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Skwawkbox needs your support. Here’s why you should
Skwawkbox runs entirely on the voluntary support of the ordinary people who read it, to ensure that articles are free to all and are kept clear of ads as it brings you the news that so-called ‘mainstream’ media won’t.
Even among left news sites, Skwawkbox stands out in holding to account the Labour regime and the union leaders who are supposed to represent us and stands resolutely with the oppressed against the oppressor – leading to hatred and attacks from right-wing politicians and hacks. Below are just a few of Skwawkbox’s exclusives since its last funding appeal:
- BBC removes image of pro-Palestinian Jewish group from Gaza demo coverage
- Starmer’s office ‘tantrum’ as rebellion over Gaza ceasefire grew
- Labour asks Parliament to delete Eshalomi’s ceasefire call from Commons TV
- Unite region slams Graham’s silence over Israeli war crimes
- Unite boss Graham tried to force cancellation of union’s pro-Palestinian event
- Labour bans MPs from attending pro-Palestinian demos
- Labour blocks conference motion to bring NHS back into public ownership
- Graham and union served with defamation lawsuit papers for abuse of Irish trade unionist
- Starmer regime removes all Corbyn-era videos but one from party site
- Unite bans book and film that discuss Corbyn-era right-wing sabotage – and smears film with fake news
- Labour locked women out of systems to prevent discussion of Labour-right paedophile
- Graham-backed executive candidate pays £7k for sexual harassment of wife’s carer
- Labour to abstain on Tory pro-apartheid bill
In addition, this week Tory former Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s manoeuvres to protect NHS capacity by ‘deciding who lived and who died’ have been exposed by the Covid inquiry. More than three years ago, Skwawkbox revealed to the nation that Hancock and Boris Johnson were knowingly sending infected patients back into care homes – leading to mass deaths among elderly and vulnerable people.
And to the frustration of those who hate and denigrate it, Skwawkbox’s 100% reliability score with news-rating service Newsguard was renewed, with a ‘highly credible’ categorisation.
Skwawkbox puts out funding appeals rarely, knowing that people are facing financial pressure amid the manufactured cost-of-greed crisis. But if you are able to do so without hardship, please consider either of the following options:
- if you use PayPal and would like to make a one-off or monthly donation, please click here
- if you prefer not to use PayPal and would like to make a monthly donation covered by the Direct Debit Guarantee, please use the GoCardless option here – if you use this option, Skwawkbox will contact you to confirm the donation amount as the GoCardless registration form doesn’t include a specific amount
Thank you for your support and solidarity, it is vital and deeply appreciated in enabling Skwawkbox to continue doing what you need it to.
89yo councillor ‘bullied’ by right-wing MPs, for opposing NHS closure, suspended by Labour
Barbara Dring has been suspended on the same day her whistleblowing about planned NHS closure – denounced as ‘lies’ by local right-wing MPs – was confirmed correct
Barbara Dring, the 89-year-old Birmingham councillor ‘bullied’ and labelled a liar by right-wing Labour MPs for warning that a vital local health centre was about to be closed, has been suspended by the party – for talking to third parties about local issues.
Cllr Dring and a local health campaigner warned in the summer that Warren Farm health centre faced closure, forcing local people to travel miles for treatment – and was dismissed as a liar by MPs Khalid Mahmood and Paulette Hamilton. The situation prompted campaigner Lorraine Donnally to put in a formal complaint to Labour. Cllr Dring was briefly hospitalised with a suspected stroke that her supporters believe was a reaction to the stress of the situation.
Today, local newspapers confirmed that the centre will be closed and its services moved more than two miles away.
On the same day, the party suspended Cllr Dring, apparently for whistleblowing. At the same time, it has also suspended Des Hughes, the only other Labour councillor in Oscott ward – leaving Labour with no representation in an area with two Tory councillors.
One local told Skwawkbox that Labour has ‘shot itself in the foot’:
They’re idiots. There are two Tory councillors there and under the new boundaries the ward will fall into the Erdington constituency that Paulette Hamilton will be trying to win, without local council representation. They’ve really shot themselves in the foot.
