Civilians
Labour loses half its support among Muslims who voted Labour in 2019
Support for Greens surges
Support for Labour has collapsed among Muslim voters according to a new poll commissioned by the Labour Muslim Network (LMN), with a huge majority citing Keir Starmer’s support for Israeli genocide as a decisive factor.
In the 2019 general election, 86% of Muslims voted Labour – but that has now dropped to 43%. 85% of those surveyed said that Palestine was either very important (70%) or somewhat important (15%) in deciding how they will vote at the next general election. The poll showed support among Muslims for the Greens, who have made clear calls for an end to the slaughter in Gaza, has rocketed by 900%.
LMN has repeatedly identified huge issues with the rampant Islamophobia in the party under Starmer and reported in 2022, long before Israel’s genocidal assault in Gaza, that more than two thirds of Muslims don’t trust Labour to sort out its anti-Muslim bigotry. The group said of the latest survey results:
For decades the Muslim community has been amongst the most loyal Labour supporters anywhere in the United Kingdom. The findings of this new opinion poll shows a startling collapse of this electoral and communal relationship.
This is a crisis point for the future of the relationship between the British Muslim community and the Labour Party.
These findings come in the context of over 100 days of Israel’s continuous assault on Gaza. Over 25,000 Palestinians have been killed, more than 10,000 of whom are children, and the Labour Party’s response has been unacceptable and deeply offensive to Muslims across Britain. Muslim voters have been watching and are now sending a clear message – they will not support any political party that does not fervently oppose the crimes committed against the people of Gaza.
The Labour leadership must change paths now or risk losing the support of the Muslim community for a generation.
There is no sign of anything but token attempts to camouflage the contempt of Starmer and his faction for Muslims, while their support for Israel’s war crimes appears absolute.
The most astonishing thing in the survey is that Labour voting intention among Muslims has not disappeared entirely. It would surely do so if Muslims had a clear alternative, instead of the two main parties being one group with two rosette colours.
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Labour cancels Starmer/Lammy event rather than face Gaza protest
Yet again ‘Labour’ leadership unwilling to face anger of voters
Keir Starmer and Shadow Home Secretary David Lammy appear to be running scared yet again of the anger of protesters demanding a halt to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The pair were due to appear in Tottenham this afternoon for a policy announcement, but Skwawkbox understands that the press conference has now been cancelled after details of the venue and meeting time leaked and human rights activists planned to gather at the event to protest at Starmer’s support for Israel’s mass murder of Palestinian civilians.
The cancellation is one of a number of events abandoned by Labour rather than face the outrage of those who simply want an end to the slaughter. Keir Starmer has still not even mentioned the International Court of Justice findings against Israel in the genocide case brought by South Africa, such is his inability to justify his stance or face the reality of Israel’s war crimes, though he has used his social media to post repeatedly about business and football.
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800+ US/EU officials sign statement that governments ‘risk complicity’ in Gaza genocide
Over 800 US and EU officials have signed a statement warning their governments that they are likely to be guilty of complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and that their advice of the danger of “grave violations of international law” in Israel’s bombing and shelling of Gaza and its “deliberate blocking of aid” to create “one of the worst human catastrophes of this century” has been ignored. The statement comes from officials in twelve countries, including the US, UK, Germany and France.
The statement comes as a growing coalition of nations has committed to continuing to fund UNRWA, the UN aid agency providing desperately-needed humanitarian relief in Gaza, despite the collusion of the UK, US and other governments in defunding the agency after Israel claimed twelve of its 13,000 employees in Gaza participated in the 7 October raid. Ireland, Spain, Scotland, Norway, Belgium, Portugal, Slovenia and Luxembourg have all committed to providing continued funds.
Israel bombed Belgium’s aid agency office on Thursday night, shortly after Belgium’s announcement.
The International Centre for Justice for Palestinians has warned UK and US politicians it will bring prosecutions against those who collude in Israel’s slaughter of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, in Gaza.
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Video: South African minister shows how to deal with pro-Israel smears and spoilers
Naledi Pandor treats attempt to shore up Israel’s atrocity narrative with the contempt it deserves
Naledi Pandor
South African Minister for International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor gave a lesson, in how to respond to the attempts of supporters of Israel’s Gaza genocide to shore up or regurgitate Israel’s long-discredited atrocity propaganda, that put UK politicians and media to shame.
