It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, May 25, 2025
UK
400,000 March for Palestine
The #Nakba77 demonstration snaking along Embankment to the Houses of Parliament
‘Over 70,000 Palestinian children are facing treatment for acute malnutrition so we continue to campaign, we continue to protest… inspired by the hope manifested by the Palestinians’ – Ben Jamal
Labour Outlook’sSam Browse reports from this weekend’s Palestine solidarity demonstration commemorating the Nakba and opposing the genocide.
Last Saturday, over 400,000 people poured onto the streets to protest the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people. The demonstration came as Israeli violence against the people in Gaza continued to escalate. Today, UN officials warned that 14,000 babies could die in the next 48 hours if they did not receive the aid denied to them by the Israeli military.
While there have been regular solidarity marches, all reaching into the hundreds of thousands, this weekend’s demonstration was also timed to commemorate the Nakba – the 1948 ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians from Palestine. In addition to the usual array of Palestinian flags and placards, demonstrators held aloft large keys – the symbol of the homes lost during the catastrophe and the right of the Palestinian diaspora to return to their houses.
Ben Jamal, of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said “we have marched over 400,000 strong. We’ve marched to commemorate the Nakba, not as a a moment of collective trauma rooted in history, but as an ongoing catastrophe that right now is manifesting itself as a full-blown genocide.
“Right now, over 70,000 Palestinian children are facing treatment for acute malnutrition so we continue to campaign, we continue to protest. We do so inspired by the hope manifested by the Palestinians who marched in front of us carrying the keys, the enduring symbol of the Palestinian promise of resistance and return.”
Speaking from the platform and drawing the links between the Nakba and the assault on Gaza today, British Palestinian activist, Leanne Mohamad, reminded her audience that “this genocide is perpetrated by Netanyahu, but it is armed and funded by Biden and Trump. It was fed through intelligence and reconnaissance served up by Sunak and Starmer. It was given diplomatic cover by Ursula von der Leyen of the European Union. This is a joint enterprise… it is their Nakba.”
Apsana Begum, Member of Parliament for Poplar and Limehouse, told the crowd “our movement against war and injustice continues to bring people from all around the world and from all walks of life together, and today we demand aid to support the starving, the injured, and the dispossessed.
“We call for justice and accountability and we reassert the inalienable truth that Palestinian people have a right to self-determination – no ifs, no buts, or indeed ‘eventually’ or ‘sometime in the future’. We demand an immediate recognition of the state of Palestine now.”
We agree. Let’s continue the fight and ratchet up the pressure for an end to the genocide – and for a free Palestine.
“Our government won’t recognise this anniversary today. They can’t, because it would force them to face reality: they are aiding and abetting the ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing, occupation and apartheid.”
The Independent Alliance of MPs has today published a statement marking the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, reaffirming their support for the right of return for the Palestinian people and their commitment to the end of the occupation.
Today marks the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, when 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes.
The Nakba was not just one day in 1948. It remains an everyday, genocidal reality. Just last week, the Israeli government announced its intention to “capture” the entirety of Gaza and stay there indefinitely. Meanwhile, Palestinians are being starved to death as Israel’s blockade exceeds 70 days. Has it ever been more obvious that the Nakba never ended?
Our government won’t recognise this anniversary today. They can’t, because it would force them to face reality: they are aiding and abetting the ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing, occupation and apartheid. The government’s continued refusal to end all arms sales to Israel is truly abominable. In another 77 years’ time, how will they be remembered?
Today, we renew our support for the right of return for the Palestinian people, recognised under international law, and reaffirm our commitment to an end to the occupation. Just in case the British Government and the Israeli government have missed the message: we are not going away.
We will be here for as long as it takes to bring about a free and independent Palestine.
“Gaza has been a test for our mainstream media. They have failed.”
Jeremy Corbyn MP
By Richard Lions
Following the release last week of a groundbreaking report finds Lammy has misled public & reveals scale of arms exports to Israel (read in full here), and ahead of this Saturday’s national demonstration for Palestine, there has been a flurry of solidarity activity with the people of Gaza, including in Parliament where John McDonnell raised the report in a point of order on Monday, and a debate on Wednesday May 14 saw numerous Labour, independent and other MPs speak up for Palestine.
