Racism
As Israel supporters weaponise Sydney attack as ‘Muslim’, early reports suggest killer was Cohen
No name of knife attacker killed by police has been officially released, despite senior officers saying the killer was known to the New South Wales force
The unnamed police officer who shot the knife attacker crouches over his body
Update: the attacker has finally been identified as Joel Cauchi, a 40yo Queensland man. Hartley Brewer and Kern seem to have deleted their tweets but only Hartley-Brewer has bothered to issue a correction at the time of this update. None has apologised and Riley has added a follow-up tweet in which she still attacks Palestinians supporters, saying ‘no, the man being named Joel Cauchi has not changed my opinion that is is wrong for people on the streets to be calling for mass terror attacks across the world’. Opponents of genocide are not, of course, doing this.
Pro-Israel apologists who tried to exploit today’s mass-casualty knife attack in Sydney, Australia, by claiming it was committed by ‘Islamists’ or ‘Jihadists’ and linking it to protests against Israel’s genocide in Gaza look to have been humiliated after early, though still unconfirmed, reports indicated the killer was a pro-Israel fanatic named Benjamin Cohen.
Five of the six killed were women, including a young mother stabbed while trying to protect her baby. Children are reportedly among those wounded.
A heroic Russian shopper held the knifeman back with a ‘bollard’ before a police officer fatally shot the killer
Right-wingers including TV ‘personalities’ Rachel Riley and Julia Hartley-Brewer were quick to put out social media posts blaming Muslims and supporters of Palestinian human rights:
And the rabid Lee Kern, unsurprisingly, spewed a string of tweets blaming ‘Muslim terrorists’ and ‘fundamentalists’:
The idea that another kind of fundamentalist may well be responsible for the murder of six innocent people and the wounding of five more does not seem to have perturbed their world view – at the time of writing, none of the trio have deleted their posts.
The name of the murderer, despite him being shot dead by an unnamed police officer – and comments from senior New South Wales police officers that the killer ‘was known to the police’ and no terrorist motive is suspected – has not been released, leading some to voice suspicions that this would never be the case if the killer was a Muslim. Only time will tell whether the early reports are correct.
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‘I Called out “Free Speech Champion” Laurence Fox as a “Racist” – and He Tried (and Failed) to Bully Me into Silence’
Until 4 March this year, describing Laurence Fox as “racist” risked the ‘free speech champion’ making legal threats with the prospect of financial ruin attached – as quite a number of people can testify.
Prior to that date, the actor-turned-TV presenter and politician faced regular accusations of racism from social media critics, and would often respond by promising expensive court action.
But due in part to Mukhtar Yassin, a young Black British man who – in a David versus Goliath battle – defied Mr Fox’s legal and financial threats, and a racist social media hate campaign from some of Fox’s 500,000 X/Twitter followers, doing so is now a lot less risky.
“I told Laurence Fox he was ‘a racist piece of shit’ on social media, and stand by every word,” says Mr Yassin in an hour-long call with Byline Times, his first and only interview since Fox abandoned his threats and made a “significant” contribution to Yassin’s legal costs last month.
“Fox’s threat of libel action against me was ridiculous and never stood a chance of succeeding. He tried to flex his muscles and bully me, and it didn’t work. If I continue to call out Laurence Fox as racist, he can try to sue me again if he wants, but he won’t because he knows he’ll lose.
“And he didn’t lose to just anybody, he lost – badly, and very publicly – to a young Black boy. I think that will have hurt and embarrassed him. Now he even gets heckled about it in the streets.”
Reclaim Party candidate Laurence Fox. Photo: PA/Alamy
Yassin is, by his own admission, “just a normal working-class bloke from The Ends”. The 29-year-old Muslim lives on a council estate in the Black Country, works in IT and has no legal background, let alone the sort of money required to defend himself against expensive litigation from a high-profile figure on the British right, whose political party Reclaim is backed by the multi-millionaire businessman Jeremy Hosking.
And yet that is exactly where Yassin found himself on 2 May last year when he called out a racially-charged post made the previous day by the then GB News presenter.
“It all started when Fox quote tweeted someone to say: ‘Dear Black people. Stop making everything about you’. I ‘quote tagged’ him saying I thought he was a ‘racist piece of shit’,” says Yassin.