As a white South African politician tried to shame her for pointing out that Israel’s claims of beheaded babies and rape-mutilations by Hamas during its 7 October raid, Pandor fired straight back, pointing out that the claims have been discredited by a wide array of investigative journalists, survivors, the Israeli press (and even the IDF and Israeli police), as a video first posted by journalist Suleiman Ahmed shows:
In fact, not a single Israeli claim has held water so far – even the claimed death toll has changed drastically and the Israeli media are freely discussing the ‘immense’ number of deaths inflicted by the Israeli military on their own citizens during the raid, with hundreds and potentially most of the victims killed by so-called ‘friendly fire’.
Well done Ms Pandor. South Africa continues to do the decent world a huge service after the success of its damning genocide case against Israel before the International Court of Justice.
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Israel bombs Belgium’s offices in Gaza – UK media ignore
Belgium commits to funding UNRWA and has previously called for sanctions against Israel. Israel bombs Belgium’s representatives and ‘completely destroys’ office
Before and after: Belgium’s representative office in Gaza
Belgium has summoned Israel’s ambassador to give account to Belgium’s prime minister after an Israeli bombing ‘completely destroyed’ the country’s official representative office in Gaza. Despite the attack happening last night – and being freely covered by Israeli papers – the UK’s ‘mainstream’ media appear to have completely ignored the crime and Belgium’s response:
Earlier this week, Belgium committed to continuing to provide funding to UNRWA, the vital UN agency providing desperately-needed aid to Gaza’s two million starving and suffering people. The UK, US and several other nations have cut off funding to UNRWA, despite what appears to be a complete lack of evidence, after Israel claimed twelve of UNRWA’s 13,000 employees participated in the 7 October raid. Israel has for decades wanted an end to the agency because it maintains Palestinians’ hopes of exercising their right of return to land and homes from which they were driven at gunpoint.
Last November, Belgium’s deputy prime minister also called for sanctions against Israel for its war crimes against Palestinians, including frequent and deliberate bombing of refugee camps, hospitals and schools.
Israel has been ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in a binding legal ruling, to stop and prevent the killing of Gaza’s people. If anything, it has accelerated the slaughter and continues to display its contempt for decency and international law.
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Labour trumpets endorsement by ‘leader’ who boasted of part in Truss disaster economics
40yr-Tory’s praise not the compliment Labour thinks it is…
Labour has put out a video trumpeting an endorsement by ‘former business champion and Cicero chair’ Iain Anderson for the austerity policies – disguised as the risible ‘fiscal discipline’ – of Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves.
But – as with almost everything the red Tory regime tries – it’s already backfired massively, with Twitter user ‘jrc1921‘ pointing out that in 2022 Anderson boasted of his ‘almost 4 decades’ of being a Tory and his part in the ‘economic reform’ of then-soon-to-be Tory PM Liz Truss. Truss went on to have the shortest tenure ever as British prime minister – just forty-five days – and was ousted by the Tories for crashing the pound to its lowest-ever rate against the dollar, doing colossal harm to the UK economy and being the most useless and unpopular PM ever.
Starmer and co are clowns – except clowns are trying to be funny and don’t usually support genocide or help build a police state.
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Ireland leading EU coalition to recognise Palestine, review EU-Israel relationship over human rights
Irish PM Varadkar says ‘a lot’ of EU countries moving toward Palestinian statehood and potential severance or downgrade of Israel accord
Leo Varadkar (image: Houses of the Oireachtas, Creative Commons)
Irish PM Leo Varadkar is leading a coalition of EU countries toward formal recognition of Palestinian statehood – and a review of the EU’s relationship with Israel, over Israel’s war crimes in Gaza.
The EU-Israel Association Agreement contains conditions on human rights, and Varadkar told reporters he believed Israel ‘may’ be in breach of those provisions – and that ‘a lot’ of other EU nations were of like mind:
EU-Israeli relations are founded on an agreement which has a human rights clause, and a lot of us believe that Israel may be in breach of it. That’s something we’re talking about.
Irish MPs, MEPs and public have been outspoken in support of Palestinian human rights and in condemnation of Israel’s genocidal assault in Gaza, which has killed and maimed more than 100,000 civilians, mostly women and children, according to human rights watchdog Euro-Med Monitor.
Varadkar’s announcement will infuriate Israel’s extremist regime, which has been frothing since the International Court of Justice put it on trial for genocide last week and ordered Israel to protect Palestinian lives, a legally-binding instruction that the Netanyahu regime has flouted. Norway’s foreign minister has warned the leaders of states supporting Israel’s mass slaughter that they face potential prosecution for complicity in genocide.
