cautious and for that reason there is nothing more appropriate than an anti-war march in solidarity with the people in Palestine who are currently being attacked. There’s nothing more appropriate than having that on Armistice Day: a day which takes its name from a truce, from a ceasefire, from a cessation of hostilities.
It’s absolutely right that people march, and it is the worst disrespect of all – the real disrespect and the real desecration – is the people trying to weaponise Remembrance to stop that.
It’s war season again, and the media as always will toe the line. It’s during times of war that we should question more than ever the narratives at the mainstream media pump out. It’s never been more important that we support independent media.
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Additional: National March For Palestine – Ceasefire Now!
Date: Saturday 11th November
Assemble: 12pm at Hyde Park – Marching to the US Embassy, Nine Elms Lane, London, SW11 7US
The breadth and depth of the support for the movement’s calls for a ceasefire has ensured that this Saturday’s march will go ahead. Thank you to everyone who helped. The demonstration is set to be huge.
We want to send a clear message from the march that we represent the majority of the population in our calls for a ceasefire and that the movement in support of the Palestinians is growing in strength. There are many in the establishment and on the right who want to see us fail on Saturday so it is important that we have the biggest possible turnout and that we remain disciplined and united, and clear on the principles on which we march. Our call for a ceasefire is rooted in a sincere wish to see an end to all violence, especially that which targets civilians, while recognising that this cannot be achieved unless the root causes of that violence, the 75 years of ongoing Nakba against the Palestinian people, are adequately addressed.
The march assembles in Park Lane at 12 noon and will set off around 12.45pm. We urge people to use Bond Street, Lancaster Gate and Hyde Park Corner stations as well as Marble Arch station to avoid congestion.
We will march past Victoria, over Vauxhall Bridge and past the US embassy to a stage further down Nine Elm’s Lane. This is not a usual end point but we felt it was important to protest at the US embassy and to respect the Armistice commemorations, by ensuring we were not marching anywhere near Whitehall.
There will be a very strong stewards operation but the crowds will be big so we suggest people appoint a couple of stewards from their coaches or groups in order to keep in contact with everyone. Coach companies are asked to contact their trade associations for details of drop off and pick up points.
We ask people not to let off fireworks or flares as these can be frightening and our demonstrations have been attended by many thousands of children.
There are a number of stations near the end point including Battersea Power Station, Battersea Park, Nine Elms, and Vauxhall. We ask that when the rally is over at around 4pm, you leave the area as quickly as possible so as not to cause too much disruption to the local community.
It is clear we are starting to make a difference and pushing back those who refuse to call for a ceasefire. Let’s make this Saturday another inspiring, peaceful and united show of solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Statement made on behalf of the 6 organisers of Saturday’s demonstration: Stop the War Coalition, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Muslim Association of Britain, Palestinian Forum in Britain and Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
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Some of the other rallies taking place across the country have also been rerouted and/or rescheduled to avoid any clash with Remembrance Day commemorations. In my home city of Sheffield I received this important notification from the organiser:
Please note Saturday 11th November: the date and time of our event, calling for “Ceasefire Now” are unchanged, but the rally at 12.00 noon will now take place in front of the Town Hall (not City Hall).
We urge you to come to Ellesmere Green to start the march if you possibly can! If not, join us at the Town Hall at noon.
Please pass the word to your friends.
Coaches are also available from most cities including Sheffield allowing people to join the big march in London. Again, information for Sheffield is provided below:
The coach will leave outside the Hubs Paternoster row S1 2QQ going to central London for the demonstration
It will return at 4pm from a point agreed with the driver
The coach tickets cost £25 waged and £10 unwaged
We are encouraging people who can to pay a £10 donation so we can keep the price of tickets down.
Pick-up point: Outside the Hubs, Paternoster Row Sheffield, S1 2QQ
Click here for further information, maps and ticket purchasing.
Former Labour leader and independent MP Jeremy Corbyn stands with 200,000+ in London, condemning Israeli actions in Gaza. He underscores the prolonged suffering of Palestinian refugees and calls for international law to be upheld.
