Author: welland2

Fishers killed off Gaza coast


Israeli forces intensify killing of fishers off the coast of Gaza
Vigil No 135

Gaza is effectively surrounded and has no port or means of accessing neighbouring territory. It is an open air prison. With the tight restrictions of aid entering the territory and the annexation of nearly all the cultivable land by Israeli forces, one of the few means of livelihood is fishing. Gazans have been restricted to inshore fishing only, they cannot venture into the Mediterranean. Since October 2023, attacks on fishers have intensified with 238 killed since October 7th according to the Gaza Fishers Syndicate. Channel 5 News carried a report yesterday [we have been unable to locate a link]. It appears to add an element to the policy of starvation being meted onto the territory.

A UN report said :

‘This thematic note highlights the systematic attacks on fishers and fishing infrastructure in Gaza, which have had devastating consequences on local livelihoods and the fishing industry, driving expanding protection concerns and risk of famine for families across Gaza.

‘According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Israeli military restrictions on fishing activities in Gaza significantly intensified after 7 October 2023, and fishers reported that they have been repeatedly attacked, onshore and at sea, by the Israeli military. In parallel, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) in Gaza has documented the destruction of key fishing infrastructure, including Gaza’s main port and several landing sites, along with extensive damage to landing sites and fishing vessels, rendering fishing operations off the coast of Gaza nearly impossible.

‘These attacks have resulted in the collapse of the fishing industry, which was once a main source of livelihoods and food for Gaza’s population. Combined with the destruction of agricultural land and other food production infrastructure, and severe restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid and commercial goods and supplies, the targeting of Gaza’s fishers and fishing infrastructure by the Israeli military has contributed directly to risk of famine and growing protection concerns for vulnerable persons, creating conditions which threaten the survival of Gaza’s population’ [UN, May 2025]

The vigils continue

Number 135 yesterday with over 30 present with occasional ‘drop-ins’ by passers by which is encouraging. Recognition was very high with probably over 100 taking some kind of notice of our presence. In view of the continuing violence in Lebanon and the killing which continues to take place in Gaza, it is still a necessary action. Over 73,000 have been killed according to AP and nearly 1,000 since the ‘ceasefire’.

Photo: Courtesy of Peter Gloyns

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War crimes and atrocities in Sudan: report


Amnesty publishes a detailed report on the war in Sudan

July 2026

Amnesty has just released a report on the appalling events taking place in Sudan, one of those conflicts that get very little coverage in the UK or the West generally. Called City under Siege, Children under Fire, in describes the scale of the atrocities which took place during the campaign to capture El Fasher in North Darfur. The full report can be accessed via this link.

Civilians were killed, injured, beaten, tortured and detained in terrible conditions between 2024 and October 2025. Crimes included rape, sexual slavery, enslavement and persecution. Hundreds of thousands of children have been displaced and kept in poor conditions where abuse, physical assaults and lack of food and water was common.

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary general said ‘it was a war on civilians. The world was warned of the horrors that civilians in El Fasher confronted as the RSF laid siege to the city. It is a stain on the conscience of humanity’.

A UN fact finding mission said the seizure of El Fasher showed all the hallmark of genocide.

UK collusion

The situation is made worse by the cuts in aid by US principally but also by the UK. Another factor is the role of the UAE who are alleged to be supporters of the RSF and supplying them with weapons and other materiel. The UK has deep and historic relationships with the kingdom reaffirmed in a statement in April. The statement does refer to Sudan but very much in detached way giving the impression that they want the conflict to end but not admitting their role in its continuation.

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Disappointing debate about lobby influence


Debate about Israel’s extensive lobby activities in parliament unenlightening

June 2026

LETTER ADDED: 29th June

When we vote for someone to become our member of parliament, there is an understanding – not always spelled out in so many words – that MPs are there to represent us, their constituents, and once in parliament, to represent the interests of the country.  If they assume office of some kind, they will of course have many meetings with interested parties and discussions with other countries.  But all along is the principle that it is our nation which is being represented and the public at large being protected.

