Protest
Jewish former S African MP Feinstein will stand against Starmer in Holborn St Pancras
OCISA selects candidate to fight for ‘Labour leader’s seat at next parliamentary election
Andrew Feinstein speaking at the ‘Stop Starmer’ initiative in London’s Conway Hall last year
The OCISA group formed with the aim of ousting so-called ‘Labour leader’ Keir Starmer has selected Corruption Watch UK director Andrew Feinstein, a Jewish former South African MP and adviser to Nelson Mandela, to stand against Starmer in Holborn and St Pancras in the next general election. Feinstein now lives in the seat.
Feinstein. the son of Holocaust survivors, has a long record of substance and principle that stands in stark contrast to his ‘broken every promise’ opponent, who is known as a ‘long-time servant of the security state’ and became known as the ‘kid starver’ after breaking promises to end the hated ‘universal credit’ benefit system and saying he would not end Tory benefit cuts that have put hundreds of thousands of children into poverty and hunger.
Feinstein has also consistently stood against Israel’s apartheid and genocide in Gaza, arguing that the same tactics his ANC party in South Africa used to bring down apartheid there must be used against Israel and pointing his social media followers to information about Israel’s slaughter of innocents. Starmer, in contrast, has said Israel has the ‘right’ even to impose the blockade on Gaza that is causing horrific starvation and disease.
Despite Labour’s significant majority in previous elections in the seat, the candidacy of someone with such substance and track record must be seen as a threat to Starmer’s position, particularly in a seat where one in six voters are Muslims and even more so in the light of South Africa’s leading role in the fight against the Gaza genocide – and soon against the UK’s complicity. The campaign is likely to be supported by large numbers of people from the constituency and around the UK, who are outraged at Starmer’s complicity in genocide and his abetting of the Tories’ assault on our rights and freedoms in the UK.
Starmer and his team are said to be ‘raging’ at the news and deeply concerned:
Those who wish to donate to Feinstein’s campaign fund can do so here.
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Woman walking 450 miles to fund legal costs of Israeli pro-Palestine activist
Lucy Boyle hopes to raise tens of thousands of pounds for Palestine Action activist Ronnie Barkan, who was convicted at Bristol Crown Court
Activist Lucy Boyle is hiking 450 miles in an attempt to raise funds to cover the legal costs of an Israeli Palestine Action activist facing a potential custodial sentence for defending Palestinian lives.
Ronnie Barkan, a co-founder of Israeli BDS group Boycott from Within, was convicted on Monday, alongside Stavit Sinai, Eliza Sarson-Diment, Archie Sadler, Finton Owens, Jarvey Georgson and Paul Shortt on one count of burglary and one count of criminal damage, after damaging equipment and spray-painting ‘Free Palestine’ at a factory owned by Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems, who produces weapons used against Palestinians. The UK government has intensified its legal pursuit of Palestine Action in an attempt to quell protest, in both prosecutions and intimidatory arrests.
Barkan’s own crowdfund has raised £24,000 of the £50,000 costs he faces. Ms Boyle is hoping to cover the remainder.
Her fundraising page says of Barkan:
He has given his life in pursuit of Palestinian freedom and universal human rights, co-founding the Boycott From Within movement in Israel amongst many inspirational campaigns and actions. Many of these have led to repeated arrest, imprisonment and at times violent suppression.
Israeli dissidents are amongst the strongest, most noble of people and deserve the highest level of solidarity.
I am planning an approx 450 mile hike across Northern Spain to try and raise funds to help Ronnie pay his £50,000 legal fees as a result of this trial. Please sponsor this hike not only for Palestine and Ronnie but for all people in the world who resist what is clearly and fundamentally wrong.
Even historical figures involved in direct action will have at times felt daunted when faced with the damaging outcomes of their activism at huge personal expense. I hope that this hike and any money raised will show anyone brave enough to resist that there is solidarity. That they matter to us and that what they do matters to the world. No donation is too small.