Others were even more plainspoken. Ms Donnally, the health campaigner who complained to Labour about the behaviour of the local MPs, wrote on Facebook to link the suspensions to the health centre closure – and her comments about the party’s ‘disgusting’ conduct were echoed by other locals:
Birmingham City Council’s Labour chief whip Ray Goodwin is reportedly under investigation by the party over his conduct in the position but has not been suspended – yet Labour has suspended two councillors fighting to keep open a crucial important health facility.
Khalid Mahmood’s awful record as Birmingham Perry Barr MP includes wrongfully sacking former staffer Elaina Cohen for blowing the whistle on ‘criminal’ and ‘sadistic’ abuse of vulnerable domestic violence victims by another Mahmood staffer who was also his lover. Sworn testimony by one of the victims to an employment tribunal in the wrongful dismissal case was not challenged by either Mahmood or his legal team.
The right-winger has also been accused by Bangladeshi media of accepting a bribe from a convicted Bangladeshi fugitive seeking help with his asylum case – and by Elaina Cohen of accepting cash from the Kuwait embassy. He has denied any wrongdoing.
At no point has Keir Starmer or his sidekick David Evans taken action against Mahmood, even to suspend him to protect alleged victims while Mahmood was on Starmer’s front bench. The whistleblower’s emails to Starmer and Evan, as well as Mahmood’s own sworn testimony, make clear that Starmer and Evans were fully aware of the allegations and covered them up.
Bullying, smears and cover-ups have been exposed as rife on the part of the Labour right.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
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Graham to be called to testify in Ireland in Ogle’s discrimination claim against Unite
Irish union legend’s case against union for abuse and discrimination after his cancer treatment expected to last eight days but adjourned until February
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham is expected to be called to testify in Dublin in Irish union legend Brendan Ogle’s discrimination claim against the union.
Ogle, who is also suing Graham, her ally Tony Woodhouse and the union for defamation, has alleged that he was abused by the union after his return from treatment for serious cancer – and after he made ‘protected disclosures’ to the union about its failures to adhere to covid protocols during the pandemic. Graham and her representatives have been accused of ‘disgusting’ behaviour toward Ogle – and anger in Ireland at the situation became so great that an entire sector branch threatened to disaffiliate entirely from Unite, the well-known ‘Right2Water’ campaign said it will no longer work with Unite, Unite’s Community section in Ireland condemned the ‘injustice inflicted’ on him and members picketed general secretary Sharon Graham’s long-delayed visit to Dublin.
Graham is using one of the world’s most profitable law firms to defend the defamation suit – and also, Tuesday’s hearing revealed, in the tribunal case. Her tenure as Unite boss has been marked by a string of other allegations – which neither she nor the union has denied – including alleged destruction of evidence against her husband in misogyny and bullying complaints. She is currently being sued, along with an ally and the union, by Irish union legend Brendan Ogle for defamation.
She has been exposed using proxies to order the cancellation of showings of the film ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn/The Big Lie’, which exposes the political abuse of antisemitism accusations against left-wingers in the Labour party, and discussion of Asa Winstanley’s forensic book Weaponising Antisemitism: How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn. Proxies were similarly despatched to try, unsuccessfully, to cancel a Unite ‘fringe’ event at Labour’s conference earlier this month in support of Palestinians.
Ogle’s barrister told the Workplace Relations Commission adjudicator that she expected the union would be required to ‘produce’ Sharon Graham to testify, along with a string of current and former senior Unite officials and employees. The case was adjourned to allow both sides further time to prepare for what is expected to be an eight-day hearing and will recommence in February.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
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Labour loses yet another council as councillors resign over appalling regime
Labour has lost its majority on yet another council after four Norwich city councillors resigned from the party in disgust at the direction in which Keir Starmer has dragged it.