“He told me to delete it and apologise. I replied saying ‘suck your mum’. I know it was childish, and that Fox might try to sue me if he was able to find my address, but it was funny, and I don’t regret it.”
At the time, Fox was going through separate libel proceedings against Crystal, a drag artist, Simon Blake, a former Stonewall trustee, and Nicola Thorp, an actor, all of whom had also called Fox a racist on X [then Twitter], in October 2020. The three had themselves taken legal steps against Fox for calling them “paedophiles”, and he countersued.
With Fox having threatened legal action, Yassin says he seemed in private to be “increasingly desperate” not to sue but “did not want to lose face” in public. Yassin last week posted on X screenshots of Fox on one occasion offering him the opportunity to “discuss” the matter before Fox pursued legal action.
“One of Fox’s GB News colleagues contacted me privately to tell me Fox wanted me to go on his show so he could get me to say something that would support his case. His bosses apparently saw it was a terrible idea and overruled it, not that I’d have gone on anyway.”
Four months after Yassin’s posts, Fox’s legal team managed to track down the address of one of Yassin’s family and served legal papers there. “None of my family knew about the legal threat as they are not on X. They asked me, ‘Who the fuck is Laurence Fox and why is he suing you?’ When I explained that he was sort of famous on X, my mum told me if I believed my words then I should stand by them. So I did.”
That’s not to say Yassin took it lightly. “I’m not going to lie, I was shocked and nervous. It’s a weird feeling. It was a lot to process. So many emotions go through your head when you get a letter like that. I have no legal knowledge; I didn’t even know any solicitors.
“But the day I got the letter I spoke to a few high-profile people, including [the MP] Dawn Butler, who put me in touch with the lawyer who was representing Nicola Thorp, Simon Blake, and Crystal. Once I heard how confident the lawyer was, and I had digested the letter, I felt better. I knew I was right, and Fox didn’t have a leg to stand on.”
Fox posting yet more examples of his apparent ‘racism’ also added to Yassin’s self-belief. “He tweeted one photograph of himself in ‘Black face’ and in another tweet, he told a Black person to ‘fuck off back to Jamaica’; The more he kept tweeting stuff like this the more I knew I would win. The rest is history.”
Yassin was further heartened by the many hundreds of tweets and messages from people supporting his cause – as his follower numbers doubled, and then trebled – many of whom donated to a £35,000 crowdfund for his legal fees. “I was overwhelmed; I didn’t realise how divisive people found Fox to be,” he says.
The positive messages drowned out the negative ones, many of which Yassin says were overtly racist. “For almost two weeks I had loads of far-right accounts calling me [the ‘N-word’] and that I should ‘go home’, that Fox would ‘destroy’ me, or I would get beaten up if they saw me in public. It was relentless.
“X under Elon Musk is horrible. It’s like it has opened the floodgates to every racist around the world. I could tweet ‘Good Afternoon’ and within half an hour I would have people saying ‘what are you doing in my country?’ The stuff I see on there now is insane. It goes to dark places I’ve never seen, with misogynists, Islamophobes, conspiracy theorists. This didn't happen before Musk took over.
“Before then, if someone called me [the ‘N-word’] I would report it and within a few days, the post would be removed. Now when you complain you get a notification saying the rules have not been broken, but they make the post invisible. It’s a con trick. It gives racists confidence to say what they like. And it means there’s no point complaining.”
The rise of GB News, and its often barely-disguised racism, are simply two sides of the same coin, says Yassin. “GB News is toxic. They are just there to brainwash and radicalise people, and Ofcom don’t do anything about it. As a regulator, it makes me wonder whether it’s fit for purpose. GB News and X/Twitter both validate one another. It is an echo chamber of prejudice which unfortunately makes a lot of noise.”
With GB News under pressure to change its culture, Fox was sacked last September following a misogyny scandal which also led to the departure of the channel’s star £600,000-a-year host Dan Wootton in March.
“I was delighted,” says Yassin. “I felt that Fox losing some of his income and profile would have hurt him. But he’s responsible for his own downfall.”
After Fox lost his other libel action in late January – with the judge finding that the three tweets cited in his counterclaim were unlikely to cause serious harm to his reputation – his lawyers offered to drop his case against Yassin -!if Yassin paid his own legal fees and signed a gagging clause. “I said ‘fuck that, no way’.”