In a 2023 video, Barkan explained why he takes action against Elbit and Israeli apartheid:
The group will be sentenced on 22 March. The crowdfund page can be found here.
Inequality Demands Oppression
Corporate lobbyists are demanding a ban on protest – and getting it.
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 2nd February 2024
Why are peaceful protesters treated like terrorists, while actual terrorists (especially on the far right, and especially in the US) often remain unmolested by the law? Why, in the UK, can you now potentiallyreceive a longer sentence for “public nuisance” – non-violent civil disobedience – than for rape or manslaughter? Why are ordinary criminals being released early to make space in overcrowded prisons, only for the space to be refilled with political prisoners: people trying peacefully to defend the habitable planet?
There’s a simple explanation. It was clearly expressed by a former analyst at the US Department of Homeland Security. “You don’t have a bunch of companies coming forward saying: ‘I wish you’d do something about these rightwing extremists.’” The disproportionate policing of environmental protest, the new offences and extreme sentences, the campaigns of extrajudicial persecution by governments around the world are not, as politicians constantly assure us, designed to protect society. They’re a response to corporate lobbying.
Last week the UN’s special rapporteur on environmental defenders, Michel Forst, issued the kind of bulletin you might expect to see written about the Sisi regime in Egypt or Vladimir Putin’s Russia. But it concerned the UK. It noted that draconian anti-protest laws, massive sentences and court rulings forbidding protesters from explaining their motives to juries are crushing “fundamental freedoms” here. He pointed out that until recently it was very rare “for members of the public to be imprisoned for peaceful protest in the UK”. Now you can get six months merely for marching.
He also highlighted the outrageous treatment of people convicted of no crime. Peaceful environmental campaigners are being held on bail for up to two years, subjected to electronic tags, GPS tracking and curfews, and deprived of their social lives and political rights. This is one of many examples of process as punishment. Even before you have been tried, let alone found guilty, your life is shredded.
This bombshell report was ignored by almost all the media. You shouldn’t be surprised. With a few exceptions, the media belongs to the corporate-political complex that demanded these laws. All over the world, the billionaire press has been demonising peaceful campaigners and lobbying for ever more oppressive measures against those who challenge destructive industries.
However absurd the media’s hyperbole, governments rush to meet its demands. In Germany, the authorities launched an organised crime investigation into the environmental protest movement Letzte Generation. Italy is using anti-mafia laws against an allied group of environmental defenders, Ultima Generazione. In France and the US, peaceful green protesters are labelled and treated as terrorists. These governments must know they aren’t dealing with organised crime, the mafia or terrorists. But by using these labels they hope to isolate and ostracise peaceful protesters while justifying a madly disproportionate legal response.
In many cases, laws are proposed or drafted by corporate-funded lobby groups masquerading as thinktanks, such as Policy Exchange in the UK and the American Legislative Exchange Council in the US. Such groups create legal templates for crushing protest movements, then press for their adoption all over the world. This tactic has been chillingly effective.
In the UK, the government has truncated parliamentary scrutiny to force extreme measures on to the statute books. Judges have jailed environmental defenders for seeking to tell the jury why they took their actions. In 2023, two peaceful protesters who unveiled a banner on a bridge, Marcus Decker and Morgan Trowland, were handed sentences of two and a half and three years: the longest of their kind in modern history. Decker, a German citizen living with his partner in the UK, now faces deportation when he is released. There is nothing just or proportionate about any of this.
Even worse, both public authorities and corporations have been dropping injunctions on people who have protested, and, for that matter, those they believe might protest.As the UN rapporteur pointed out, many peaceful protesters are “being punished twice for the same action”: facing both criminal trials and civil injunctions. Simply being named on an injunction exposes you to potentially massive financial penalties, as the named people – the defendants – typically have to pay the legal costs of the claimants. If the defendants challenge the injunction, the costs can spiral into hundreds of thousands ofpounds. I’ve been contacted by several people who have never committed a crime, who have told me they are being ruined by inclusion on these lists. These costs are, in effect, fines that can be levied by either public or private bodies against anyone who disagrees with them. They amount to punishment of the poor by the rich. Corporations become, in effect, prosecuting authorities.