The councillors are Karen Davis – also a former parliamentary candidate for the party – cabinet member Cate Oliver, Ian Stutely and Rachel Everett. Emma Corlett, until now the deputy Labour group leader at Norfolk County Council, has also resigned her membership.
A statement issued by three of the councillors, who all represent the same ward, was not specific about the reasons, beyond ‘national and local’ issues:
After long and careful consideration we have made the heartbreaking decision to leave the Labour Party and become independent councillors.
There are many reasons, but in essence we no longer consider the current national and local Labour Party matches the overriding principles that guide our work as Town Close councillors.
We will relentlessly focus on standing up for Town Close residents and our work in the community that makes a difference. We will be making no further comment at this time.
Labour has recently lost Burnley and Oxford councils after councillor resignations – and is wobbling in the London borough of Newham, with the Independents now the largest opposition group, after two landslide by-election wins and a resignation. The borough has also seen a string of senior elected party officers resign their positions and membership – and anger among residents over the high-handed and abusive behaviour of the Labour-run council.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
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Video: Israeli soldiers say they shot at kibbutz houses, burned bodies
Propaganda video praising women tankers gives away ‘panic’ of IDF soldiers shooting regardless of civilians
An Israeli propaganda video praising the role of women tankers in fighting Hamas during the 7 October kibbutz raid has confirmed already-existing reports in Israeli media – and admissions by senior government advisers – that many of the deaths among Israeli civilians were caused by Israeli Defence Force (IDF) bullets.
In the excerpt below, women soldiers say that:
- Soldiers at the scene were ‘panicked’ and wanted them to shoot at areas regardless whether there were civilians
- they shot at civilian houses where they could not have known whether there were civilians inside
- that burned bodies – most of whom were later claimed by Israel to be civilians – were killed the IDF and that the tank crews shot the burned bodies again to make sure no one lived
The woman tank commander says, perversely, in one moment that she refused an order to shoot where there might be civilians but two seconds later says that she immediately fired on a kibbutz house:
Israeli survivors of the raid told Israeli media soon afterwards that many if not most of the civilian deaths were caused by IDF fire. The videos were suppressed and never reported by the international ‘mainstream’ media, but are still in circulation.
BREAKING: ISRAELI DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT SAYS HAMAS TOOK CARE OF THE HOSTAGES
Alon Ben David said;
“They were not subjected to torture or ill-treatment. The food was scarce; there wasn't much food.”
He said Hamas tried to provide medications daily, though not always… pic.twitter.com/vdk42hYOsF— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) November 26, 2023
Israeli media reports have said hostages were well treated. UK media have mostly ignored
Former Israeli ambassador to the UK Mark Regev, now a senior Netanyahu adviser, inadvertently admitted that the IDF weapons had been responsible for the hundreds of charred charred Israeli bodies – and that two hundred that Israel had thought were Israelis killed by the IDF were in fact Palestinian. A senior IDF pilot told an interviewer that the ‘Hannibal’ directive to kill Israelis as well as Palestinians to prevent hostage situations – supposedly a policy abandoned years ago – was something he and his colleagues trained in regularly for the last twenty years and that the events at the kibbutzim were a ‘mass Hannibal’.
Israeli soldiers and pilots also told Israeli media that they had destroyed homes with everyone inside, both Israeli and Palestinian. Now a propaganda video, intended to boast about Israeli military courage and to present Israel as progressive, has again confirmed that the IDF fired at people in the kibbutz without differentiating between Israelis and Palestinians and even put bullets into the burned to make sure they were dead – making a sick mockery of the Israeli regime’s claims of savagery used to justify its mass killing of civilians in Gaza.
The full 14-minute video can be viewed here.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
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In pictures: supporters fill Liverpool’s streets for Gaza and #CeasefireNow
Large crowd gathers to show solidarity with oppressed Palestinians and to demand a real and permanent ceasefire
A large protest has filled streets in Liverpool’s city centre this weekend in a show of solidarity with Palestinians and a demand for a permanent and immediate ceasefire in Israel’s slaughter of civilians, mostly women and children, in Gaza.