Fox then said he would drop the case with a “contribution” towards Yassin’s legal fees without a confidentiality clause in place, to which Yassin agreed because he “wanted it over and done with.”
Yassin says he doesn’t think Fox believes himself to be racist, “even though so much of what he’s saying has racist overtones”.
“One of the phrases he uses is he ‘has Black friends’ – he has a mixed-race girlfriend – and that makes him think he can’t possibly be racist and can say what he wants. It’s odd.”
Yassin also questions why Jeremy Hosking, a former Conservative Party donor - ranked number 351 in the Sunday Times Rich List 2019, with a net worth of £375 million - and a shareholder in Crystal Palace Football Club, is “funding hate” via The Reclaim Party. Fox, its leader, accrued legal fees for the two combined cases believed to be more than £2 million.
“I find it weird that someone would back a person like Fox. Fox is vile and anyone who backs him is going to appear to agree with him. It feels like Hosking and his ilk are using Fox and those like him to fund hate, sow division and wage a culture war.
“I can’t understand why people would want to do this. How would it benefit them? Or benefit society?”
Byline Times has been told that Hosking has ceased to fund Fox since his latest legal defeat, but when approached on this matter, Hosking declined to comment. In reply to several questions from Byline Times, Laurence Fox replied: “Thanks… I only speak with real journalists.”
Yassin, a devoted “family man”, is more interested in the thoughts of those close to him. “When I got off the phone to my lawyer who told me Fox had dropped the case last month, I told my mum and she said, ‘I’m proud of you, son’. Hearing her say that meant everything.”
The crimson thread of racism festers in the darker interstices of Australian culture
In 1890 Henry Parkes spoke of “The crimson thread of kinship running through us all.” He believed this “crimson thread” – evocative of blood – united all white people in the Australian colonies and bound them to Britain. The federation he was advocating for Australia was to be exclusively white and eternally British. In contemporary Continue reading »
Video: Miriam Margolyes’s powerful statement on ‘vicious, genocidal’ Israel
Jewish actress posts no-holds-barred video supporting Jewish Council of Australia, attacked by Zionists for ceasefire call
Jewish actress and national treasure Miriam Margolyes, a joint UK and Australian citizen, has posted a video supporting the Jewish Council of Australia (JCA) call for an immediate and permanent halt to Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza – along with the imposition of sanctions and an immediate end to Australia’s military ties with Israel.
The JCA has been heavily attacked by pro-Israel groups for the call, with the attacks following similar lines to the dismissal in the UK of left-wing Jewish groups by right-wing nationalist organisations and politicians.
In her video, Margolyes says she has never been more ashamed of Israel – which she described as a ‘vicious, genocidal, nationalist nation’:
Despite the antisemitic representation by western governments and media as if all Jews support Israel, very many do not – and even many who have supported it are disgusted by Israel’s mass murder of, so far, more than forty thousand Palestinian civilians, overwhelmingly women and children, and the blockade and assaults it is using to starve two million more. The UK and Australian establishments continue their complicity in Israel’s war crimes.
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‘Media Attacks on NHS Translation and Diversity Spending Completely Miss the Point of the Health Service’
This week, the Express published an article headlined 'taxpayers billed £100 million for NHS translators – could pay for 3,000 nurses'. The story completely missed the point of what the health service does.
The standfirst went on to explain that taxpayers "pick up the bill" for translation and interpretation" to ensure that the NHS can be "accessed in languages other than English”.
Given health and healthcare access inequalities, surely spending money to ensure people get the right care they need is a good thing – not to mention a legal requirement.
The Express article published on 2 April about NHS spending on translators
The Express packaged the story to suggest that it had uncovered a scandal. It included data revealed through Freedom of Information Requests (FOI) to 251 NHS trusts and 42 integrated care boards, which “routinely convert standard hospital and health literature into languages including Romanian, Arabic, Urdu, Bengali and Punjabi”.
The article included comments from a Reform Party spokesman, claiming that translation and interpretation services "were simply not necessary" and that artificial intelligence apps, such as Google Translate, could do the job – or that patients could use family members to translate for them.
The Express article followed the Mail’s report last week on National Trust cafés selling “woke scones” (made with margarine and not butter). It was another example of 'stories’ aimed at stirring up problems, rather than solving them.