In recent years there has been a rising tide of concern about outside influence and role of think tanks and lobbyists. Basically the system is not working according to Transparency International and only 4% of lobbyists are registered making the legislation meaningless.  Collectively, they spend millions of parlaying their influence and often the question is who is funding them? Much of their funding is opaque but is believed to be American commercial interests pushing against climate change, fighting hard not to see controls on their media platforms and for us to leave the European Convention.  The egregious payment of £5m to Nigel Farage (which is being investigated) has attracted much media attention but we should not lose sight of the drip, drip of smaller sums into the pockets of our representatives. 

Israeli lobbying

Another worry has been the influence of the largest and best funded lobby organisation funded by Israel to promote its interests. They have created a series of ‘Friends of Israel’ groups in all the main parties. There are believed to be 200 such MPs across parties with the predominant membership being Conservative. Over 60 are on the Labour benches.  

Many in the public are concerned at the extent of this influence and a petition attracted 118,000 signatures leading to a debate in Westminster hall on 22 June.  They called for ‘an inquiry into pro-Israel influence on politics and democracy’. The debate can be read here.

Their influence was immediately felt in the debate.  ‘Why is Israel singled out for this kind of enquiry?’ it was asked.  Why not the Gulf states for example? 

Another line of argument was that it echoed historical tropes of hidden Jewish control and allegations of poisoning wells during the time of the Black Death for example and the infamous ‘blood libel’.  Needless to say, the anti-Semitism allegation was made by Richard Tice among others. The frightening effect of these allegations on Jewish people was also mentioned. 

“This motion is antisemitic in its very motivation and at its core. As such, we should utterly reject it”

Richard Tice (Reform).

A consistent problem has been the confusion between anti-Semitism and legitimate criticism of Israel.  It has been argued that there is a degree of overreach as far the former is concerned.  Much use has been made of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition.  As the Jewish academic Omer Bartov explains in his book Israel: What Went Wrong? (Fern Press, 2026) ‘The IHRA definition was the product of a European effort to promote Holocaust remembrance and education: it was never meant to serve as a basis for legislation and enforcement, but it has nonetheless morphed into an instrument for silencing criticism by law and duress’ (p58).

Anti Semitism definition criticised

The IHRA provides 11 examples of what might be termed ‘anti-Semitic’ but as Bartov points out, however objectionable some of such statements [in the IHRA list] may be ‘they are not, in and of themselves’ antisemitic (ibid).’  Herein lies the problem seemingly swallowed by several of the MPs making their speeches: legitimate criticism of Israel and their disproportionate destruction of Gaza and south Lebanon, and their policy of killing children, is by this definition, anti-Semitic. We argue it is not.

The Debate

The debate itself was disappointing for its lack of any kind of forensic analysis or the setting out of facts about the terrible events which took place on October 7th and subsequently.  Absent were any references to the bloodthirsty comments by leading Israeli politicians – not extremist firebrands – but members of the Knesset and Likud politicians.  The deputy Speaker of the Knesset Nissim Vaturi for example, suggested ‘we need to separate the children of the women and kill the adults in Gaza’ (ibid p128).  There are many such repulsive statements from politicians like Ben Gvir, Bezalel Smotrich and others. 

‘Why only Israel’ was the cry from several MPs?  We can sympathise to an extent with this question which is probably due to our short attention spans and a media which finds it hard to fund overseas reporters.  Little is heard about the fearful abuse of Uyghurs in China, or the continuing persecution being carried out by the Junta in Myanmar, and Sudan has quietly slid out of the news.  Ukraine is in and out of the news. 

Circular argument

There is a degree of circularity in the argument however. Because Israel is seen as some kind of beacon of Western values in the Middle East, the only democracy it is claimed and an example of a brave little country surrounded by Moslem states some bent on its destruction: when it is seen to violate those norms of behaviour, there is a reaction. The demolition of entire apartment blocks because they claim there is a Hamas control centre within, or a member of Hezbollah in south Lebanon (a policy even President Trump is finding hard to accept) the seizing and confinement, torture and mistreatment of medical staff and hundreds of children, the destruction – the wanton destruction – of water treatment and other infrastructure like hospitals and schools and the deliberate policy of withholding food aid and medical supplies, the seizure of all cultivable land in Gaza, even with the enfeebled reporting by British media, some of this has seeped into the consciences of the British people.  Which has led over a hundred thousand to ask has our political class been corrupted by an Israel lobbying organisation?  In short, if you want to be regarded as a beacon of Western values then you must behave like one.   