Loud, but good natured – and growing as it went as more and more arrived and even bystanders joined it as it passed – the march set off from Liverpool’s Roman Catholic cathedral and filled Hope Street:
All image rights: S Walker
Swelling rapidly, the protest turned down Leece Street toward Bold Street:
Chanting shame on Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer alike for their support for genocide, it then filled Bold Street on its way to Derby Square to hear speakers call for justice and freedom in Palestine and a peace for all:
Solidarity from Liverpool to the people of Gaza and the West Bank against oppression and war crimes. Free Palestine.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
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Liverpool Independents launch fundraiser to fight Eagle in next general election
Group that took both council seats in Garston is preparing to fight for parliamentary seat
The Liverpool Community Independents (LCI) group announced last week that it will stand a candidate to challenge Labour incumbent MP Maria Eagle in the Liverpool Garston constituency at the next general election, because – as a last straw – her decision to abstain on a Commons vote earlier this month calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s slaughter of civilians in Gaza.
Labour has cause to worry – in May, the working-class south Liverpool community threw out Labour, which heavily lost both its council seats heavily to LCI’s Lucy Williams and Sam Gorst, despite a disgusting Labour smear campaign in the election. But the group will need an even greater influx of resources and volunteers to win the parliamentary seat.
LCI leader Alan Gibbons – who trounced Labour in May in Orrell Park in the north of the city – has said that the decision to fight Eagle for the seat is a ‘historical necessity’ after the abstention.
As a first step, the group has launched a crowdfunder with a target of £15,000 to create a campaign fund for the seat. Readers who would like to contribute toward the effort can do so here.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
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Photos/video: pro-Gaza ceasefire march floods London’s streets again
Husan Zomlot, Apsana Begum, among speakers at huge gathering
Hundreds of thousands have again peacefully flooded the streets of London and other cities in support of the besieged people of Gaza and to demand a proper ceasefire in Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing in the tiny Palestinian territory. Speakers included Palestinian ambassador Husam Zomlot, Poplar and Limehouse MP Apsana Begum – a victim of the Islamophobia of the Labour right – Bell Ribeiro-Addy and others.
Israel, meanwhile, is said to have breached the terms of its ‘pause’ in fighting, delaying the latest release of Israeli captives, according to a Hamas spokesperson. There is nothing humanitarian about a pause. Ceasefire now.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
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St Andrews uni wavers on new rector’s free speech on Gaza under pressure from pro-Israel lobby
University bemoans Stella Maris’s email calling genocide genocide
New St Andrews Uni rector Stella Maris
St Andrews University in Scotland has caved at least partially in the face of pressure from the pro-Israel lobby after the university’s rector – a position elected by students – sent out an email recognising Israel’s apartheid and its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
According to reports in the Establishment media, a letter of protest was signed by ‘hundreds of students’ – but it appears that this was an open letter signed by 1,400 people, many of whom were probably not students since St Andrews only has 10,119 students registered, may not even have been in the UK and potentially might not even exist, as a university is unlikely to verify the names on the bottom of a letter. Pro-Israel pressure groups are known to coordinate pressure globally via social media – and even their own app – to try to suppress free speech that contradicts the Israeli regime’s narrative.
Maris’s email noted – entirely accurately – that Palestinians had been subjected to
apartheid, siege, illegal occupation and collective punishment
During Israel’s mass slaughter of civilians. She also linked to an article that discussed – again, entirely accurately – the fact that many, perhaps most, of those killed during the 7 October kibbutz raid had been killed by Israeli gunships and artillery, a fact inadvertently confirmed even by a senior Netanyahu adviser and former ambassador to the UK. Israel’s apartheid, ‘textbook genocide’ and other war crimes have been attested to by experts, including senior United Nations officials and human rights groups in Israel and internationally.
The university put out a statement saying it was ‘dismayed’ by Ms Maris’s accurate email and very disappointed that she had exercised her freedom of speech – and said it had offered her ‘support’ to retract her email:
As the senior management team which leads the University of St Andrews, we are utterly dismayed that the rector, on this occasion, put her right to freedom of expression ahead of her duty to represent all students, and to be concerned for their welfare.