The Mail article published on 31 March on 'woke scones'
Helping those in need be heard appears to be a bizarre issue to weaponise in manufactured 'culture wars’.
For starters, the total NHS spend in England for the last financial year was more than £180 billion, with a further £20 billion in local government spending on social care. So £100 million on translation might sound like a big number, but it is a tiny fraction of expenditure and would make little dent in nurse staffing across all NHS organisations.
Citizens or legal residents who don’t speak fluent or even basic English are, just like people with hearing loss, learning disabilities or cognitive impairment, as entitled to NHS care as the rest of the population. And there is already considerable evidence that they are not getting it, with health and healthcare access inequalities between different ethnic communities.
Denying people written information in their own language will only make matters worse.
When people who are sick, scared, vulnerable, distressed or have symptoms to discuss, treatments to understand, or complex psychosocial factors to explain, how can the quality and safety of the care they receive be improved if they can neither express nor understand key information?
There are also legal considerations. To provide valid consent to treatment in common law, patients must have sufficient information about the details, risks, potential harms and benefits of a proposed treatment (which could in some cases involve major surgery, powerful drugs or admission to intensive care). Language barriers must be overcome to make this a reality.
The Mental Capacity Act states that all reasonable efforts must be made to establish decision-specific capacity for treatment or care – which may include overcoming language barriers.
If patients lack capacity, then speaking to those closest to them is a key part of establishing their best interests for further decision-making. Again, this may require translators or clear written information in their first language. We do this for people with hearing loss via written communication or sign language.
Regulatory codes of practice for healthcare professionals are also clear that we must treat people equally, irrespective of characteristics including race, religion or nationality.
Using AI translation apps of variable reliability has its limits in a time-critical or emotionally-charged and challenging situation. And relying on family or friends to translate isn't always possible as not every patient is accompanied. If they are discussing personally sensitive or intimate information, they may be inhibited from doing so. If there are safeguarding concerns regarding abuse or neglect one could suspect the person translating of being coercive when doing so.
The thinly-veiled xenophobia and racism being whipped up by the Express (even against people who pay tax and National Insurance contributions and have precisely the same entitlement to care as native and confident English speakers) is part of a wider set of 'wedge issues’ being pushed by right-wing media outlets and sections of the Conservative and Reform parties.
They share a similar fixation with 'woke’ diversity managers or diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) policies in the NHS or other public services. Several Government ministers have lined up to call for a 'war on waste’ to remove such posts and policies.
Steve Barclay, when Health Secretary in 2023, wrote to integrated care boards in England instructing them to stop recruiting staff as dedicated EDI managers, arguing that the money should be spent on “frontline staff” instead.
The Express has published a number of articles lamenting 'wokery’ in the NHS – including, in January in a story headlined 'NHS spends £40 million on woke non-jobs that could pay for 1,150 nurses'.
Last year, the Spectator ran a FOI-based story showing that, out of an NHS workforce of around 1.5 million people, there were only 800 employees in dedicated EDI roles – yet called for those roles to be abolished.
Again, those employed in such posts account for a small fraction of 1% of the entire NHS workforce or spend. Their presence is de facto required due to the Equality Act and Equality Duty on public organisations and protections in employment law.
NHS organisations do have a very diverse workforce, yet there is clear evidence of ongoing and endemic discrimination towards minorities within it. There is also consistent evidence of discrimination and care inequalities between different ethnic and socio-economic groups the NHS serves.
The idea that a focus on EDI is somehow a bad thing and a distraction from real work, or that organisations should not employ a small number of people to oversee it, is not so much a dog-whistle as a wolf-klaxon. It is a classic distraction from the real issue – the 14 years of Conservative-led mismanagement of health and social care and of wider public health.
This decline has been well-documented by the Institute for Government think tank; as well former King’s Fund chief executive Professor Sir Chris Ham, who set out in expert detail the rise and decline of the service from the late 1990s through to the 2010 election and the current crisis in performance and public satisfaction.
Blaming our NHS crisis on the cost of translation and interpretation services, and diversity and inclusion managers, foments hostility against people from ethnic minorities, white people with poor English skills, and even those with full entitlement to use our public services and who contribute towards their costs.