Embedded below: interviews and footage from the March for Palestine in London on Saturday 14th, including speeches from Jeremy Corbyn (extended), Martin Cavanagh, Jess Barnard, Hugh Lanning, Ben Jamal and the Palestinian ambassador to UK, Husam Zomlot. Footage from Platform Films (producers of ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn: The Big Lie’ and Carlos Soto:
Meanwhile protesters also expressed their outrage towards the current Labour leader Keir Starmer after he had publicly backed Israel’s war crimes against the people of Gaza [apologies for strong language]:
Crowds in Dublin gathered to rally in support of Gaza and the people of Palestine.
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On Thursday 12th, thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters were gathered in Paris, despite Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin‘s order banning the protests. The police responded by using teargas and water cannon to disperse the crowds:
Some orthodox Jews who had joined the protests in Paris were then attacked by police. But France wasn’t the only European “democracy” that has cracked down on peaceful pro-Palestine antiwar protests. Germany likewise followed suit [warning:strong language]:
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On Monday 9th, protesters also marched peacefully through Sydney in support of Palestine in spite of calls from Prime Minster Anthony Albanese for the march to be cancelled:
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Thousands more joined rallies and marches this weekend to protest peacefully in cities across America including in NY, Washington, Chicago and Portland:
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On Wednesday 11th, thousands more protesters took to the streets of Johannesburg and Cape Town in South Africa:
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Across the Middle East and North Africa there have been huge rallies. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in Istanbul; Amman, Jordan; Cairo; Tunis; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Baghdad; Beirut; across India; and Palestinians also took to the streets in Hebron on the West Bank:
“On October 7th, Netanyahu said ‘we are at war with you. We are at war!’ Well, excuse me: Israel declared war on the Palestinians 75 years ago… Palestinians have been the victims of a vicious – savage I would say – brutality for 75 years. The fact that the two million people are locked up in the concentration camp, which some people now say has been turned into an extermination camp in the Gaza Strip is only a part of this horrific story of the savagery the Palestinians have subjected to.”
These are the words of Miko Peled when he spoke yesterday with independent journalist Katie Halper. Peled is an Israeli-American who was born in Jerusalem in 1961 to a prominent Zionist family. His grandfather, Avraham Katsnelson, signed Israel’s Declaration of Independence. His father, Mattityahu Peled, fought in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and served as a general in the Six-Day War of 1967.
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Miko Peled had followed his father’s footsteps at first, joining Israel’s Special Forces after high school and earning the red beret, but he soon grew to regret his decision. He surrendered his status as soon as he earned it, becoming a medic, and finally, disgusted by the 1982 Lebanon war, he buried his service pin in the dirt. Later he became a peace activist and writer.
After putting the Israel-Palestine conflict into its historical context and following an at-length discussion on the deteriorating security situation within Israel, the total lack of information made available to the Israeli population, and the failure of Israel’s security systems, Peled continued:
“Now I don’t think I’m saying anything that anybody would disagree with when I say that it breaks your heart when a person gets killed. Everybody has a mother and a father. It’s horrifying. Of course, it’s horrifying when somebody gets killed. But what they do is they take it out of context.
“You cannot take this out of context. What we saw Palestinian fighters doing – and again we don’t know the full picture because there is no reliable new source yet that I’ve seen anywhere that gives the entire picture: how many were taken; how many were killed; how many were injured; in what under what circumstances, and so on…
“Let’s say you know what do you think happens when a one ton bomb is dropped on a building. You think babies aren’t decapitated? You think people aren’t suffocated in the gases that come out and the smoke? And the white phosphorus, and the buildings that fall on people who get trapped and parts of their body get – I mean it goes on and on and on, the horror you know.” [from 19:44 mins]
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I have sent a copy of the following letter to my local constituency MP Paul Blomfield (Labour) and I am hoping others do likewise – free feel to copy-paste anything from this website – in order to raise consciousness, and prevent a potential genocide of the population of Gaza.