One issue which emerged, albeit briefly, was the question of Elbit Systems a firm based in Britain with 16 facilities.   It has considerable support from the British government and the firm is engaged in joint ventures with UK firms to build drones. It is these drones which inflict such damage on people in the area and our continued support for the firm, the political cover given them and the draconian treatment of protestors which has caused resentment among many.   It was noted that the firm has easy access to ministers and civil servants, ‘in and out like a cat flap’ someone said.  

An issue not debated was the funding of trips to Israel.  As Declassified has revealed these are considerable in number. Conservative Friends of Israel has funded no less than 155 trips in a decade more than any other government. What are the MPs seeing and been shown?  It is not clear.  The prisons where boys are badly treated?  Unlikely.  The ruins of hospitals, schools and the like in Gaza?  Probably not.  The villages attacked and burned by settlers on the West Bank?  Improbable.

Was the debate enlightening?  Yes and no.  About the issue in question and the undue influence on policy and support for Israel which seems unconditional and not influenced in any meaningful way by the atrocities carried on there, the answer is ‘no’.  A debate built around the never-ending anti-Semitism claims about any or all criticism of Israel the state and the IDF was never going to enlighten us or them. 

About the lack of transparency and the role played by powerful and well-funded lobby organisations of which Israel is thought to be the largest and best funded, the answer is ‘yes’.  It has enabled the government to continue its support for Israel unimpeded by much in the way of questioning or obstruction from its back benchers or the opposition significant numbers of whom are members of one or other of the Friends groups. It was David Cameron, the ex-prime minister who, after the Greensill scandal that ruined his reputation, said Lobbying was the ‘next big scandal waiting to happen’. It is continuous and is in fact a perma scandal. The debate is but another example of how our parliamentary system has been corrupted by outside influence.  The very lack of insightful debate and lack of facts was revealing in itself.  Only one MP in the debate declared his interest as a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel.

The ending

The end was interesting: Richard Tice MP again ‘Now that we have debated this appalling motion, is there a minimum timeframe before we have to debate it again?‘ To which the reply was in part ‘When reflecting on how this debate has gone, and more widely on how the Jewish community in particular has reacted to the petition, I would certainly argue that it should not come back for another debate, even if it reached that threshold. We have had an opportunity to air our views, and we have collectively called it out for what it is’ (John Lamont MP). Mr Lamont is a member of the CFI which he did not declare and does not appear on the They Work For You website under ‘Register of Interests’ [accessed 27 June 2026].

The tragedy of all this is that these ‘friends’ are not in the final analysis, doing Israel any favours. Peace and stability will only come to the region and to Israel if it can live and work with its neighbours. Simply arming and supporting a thuggish regime bent on war, destruction and killing is not in its best interests. Unless it completely destroys the entire population of Gaza – total genocide that is – there will be a residue of bitter resentment of a people treated so harshly and so cruelly that revenge inevitably will be a prime motive. Those parliamentarians are thus twice guilty: allowing themselves to beguiled into an uncritical support of a brutal regime and secondly, not in fact acting as they should as honest critics to the Israeli government to counsel a non lethal approach to every problem.

[letter in the Guardian, 29th June]

Israel’s actions are fuelling antisemitism around the world | Israel | The Guardian

We are shortly to have a new prime minister and one hopes that he or she will address the issue of corruption and undue influence head on.  Trust in our politicians will only be reclaimed if the issue of lobbying and its pernicious effects are forcefully tackled.  Meanwhile, Israel if free to continue its violent actions safe in the knowledge that the UK parliament has been successfully tamed. John Glen, the Conservative member of parliament for Salisbury, is a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI). Full list of all MPs believed to be members of Friends of Israel.

