It almost doesn’t seem possible that a group of people in Salisbury have turned out each Saturday for 150 weeks to stand, sometimes in the cold and rain, to support the principle of peace and justice in the Middle East. Yesterday (17th) there were 40 of us and it should be emphasised that although there are stalwart members who come more of less every week, there are others who come a few times and there are passers-by who join in a well. Not seen at any of the 150 vigils over three years is the local MP Mr John Glen. He is a supporter of Conservative Friends of Israel.
Israel continues to dominate the news last week. First the film NAZA which has achieved considerable international recognition and success being viewed by millions around the world. It has generated a fierce response from Israel and the IDF who accuse the soldiers who were interviewed as ‘smearing’ Israel and ‘causing harm to Israel’s diplomatic and security interests’. They both deny its integrity yet say it is a threat.
Sally Rooney the Irish novelist, has had to remove all her books from sale in the UK because she risks falling foul of the terrorist laws because of her support for Palestine Action. Any royalties from those sales risk being classed as ‘proceeds of terrorism’ and she risks a prison sentence. This is a direct attack on free speech and comment. Curiously, various organisations which promote violent action are not proscribed by the government such is their obsession with supporting Israel and the arms deals. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, thought to be behind some recent incidents such as Fairford for example, is not proscribed.
The third event of last week was the attack by settlers on a group of diplomats from France, Belgium and Poland visiting the West Bank. They had also attacked Palestinians trying to harvest their olives beating one man badly. They also attacked a Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine.
Our film Because … was published last week and we are pleased to report a good level of interest so far.
Main photo: Salisbury Amnesty, other photos courtesy of Peter Gloyns
Today, 17th October, is the 150th vigil in Salisbury. If you are able to come that would be wonderful. You may wonder why you haven’t heard of this and we are disappointed to report that the Salisbury Journal declined to publish the press notice. We cannot know why. 5 o’clock outside the Library for half and hour.
The film NAZA was shown in cinemas around the country yesterday and following the showing there was an interview with the makers and others involved. NAZA is the word used by the IDF to assess collateral deaths in pursuit of one Hamas operative. It is short for Nezek agavi in Hebrew meaning collateral damage. The film – a documentary – is unusual in many respects. It is shot almost completely at night in Tel Aviv on the roof of an apartment block. There are 24 interviews with IDF personnel of various ranks whose identities are concealed. There were no interviews with journalists or politicians, simply the IDF people. The interviews were not interspersed with Gaza footage which came at the end showing the distress of one man in particular whose wife and children were buried after a strike. They were interspersed with views of Israelis living ordinary lives in the flats opposite, a kind of counterpoint to the narratives we were listening to.
The interviewees explained the reasoning behind the word and what it means in practice. The Israelis have almost complete control of the mobile phone network and are able to track and listen in to conversations of Hamas people and others in the strip. Having identified a target the question then is how to kill them, where they are now or wait until they are home. At home, the problem then becomes the level of collateral deaths of family members, including children, and everyone else living in the block. Estimates are made and the NAZA might in fact be around 200 or more. The block is then bombed killing everyone living in it.
It is clear that the level of civilian, non combatant deaths is known before a strike. We are not therefore talking about a one-off incidence of accidental mishap which will happen in any war, but a deliberate policy where the likely level of killing is known beforehand.
Various bodies, including the UN, Amnesty International, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights – the latter two of which are Israeli based – have said Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The film won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival and there was a 25 minute standing ovation. It was produced by the Guardian.
‘Human shield’ and other claims
It is also clear that frequent claims by Netanyahu and others that every effort is made to limit civilian casualties is utterly untrue. Further, the claims that Hamas ‘use human shields’ is untrue. We saw clips of both statements being made by Netanyahu. These claims are clearly and unequivocally refuted by the testimonies made in the documentary. They have however been endlessly repeated in British media outlets such that it has left a lasting impression of heartless and ruthless Hamas terrorists lining up Palestinians for slaughter. The death toll of 73,000 is therefore the fault of Hamas.
NAZA became a kind of euphemism: they [IDF soldiers] would say ‘NAZA 200’ as a means of saying two hundred would be killed to kill one Hamas person. A chilling detail was the ability of the Israelis to listen to mobile phone conversations and if they picked up a child saying ‘Daddy’s home’ (or similar) it would be a trigger for a strike.
The soldiers
The soldiers had obviously become troubled by the wanton killing and being participants in what were clearly war crimes. They joined up after the terrible events of October 7th but became disillusioned. This led to them taking the risk of speaking to the film makers. They were troubled at the scale of killing and how depersonalised and dehumanising it was. Buttons were pressed and an entire block of flats, full of people, would be flattened by a massive bomb.
Considerable efforts were made to check the narratives and the soldier’s accounts. Around another hundred sources were spoken to in an effort to check facts.
Israeli response
The response has been fierce and according to one of the producers Jonathan Glazer, ‘more venal than expected’. IDF has produced a ten page rebuttal basically denying every aspect of the film.
They have also produced their own film which mimics the actual one [we were unable to locate this on YouTube. We may add it in a later amendment]. They have called for the two film makers to have their Israeli citizenship annulled. Their parents have faced death threats in Israel.
While claiming the film is, to quote the Times of Israel ‘Distorted, misleading and disingenuous‘, the government has accused them of exposing state secrets. They report a major effort is underway to locate the speakers.
Comments
This is a powerful documentary exposing the mechanism of Israel’s military activities in Gaza. There is no doubt that war crimes have been committed on a massive scale. No attempt was made by the documentary makers to draw wider conclusions beyond the testimony of the 24 interviewees, which gives it its power.