Worse still, the police can also slap an injunction on peaceful campaigners, even if they’ve done nothing to offend the law. Last year, Surrey police handed an “antisocial behaviour injunction” to Colin Shearn, a retired corporate executive, on the grounds that he had been asking “endless questions about air traffic” at Farnborough airport. His questions, letters and information requests were polite and considered, but this, apparently, counts for nothing. By pure coincidence, three weeks after its most effective critic was silenced by this injunction, Farnborough airport announced that it planned to double the number of weekend flights.
Why is all this happening? Because the UK, the US and many other nations have become closed shops run by the plutocrats’ trade union. This political capture also explains why, despite the alleged perversions of justice that ruined the lives of so many subpostmasters, none of thesenior figures at the Post Office or its contracting companies have been held accountable. It explains why, in the US, you can be imprisoned for possession of a few grams of narcotics, yet no pharmaceutical executive has been sent to jail for peddling opioids that have killed 800,000 people. It tells us why, in the UK, no company has yet been prosecuted for tax evasion under the 2017 Criminal Finances Act, and why Rishi Sunak’s government repeatedly sabotaged parliament’s attempts to clamp down on major white-collar crime. The powerful are protected while the powerless are exposed to ever more inventive laws.
Inequality demands oppression. The more concentrated wealth and power become, the more those who challenge the rich and powerful must be hounded and crushed. In other words, economic inequality is mirrored by inequality before the law. You can dispense with all the other indices of democracy. The best measure of the health of a political system is who gets prosecuted.
Labour ‘shuts out’ Black MPs and groups from ‘race equality’ launch
Black MPs and groups were ‘shut out’ of Keir Starmer’s ‘race equality’ launch last night. Several had expected to attend the event in Tottenham, but were not given the new location after Starmer and Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy cancelled the original meeting to avoid facing protesters eager to challenge them over their support for Israel’s war crimes.
Black paper The Voice has reported that:
Black MPs, community media and leading campaign groups were not invited, leading to accusations from party members we spoke to that the Labour party intentionally excluded them in a bid to censor opportunities to grill party leader Keir Starmer and equalities secretary Anneliese Dodds preventing any real scrutiny of the Race Equality Act plans which were launched back in 2020.
This appears to have left Doreen Lawrence, a Starmer supporter, as essentially the only Black attendee – and ensured that no Black MPs or activists who might have challenged Starmer and his equalities spokeswomen Anneliese Dodds about the lack of substance in their ‘plan’.
Diane Abbott, Britain’s first Black woman MP, dismissed Labour’s plan as ‘window dressing’:
The proposed Race Equality Act is just window dressing. The foremost Black media organisation, The Voice, was not invited to the launch and most Black MPs were excluded. This reveals the reality of where Keir Starmer’s Labour party really stands on fighting anti-Black racism.
Even the paper-thin plan is unlikely ever to come to fruition under habitual promise-shredder Keir Starmer.
Labour’s issues with Black people and other racialised groups under Keir Starmer go back to the beginning of his tenure, when he named an all-white ‘diversity panel’ and excluded Labour’s most senior ethnic minority staffer. Since then, the party has been embroiled in rampant Islamophobia, attacks on Black women MPs and other senior elected figures, wholesale deselection of Black councillors and blocking of Black candidates in areas with large Black communities and more, as well as disgraceful racism toward Gypsy Roma people and naming an entirely male, entirely white panel to select local authority election candidates.
This report is true. I can confirm that Black journalists were excluded too.
https://t.co/G4BUu9hXXA
— Nadine White. (@Nadine_Writes) February 6, 2024
The party has also done nothing to root out the embedded racism exposed by the Forde Report, which Starmer reluctantly commissioned under pressure, then ignored when he could no longer delay its publication.