Dear Paul,
Day and night for the past week Israeli jets have been indiscriminately bombing the two million people who are held within the high-security borders of Gaza with no place to escape and no air defence protection against this unremitting onslaught. Universities are bombed. Hospitals are bombed. Mosques are bombed. Residential houses are bombed. The entire population of which two-thirds have refugee status and half are children is also being denied access to electricity, clean water and food. This treatment of Palestinians as animals (literally described as “human animals” by Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant) is barbarism on a scale I have never witnessed before in my lifetime.
The single justification provided for this horrific aerial bombardment is to inflict collective punishment following a humiliating attack by a resistance force. Irrespective of the actions of Hamas and other Palestinian resistance forces nothing can justify the atrocities being carried out against an unarmed civilian population. Collective punishment of this kind is a war crime. Shouldn’t the human rights groups be crying out for a No Fly Zone? Instead, the silence is close to deafening.
The term holocaust means literally “a burnt offering”. What is happening to the innocent people in Gaza constitutes a holocaust.
Best wishes,
James
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Additional:
The Electronic Intifada yesterday produced a second livestream with reports from Palestinians trapped on the ground inside Gaza and the West Bank:
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Update:
I received the following reply from Paul Blomfield on Monday 16th:
Dear James,
Thank you for writing to me about the situation in Israel and Gaza following the devastating terrorist attack by Hamas on communities in southern Israel last weekend.
As I hope you know, I’m a strong supporter of the Palestinian struggle for justice and have raised it in Parliament more regularly than any other international issue – challenging the Government to press Israel over policies of child detention, evictions, demolitions, illegal settlements, annexation and Gaza – and have visited the West Bank to see things for myself (see here for more on my work on the issue).
As such I was appalled by the barbaric Hamas attack, deliberately and systematically killing men, women, children and babies in their homes and at a music festival – as well as taking hostages who they have threatened to execute. It’s right that we are showing our unequivocal condemnation and solidarity. While many organisations flew flags or lit up buildings, I joined other local Labour MPs for a service at the synagogue, in which the rabbi led prayers for all those affected and for peace in the region.
I’m now deeply worried about the escalating conflict and its impact on innocent Palestinian and Israeli civilians. Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy has made it clear that, in exercising its right to defend itself and rescue hostages, Israel’s response must be in line with international law – echoing the call of the US Secretary of State Blinken that “democracies distinguish ourselves from terrorists by striving for a different standard even when it is difficult … that’s why it is so important to take every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians and that’s why we mourn the loss of every innocent life, civilians of every faith, every nationality”.
David Lammy was also clear that “we must distinguish Hamas terrorists from the Palestinian people. There must be humanitarian access to Gaza for food, water, medicines and electricity” as did UN Secretary-General António Guterres who urged that “Crucial life-saving supplies – including fuel, food and water – must be allowed into Gaza. We need rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access now”.
I have written to the Foreign Secretary urging him to work with others in the international community to secure the release of hostages, the opening of an humanitarian corridor, and the de-escalation of the conflict to minimise the loss of life and suffering for all in the region.
Thanks again for writing. I hope you’ll stay in touch by signing up for my monthly e-newsletter if you don’t already receive it.
With best wishes,
Paul
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And I returned the following message the same day:
Dear Paul,
Since I wrote to you the slaughter of Gazans has escalated. This is not a war, it is a turkey shoot.
As David Cameron once admitted, the Gaza strip is a de facto open air prison camp. Inside its illegal fences, most of the people held captive there have refugee status. Over half of them are children.
Having endured nearly a decade’s long blockade depriving them of basic materials for life including medical supplies and even cement to rebuild their repeatedly bombed cities, the Palestinian captives are now under total siege and deprived of electricity, water, and food as they are slowly starved to death. A more accurate description of Gaza right now is a death camp.
With due respect it is time to get off the fence and end this ethnic cleansing. Collective punishment is a war crime. Those who claim moral equivalence and then refuse to speak out to oppose the deliberate slow murder of up to a million children will not be remembered kindly by history.