We know that while some may have welcomed the message, others have been deeply offended and concerned by it.
While every one of us shares a desire for peace and an end to hostilities in Israel and Gaza, we regret that her message, the language that it used, and some of the sources it cited have caused alarm, division, and harm in our community, and more widely.
While she is accountable only to the student body whose interests she was elected to serve, we have, as individuals and as a group of senior leaders, asked her to reflect seriously on the evidence of the upset and fear she has caused, and to take such action as is necessary to restore confidence in her leadership amongst all students, and the wider community.
We have reached out to the rector to offer such support and help as she may require to address these issues.
The statement should, of course, have noted her right to free speech and then stopped there, but many craven universities are well known to have little spine in the face of pro-Israel groups’ manufactured outrage.
Interestingly, the supposedly outraged letter does not appear to have been circulated publicly online and is only quoted selectively by media outlets – which do not name the ‘group’ that sent it. However, the list of likely ‘usual suspects’ is fairly short.
Supporters of Israeli apartheid and war crimes have expressed their horror at Maris’s accuracy “inflammatory and unfounded accusations of ‘genocide,’ ‘apartheid,’ and ‘occupation’ concerning the Jewish State”, claiming it will foster division and “embolden attacks” on Jewish students.
The letter also condemned Maris for not mentioning recent attacks on two students who were leaving a talk by right-wing Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, who has compared marches for Gaza with support for terrorism and has previously said that Israel has ‘no choice’ but to use violence against Gaza. The alleged attackers, who threw eggs, were described by a spokeswoman as around twelve years of age.
Ms Maris told the Telegraph:
While people may disagree with the evidence presented, disagreement should be based on contradictory evidence, not simply because the notion is unpleasant.
Standing with innocents suffering war crimes trumps avoiding offence to supporters of the perpetrators. Every time.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
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Video: IDF caught faking ‘attempted Hamas ambush’
‘Prisoner’ seen dragged away in underwear caught putting pants back on after camera supposed to have stopped filming
The IDF’s attempts at propaganda have been as howlingly inept as its bombing of Gazan civilians has been deadly, from being caught planting evidence in Al Shifa hospital, to claiming a chart showed the names of ‘terrorists’ when in fact it showing the days of the week, to claiming a man covered in blood in a hospital CCTV video was an unhurt hostage being hidden in the hospital.
Meanwhile – although ignored by complicit western media – Israel has admitted that its own helicopters and artillery killed large numbers of Israeli citizens whose deaths it blamed on Hamas.
And now the IDF appears to have been caught faking a ‘Hamas ambush’ in which it dragged off a ‘terrorist’ in his underwear – only for the camera to catch the man putting his clothes back on, with no soldiers holding him captive, behind a screen.
The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal first outed the incident and was blocked by the right-wing US reporter who had claimed it was an attempted ambush:
After blocking me for exposing his (possibly unwitting) participation in Israel’s planting evidence at Shifa hospital, Fox’s @TreyYingst stands accused of a hoax standoff. He’s fervently denied it on his IG account. I think more investigation is in order. pic.twitter.com/TMLB17ZNAV
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) November 24, 2023
Yngst then claimed that a still featured in Blumenthal’s video showed the man getting undressed under IDF guard:
But in the actual footage it is clear that the still was taken after the man was shown being escorted away blindfolded (with media and military cameras conveniently ready to film that part) – and the footage showing him putting his trousers back on appears at the end of the clip apparently because a cloth screen blew upward in the wind, followed by agitated soldiers telling the camera to stop filming:
Israel’s merciless mass killing of children and civilian women and the elderly, combined with its propaganda incompetence and the arrogance of its spokespeople, have led millions to march for peace and justice for Palestinians and to deride the endless propaganda failures that would certainly be fatal to its narrative if the western media reported half of what is revealed by the Israeli press and broadcasters.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.