Read the full story on The Voice here.
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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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Protest planned in Tottenham as location of Starmer’s latest ‘pledge’ leaks
Starmer’s ‘equality’ promise is a farce after years of unpunished racism in the Labour right – and Starmer’s support for Israel’s genocide
Keir Starmer and local MP David Lammy will appear in Tottenham between 1pm and 3pm on Monday for what is expected to be Starmer’s announcement of his latest ‘pledge’ – this one promising equal pay protection for ethnic minority groups.
Starmer’s record shows that any ‘promise’ will be worth nothing and jettisoned as soon as convenient – but his decision to stage his blether in one of London’s most diverse boroughs, while he continues to support Israel’s genocide in Gaza and has not even mentioned the International Court of Justice’s binding orders on Israel to stop the slaughter, has prompted outrage and a planned protest:
Starmer’s regime has constantly ignored racism, misogyny and abuse from the right-wing faction that has destroyed the party as a meaningful opposition, often protecting alleged perpetrators – even paedophiles – and covering up even the most serious allegations, while doing nothing to act against perpetrators exposed by the Forde Report. His latest disposable pledge is clearly a feeble attempt to con diverse groups that he cares a jot about their best interests – and his decision to hold it at the centre named after Labour’s first Black MP, who would no doubt have regarded him with contempt, adds insult to injury.
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Bridge and Tunnel Crowd
For a few hours on the morning of January 8, Gaza was everybody’s problem.
Leading UN Figure Gives Scathing Verdict on UK Government’s Climate Campaign Clampdown and “Chilling” Effect on Protest Rights
A leading United Nations investigator has issued a stark warning to Britain over the UK Government's clampdown on protest rights, as increasing numbers of peaceful campaigners are put behind bars.
Michel Forst, the first UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders and the Aarhus Convention - a global agreement to ensure citizens’ participation in environmental issues - issued a rare condemnation of the UK Government over its approach to climate protests today (Tuesday 23).
His statement, following a visit to the UK earlier this month, paints a bleak picture of the state’s response to environmental activism in the country. During his visit, the UN official met with government officials, NGOs, climate activists, and lawyers to gather insights into the state of environmental defence in the UK.
Now in a report following his fact-finding mission, Forst - the former Secretary General of the French government’s human rights body - expresses deep concern about the increasingly severe crackdowns on environmental defenders in the UK, particularly regarding the right to peaceful protest.
He emphasises the importance of peaceful protest in a healthy democracy, noting that protests are inherently disruptive - but also a fundamental human right, writing that he received “extremely worrying information” during his visit on the “increasingly severe crackdowns on environmental defenders” in the UK.
Forst’s report particularly sounds the alarm over the use of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 in the UK to prosecute peaceful protesters, potentially leading to imprisonment for up to 10 years for those participating in non-violent direct action.
He pointed to instances where UK judges have restricted environmental protesters from even discussing their motivations or mentioning climate change during trials - raising questions about the fairness and transparency of these proceedings.
The statement also highlights the severe bail conditions imposed on environmental defenders, including prohibitions on further participation in protests, and requirements for electronic monitoring, which climate groups say is impacting their personal lives and mental health before they are even found guilty of a crime.
And Forst criticises the use of ‘civil injunctions’ - often last minute court orders - to ban protests in a particularly area or against a specific firm. He expressed concern about environmental defenders facing both criminal and civil proceedings for the same actions.
Strikingly, the report draws attention to the way environmental defenders are often derided in mainstream UK media and political discourse - leading to increased threats, abuse, and state justification for severe measures against them, and a “chilling effect” on free speech.
He writes: “By deriding environmental defenders, the media and political figures put them at risk of threats, abuse and even physical attacks from unscrupulous persons who rely on the toxic discourse to justify their own aggression. The toxic discourse may also be used by the State as justification for adopting increasingly severe and draconian measures against environmental defenders.”