They aren’t all rich enough to pay for their own personal translator or digitally equipped enough to auto-translate NHS information documents into their own languages.
I don’t see commentators on the right arguing against hospitals in France or Spain finding translations for ill white British expats or embassies around the world employing translators to help British citizens who have found themselves in a spot of bother with the local law. I wonder why.
Exclusive: Foreign Office has not summoned Israel ambassador over murder of UK food workers
7 World Central Kitchen workers murdered in air strike as they delivered food to starving Palestinians – but while Australia has summoned ambassador over killing of its citizen, UK has not
The UK government has not summoned the Israeli ambassador to account for the murder of seven food charity workers, including British citizens.
The group also included Palestinians, an Australian, a US-Canadian and a Polish citizen, as well as British. The convoy of three vehicles was bombed despite World Central Kitchen (WCK) coordinating its departure with Israeli forces, according to the Charity’s spokesperson.
All three trucks, which were spaced at least 500m from each other, were hit.
Israel has admitted carrying out the attack, which it claims was an accident. WCK has now suspended its operations, leaving Palestinians even deeper in famine after Israel blocked all deliveries by UNRWA, the UN’s relief agency for Palestinians.
According to the UN and World Health Organization, approaching two million Palestinians in Gaza are in, or at risk of, starvation because of Israel’s blockade.
The Australian Prime Minister has ordered the Israeli ambassador to attend an urgent meeting to account for Israel’s murder of the charity workers. However, the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) press office told Skwawkbox, in response to an enquiry whether the UK had done the same, that the FCDO had nothing to add to David Cameron’s tweet. Number 10 said the matter was being dealt with by the FCDO).
Cameron’s tweet has been shared by the FCDO, but that’s all
The UK government has been exposed covering up the legal advice of its own lawyers that Israel is committing war crimes in it’s mass slaughter of over 40,000 Gaza civilians, it’s wounding of 80,000 more and its imposed famine.
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Young Black Business Owner Describes ‘Traumatising and Humiliating’ Met Police Stop & Search Experience
A young black owner of an electrical contractor business stopped and searched on his way home from work by Met Police officers who allegedly told him he “didn’t look like” an electrician has described the experience as “traumatising and humiliating”.
Despite being just 23, Josh King employs 15 staff at KK Electrical Contractor Limited and inspires youngsters into construction work with motivational TikTok videos posted on his account.
Earlier this week a video taken by a member of the public went viral showing King and three colleagues – all wearing company-branded clothing – being dragged out of their car by police, and handcuffed while officers searched them. One of the men was arrested for carrying an electrician’s knife.
King’s 90-minute ordeal last September came around six months after Baroness Casey’s report into The Met called for a “reset” on the force’s stop-and-search policy, saying black people aged between 11 and 61 were at least three and a half times more likely to be stopped than white people in London every year since 2016.
King acknowledged police have a "difficult job", but said the way they dealt with him and his workmates was "not acceptable".
“So many [black] people face the same experience and loads have been reaching out to tell me it has happened to them, " he told Byline Times. "Thankfully what happened to us was captured on camera. How many [black people] are stopped and searched but don’t have that? It’s scary."
King said despite coming from a deprived area he has been "blessed to be on the right path" and is trying to get young people into work, yet, "I'm still being looked at as a criminal because of how I look, which is wrong." He added: “The police should have shown us more respect.”
King, from Peckham, Southeast London, qualified as an electrician aged 20 and his firm manages electrical fitouts for office projects around the southeast. With most of the materials provided, King sometimes uses his black Mercedes CLA to get to and from work and fills the boot with tools.
On 13 September 2023, King and his colleagues were driving through Clapham, on the way back from a job in Guildford, Surrey, when they were stopped by officers in a police van parked by the side of the road.
King couldn't understand why he had been stopped, and when he asked, "they dragged us out, and put us in handcuffs. They took us into their van, searched us and made us take off our shoes. It was humiliating."
He said officers told him they didn't check his car registration, and had simply stopped him "because I had a nice car".
"They don’t know my story, or who I am. Why can’t I drive a nice car? It’s not a reasonable explanation. It made me feel upset," King explained, adding that one officer event commented that the group "don’t look like electricians" despite being in their work uniforms, and in possession of construction cards.