Additionally, earlier this week, media handbooks produced by the Independent Alliance MPs including Jeremy Corbyn, were spotted in the Parliament press lobby and across the Parliamentary estate. These handbooks, entitled “A guide to holding the Prime Minister to account”, provides “a list of questions that journalists may wish to ask the Prime Minister in light of an ongoing genocide” against the people of Gaza.
The Independent Alliance MPs are Adnan Hussain MP, Ayoub Khan MP, Iqbal Mohamed MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP and Shockat Adam MP and the questions in the handbook include:
• Why has the Prime Minister ignored Corbyn’s demand for an independent inquiry? • When will the PM and the Foreign Secretary be returning to the House to retract statements denying the genocide in Gaza? • Will the government release video footage from RAF spy planes that have flown over Gaza? • When will the government publish a full list of military shipments from the UK to Israel since October 2023?
Featured image: ‘Journalism During a Genocide – a guide to holding the Prime Minister to account’ handbook.
The handbook starts by saying: “Since the government was elected in July 2024, the Prime Minister has held numerous press conferences to mark a range of policy announcements, from increases in military spending to the development of a theme park. These press conferences are an opportunity for the British media to hold the Prime Minister to account over the government’s role in Israel’s military assault on Gaza.”
“To that end, we trust this handbook will assist you in establishing truth and accountability.”
As Jeremy Corbyn said, “Gaza has been a test for our mainstream media. They have failed. They have failed to stand up for their colleagues being murdered abroad. They have failed to treat all lives with equal worth. And they have failed to hold our government accountable for its complicity in crimes against humanity. That is how you normalise a genocide – and to that end, the media have shamefully succeeded.”
We must all – whether in Labour or another party or no party at all, to work together to hold Starmer and Lammy to account for the Government’s disgraceful role in Gaza – and also call out those who refuse to do. And we must keep speaking up for Palestine.
Gaza genocide fears gain ground in Parliament – Ben Folley
Featured image Protesters blockade Foreign Office and Department of Business and Trade in central London for International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Photo credit: London for a Free Palestine
“War crime after war crime is being committed and a genocide is taking place.”
Richard Burgon MP
By Ben Folley
Following a meeting of the UN Security Council on Tuesday night, where the senior UN official for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief, Tom Fletcher, asked states to act decisively to prevent genocide in Gaza, in Westminster a Foreign Office Minister was forced to take questions from MPs on Wednesday.
Most notably, following Fletcher’s remarks, was the elevation of the issue of genocide and the extent to which it was being addressed seriously by MPs.
Last Autumn both Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy, rejected the use of the term ‘genocide’ to describe Israel’s actions against the people of Gaza.
In October, Lammy argued, ‘These are legal terms, and they must be determined by international courts’ and faced subsequent criticism for stating, ‘those terms were largely used when millions of people lost their lives in crises such as Rwanda and the Holocaust … the way that people are now using those terms undermines their seriousness.’
Similarly, Starmer said only days later that, ‘I have never described what is going on in Gaza as genocide’, and then two weeks later again stated, ‘I am well aware of the definition of genocide, and that is why I have never described this or referred to it as genocide.’
In the debate this week, the term was used 60 times in the Chamber with 25 MPs using it in urging the Government to take action and stand by its obligations under the Genocide Convention to prevent it occurring.
The Foreign Office Minister at the Despatch Box, Hamish Falconer, expressed UK Government support for the International Court of Justice ongoing case brought by South Africa, and that the government supported the provisional measures announced by the court in January 2024 and required of Israel and member states to prevent genocide in Gaza.
He also reiterated however that the UK Government’s long-standing position was that any formal determination as to whether genocide has occurred is a matter for a competent court, not for Governments or non-judicial bodies, and noted the case was ongoing.
This approach however was one challenged by the UN’s Fletcher at the Security Council on Tuesday night, when he said, ‘the ICJ is considering whether a genocide is taking place in Gaza. It will weigh the testimony that we have shared. But it will be too late.’
He further said, ‘Previous reviews of the UN’s conduct in cases of large-scale violations of international human rights and humanitarian law – reports on Myanmar, 2019; Sri Lanka, 2012; Srebrenica and Rwanda, both in 1999 – pointed to our collective failure to speak to the scale of violations while they were committed.’
It was significant therefore that in contrast to David Lammy in October, who said Gaza could not be called a genocide because of the scale of deaths did not yet match those of Rwanda, Fletcher said the experience of Rwanda was entirely relevant to Gaza because it demonstrated the cost of prevarication and inaction by states with the power to prevent such atrocities.