The following is based on the press statement published by the Stop Starmer campaign on their official website with additional notes and links included.
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Politics shouldn’t be about personalities.
It should be about principles on how we can build a better society.
But every so often in history, an individual emerges who is a danger to our democracy – someone who lacks any principle, is dishonest about their motives and who will say or do anything in pursuit of power.
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He is the most untrustworthy political leader this country has seen.
When he stood to be Labour Party leader he made 10 pledges. All of them have been shown to be false. How can we tell what Keir Starmer really believes?
Starmer’s views on every political issue change according to what he thinks will help his career: whether it is Brexit, anti-Semitism, the Royal family, foreign policy, austerity, outsourcing of the NHS to private companies, public ownership of utilities, climate change or gender self-identification.
Everything he says or does – including his flag waving and tedious family backstory – has been drawn up by PR companies.
Starmer’s campaign is well resourced and one of his donors (a beneficiary of apartheid in South Africa) has pledged over £5 million.
Starmer is not open to discussion and debate. It’s all PR.
Starmer’s campaign is the most cynical attempt to manipulate our opinion ever undertaken.
Under supervision from Jeffrey Epstein’s friend Lord Peter Mandelson, Starmer has won the support of media barons and faces hardly any scrutiny from press and TV.
But there is one thing we do know: he is against free speech; and eager for investigative journalist Julian Assange to be deported. He is also in favour of controls of what people can say online. And he has silenced people within his own party by perpetuating false claims of anti-Semitism:
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As Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) from 2008–13, Keir Starmer was in charge when the body was overseeing Julian Assange’s proposed extradition to Sweden to face questioning over subsequently retracted sexual assault allegations.
US records show Starmer met with Attorney General Eric Holder and a host of American and British national security officials in Washington in 2011. However, as former Financial Times journalist Matt Kennard revealed for Declassified, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), England and Wales’ public prosecutor, has deleted all records of its former head Keir Starmer’s trips to the US.
Musician and political activist Lowkey recently spoke to Matt Kennard about his investigations of Labour leader Keir Starmer for Mint Press News:
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As journalist Peter Oborne also revealed in his own concise analysis (embedded below), as a political leader Keir Starmer enjoys exceptionally close ties to UK intelligence services:
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What would a Keir Starmer government look like? He has said he would rather be at the World Economic Forum in Davos than in Westminster. On foreign policy, he says he will support the US on whatever military action it undertakes.
Once he is in power, we have no idea what he will do as he has never honoured his pledges.
This is why it is a massive mistake for people to think they can trust him or somehow control him if he gets into Number 10.
His chancellor, Rachel Reeves is a former employee of the Bank of England and has backed the bank’s increase in interest rates; his health secretary, Wes Streeting speaks about saving the NHS while receiving money from private health care providers.
Is a Starmer government better than a Conservative government? No, it will be worse. It will be the end of hope.
Most of the media are not challenging Starmer. It’s time we did.
Criticising Starmer is not enough, it’s time to stop him.
Stop Starmer is focused on protecting our democracy. Starmer does not believe in democracy.
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This is not a negative campaign, but one that seeks to stop the rot in politics.
We seek to educate people about the dangers of voting for Starmer’s Labour and to show that grassroots campaigns are stronger than manufactured campaigns designed in London.
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Our campaign includes:
– Leaflets for distribution in every city, town and village in the country.
– Stop Starmer street stalls across the country.
– T-shirts, badges and other material.
– Amplifying social media posts and videos that expose Starmer.
– Confronting Starmer at every opportunity.
– Stop Starmer rallies across the country.
We are 100% reliant on crowdfunding as we do not want sponsorship to compromise our campaign. We also have no allegiance to any political party. Our only aim is to Stop Starmer.
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Click here to visit the Stop Starmer website to add your name in support or simply to find out more.
As Julian Assange continues to fight extradition to the United States to face prosecution under the Espionage Act, a growing chorus of voices is rising to demand an end to his persecution.