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Targeted policy to kill children


UN enquiry finds Israel conducts a policy of deliberately killing children

June 2026

MATERIAL ADDED, 29th June

A UN report published this month, has concluded that Israel has a policy of deliberately targeting children for attack in Gaza and now the West Bank. The scale of their actions is deeply shocking. The report, The Independent International Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory is extremely detailed and meticulous with copious notes and is the result of considerable research. It can be accessed here. The numbers quoted refer to paragraphs in the report. Many attempts were made to the Israeli government for information and/or access which were never responded to (3). A BBC report can be read here.

WARNING: much of the report is deeply shocking and upsetting.

Between the October 7th massacre and October last year, a total of 20,175 children have been killed and a further 44,143 injured. At least 5,000 of those were under 5 years old and a further 1,000 were under 1, that is babies (26). It is thought that 5,160 lie buried in the rubble. It may be recalled 36 children were killed by Hamas on October 7th following which there was a considerable outcry. Stories were fabricated about ‘babies being beheaded’ which are now realised to be fake. There has been no outcry about these Palestinian deaths.

The use of wide area munitions has had a disproportionate effect on children who are 7 times more likely to die following a bombing due to their young age (31).

Children shot

There are many casualties around the yellow line. It should be explained that this consists of yellow blocks dotted along the ‘line’ which are regularly moved as Israeli forces encroach on Gaza. They now control around 70% of the land. [Correction, 29th June: Israel controls over half of Gaza according to several sources, not 70% as we said here. It is their intention to increase it to 70%. We apologise for the error]. Children wandering into this area are shot and killed, over 100 this way. Some have been collecting firewood. Claims that the children are a threat in some way are unsupported and in any event are shot from a distance (38).

“Children brought into the emergency department were seeing around them the chaos of mass casualty, with people screaming, limbs blown off, blood… these children were sitting in a corner, staring blankly, not talking and observing all that, without any adults helping them to process or offer any sense of security. Mental health of children has been completely jeopardized.” – A doctor who visited Gaza on [a] medical mission.

WARNING

The report notes that as of April 2025, a total of 846 children had amputations without anaesthetic sometimes with makeshift equipment (44). Many do not survive subsequent infestations by maggots because of the dreadful conditions.

“I was not able to finish any operation because, every time child patients were taken back to the operating room, their injuries would be covered in maggots and sepsis under the dressings – these child patients had no immune system due to malnutrition. Children just did not recover.” – A doctor who visited Gaza on multiple medical missions.

Quadcopters

It should be explained that these machines are extremely efficient and are better at identifying victims that human snipers. They are made by Elbit Systems in England a firm the UK government are desperately keen to support. Those protesting about the firm are arrested and tried for terrorist offences. We cannot claim that drones made in England are used in the following episode.

A drone was able to identify a mother suckling a 10 day old baby and was able to kill the baby with a bullet through the head using a quadcopter (59). They are operated by a ‘Multi-Dimensional Unit – Unit 888 (71). An Israeli TV documentary had the following exchange:

‘Breaking Ranks: Inside Israel’s War’, one Israeli soldier described, “the drones, in my opinion, are what most dehumanises the other side. You see everything on a screen. You drop the bomb. It feels like a game. You can sit in some basement of a house, safe, with your helmet off, scratching your balls, half-dressed, and kill Palestinians.”

An article in Haaretz describes the killing as a kind of competition among IDF soldiers to include children.

Children as fair game – “every child born there is already a terrorist”

The report makes clear that its research shows children are not killed or wounded as a result of incidental or accidental actions but as a deliberate policy. The Inquiry noted political speeches such as:

“The Commission found that Palestinian children in Gaza have been explicitly depicted as “terrorists” by Israeli officials in their speeches, statements and rhetoric in the Israeli Knesset, media and social media. On 9 October 2023, a member of Knesset and deputy speaker of the Knesset, Nissim Vaturi, posted on social media: “Erase Gaza. Nothing else will satisfy us. It is not acceptable that we maintain a terrorist authority next to Israel. Do not leave a child there expel all the remaining ones at the end, so that they will not have a resurrection.” (76). On 30 January 2025, he again said: “Gaza is full of terrorists and every child born there is already a terrorist, from the moment of his birth.”

