Palestinians
Breaking: 55 MPs (so far) sign motion of no confidence in Speaker Hoyle
Wednesday’s farce and chaos after Speaker allowed Labour to ‘hijack’ SNP’s opposition day motion calling for Gaza ceasefire leads to ‘Early Day Motion’
Fifty-five MPs – and counting – from the SNP and Conservative parties, plus one independent, have signed a motion of no confidence in Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle this morning, including more than half of the SNP’s Westminster MPs, after last night’s fiasco in which Hoyle broke parliamentary protocol to allow a Labour amendment to enter the debate and derail the SNP’s ‘Opposition Day’ motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Labour’s amendment, which watered down a motion condemning Israel’s war crimes in Gaza into an Israel-friendly version that gave the apartheid regime an effective veto over any ceasefire, should have been ruled out by the government’s own attempted amendment, leading to a straight fight between the SNP and Tory versions. But Hoyle – allegedly under threat by Labour whips of removal under a Labour government – allowed Labour’s amendment to stand. It passed without a formal vote after Tory and SNP MPs stormed out in protest amid chants calling for the return of Hoyle’s predecessor John Bercow. SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said last night he would ‘take significant convincing’ to believe it was tolerable for Hoyle to remain in the role.
The Speaker position is held during a parliament until death or resignation, but a large proportion of the Commons signing the motion would be likely to put immense pressure on Hoyle to step down. His position already looks untenable after he allowed Keir Starmer to hijack a vote on a situation in which some 34,000 Palestinian civilians have been murdered and hundreds more are being killed each day.
Update: in the few minutes since this article was published, the number of MPs has risen to 57.
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Commons chaos as SNP, Tories walk out over Hoyle’s help for Starmer over Gaza
Hoyle selected Labour’s weak Gaza amendment for debate , against Commons protocol
MPs swarm.out of the Commons chamber
Tonight’s Commons vote on the SNP’s call for a ceasefire in Gaza has collapsed into chaos, with both the SNP and the Tories walking out of the Commons chamber in protest at Speaker Lindsay Hoyle’s decision to allow Labour’s amendment to go onto the agenda.
Parliamentary protocol dictated that the Tories’ amendment should have ruled out Labour’s weadel-worded attempt to dress up a motion calling for a pause when it suits Israel as an amendment to the SNP’s clear condemnation of Israel’s genocide.
But Hoyle selected Labour’s amendment, allegedly after threats from Starmer and his team that they would try to remove him as Speaker if he didn’t accede. The announcement led to chants from some MPs for the return of John Bercow, the previous Speaker.
The Tories said they would ‘play no further part’ in the vote. SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said he would ‘take significant convincing’ that Hoyle’s position was not now untenable.
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Lavery says name added as supporting Labour’s weasel Gaza motion ‘without my consent’
Tough north-east MP says not in his name
Wansbeck MP, ex-miner and former Labour chair Ian Lavery has disowned the appearance of his name among the supposed supporters of Keir Starmer’s weasel-worded amendment to the SNP motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
While the SNP motion denounces Israeli war crimes, Labour’s amendment – only allowed into the debate because of alleged threats from Starmer and his factional allies to remove Lindsay Hoyle as Speaker if he didn’t collude – prioritises Israel’s viewpoint and security and treats Israeli lives as more valuable than those of Palestinians.
Lavery’s name has been included in the list of MPs supporting Labour’s amendment, but he says it was added without his consent and he is trying to find out who is responsible:
Starmer is set to tell Labour MPs to abstain on the SNP motion. Fly on the wall positions at any Lavery-Starmer confrontation would be likely to fetch high prices.
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Starmer ‘ordering MPs to abstain’ again on SNP Gaza ceasefire motion
Cowardly Labour leader helped out by Speaker after alleged threat but will still betray Palestinians facing genocide
Keir Starmer is set – again – to order MPs to abstain on the SNP’s motion condemning Israeli war crimes and calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, after Speaker Lindsay Hoyle helped him out by ignoring parliamentary convention.
Hoyle should normally have ruled out Starmer’s weasel-worded amendment to the SNP motion after the Tories tabled their own amendment, but has allowed Labour’s to go forward too, after alleged threats by Starmer and his team to try to remove Hoyle as Speaker if he declined:
Tory MPs claim Starmer & Labour chief whip Sir Alan Campbell threatened during behind the scenes talks to attempt to remove Sir Lindsay Hoyle as Speaker if he didn’t select Labour amendment. Now Hoyle is facing Tory fury.