"It’s crazy – what does an electrician look like? What does a doctor look like? What does a lawyer look like? It was blatant racism. It’s wrong.”
Because the men had packed up quickly on site to avoid traffic, one of King’s 20-year-old colleagues had an electrician’s lock knife in his pocket. The men explained it was used for cutting thick electrical cables, but the youngster was arrested on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon.
“They were waving the knife about to passers-by as if to justify their actions. It was embarrassing,” King said.
King and two of his colleagues were let go, but the workmate with the lock knife, who declined to be named, was held for 24-hours. On 11 January he was told he would face no further charges.
King said his workmate was "really distressed" by the situation, having "never been in trouble in his life".
King, who has never been stopped and searched before, says he would like The Met to say sorry for the "traumatising experience", and give him the opportunity to work with the force to help reduce crime.
Speaking directly to Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, King said he was not "slagging off the police" by speaking out, and acknowledges the capital has an "issue" with knife crime, but he hopes to turn this "negative into a positive".
King wants to help the Met "in a small way to tackle knife crime by inspiring young people to change their lives through working in construction.
“I want to speak about how I became someone who employs 15 staff, pays taxes, works by the book, having been working since I left school at 16. “If the police can supply classes for me to speak to young people [at risk of falling into knife crime] and give them advice and direction, I would do it.”
Commander Claire Smart, responsible for the Met Taskforce, said the group was searched after a passenger in the car "was seen attempting to hide a lock knife in a door compartment following a traffic stop".
"Possession of a lock knife can be illegal and officers thought the man's attempt to hide it was suspicious," she explained, before adding that the Crown Prosecution Service had later decided he should face no further action.
Smart continued: "When done right, stop and search is an effective tool and officers take 4,000 dangerous weapons off our streets every year as a result of this tactic.
"We know nonetheless stop and search has a significant impact on our communities which we are keen to better understand."
Smart said despite no formal complaint being made, she would "welcome the opportunity" to meet King to discuss the matter further and hear his concerns.
20 councillors quit Labour in NW over regime’s bullying and attack on free speech
Councillors in Pendle, Brierfield and Nelson – including Borough Council leader – say Labour no longer reflects their views and is bullying and threatening dissenters
“THE LABOUR PARTY LEADERSHIP NO LONGER REFLECTS OUR VIEWS; IT’S TIME FOR A CHANGE.”
That is the statement from twenty Labour councillors who resigned last night citing a draconian shift in the national party, which is targeting local councillors, preventing them from standing for elections and using aggressive bullying tactics to suppress fairness and free speech.
The resignations represent the biggest mass departure from Labour in local government since Keir Starmer became leader. The group, from Pendle Borough Council, Brierfield Town Council, and Nelson Town Council – including borough council leader Asjad Mahmood – has decided against joining any other political party and will form independent groups on their respective councils.
Cllr Asjad Mahmood, who leads the newly formed independent group, said:
I, along with my colleagues, were elected by local residents to represent them in the council chamber. As a Labour Councillor, I have always felt that the party’s policies were aligned with my own beliefs and those of the constituents who have honoured me with their votes. Sadly, over a recent period, senior party officials have attempted to impose their ideas at a local level. I was elected to serve the public, not party officials.
Cllr Yvonne Tennant added:
At a time when 14 years of Tory cuts are affecting local people across Pendle, the Labour Party leadership should be allowing local hard-working councillors the opportunity to challenge the Tories. Instead, colleagues are being hindered from fulfilling their roles.
Cllr Mohammed Iqbal MBE said:
I was suspended from the party for 18 months before it was lifted in December 2023 for advocating on behalf of my constituents. I joined the Labour Party over 30 years ago and have always been encouraged to speak out on issues. However, senior figures within the party are attempting to stifle free speech and threaten dedicated councillors with removal as candidates. I, for one, cannot stand by and allow this to happen. The bullying needs to stop.
Last week, Keir Starmer promised voters to push out power to regions if he gets into Downing Street. He made a similar promise to Labour members during the party leadership campaign, pledging to empower and foster local democracy, especially in candidate selections.
Since getting the job, he was waged war on members, imposing candidates in many areas. In many others, members and incumbents have complained about widespread vote-rigging to ensure selections supportive of Starmer’s red-Toryism, often candidates with serious questions to answer about their own conduct. Police are currently investigating one such incident of apparent voter fraud.