Child prisoners

Since the October massacre, 1,655 children have been detained and held in ‘Administrative Detention’ although some held in military detention or interrogation centres. The treatment of these children is appalling. They are stripped and blindfolded, often forced to kneel on gravel, they are subjected to beatings, use of rifle butts, restricted food and water, prevented from access to a toilet and told to drink their own urine. Dogs are used to intimidate and they are kept in cells with 24 hour lighting. Some have been raped or subject to other sexual assaults. There is at least one report of death by sarcopenia (a muscle wasting condition usually associated with ageing). In plain terms a boy starved to death (107f).

Conclusions

The Commission found that much of the harm suffered by Palestinian children was not incidental but intended to destroy the existence of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group. Since children embody the biological and social continuity of the group, the Commission has reasonable grounds to conclude that these acts form part of a deliberate strategy to destroy the future of the Palestinians in Gaza by targeting their children (352).

This is just one of the conclusions in the report which lists the many forms of violence against Palestinian children including wilful killing, torture and other inhuman acts, sexual and gender based violence against children, attacks on educational facilities and facilities caring for children.

UK support

The Israeli mission in Geneva said Israel rejected the commission’s “libellous sham”. Israel has fought hard against allegations of genocide, while receiving critical diplomatic support from its allies, including the US and the UK. Much was made of Sir Keir Starmer’s background as a human rights lawyer but his government has never deviated from its support for Israel with arms, intelligence and diplomatic cover. He stepped down as prime minister on 22nd June. Many may be shocked at the deliberate policy of killing children described in immense detail in this report.

The Salisbury MP Mr John Glen is a ‘proud member’ of the Conservative Friends of Israel. The MP for East Wiltshire, Danny Kruger, who switched to Reform last year, stated in an interview that all deaths in Gaza are the responsibility of Hamas. We ask how can any MP carry on supporting Israel while it is engaged in a programme of killing children as a matter of policy? Both are provided with columns in the local paper, the Salisbury Journal in which these views are never mentioned. We could find no reference to the report in the Israel supporting Daily Telegraph [accessed 25 June].

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL added after the original piece was posted:

On 29th June, B’Tselem, the Israeli based human rights group posted this video. It contains shocking images:

Unshielded Childhood: Palestinian children and teenagers killed by Israel in the West Bank in 2025 | B’Tselem

Guardian piece published on 29th June.

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Need for vigil continues


The Salisbury vigil is needed more than ever as UK continues its support for Israel

June 2026

Imagine. If during the ‘Troubles,’ that is the campaign by the IRA in Northern Ireland and on the UK mainland, UK forces had issued a 24 hour warning to the towns and villages in the Irish Republic within 10 miles of the border, ordering them to evacuate their homes, and had then bombed them flattening a large number of buildings killing those living inside, followed by bulldozers and other equipment crossing the border to demolish entire villages. Had uprooted orchards and destroyed other agricultural assets included acres of glasshouses, and had used white phosphorous bombs to contaminate the land for a generation. Imagine the government claimed it had the right to do this because it knew or suspected that the villages were shielding IRA operatives and that the IRA were using women and children as ‘human shields’. Imagine it also bombed and destroyed medical facilities, water treatment plants and other infrastructure. Army units then seized medical and other staff, subjecting them to months of serious ill-treatment and torture denying them access to lawyers or even saying where they were held, many of whom would die in custody. Imagine if the UK had behaved that way.

The world would have erupted. The international outcry would have been enormous. The US would have made life extremely difficult for the UK and imposed financial sanctions sufficient for the country to face collapse as it did with the Suez escapade. UN resolutions would pile in. The UK would have become an international pariah. UK news media – even the BBC – would have fulminated against the atrocity being committed. Parliament would have been in uproar. It is indeed unimaginable.

Slide show

“You don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you’re looking for somebody, because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses, and they’re not all Hezbollah”. President Trump at the G7 meeting

Despite the bombings both here and in Northern Ireland and the thousands killed, peace was eventually achieved in the Good Friday Agreement and although not perfect, a degree of normality has been achieved in the Principality. We cannot of course make exact comparisons so different are the circumstances – although both conflicts have their roots in British imperialism and colonial conquest – but looking at the scale of destruction with nearly 76.000 dead in Gaza and over 4,000 dead in Lebanon, who can see an end to this? Unlike what would have happened in Ireland, the US continues to arm and finance Israel. UN resolutions are ignored. The UK happily supplies arms, support and intelligence to Israel including two warships off the coast. Many of our news media have turned a blind eye or given highly sanitised versions of the atrocities. The only problem for Israel is that it has lost the moral high ground and the sympathy it received after the October 7th massacre has evaporated.