Despite these threats, ‘environmental defenders’ from Extinction Rebellion to Just Stop Oil and others have expressed their determination to continue protesting for urgent climate action, recognising the grave threat posed by climate change, the UN rapporteur added.
Forst's statement also makes clear the world faces a “triple planetary crisis” of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, calling for the protection of climate campaigners rather than their incarceration.
He is now calling for a “constructive dialogue” with the UK Government to ensure that those seeking to protect the environment are not unfairly targeted or persecuted.
Robin Wells, director of Fossil Free London, met with the UN Special Rapporteur when he visited the UK alongside other representatives from climate campaign groups engaged in civil disobedience earlier this month.
Well said: “Our government has made its anti protest, pro fossil fuel politics clear with laws against protesting alongside a weak windfall tax and field approvals like the massive Norwegian oil field in our North Sea - Rosebank.
“Our current path means runaway climate change which is the collapse of everything we love. Protest and direct action are our only hope to force change. The undermining of these rights undermines our rights to survival itself.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The right to protest is a fundamental part of our democracy but we must also protect the law-abiding majority’s right to go about their daily lives.
"While decisions on custodial sentences are a matter for the independent judiciary, the Public Order Act brings in new criminal offences and proper penalties for selfish, guerrilla protest tactics."
UN Special Rapporteur’s Statement - Extract
"As the UN Human Rights Committee has made clear, States have a duty to facilitate the right to protest, and private entities and broader society may be expected to accept some level of disruption as a result of the exercise of this right. During my visit, however, I learned that, in the UK, peaceful protesters are being prosecuted and convicted under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, for the criminal offence of “public nuisance”, which is punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment.
"I was also informed that the Public Order Act 2023 is being used to further criminalize peaceful protest. In December 2023, a peaceful climate protester who took part for approximately 30 minutes in a slow march on a public road was sentenced to six months imprisonment under the 2023 law.
"That case is currently on appeal, but it is important to highlight that, prior to these legislative developments, it had been almost unheard of since the 1930s for members of the public to be imprisoned for peaceful protest in the UK. I am therefore seriously concerned by these regressive new laws.
"I was also alarmed to learn that, in some recent cases, presiding judges have forbidden environmental defenders from explaining to the jury their motivation for participating in a given protest or from mentioning climate change at all. It is very difficult to understand what could justify denying the jury the opportunity to hear the reason for the defendant’s action, and how a jury could reach a properly informed decision without hearing it, in particular at the time of environmental defenders’ peaceful but ever more urgent calls for the government to take pressing action for the climate.
"I also received highly concerning information regarding the harsh bail conditions being imposed on peaceful environmental defenders while awaiting their criminal trial. These have included prohibitions on engaging in any protest, from having contact with others involved in their environmental movement or from going to particular areas. Some environmental defenders have also been required to wear electronic ankle tags, some including a 10pm-7am curfew, and others, GPS tracking.
"Under the current timeframes of the criminal justice system, environmental defenders may be on bail for up to 2 years from the date of arrest to their eventual criminal trial. Such severe bail conditions have significant impacts on the environmental defenders’ personal lives and mental health and I seriously question the necessity and proportionality of such conditions for persons engaging in peaceful protest.
"In addition to the new criminal offences, I am deeply troubled at the use of civil injunctions to ban protest in certain areas, including on public roadways. Anyone who breaches these injunctions is liable for up to 2 years imprisonment and an unlimited fine. Even persons who have been named on one of these injunctions without first being informed about it – which, to date, has largely been the case – can be held liable for the legal costs incurred to obtain the injunction and face an unlimited fine and imprisonment for breaching it.
"The fact that a significant number of environmental defenders are currently facing both a criminal trial and civil injunction proceedings for their involvement in a climate protest on a UK public road or motorway, and hence are being punished twice for the same action, is also a matter of grave concern to me. I am also distressed to see how environmental defenders are derided by some of the mainstream UK media and in the political sphere.