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‘Keir Starmer’s Condemnation of “Terror” in Gaza is a Step Forward — But Just the Beginning’
During the past 20 years, I've reported many times on the violence and prejudice Palestinians have faced as a result of Israeli occupation. And in 2014, for revealing the role of Gaza's gas in Israel's military assaults my contract at The Guardian was terminated.
It's in that context that I believe Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer's recent statements calling for an immediate end to Israeli violence that is killing "innocent Palestinians" represent an important shift. Given that he is likely to be the next British prime minister, the imperative is to leverage this development and hold Labour to it.
Starmer told an audience in London last week that he condemned the “fear and terror” experienced by starving Muslims in Gaza in what was his strongest language yet about the conflict.
Speaking at an Iftar last Thursday hosted by the Concordia Forum, a trans-Atlantic network of Muslim leaders, Starmer explicitly criticised Israel’s policy of forced starvation in Gaza, recognising “those around the world whose fast is not through choice, but through force.” He added: “We know there are Muslims in Gaza who will be mourning rather than enjoying this month. Families who will not have food around the table this evening. The sound of fear and terror rather than laughter and singing. Empty spaces around the table where their loved ones once sat.”
Starmer also demanded a total cessation of violence in Gaza, including an immediate ceasefire and a “permanent end to the fighting.” In addition to demanding that Israeli hostages are returned to their families, he also urged “an end to the killing of innocent Palestinians. No equivocation – that must happen now".
Starmer also said that the planned Israeli military incursion into Rafah must be blocked, while international aid going into Gaza is resumed: “It is absolutely imperative now that humanitarian aid gets into Gaza rapidly, without disruption or blockade. And any offensive into Rafah cannot be allowed to happen.”
Starmer emphasised British Muslims’ positive contributions to UK society and the economy, pointing out that “for generations, Muslims have made Britain a better place. A massive contribution to our social fabric: from our NHS to schools, charities to business.”
He also directly addressed the rising trend in anti-Muslim hatred. Paying tribute to the British Muslim community, Starmer articulated the Labour Party’s zero-tolerance commitment: “I know many people will also be concerned about the sickening rise in Islamophobia we have seen in our country. So let me be clear. A Labour government will never turn a blind eye to that prejudice.”
Commenting on the importance of Ramadan, the Labour leader gave thanks for “the solidarity, community and clarity” of this holy month and for the “generosity of Muslims during Ramadan” which “reminds me of the hugely powerful teachings that the Muslim community invites the world to see during this special time.”
‘A Seismic Shift’
Starmer’s language at the Concordia event which I attended as part of the organising team represents a seismic shift in the Labour Party’s approach both to the Middle East conflict and to questions around anti-Muslim prejudice in Britain.
Many will see this shift as too little, too late. They are right. More than 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, while 2.2 million Gazans are facing severe food shortages with over a million experiencing “catastrophic hunger”.
This shift, however, did not come out of the blue - but has been the result of concerted efforts behind the scenes by civil society leaders.
Starmer’s statements demonstrate that Israel has now become increasingly isolated from some of its closest international allies, with the political spectrum across the UK attempting to disassociate from Israel’s current policy.
With a Labour government seen as all but inevitable this year by most political commentators, the challenge for civil society and British Muslim communities is simple. Comprehensive disengagement from Labour, as some activist campaigns within parts of the Muslim communities have demanded, will not help Palestinians but instead guarantee the total retraction of Muslim voters from any semblance of meaningful UK political influence. That would leave a vacuum in government which emboldens potentially dangerous and destructive policies.
The only viable alternative, in my view, is for British Muslim communities to ensure through strategic lines of engagement that the leaders of the incoming government are incentivised to listen to British public opinion, which overwhelmingly is supportive of an end to Israeli’s onslaught in Gaza, as well as the restoration of Palestinian rights and statehood based on international law.
Graham tells staff/organisers Unite will always put arms jobs before fighting Gaza genocide
‘Unhinged’ letter to all staff, organisers and officers includes ‘disgusting’ section about Palestine
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham has sent a letter to all the union’s staff, organisers and officers that has been described as an ‘unhinged’ attempt to counter criticisms. Skwawkbox will publish analysis of the various sections separately – and will first cover what Unite figures have described as Graham’s ‘disgusting’ comments on Israel’s slaughter of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
The letter claims that Graham and Unite have led on opposition to the mass murder in Gaza – despite Graham being widely criticised for her silence on the issue and insiders saying that she had to be pressured into a proper statement on Gaza at all.