Hounded by US law enforcement and its allies for more than a decade, Assange has been stripped of all personal and civil liberties for the crime of exposing the extent of US atrocities during the War on Terror. In the intervening years, it’s become nakedly apparent that the intent of the US government is not only to silence Assange in particular, but to send a message to whistleblowers and journalists everywhere on the consequences of speaking truth to power.
Former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, who was fired for exposing the CIA’s use of torture in the country, joins The Chris Hedges Report to discuss what Julian Assange’s fight means for all of us:
Gonzalo Lira is a Chilean with joint US citizenship who was living in Kiev on the eve of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February last year, and shortly afterwards moved to Kharkov where he has since reported on events through his own Youtube channel, Twitter account, and as a guest on a number of alternative news sites.
On April 19th last year, Gonzalo Lira suddenly disappeared. A few weeks prior to his disappearance on March 26th he had posted a tweet and pinned it to the top of his account. The tweet read as follows (with links provided where I could find them):
You want to learn the truth about the Zelensky regime? Google these names:
If you haven’t heard from me in 12 hours or more, put my name on this list.
GL
In response to this, I personally wrote to the Chilean embassy calling for an immediate investigation into his disappearance, and encouraged others to do likewise (read this earlier post). I received no reply. Within a few days, however, Lira re-emerged and explained that he had been temporarily detained by the Ukrainian state security agents, SBU.
For reasons unknown to me, Gonzalo Lira afterwards resumed this same life in Kharkov and continued releasing tweets and making appearances on alternative channels. Then, on May 1st, the SBU arrested Lira for the second time. On this occasion, however, footage of his arrest was publicly released by the Ukrainian authorities.
He has since been held in detention and had not been seen in public again until late Tuesday August 1st (local UK time) when a sequence of three YT videos was uploaded on his channel. In these videos – the links can all be found below – Lira tells the story of how he was kept in prison awaiting trial, during which time he had been tortured and extorted by fellow prisoners.
Having subsequently been given bail pending his trial, and certain he would be found guilty and sentenced to a minimum of five years in a labour camp – a sentence he says he would not survive for health reasons – he explains on the films why he has decided to skip bail and leave the country. The videos actually show him stood a few hundred yards from a service station, chain smoking cigarettes, and claiming to already be in the process of attempting to flee to Hungary to seek asylum.
In these videos (embedded below), Lira also pleads with viewers to look out for further updates and if none are posted to presume he was subsequently turned away by guards at the border and rearrested.
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Now full disclosure. I am certainly not a fan of Gonzalo Lira. I fundamentally dislike his politics and wish to entirely distance myself from any of the other kinds of content he has posted under his former pseudonym Coach Red Pill.
On the whole, I think of Gonzalo Lira as an attention-seeking buffoon. Furthermore, I do not necessarily believe his whole story. There are many parts of it that appear to be rather incongruous or else exceptionally florid. Moreover, why didn’t he simply leave Ukraine following his original detention over a year ago? Why did he not regard his secret arrest then as an obvious shot across the bow? I cannot answer this question, of course.
But here’s the central issue. It appears that Gonzalo Lira is about to be jailed for nothing more grievous than posting Youtube content which the Ukrainian authorities have deemed politically sensitive – as evidence of this, he has also posted photographs of documents that show the charges against him on a Twitter thread (which is also referenced and linked below).
Given what we know, therefore, it seems most probable that Gonzalo Lira is now about to be jailed as a political prisoner in Ukraine. For this reason, I join in the call for his immediate release and deportation to a safe country. Whatever our opinions of Lira may be, he is charged only with publishing dissident content, which is a punishment in violation of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) that applies to all 46 member states of the European Council of which Ukraine is a member. For the sake of freedom of speech, we should not remain silent.
If you would like to help Gonzalo Lira, as I encourage you to do, then please help to put pressure on the US and Chilean governments and western human rights organisations who have so far, very deliberately, ignored his case.
wall of controversy 