"By deriding environmental defenders, the media and political figures put them at risk of threats, abuse and even physical attacks from unscrupulous persons who rely on the toxic discourse to justify their own aggression. The toxic discourse may also be used by the State as justification for adopting increasingly severe and draconian measures against environmental defenders.
"In the course of my visit, I witnessed firsthand that this is precisely what is taking place in the UK right now. This has a significant chilling effect on civil society and the exercise of fundamental freedoms. As a final note, during my visit, UK environmental defenders told me that, despite the personal risks they face, they will continue to protest for urgent and effective action to address climate change. For them, the threat of climate change and its devastating impacts are far too serious and significant not to continue raising their voice, even when faced with imprisonment.
"We are in the midst of a triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. Environmental defenders are acting for the benefit of us all. It is therefore imperative that we ensure that they are protected. While the gravity of the information I received during my visit leads me to issue the present statement to express my concerns without delay, I will continue to look more deeply into each of the issues raised during my visit and in the formal complaints submitted to my mandate.
"In this regard, I also look forward to engaging in a constructive dialogue with the Government of the United Kingdom in order to ensure that members of the public in the UK seeking to protect the environment are not subject to persecution, penalization or harassment for doing so."
Read the full statement here.
Do you have a story that needs highlighting? Get in touch by emailing josiah@bylinetimes.com
Cambridge Analytica-linked firm running NHS data signs deal to help Israel against Gaza
CEO signs ‘strategic’ battlefield AI deal, flies board to Israel in ‘show of solidarity’ in middle of genocide
Palantir – the firm linked to Cambridge Analytica’s use of Facebook data and with close ties to Israel but still awarded a £330m contract, in the middle of the Gaza genocide – to process sensitive NHS patient data despite protests from doctors and civil liberties groups – has signed a ‘strategic’ deal to provide ‘battlefield AI’ and other ‘battle tech’ to Israel, according to Bloomberg:
Israel is currently engaged in mass slaughter of Palestinian civilians Gaza that has killed more than 30,000 civilians, mostly women and children, is facing a genocide case at the International Court of Justice brought against it by South Africa and has been accused of multiple other war crimes against the people of Gaza, including forcible transfer of the population and the targeting of hospitals, schools, journalists, homes and civilian infrastructure.
Despite this, the firm’s CEO last week flew the company’s board to Israel in a ‘show of solidarity’ with the regime:
The firm seems curiously reticent about its close ties with the Israeli regime, however. It’s press release page, which contains announcements going back to 2018, does not mention Israel.
Palantir’s activities have been so troubling that even the Murdoch Times has asked whether the UK government is “handing our health data to Big Brother”.
The Palantir deal is not the only example of the UK government promoting and rewarding companies with close ties to Israel during the Gaza genocide. Sunak’s crew has also awarded cash to UK universities, as the world clamours for an academic boycott, to promote closer ties with Israeli universities.
The UK Establishment clearly values cash and commerce above the lives of Palestinian civilians, above justice and above peace.
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Unite activists sign letter to Graham after ban on union banners at Palestine demos
Alleged management ban on exec members marching under Unite banners leads to angry letter denouncing lack of action and solidarity with slaughtered Gazans
Unite banners at a Manchester Gaza demo – but executive members say they have been banned from formal representation
Unite members and activists have issued an outraged letter to union general secretary Sharon Graham, after members of the elected executive were told not to attend, under a Unite banner, demonstrations against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The letter reads:
Dear Sharon Graham,
As a result of our letters of 30 October and 1 November and other representations, including from London and Eastern Region, you finally agreed, after nearly 4 weeks of an ongoing genocide by Israel, to issue a statement on November 3 calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The statement was however pitiably weak. There was no mention of genocide or ethnic cleansing. There was no mention of the war crimes perpetrated by Israel – the bombing of hospitals, the targeting and murder of journalists, academics and doctors to say nothing of the bombing of residential areas or the murder of children, which now stands at over 8,000.