Government’s responses are feeble and a ‘gimmick’

The government has failed to take resolute action. It claims to have stopped arms sales while continuing to issue licences to arms firms. A recent example of their limp responses is Yvette Cooper’s recent statement in the House of Commons that the government had referred the ‘Great Israeli Real Estate Event‘ to the Advertising Standards Agency, Kristyan Benedict, Amnesty International UK’s Crisis Response Manager, said:

“Referring an event that enables war crimes and crimes against humanity to the Advertising Standards Agency is a ridiculous gimmick that fails to understand the devastation Israeli settlements cause for Palestinians.

“Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The UK government has said so itself. The International Court of Justice has called on all states, including the UK, not to provide support or assistance that would help sustain Israel’s continued illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The UK’s failure to prevent this event from going ahead directly undermines its own position, the rights of Palestinians, and international law.

“Yvette Cooper was warned this event was coming and did nothing to stop it. That is not leadership – that is burying your head in the sand and hoping the problem goes away whilst illegal occupation, annexation, and apartheid continue at pace.

“If the government is serious about its opposition to settlements, it can start with a full ban on trade with Israeli settlements, ensure UK authorities properly investigate the organisers of the Great Israeli Real Estate Event, and ensure an event that enables war crimes and crimes against humanity is never allowed to take part on British soil again.”

The Jewish News denies that West Bank land is being marketed. They say the allegations are “motivated by anti-Israeli and terrorist supporters”.

NO sign of the Salisbury MP Mr John Glen at this or any of the previous 131 vigils. He is a ‘proud member’ of the Conservative Friends of Israel group which is thought to be the best funded of all the parliamentary lobby organisations and which has been able to subdue criticism of their country’s activities in parlaiment.

Our vigils will continue the next is on Saturday 27th at 5pm in the Cheese Market (by the Library).

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Refugee Week event


Group conduct quiz in the Market Square

June 2026

If there is one thing which is guaranteed to excite tensions and rouse passions at the moment is the whole question of refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers. Election campaigns seem to revolve around this topic and only recently, mobs attacked homes in Belfast and Southampton to burn out such people with fire bombs. Parties vie with one another to demonstrate their toughness against them and Andy Burnham – decisively voted into parliament again two days ago – is quoted as being supportive of the home secretary Shabana Mahmood in her desire to introduce yet more controls.

Alongside these passions is a degree of mis and disinformation. For example, there is a degree of fixation over the Channel crossings which loom large in the tabloid and right wing media universe. They loom much larger in the imagination than the actual numbers justify. They are seen as remorselessly increasing when the opposite is the case. Which is why the group decided to mount a short quiz in Salisbury market.

The results were modest. Around 23 people stopped to engage. The majority walked by. We can never know of course but it may be because the whole topic of refugees is so distasteful they do not wish to spend their precious time on it. They may feel that their knowledge of the subject is pretty sound. We cannot know.

Those that did stop did pretty well (as you can see from the photo on the left) with most getting the answers right. They knew that numbers were falling; they knew that the numbers coming by boat were a small proportion of the whole and they were aware that they could not work without a visa.

Recent posts:

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Serious issues raised by Palestine Action decision


Decision by Court of Appeal raises serious issues about our rights

June 2026

The dreadful decision by the Appeal Court last week raises issues way beyond the matter of Palestine Action and whether or not they are terrorists. On 15 June they upheld the decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. As Liberty has argued “This judgement risks paving the way for current and future governments to use counterterror powers against non-terrorist groups as we have seen in other countries, to silence activists, minorities and opponents.”