It was welcome therefore to hear an increasing number of MPs in the Chamber pressuring the Minister to demonstrate greater urgency and make greater use of levers available to UK Government to prevent genocide occurring, with many highlighting the continued supply by the UK of maintenance parts to Israel’s F-35 military jets and the failure to impose further sanctions, as has occurred with Russia over its Ukraine invasion.
Rachael Maskell and Ian Byrne both raised the issue of the UK’s continued supply of component parts to Israel’s F-35 military jets, with Maskell asserting those parts could be GPS tracked and therefore the UK could seek changes to the F-35 programme, whilst Byrne asserted that Israel’s access to the F-35 supply pool as a result of its attacks on civilians.
On the opposition benches, criticism ranged from Green Adrian Ramsay who secured the debate, Brendan O’Hara and independent Iqbal Mohammed reporting from the High Court case where the UK’s supply of arms is being challenged, that Government lawyers were asserting no such genocide is taking place, and even Conservatives such as Kit Malthouse and Edward Leigh.
But it was notable on the Labour benches that there is a growing pressure on the government to acknowledge the risk of genocide from Israel’s actions in Gaza. Other Labour MPs referring to the need to prevent genocide came from across the Parliamentary Labour Party including Flo Eshalomi, Rachel Hopkins, Warinder Juss, Tony Vaughan, Paul Waugh and Matt Western.
What is clear now is that when six months ago, the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary weighed against the use of the term genocide, the reality of it occurring is now a real live concern amongst MPs and the government will face increasing pressure to demonstrate it is acting to prevent it.
Ben Folley writes for Labour Outlook and is on x/twitter and on bsky.
“The TUC is calling on the UK government to put urgent pressure on Israel to ensure full humanitarian access to Gaza and to implement the ceasefire deal in full.”
By Trades Union Congress (TUC)
Gaza humanitarian aid crisis
Israeli authorities are blocking all humanitarian aid into Gaza – threatening mass starvation.
Almost the entire population of Gaza has been forcibly displaced with tens of thousands killed by Israeli military operations – including journalists, medics and aid workers. And vital public infrastructure has been destroyed.
Collective punishment is prohibited under international humanitarian law.
The TUC is calling on the UK government to put urgent pressure on Israel to ensure full humanitarian access to Gaza and to implement the ceasefire deal in full.
West Bank human and labour rights abuses
In April TUC General Secretary, Paul Nowak, travelled to the West Bank and witnessed first-hand the human and labour rights abuses being experienced by Palestinian workers on a daily basis.
The international community must take a stand against Israeli Government plans for further illegal settlement building and annexation in the West Bank.
And it must oppose any plans to seize the Gaza Strip and remove the Palestinian population.
We’re also calling on the UK government to:
Pressure the Israeli government to respect international law and Palestinians’ human rights
Immediately recognise the State of Palestine
End all licences for arms traded with Israel – meeting international law
Ban the trade in goods from the settlements, as this supports Israel’s ongoing illegal occupation.
Suspend trade talks with Isreal until it ends its illegal occupation
The TUC supports genuine efforts towards a just, lasting and comprehensive peace that is consistent with international law, and is based on a two-state solution, which promotes equality, democracy and respect for human and labour rights.
Support the day of action
Discuss with colleagues in your branch what kind of action is best suited to your workplace and its circumstances – and ensure all workers are treated respectfully.
Options for taking action include:
Taking a photo with the visuals (Ceasefire Now; Respect International Law; Recognise the State of Palestine; End the Occupation) and sharing personal statements of solidarity. These could be combined into a collage or video montage for social media.
Lunch-and-Learn Sessions: Organise workplace discussions or virtual lunch-and-learn sessions about Palestine.
Email your MP in support of the trade union movement’s calls for Israel to respect international law
The International Court of Justice has found that in relation to the occupation, “Israel’s legislation and measures constitute breach of Article 3” of the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination.
This states: “States Parties particularly condemn racial segregation and apartheid and undertake to prevent, prohibit and eradicate all practices of this nature in territories under their jurisdiction.”
UN General Secretary, Antonio Guterres warned that it is vital to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
“Such an authoritarian response to a band so soon after they chose to highlight the Starmer administration’s complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza during their concerts will be seen for what it is: a sinister effort to silence dissent and revenge for their audacity to fight back, both in the courts and from the stage.”
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