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Video: Webbe challenges govt over support for Israel already flouting ICJ ruling. Meaningless reply
Leicester East MP continues strong record on Gaza and Palestinians, challenging government to say what it is doing to obey ICJ when Israel is already murdering hundreds more civilians – and government continues abject collusion
Leicester East MP Claudia Webbe has been one of the few MPs to stand up strongly for Palestinians and to challenge the government over its complicity in Israel’s genocide and other war crimes in Gaza. In Parliament today, during urgent questions, she asked the Tories what they are doing to protect Palestinians when Israel is already killing hundreds of Palestinians a day and intensifying its genocidal incitement despite the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) explicit order to take every measure to prevent them being killed.
The answer was utter, meaningless platitudes:
In fact, the UK continues to aid and abet Israel in its wanton slaughter of innocent Palestinians and to impede the arrival of desperately needed food, fuel and medical supplies – while attempting to accelerate then death rate from hunger and disease still further by smearing the UN relief agency UNRWA. The UK, like the US, has cut off its funding to the vital relief organisation on which millions of desperate Palestinians are relying, despite Israel’s long record of blatant and already-discredited lies to excuse its actions – and the prospect of a change of government sometime this year promises more of the same, as so-called ‘Labour leader’ Keir Starmer is just Pavlovian in his support for the apartheid colonisers.
Few MPs bothered even to turn up to the ‘urgent question’ session.
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Exclusive: bank locks customer’s account after donation to UNRWA
Woman grilled minutes after payment to UN body defunded by US and UK after Israeli smears
A UK bank locked its customer’s account – and subjected her to a security grilling – minutes after she made a donation to UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency that provides a lifeline to suffering Palestinians in Gaza.
The Sunak and Biden governments have stopped providing funds to the vital agency after Israel made what appear to be unevidenced claims that some of its employees took part in the 7 October raid. Israel’s record of lies about events in Gaza – and its now-clear slaughter of many, perhaps most, of the Israeli victims on the day of the raid – means that any allegations should be treated with extreme suspicion unless thoroughly proven. Israel has also murdered dozens of UN employees as well as well over a hundred journalists.
The woman, who has asked not to be named, said:
I’ve been with my bank for at least twenty years. Today, two minutes after donating a fiver to UNRWA, I received a security call and they had blocked my card.
Skwawkbox understands that the account was later unblocked, but if this incident is not a one-off, UK banks may be helping the government enforce its decision to cut off UNRWA and the desperate Palestinians who depend on it – a move that many analysts believe is a measure to accelerate the slaughter in Gaza before Israel has to report back to the International Court of Justice on its compliance, or gaping lack of compliance, with the court’s orders to stop and prevent genocide of the Palestinians.
Update – this appears not to be an isolated incident:
I'm receiving multiple reports that British banks are blocking querying and otherwise disrupting their customers legitimate personal donations to @UNRWA A United Nations Agency! What a country we are rapidly becoming… #Gaza
— George Galloway (@georgegalloway) January 29, 2024
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Starmer STILL silent on ICJ genocide judgment against Israel
Friend of war crimes just ignoring damning order against murderous regime
‘What judgment?’: Keir Starmer
Keir Starmer’s reaction to the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) damning judgment yesterday, which put Israel formally on trial for genocide – with even the Israeli judge agreeing on two of the points – and ordered the occupier regime to stop killing Palestinians in Gaza and take a list of measures to protect them, has been deafening silence.
Starmer, who has previously declared himself an unconditional Zionist, has supported Israel’s ‘right’ to commit war crimes and has helped the Tories (blue version) to defeat parliamentary efforts to call for a ceasefire. And as Israel ranted and raved and most of the world applauded South Africa’s stand for humanity and against mass murder, Starmer’s social media account hasn’t even acknowledged the existence of the court’s findings, some thirty hours after they were announced.
But he has found time, as Israel continued to slaughter and maim hundreds of civilian women and children, to tweet about Holocaust Memorial Day and blether repeatedly about anti-social behaviour (especially in ‘hotpots’):
Starmer’s latest nauseating post is a claim that it is a ‘privilege to reaffirm Labour’s commitment to “Never Again”’ – clearly that should end with ‘unless you’re Palestinian’. Coward and genocide enabler.
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