Amnesty say that prosecutors want to make an example of them and set a precedent for how direct action protestors could be treated in future. The decision will have a chilling effect on protest and will undoubtedly leave many people nervous of making their views known or attending vigils or marches.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the judgement was the statement made by the judges:

“It is not, as it claims, a direct action civil disobedience protest group like the suffragettes operating transparently in the open. It is a covert organisation that operates using secret cells to avoid the detection and prosecution of those using violence to destroy the property of third parties. Palestine Action’s activities have caused injury as well as property damage.“

It is hard to countenance that a group of supposedly learned judges should make a statement which is factually incorrect, historically naïve and verging on the bizarre. The suffragettes committed a large number of violent acts including damage to property, bombings and arson. They carried out these activities – about 300 all told – over many years. The number and extent of their actions far exceed those of Palestine Action. That judges of a senior court should be so misinformed is a worry.

Belfast and Southampton

Last week saw violence in Belfast and Southampton. Part of this was a series of organised attacks on houses containing refugees or immigrants. They were burnt out of their homes in acts of deliberate violence. The police came under sustained and violent attack. Despite the scale and nastiness of the attacks, there has been no question of using the terrorism word. The actions clearly fell into the definition of terrorism. Those who incited the violence are interviewed on media programmes.

In a previous post we commented on the attitude of successive governments towards the Gulf states and the double think involved. On the one hand talking in grand terms about a new world order, democracy and human rights, and on the other supplying arms and succour to a collection of brutal states which do the precise opposite. Where there is no democracy, women are second class citizens and certainly there are no human rights. Where our Royal family and others happily mingle with tyrants.

It is a looking glass world. Thousands have been arrested, many elderly, for protesting about the violence, destruction and genocide in Gaza and now in Lebanon. At least 73,000 have died in Gaza and thousands more wounded. Israel will not allow in heavy lifting equipment to help clear the rubble and retrieve bodies buried in it.

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Podcast Episode: Humanism And Middle East Debate


Pip: If you’ve ever wondered how a government squares “we stand for democracy and the rule of law” with “also, here are some more weapons” — welland2 has been to a festival that asked exactly that question.

Mara: This episode covers talks from the Festival of Humanism: UK foreign policy in the Gulf, and a debate between an Israeli and a Palestinian that was so in demand it had to be repeated in a bigger hall. Let’s start with what those festival talks said about conflict, hypocrisy, and who gets a seat at the table.

Festival Talks On Conflict

Pip: The through-line across both festival sessions is a single uncomfortable question: when Western governments talk about human rights and the rule of law, are they describing a principle or a brand?

Mara: Dr David Wearing’s talk at the Festival of Humanism set that up directly. The post captures his framing of Britain’s governing class this way: he made “the distinction between ‘we’ meaning them and ‘we’ meaning the population at large.”

Pip: That distinction does a lot of work. It means the arms sales, the training of security forces, the quiet financial entanglement with Gulf monarchies — none of that was put to a public vote. It happened in the gap between those two “we”s.

Mara: Wearing traced the history back to oil — Britain establishing protectorates around the Arabian peninsula primarily to secure supply — and argued the logic never really changed. The post notes he pointed out that “we would find it difficult to support our arms industry without the sales to the Gulf states.” The economic interdependence runs deeper than arms: legal services, accountancy, sovereign wealth funding the UK deficit.

Pip: The self-deception angle is what lands hardest. He describes RAF personnel actively involved in supporting Saudi forces during Yemen, while a senior army figure talked about the “rules based international order maintaining peace and prosperity.” That’s not a gap between rhetoric and reality — that’s a chasm.

Mara: The post calls it “an almost baffling lack of awareness.” And Wearing connects it explicitly to a colonial mindset — one that made it easy to view the region as backward, which in turn made it easier to look past the death penalty, the imprisonment of journalists and activists, the denial of women’s rights.

Pip: His book AngloArabia is flagged for anyone who wants the full argument in print.

Mara: The second session — the Israeli-Palestinian debate — and drew such a crowd it had to be repeated the following day in a larger hall. A British-Israeli software engineer and a British-Palestinian paediatrician spoke together, and the post deliberately doesn’t attribute individual points to individual speakers. The point being that some of the positions would surprise you about who held them.

Pip: One of those positions: “the conflict was about land — religion was very much a secondary factor.” Another: “armed resistance has made life more difficult for those it seeks to support.” Neither of those is a fringe view from outside — they came from inside the room, from people with direct stakes.