And the section, which is titled ‘Palestine’, goes on to make clear that while Unite has given a one-off donation (one that Skwawkbox understands was given suddenly and without approval by Unite’s elected executive) to Doctors without Borders, Ms Graham and the union under her will always prioritise defence industry jobs above any outside issues, despite the union’s official, democratic position in support of sanctions and a boycott against Israel.
The full section reads:
Palestine
Of all the issues that have been used in these attacks, probably the most abhorrent is the attempted weaponisation of the conflict and the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians and the collective punishment of the people of Gaza.
Unite, through the General Secretary and the Chair of the Union and the Executive Council, was the first major union to publicly and unambiguously call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. We were very clear. We have watched on with horror the bombardment and destruction of Gaza, and the unbearable terror, suffering and death of its innocent civilians. We have been unequivocal that the deliberate killing of civilians, hostage-taking and collective punishment are war crimes and should be identified as such.
Unite has also donated £50,000 to Médecins Sans Frontières/ Doctors Without Borders specifically to help the many victims of this horrific conflict. Most recently the General Secretary has written to the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) offering our solidarity after the horrific bombing of their Gaza headquarters which, alongside providing services to workers, was also functioning as a kindergarten and bakery.
However, we cannot and will not endorse any organisation which decides unilaterally and without any discussion (let alone agreement) with the workers themselves, to support the targeting of our members’ workplaces or their jobs. To be clear, this will not happen. No outside body, no matter what their political position, will be allowed to dictate terms to our Union and our members.
It is important to highlight here that it is a core principle of Unite that as a trade union the ‘first claim’ on our priorities is always the protection and advancement of our members’ interests at work. It is very simple. Unite cannot and never will advocate or support any course of action which is counter to that principle. We are a trade union, not a political party or single-issue campaign group.
Therefore, there is no contradiction for a trade union to hold a position of solidarity with Palestinian workers, while at the same time refusing to support campaigns that target our members’ workplaces without their support. Similarly, we cannot be expected to affiliate to organisations that actively work against our members and their jobs.
Examples include groups that look to build networks inside trade unions to undermine the defence industry or demand the disbandment of NATO and AUKUS. Whatever anyone may think personally about those objectives is irrelevant. We are a trade union with thousands of members employed in the defence industry. It is the views of affected members that take precedence in a trade union. That will not change and nor should it. Unite members have recently been attacked directly, been spat at and called “child killers”. We cannot and will not endorse this.
Emphases added
One furious senior insider told Skwawkbox:
She’s effectively saying members working in defence don’t care if what they make ends up killing women and children in Gaza – only jobs matter. Has she bothered asking any of them?
Another said:
Unite’s official position, democratically reached repeatedly at conference and confirmed again just last summer, is that it supports Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel. We didn’t add ‘except where it might affect defence jobs’. We’ve also voted for the end of trade agreements with Israel. This is disgusting by Sharon.
Sharon Graham has been alleged by insiders to have:
- banned Unite officials and national banners from pro-Gaza protests
- banned and smeared films and books exposing the ‘Labour antisemitism’ scam
- placed an official under investigation who refused to cancel a Palestine solidarity fringe event at Labour’s 2023 annual conference
- told her chief of staff to threaten a soon-to-retire official with the loss of a pension bonus if he did not soften his support for Palestinians
Her supporters also prevented debate and votes on Gaza at a meeting of the union’s elected executive earlier this month.
According to human rights group Euro Med Monitor, since 7 October last year Israel has killed over 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded more than double that number, overwhelmingly women and children and many of them with life-changing injuries, while Gaza’s health and school systems have been bombed into collapse, often using US- and UK-made weapons and systems. More than a million people have been forcibly displaced and Gaza is in famine because of Israel’s blockade of food and vital supplies. Israel is formally on trial for genocide before the International Court of Justice and ordered to stop its slaughter – and has been found by UN human rights investigators to be committing genocide.
Unite was contacted for comment but did not respond by the press deadline.
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