— Jon Craig (@joncraig) February 21, 2024
Labour’s motion, which makes the situation more about the rights and feelings of Israelis and their apartheid regime instead of the war crimes and slaughter of civilians being perpetrated by their government and military, is unfit, but voting for that will allow Starmer and co to tell voters they have voted for a ceasefire, even when in reality it is nothing more than a regurgitated ‘humanitarian pause’ favouring Israel’s agenda.
Few will be fooled, but Starmer will as usual have the collusion of the mainstream media to push the scam – unless enough Labour MPs rebel to vote for the SNP motion after Labour’s is defeated.
Update: SNP Westminster leader has said his MPs will back Starmer’s feeble amendment:
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Unite Brighton/S Coast votes unanimously to picket next exec over Graham’s Gaza silence
Members blast ‘refus[al] to implement Unite’s democratically agreed policy on international solidarity in respect of Palestine/Israel but of actively suppressing attempts to mobilise in support of Gaza’ and move to ‘pause’ Unite’s affiliation with Stop the War group
Unite Brighton and South Coast branch (SE 6246) voted unanimously last night in favour of a motion to picket the union’s next meeting of its executive, which takes place Monday March 11th 1pm at Unite’s HQ at Holborn in London.
The union’s general secretary, Sharon Graham, has been heavily criticised for her continued silence over Israel’s genocide in Gaza and for trying to thwart attempts to show solidarity with the people of Palestine. She has also been accused of banning or deterring union staff from participation in protests on behalf of Unite or showing official Unite banners on marches and at rallies.
The full motion reads:
Motion for branch meeting 20 Feb 2024
Many members by now will have seen the blistering speech by Jim Kelly, Chair of London and Eastern Region, in which he lays bare the General Secretary’s imposed policy of not only ignoring and refusing to implement Unite’s democratically agreed policy on international solidarity in respect of Palestine/Israel but of actively suppressing attempts to mobilise in support of Gaza.
Indeed, some 20,000 Palestinians had been slaughtered before Unite, on 3rd November, called for a ceasefire. Since then attempts to mobilise support have been met with obstruction, warnings issued designed to deter and silence Unite staff from speaking out on national marches, and in a particularly egregious move the General Secretary advised the EC to pause its affiliation with Stop the War. Unite members across the country are outraged at Unite’s continuing silence and failure to mobilise, particularly in light of the ICJ ruling that Israel may be committing the crime of genocide.
This branch demands that the
- Unite EC and constitutional committees use all means possible to publicise and encourage members to attend national PSC demonstrations in line with Union Policy as carried at Conference;
- Unite EC be present with their banner on national PSC demonstrations and provide a speaker, ideally the General Secretary;
- Unite EC and constitutional committees, as well as the Regional Offices, organise a visible Unite presence on national and local PSC demonstrations, providing members with the resources to attend including transport or reimbursement of travel fares;
- Unite HQ implement a social media plan that regularly reports on the on-going campaigns by Unite members as well as statements on social media channels of solidarity and support for the Palestinian struggle in Gaza, the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
- Unite immediately reinstate its affiliation to Stop the War
Further, that officers of this branch work with other branches to organise a mass lobby by members of the next EC meeting, Tuesday 5th March, 10.30am (tbc).
The exec is in fact planned for 11 March
One branch member told Skwawkbox:
The behaviour of our General Secretary Sharon Graham in seeking even to prevent others giving solidarity is despicable.
Unite’s press office has been contacted for comment.
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Starmer tries to make SNP Gaza ceasefire motion all about Israel’s feelings
Labour amendments betray Gaza’s murdered and oppressed civilians and uses classic asymmetric language to value Palestinian life less than Israeli
Keir Starmer – after days of posing to try to bring Muslim and other decent voters onside by mouthing ceasefire language – has yet again betrayed the two million people in Gaza suffering violence and starvation and the more than 100,000 people murdered and maimed by Israel.
While the ‘mainstream’ media speculated whether Starmer would order MPs to support the SNP’s motion demanding a ceasefire, which is being debated in Parliament tomorrow, more realistic observers knew it was inevitable that Starmer would do the minimum he hopes will fool voters opposed to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, while protecting the interests of the pro-Israel right.
And so he did: Labour has tabled amendments to the original motion that gut it of its impact and has gone as far as making the motion more about Hamas’s supposed guilt and the feelings of Israel and its supporters. And the amendment uses the classic tactics of politicians and ‘mainstream’ media to present Israeli lives and suffering as more valuable than Palestinian.
