Gaza debated in the House of Lords, 16 January 2024 Baroness Janke To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs what steps he is taking to secure a lasting ceasefire arrangement between Israel and Gaza. A brief debate followed, during which David Cameron the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs said: … Continue reading Gaza in Parliament, January 2024
South Africa and the World’s Conscience The world has been witnessing, powerless or complicit, the destruction of the people of Gaza through bombing, starvation and disease for the past three months. Israel has said it will continue perhaps for another year. South Africa has taken a step to call what is happening by its proper … Continue reading Israel at The Hague
“Events, dear boy !” Mick Murray “A terrible beauty”? Harold Macmillan was the author of such enduring soundbites, as they would now be called, such as “the winds of change” a euphemistic term for the beginnings of the decolonialisation of Africa and“they’ve never had it so good” to describe the social change in Britain as it began to enjoy … Continue reading Gaza, Dawn of a New World
Israeli child “burned completely” by Israeli tank fire at kibbutz (Ali Abunimah & David Sheen, Electronic Intifada, 25 November 2023) The evidence Israel killed its own citizens on 7 October (Asa Winstanley, Electronic Intifada, 23 November 2023) Video: Gaza is ‘textbook genocide’: Holocaust Scholar Raz Segal (Owen Jones, 21 November 2019) Opinion: Here’s what the mass … Continue reading Palestine Links
Will Israel’s right to defend itself continue to the last Palestinian? (The image shows the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem) Eamon Dyas “Israel has a right to defend itself” has been the constant refrain of western leaders to justify every Israeli response to expressions of Palestinian resistance since the state was established. In recent years that refrain from western leaders has usually been linked … Continue reading Israel’s Right to Defend Itself
A contribution to a debate Peter Brooke In a recent interview on BBC radio, Ehud Barak, the Israeli Prime Minister who is supposed to have offered the best deal Israel ever offered to the Palestinians, spelled out, in rather awkward grammar, what he regards as the ideal two state solution: 'I will never lose eye … Continue reading A STATE FOR ALL ITS CITIZENS
Labour suspends MP over calling for a peaceful resolution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. A note from Eamon Dyas The phrase Andy McDonald used at a pro-peace rally was: “We will not rest until we have justice. Until all people, Israelis and Palestinians, between the river and the sea, can live in peaceful liberty." The expression … Continue reading Andy McDonald Suspended
Palestine Links—November 2023 GAZA: 3,195 children killed in three weeks surpasses annual number of children killed in conflict zones since 2019 (Save the Children, 29 October 2023) I run the UN agency for Palestine refugees. History will judge us all if there is no ceasefire in Gaza (Philippe Lazzarini, Guardian, 26 October 2023) Joe Biden’s … Continue reading Palestine Links
Early Day Motion on Gaza — House of Commons 17th October 2023 Early day motions are short proposals that give MPs a chance to express an opinion, publicise a cause or support a position. They are rarely actually debated, and are only publicised in writing. Motion text This House utterly condemns the massacre of Israeli civilians and taking … Continue reading Gaza Motions in Parliament
A law against Boycotting Israel (The map shows the Golan Heights, taken from Syria in 1967). Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel or the Occupied Palestinian Territories are to be made illegal by a new bill going through Parliament, led by Michael Gove. According to the proposed law, public bodies are forbidden to disapprove … Continue reading Anti BDS Bill
Saudis putting aside Arab Peace Initiative amid Israel normalization talks – officials (Jacob Magid, Times of Israel, 28 September 2023) Saudi-Israel normalisation: The grand illusion (David Heart, Middle East Eye, 28 September 2023) Canada hails Nazi SS veteran from Ukraine as “hero” (Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada, 24 September 2023) ‘I told Arafat: Israel will promise … Continue reading Palestine Links
Killings, pogroms, expulsion: Israel dispossesses Palestinians of their lands using settler violence (B'Tselem, 10 August 2023) 'Watershed moment': Over 700 academics equate Israeli occupation with apartheid (Middle East Eye, 8 August 2023) Israeli Minister Ben-Gvir praises settlers who killed teen as “heroes” (Tamara Nassar, Electronic Intifada, 6 August 2023) 90 years ago, a negotiated 'transfer' … Continue reading Palestine Links
The establishment of the state of Israel involved the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their land 75 years ago, on 14 May 1948, David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, proclaimed the establishment of the state of Israel. 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their land in the course of its establishment. In 1947, Britain handed over … Continue reading Israel’s Anniversary
They line up for the camera, the remainder of families, still in life as in death, they don’t complain, make no requests, they will get nothing and have nothing but checkpoints, high walls, razor wire, Israeli fighter jets who strike at their children, their mothers, their fathers, their grandparents, their phones are listened to, their … Continue reading GAZA STILLS
House of Lords Debate 27/03/23 [Note: A road map with Israel was mentioned in these exchanges in the House of Lords. Here it is:2030 roadmap for UK-Israel bilateral relations, all 4,000 words of it. It was signed on 21stMarch. This tells us that Israel and the UK are "freedom-loving, innovative and thriving democracies". Tell that to the … Continue reading Occupied Palestinian Territories
Wed 16 Jun 2021 https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/statement/jvl-response-to-jlm-antisemitism-training/ [Extracts] JLM as antisemitism trainer The sessions were largely delivered by JLM’s National Organiser, Rebecca Filer, with introductions by Chair Mike Katz and – for the June 14 session – by Deputy Party Leader Angela Rayner. They were delivered in Zoom webinar format in which the speaker and a series … Continue reading Jewish Voice for Labour: response to Jewish Labour Movement antisemitism training
The Labour Party’s reaction to the military action by Israel against Gaza was extraordinary. One could be forgiven for thinking that Jeremy Corbyn had been reinstated as leader of the party. Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Lisa Nandy, set out the party’s position in a letter to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on 15 May 2021 [1] before a ceasefire was … Continue reading The Labour Party blames Israel for the failure to achieve a two-state solution
Violence in Israel and Palestine, Debate in the House of Commons, 12 May 2021 Parliament Notes (2) [Extracts from the Debate] Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP) The Government’s response to this and every other episode in Palestine is completely inadequate. The Palestinians have lived under brutal oppression and apartheid from Israel with the … Continue reading Violence in Israel and Palestine