Mara: The post closes on a note that connects back to Wearing’s argument: outside interference — the Gulf dynamics, the arms flows — is “a factor in the perpetuation of violence.” The two sessions sat together, and they did.

Pip: And if the governing class won’t have the conversation, apparently a humanist festival in Bournemouth will.

Mara: The same logic — who gets heard, who gets excluded — runs straight into the questions the group is raising closer to home.

Pip: Two festival sessions, one through-line: the distance between what governments say they stand for and what the money actually does.

Mara: And the argument that ordinary voters are largely excluded from that gap. Worth watching what the group surfaces next.

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An Israeli and a Palestinian debate


Debate between the two at the Festival of Humanism over the weekend

June 2026

So popular was this debate that many couldn’t get in so it was repeated the following day in a bigger hall. The two speakers were Yaniv Aknin who is a British-Israeli software engineer currently working in London. He was born and raised in Israel but left in 2013. Jasr Kawkby is a British-Palestinian paediatrician currently working in East London. He was raised as a Muslim in Palestine.

It would be usual in a write-up of this kind to discuss what A said then to discuss B, making clear thereby who said what. We will not do this in this instance and just discuss what was said by both. These are some of the points made:

  • It was pure chance where you were born and whether you were Moslem, Christian or Jew.
  • Language was important. To call what happened a ‘war of independence’ was quite wrong. It was a colonial war. To live in a land where the ‘natives’ were expelled and prevented from returning was morally wrong.
  • Armed resistance has made life more difficult for those it seeks to support. It has alienated foreign support.
  • Suffering has been inflicted on those with no responsibility for the plight of Jews [in history].
  • Israel must stop its barbaric actions [for example] denying food aid in Gaza and must respect the rights of Palestinian prisoners in Jewish gaols.
  • [In answer to a question] the conflict was about land: religion was very much a secondary factor. It was however a complicating factor.
  • Zionism was a wrong ideology.
  • Most destruction of human life was by Israeli forces [meaning the IDF from other comments he made].
  • Pressure should be applied to Israel until it complies with human rights. We must recognise the oppression of Palestinians.
  • The lack of unconditional support from the West seen as a betrayal or anti-Semitism.
  • Religion was a catalyst for violence: how can we spread non-religious ideas? [This was a Humanist conference].
  • We should not be selling arms to Israel.

You might believe some of the answers are obviously from one ‘side’ or the other. You may well be wrong. There were in fact some surprises. This is to illustrate that there are those from the region – whether Jew or Moslem – who see both sides and recognise some of the wrongs that are committed. Because so much air time is given to extremists, we can be led to believe that they are representative of the population as a whole. It demonstrates that perhaps there is some chance in the future for some kind of reconciliation. The interference by outside forces – discussed in our last post in relation to the Gulf – is a factor in the perpetuation of violence.

Images: Yaniv (top); Jasr (lower)

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Refugee event this Saturday


The group will be in the Market Square on Saturday as part of Refugee Week

June 2026

Immigration, refugees and asylum seekers are top of the political agenda and generate huge anger in many communities. Some is understandable with a firm called Serco buying up properties and converting them into HMOs* filling them with among others, immigrants.

The debate around this topic has fuelled more heat than light. As we have noted in our reports, the general impression is of an ever rising trend of immigration, mostly by boat, and all of them being housed in ‘luxury’ hotels. They are taking our jobs and are responsible for a great deal of crime it is claimed. Some politicians and their parties have responded to these ideas, with great success. A key element of the forthcoming Makerfield by-election will be the immigration issue.

QUIZ

So how true is all this stuff? How sure are you of your knowledge around this issue? You can find out on Saturday 20th starting at 9 am and finishing at noon in the Cheesemarket (outside HSBC). There we will be hosting a quiz.

This is important in the sense that massive amounts of misinformation and false beliefs are determining policy. The value that immigrants bring to the economy is largely overlooked. The reaction to the Channel crossings verges on the hysterical. There is not denying there are problems to do with immigration but the scale of them is much exaggerated. So come and find out!

*house in multiple occupation

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