In Starmer’s worldview, Palestinians are not being murdered by Israel – their lives are just ‘lost’, as if to a natural disaster and not to a campaign of mechanised mass murder. The sheer number of their deaths is presented as ‘intolerable’, but the loss of Israeli lives to Palestinian resistance is ‘horror’. Israelis have the ‘right to assurance’ against attack, but there is no mention of a Palestinian right not to be murdered by the occupation regime. Israel ‘cannot be expected’ to stop fighting if Hamas does not stop – but there is no acknowledgement that Hamas’s violence takes place against a backdrop of decades of wanton violence and oppression by the occupiers. Israel must be ‘safe and secure’ – but a Palestinian state only merits ‘viable’.
The SNP motion is an exemplar of directness and simplicity and rightly focuses on the many tens of thousands of civilians slaughtered by Israel, as well as on the forced displacement of 1.5 million Palestinians into Rafah, where they remain under constant bombardment and the threat of an all-out ground assault:
Labour’s lickspittle version calls resistance ‘terrorism’ but does not mention the Israeli terror state’s genocide and other war crimes, or the fact that so many are dying in Rafah because they were forced to cram there under bomb and bullet – and clearly hasn’t even been proofread, calling for ‘the UN Security Council to be meet urgently’:
Starmer is trying to mask his support for Israel’s war crimes and hoping that the millions in this country disgusted by that support will be fooled. His disregard for the true plight of Palestinians and his complicity in the war crimes being perpetrated against them by Israel is beyond contemptible.
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UN human rights office ‘appalled’ at rape and execution of women and girls in Gaza
‘Credible’ reports of war crimes against Palestinian women by Israeli soldiers detailed in UN OHCHR statement – yet ignored by western ‘msm’
The horrific treatment of women and girls by Israeli soldiers – including rape and execution – has been condemned by the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights in a damning statement today from the ‘Special Procedures’ group of human rights experts, saying that the actions of the IDF are likely to amount to prosecutable war crimes.
The statement says that the group:
expressed alarm over credible allegations of egregious human rights violations to which Palestinian women and girls continue to be subjected in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Palestinian women and girls have reportedly been arbitrarily executed in Gaza, often together with family members, including their children, according to information received.
“We are shocked by reports of the deliberate targeting and extrajudicial killing of Palestinian women and children in places where they sought refuge, or while fleeing. Some of them were reportedly holding white pieces of cloth when they were killed by the Israeli army or affiliated forces,” the experts said.
The experts expressed serious concern about the arbitrary detention of hundreds of Palestinian women and girls, including human rights defenders, journalists and humanitarian workers, in Gaza and the West Bank since 7 October. Many have reportedly been subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment, denied menstruation pads, food and medicine, and severely beaten. On at least one occasion, Palestinian women detained in Gaza were allegedly kept in a cage in the rain and cold, without food.
“We are particularly distressed by reports that Palestinian women and girls in detention have also been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers. At least two female Palestinian detainees were reportedly raped while others were reportedly threatened with rape and sexual violence,” the experts said. They also noted that photos of female detainees in degrading circumstances were also reportedly taken by the Israeli army and uploaded online.
The experts expressed concern that an unknown number of Palestinian women and children, including girls, have reportedly gone missing after contact with the Israeli army in Gaza. “There are disturbing reports of at least one female infant forcibly transferred by the Israeli army into Israel, and of children being separated from their parents, whose whereabouts remain unknown,” they said.
“We remind the Government of Israel of its obligation to uphold the right to life, safety, health, and dignity of Palestinian women and girls and to ensure that no one is subjected to violence, torture, ill-treatment or degrading treatment, including sexual violence,” the experts said.
They called for an independent, impartial, prompt, thorough and effective investigation into the allegations and for Israel to cooperate with such investigations.
“Taken together, these alleged acts may constitute grave violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, and amount to serious crimes under international criminal law that could be prosecuted under the Rome Statute,” the experts said. “Those responsible for these apparent crimes must be held accountable and victims and their families are entitled to full redress and justice,
While Israel’s atrocity propaganda claiming ‘systematic’ use of rape as a weapon of war have been characterised by an absence of evidence and a demand to be believed regardless how lurid and unfeasible the claims have been, and have quickly collapsed under scrutiny – yet have been propagated by western media and governments anyway – the UN experts’ sober claims carry weight and a call for serious investigation, but has been entirely ignored so far by the UK and US ‘mainstream’ media:
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Unite’s Graham slammed for silence over Gaza
GS silence and ongoing ban on Unite banners at Gaza demos infuriates officials and members as Unite Scotland passes ceasefire motion
A search of Sharon Graham’s Twitter account reveals no mention of anything related to Gaza
Unite members and officials are infuriated by union general secretary Sharon Graham’s continued silence over Gaza, with even previously ardent supporters demanding to know why she is completely absent from the fight for peace and justice for Palestinians.