There was no mention of the fact that Israel has imposed a food, water and fuel blockade on the Gaza strip resulting in starvation according to the United Nations. Collective punishment of a civilian population is a egregious breach of international law yet the statement treats the Palestinians and the Israeli state as equally responsible.
It is not Hamas which possesses an air force but Israel. It is the Israeli state which is carrying out the carpet bombing of Gaza with the intent of forcing Palestinians out altogether.
The statement treats the genocidal attack on the people of Gaza as equivalent to the break-out from the world’s largest open air prison on October 7. Israel has occupied the Gaza Strip for 56 years imposing a suffocating siege on it since 2007.
This report from Vatican News of 16 December gives just one example of Israel’s war crimes:
‘Israelis have opened fire on Gaza’s Christians. Following heavy bombardment overnight of the area around Holy Family Latin parish in Gaza City, dozens are reported dead… and reports continue to arrive that shooting by Israeli snipers continues during these hours. A statement released by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem confirmed that an Israeli sniper murdered two Christian women inside the Holy Family Parish where the majority of Christian families have taken refuge since the start of the war.’
An even more horrifying massacre took place on 17 December. Al Jazeera reported that Israeli bulldozers have crushed Palestinians who were taking shelter in tents outside Kamal Adwan Hospital.
Dozens of Palestinians are reported to have been buried alive. These are Nazi-style massacres and yet you have said nothing and done nothing since issuing your statement. You were happy to wave the Ukrainian flag but you haven’t waved the Palestinian flag or expressed any sympathy with the thousands of murdered Palestinian civilians, not least children.
UN Secretary General António Guterres accepted that there was a context to October 7. Many Israeli civilians died at the hands of the Israeli military. See Israeli forces shot their own civilians, kibbutz survivor says.
Unite at its 2023 Policy Conference passed motions supporting Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions and affirmed that Israel is practising the crime of apartheid. That should have informed Unite’s statement.
The statement treats one of the world’s most powerful militaries and the resistance of the Palestinians as equal. Your claim that Israel’s goal is to eliminate Hamas is untrue. Why bomb homes, schools and ambulances if this was the case? Were the dead children also Hamas ‘terrorists’?
The statement says nothing about what Unite intends to do. You have done nothing to publicise all the previous national demonstrations. Are you going to ignore the one on January 13 too? There has been no national Unite presence on the marches to date.
We demand that you publicise all future demonstration, that you provide the resources necessary for Unite members to attend, that Unite nationally is present on the march together with its banner and that Unite has a speaker at the rally.
A leaked Israeli intelligence document makes it clear that Israel’s intention is to repeat the Nakba in 1948 when ¾ million Palestinians were expelled.
If Israel succeeds this will be a prelude to ethnic cleansing on the West Bank where there has been a reign of terror in the past 6 months. Over 250 people have died since October 7. Vast areas of Area C have been ‘cleansed’ as Israeli settlers and the army attack farmers.None of this is recognised in your statement. Netanyahu has compared the Palestinians to ‘Amalek’ whom God instructed the Israelites to exterminate yet Unite’s statement ignores this. Open calls in Israel for the extermination of the Palestinians are being made and Israel’s army is doing just that.
By blocking fuel, babies on incubators and people on dialysis machines have already died.
It is time for Unite to show that the situation in Gaza is an urgent one and to mobilise its members. We give the Labour Party over £1m a year. We should be demanding that Keir Starmer makes way for someone who is not a ‘Zionist without qualification’. At the moment he is nothing more than Sunak’s echo chamber.
Yours sincerely
Sharon Graham had already infuriated supporters of Palestinian rights by remaining silent for many weeks at the start of Israel’s latest genocidal assault on Gaza – then making a grossly asymmetrical statement appearing to treat Israeli deaths more seriously than Palestinian and allegedly having the exec railroaded into accepting only her preferred wording when the statement was eventually issued.
Graham was also 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.
At the time of writing, the letter is still open for Unite members to add their signature via Google Docs. It will be submitted shortly after new year.
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