A brilliant, passionate article by Ronan Bennett on the proscription of Palestine Action. His contempt for Keir Starmer is boundless and that for some other shabby goverment figures is not far behind. “Who,” asks Bennett, ” can hear chanting at Glastonbury, but not the screams of the maimed and incinerated, or the howls of grief …
By Leah Levane
Jewish Voice for Labour has written to Barts NHS Trust in support of a senior British Palestinian nurse who was ordered to remove a picture that included a watermelon as this could be construed as being antisemitic. We outline why this is nonsense and also dangerous for fighting antisemitism. Most importantly, many Jews as well as others support Palestine
By Leah Levane
Peter Beinart spends time listening to pro-Israeli sources and finds that they are admitting that the goals of what has now been 21 months of slaughter in Gaza will not be achieved. They recognise now that Israel cannot defeat Hamas – something that many people said from the very beginning. Equally, they have failed dismally …
By Leah Levane
This fascinating, if chilling interview with an Israeli (dissident) archaeologist shows how archaeology is used politically, to further the interests of an expansionist State. This is not new, but new actions and new forms of control are making things worse. Archaeology does not help ‘prove’ Israel’s claim that this is Jewish land but rather shows …
Basel Adra is well-known to us from his role as in – and as co-director of – the Oscar award-winning documentary film “No Other Land. At this critical moment in the struggle he has, together with his colleague Shatha Yaish, joined +972 Magazine as a West Bank reporter. He describes what it is like to be a …
By Leah Levane
Zohran Mamdani is on course to become the mayor of New York. He is a Democratic Socialist and, predictably has come under huge attack and a rise in Islamophobia as explored by Nesrine Malik and by Al Jazeera (it is interesting that he is labelled as Muslim even though he has a Hindu mother but that …
Andrew Burgin writing in the Morning Star records the jubilation which has greeted news of an apparent dramatic leap forward in plans to form a new party to the left of Labour and calls for a rapid widening of the involvement of grassroots activists in its formation.
The motiThe government’s motion was to proscribe three organisations, Maniacs Murder Cult, Palestine Action and the Russian Imperial Movement. In the words of its mover Lord Hanson of Flint, The Minister of State, Home Office, it was to “reaffirm the UK’s zero-tolerance approach to terrorism, regardless of its form or underlying ideology”.
A valiant attempt was made in the House of Lords, in what was sometimes an ill-tempered debate, to express “regret” at this action on several grounds: that it undermines civil liberties, is a misuse of terrorism legislation, suppresses dissent on Israel and criminalises support for a protest group.
Despite powerful arguments, the vote for the amendment was a woeful 16 for as opposed to 144 against.
By Leah Levane
Twenty years ago today London was shattered and its people shocked by four bomb attacks on its public transport. In the time since what has been the experience for Muslim people living in the UK. This article outlines some of the issues of concern, including the introduction and use of the Prevent programme. There are …
By Leah Levane
This thoughtful and worrying essay focuses mainly on the USA but similar excesses are being shown in many countries, most obviously in Germany and certainly in the UK where clampdown on protest and action in support of Palestine has been a feature of the previous and the current governments. The article outlines some of the …