Skwawkbox has previously reported an effective ban by the Unite management on the participation of the union’s officers, and the use of official union banners and paraphernalia, in marches and rallies. This ban appears to be ongoing. The ban is matched by a complete lack of comment from Graham on her social media or other appearances on the issue of Israel’s slaughter of Palestinian civilians, even after the International Court of Justice put Israel formally on trial for genocide and ordered the state to protect Palestinian lives, an order the regime has flouted.
Unite members are now demanding to know whose side Ms Graham is on, as in the example shown above. But even formerly entrenched supporters have lost patience, such as the activist behind this account – who has previously attacked Skwawkbox for scrutinising and exposing the general secretaries actions and alleged actions:
Original tweet and video here.
But the criticism is widespread, as the representative examples below demonstrate:
Where's your support for Palestine #GazaGenocide
— #EnoughisEnough #FreePalestine #FreeJulianAssange (@carolehope2) February 6, 2024
I too am a member of Unite but not for much longer @UniteSharon @unitetheunion I am appalled at your lack of Solidarity with the other unions and Palestine
— Jezzabeau C. #GazaGenocide (@JezzabeauC) February 3, 2024
@UniteSharon not one post on her feed about palestine in recent days. Disgusting.
— Traderboy (@Aminthegreat4) February 13, 2024
I too am a member of Unite but not for much longer @UniteSharon @unitetheunion I am appalled at your lack of Solidarity with the other unions and Palestine
— Jezzabeau C. #GazaGenocide (@JezzabeauC) February 3, 2024
Your silence on Palestine goes against Unite policy.
— Mike (@Fleabag2016) January 23, 2024
Unite’s democratically-decided policy is to support the international ‘Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions’ movement against Israel’s oppression, apartheid and illegal occupation. Yet members in Ireland have been forced to demonstrate against Unite’s use of Israeli-linked firms, entire regional groups have condemned the lack of support and solidarity for Palestinians, and members have accused Graham of using proxies to ban pro-Palestine events on union premises and even to try to cancel a solidarity event organised by union officials at Labour’s 2023 conference.
And while other unions have been clear in their solidarity with Palestinians facing the genocidal assault of the occupying Israeli regime, Unite – at least at an organisational level – appears determined to say nothing that will upset Keir Starmer’s Zionist apple cart.
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Palestinian ambassador’s 7yo niece killed, left hanging from building by Israeli bomb
Eight of Husam Zomlot’s wife’s family murdered, including 7yo twins, in Rafah attack as Israel’s genocide continues. Starmer silent
Israel has murdered an entire family group of Palestinian ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot, leaving the mutilated body of Sidra, the seven-year-old cousin of Zomlot’s wife hanging, mutilated, from the outside of a building after she was flung from her home by the force of the blast. Sidra’s twin sister Suzan, her baby brother and five other members of their family including their parents and grandparents were also murdered in Israel’s war on Palestinian civilians and its assault on Rafah in south Gaza, where it had told the Palestinian people to flee for safety.
Ambassador Zomlot announced the tragic news on his social media:
This is 7 year old Sidra, the cousin of my wife. The impact of the Israeli missile was so powerful it flung her out, leaving her mutilated body dangling from the ruins of the destroyed building in Rafah 48 hours ago. My wife’s aunt Suzan, her husband Fouzy Hassouna, two of their… pic.twitter.com/0RFgyPUdzu
— Husam Zomlot (@hzomlot) February 14, 2024
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and MP Andy McDonald, who was suspended by Keir Starmer for wishing for both Palestinians and Israelis to have peace, responded:
My dear Husam and family, i am shocked angry and appalled at your loss and the thousands more in this dusgusting onslaught on the Palestinian people. You do so much good to represent Palestine despite the terrible pain of such loss.
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) February 14, 2024
Husam, I am so so sorry to read this truly appalling news.
This is beyond unbearable.
All the words have been said over and over again, yet still the killing of the innocents continues.
In the name of God and in all humanity, the killing has to stop now.— Andy McDonald MP (@AndyMcDonaldMP) February 14, 2024
‘Labour’ ‘leader’ Keir Starmer, who has supported Israel’s ‘right’ to commit war crimes but put out a far too late call for a ceasefire after learning that pro-Palestinian, Jewish former ANC MP Andrew Feinstein plans to stand against him in the next parliamentary election, has not commented as of the time of writing.
Neither has Starmer’s Shadow Home Secretary David Lammy, nor Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
Skwawkbox offers heartfelt sympathy and solidarity to Husam Zomlot and his family.
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Right-wing candidate suspended for ‘antisemitic’ comments called ‘true ally’ by JLM’s Smeeth
Red Tories’ chaos deepens as second candidate dumped over Israel comments – and party’s Westminster polling falls
The second parliamentary candidate to be suspended by Labour in a matter of days for ‘antisemitic’ comments was given a gushing endorsement by a senior Jewish Labour Movement figure.
Graham Jones trumpeted the backing of Ruth Smeeth – now Anderson – last year while he was seeking selection to stand for Labour in Haslingden and Hyndburn. She referred to him as a ‘true ally’ in her fight against ‘antisemitism’:
Oops.
Anderson was one of the most prominent faces in the creation and propagation of the so-called ‘Labour antisemitism crisis’ after falsely accusing left activist Marc Wadsworth of claiming she was part of a ‘media conspiracy – video evidence showed he had said no such thing, but that didn’t stop her storming out of a meeting and marching with a ‘lynch mob‘ that to the party hearing that drove Wadsworth out of Labour:
Author and investigative journalist Asa Winstanley wrote last year:
Ruth Smeeth MP had good reason to delete the post [claiming Black activist Marc Wadsworth had used an antisemitic smear toward her at a Labour event] —the idea that Marc Wadsworth had said she was part of a “media conspiracy” was completely untrue. Importantly, he did not make any kind of anti-Jewish comment. In fact, he didn’t refer to Smeeth’s Jewishness in any way—he later clarified that he hadn’t even known she was Jewish. Wadsworth replied to Smeeth’s false allegations in a statement the same day, describing them as “poisonous slander.” He said her claims played “into a Jewish media conspiracy theory that I utterly reject and have never espoused.”
Wadsworth’s instincts about Smeeth “working hand in hand” with the right-wing press to overthrow Corbyn were totally correct. Only three days earlier Smeeth had played her own minor part in the coup attempt against Corbyn. She announced on Twitter “with a heavy heart” that she was resigning from a junior role in Corbyn’s shadow cabinet. It was timed to coincide with a series of resignations by dozens of hostile MPs, in a failed attempt to force him to resign. They came after the no-confidence vote tabled by Margaret Hodge and the firing of Hilary Benn, another right-wing shadow minister Corbyn had fruitlessly attempted to bring on board as part of his abortive “big church” approach.
But unlike Wadsworth and the others, as a journalist reporting on the UK’s pro-Israel lobby, I happened to be pretty well acquainted with Smeeth’s work.
I wrote a story about her in 2014, when she was selected as a Labour candidate. I did so because of two key facts, ignored by a media that would later pay her such close attention: she had worked as a spin doctor for the Israel lobby and had acted (wittingly or otherwise) as a secret Labour Party source for the US government.
Anderson, who was once described in a leaked US embassy communication as someone to ‘strictly protect’ who had provided inside information on then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s election strategy, has also smeared left-wing Jews who support Palestinian human rights – and said, at about the same time as she was endorsing Jones, that pro-Palestinian Jews should ignored by the UK media and if they didn’t like it, ‘tough’. She went on to smear left Jewish group JVL, forcing the BBC to publish a belated ‘correction’ for not challenging the accusation.
Other JLM activists similarly have egg on their faces after jumping in to try to get Rochdale voters to back Azhar Ali, the other suspended candidate – only a couple of weeks before the Rochdale by-election – despite his ‘antisemitic’ comments about Israel:
On the left, the JLM's timeline right now, with key figures explaining why it's right to have some tolerance when someone on your own side mucks up.
On the right, the distant past of… 2021, when the JLM said "serious" zero tolerance was expelling left groups. pic.twitter.com/HOaI4bfHDD— Alex Nunns (@alexnunns) February 12, 2024
Ali was set to lose the by-election badly even before being officially dumped last night, having featured in videos of him being told to leave by voters he tried to canvass because of his association with Keir Starmer’s support for Israel’s genocide, in stark contrast to the warm welcome widely given to pro-Palestinian candidate George Galloway.
For his part Jones, before he lost his seat, was one of two Labour MPs who sat drinking on the Commons terrace with disgraced right-wing activist Ian McKenzie, who had made comments about the rape and beheading of senior Labour MP Emily Thornberry. Jones was then taken to task by local members for his support for McKenzie.
The chaos of the Starmer regime and its propensity for shooting itself in the foot continues to grow – as well as its complicity in apartheid Israel’s genocidal slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent civilians in Gaza. Starmer’s red Tory party has fallen three points in the polls, despite the Tories’ ongoing disaster, and has lost half or more of its support among Muslim voters, as well as being rejected by those opposed to Israel’s genocide.
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