The film is, and will be, shown around the world and this will be of concern to the Israeli government. The usual and knee-jerk attack line of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel is harder to demonstrate when everyone interviewed and the film makers themselves are all Jewish.
It throws a spotlight on the support offered by the US and the UK governments to Israel. Both have been willing participants in their support – overt and covert – to them in effect becoming participants in a killing machine. We continue to supply arms and to allow the Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems to operate in the UK. It also throws a spotlight on the 150 or so members of parliament who are members of one of the Friends of Israel groups the most heavily funded lobby group in Westminster. Are they happy with their continuing support? The Salisbury MP Mr John Glen is a ‘proud member’ of the Conservative version of this organisation. All are shamed.
It is to be hoped it will have a lasting impact certainly in the West.
The 149th vigil held on Saturday. Big row about the Green party motion on Zionism
October 2026
A tense week on the Israel front with a major row erupting at the Green party conference arising from a motion to defining Zionism as “a political ideology which called for the creation – and, now it exists, the continuity – of an ethnonationalist Jewish State in historic Palestine to the exclusion and/or domination of the non-Jewish population.” It has put the party leader Zac Polanski in a difficult position partly because he was absent for the vote itself.
The death toll continues in Gaza with 74,243 deaths and 1,460 killed since the ‘cease fire’. There are 175,243 wounded many of whom are children who have suffered severe physical injuries and who have lost family members. Some have experienced mental trauma which will last a lifetime. It is ironic listening to the earnest debates and interviews about the Green party motion, to note that there is no equivalent earnest debate about this death toll. It has just become so much background noise.
We held our 149th vigil on Saturday with around 25 present. Next Saturday 17th, will be the 150th such vigil. We had no notion they would continue this long. The local MP, Mr John Glen has never appeared at a single vigil nor mentioned their existence in his weekly column courtesy of the Salisbury Journal. He is a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel lobbying organisation.
The film NAZA is being shown in the Odeon in Salisbury on Thursday 15th. This is the award winning film made secretly in Israel at night. The resulting documentary, “NAZA,” takes a look at the technology used by Israel in Gaza to identify military targets. Anonymous sources in the film said the technology also has been used to kill Palestinian civilians. A trailer can be seen here.
Because … is now published. Next week will be the 150th vigil
October 2026
We are pleased to announce the publication of our video Because ... in which some participants of the vigils we have held every Saturday since the horrific events of October 7th and the aftermath, give their reasons for attending. This coming Saturday 17th, will be our 150th such vigil. We hope you will watch it and perhaps share it.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign have made the claim that ‘public anger over Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and Britain’s response was increasingly being expressed‘. The claim was made by Aimee Shalan who will become director in November.
She said Palestine becoming an electoral issue both domestically and nationally. She pointed to Ed Miliband’s recent statement and the change in policy towards the West Bank in particular. The West Bank appeared in the news in recent days because of the latest incident of severe violence involving over 100 militant settlers who overwhelmed security forces in an attack on the village of Jalud.
Several senior politicians, including the president Isaac Herzog, have condemned the violence but there is an element of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. Settler violence has been overtly and covertly supported by politicians and the security forces have up to now, stood by while Palestinians were attacked and their properties destroyed. It is a bit late to complain now when the scale of violence and ethnic cleansing has become so extreme.
The 147th vigil was held on Saturday with nearly 40 in attendance. There was a good response to the invitation to ‘honk for peace’. The Salisbury MP, Mr John Glen. has not appeared and there was no mention of the vigil again in his weekly column courtesy of the Salisbury Journal. He is a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel group.
Film update – Because …
Our film Because ... is progressing well and will be finished ready for the 150th vigil. Most interviews have been completed.
This milestone vigil well attended October 2026 It almost doesn’t seem possible that a group of people in Salisbury have turned out each Saturday for 150 weeks to stand, sometimes in the cold and rain, to support the principle of peace and justice in the Middle East. Yesterday (17th) there were 40 of us and…
October 2026 Today, 17th October, is the 150th vigil in Salisbury. If you are able to come that would be wonderful. You may wonder why you haven’t heard of this and we are disappointed to report that the Salisbury Journal declined to publish the press notice. We cannot know why. 5 o’clock outside the Library…
NAZA was shown in cinemas around the country October 2026 The film NAZA was shown in cinemas around the country yesterday and following the showing there was an interview with the makers and others involved. NAZA is the word used by the IDF to assess collateral deaths in pursuit of one Hamas operative. It is…
But as ever with government, words are not always matched by deeds. The Foreign Secretary’s statement and his subsequent remarks in a video expressing shock at being told medicines are being withheld from Gaza has drawn a series of rebukes and threats from a variety of sources.
In parliament he said that the proposal to build settlement E1 as it’s known “crosses a red line and cuts through the heart of the West Bank and risks making a Palestinian state unviable”. This is indeed the stated intention of some Israeli politicians. During the debate some MPs referred to ‘settler terrorism’.
His additional remarks made in a video have inflamed the situation further. “Frankly, it was horrific, what is unfolding,” Mr Miliband said. “The stories that people were telling me of medicines being blocked [and] children dying while waiting for vital life-saving treatment.” The Israelis have denied that there are any restrictions despite considerable evidence they have from charities like Physicians for Human Rights and Global Human Rights Clinic as well as a host of other NGOs and charities.
The US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has accused the Labour government of ‘Jew hate’ and that “they know no boundaries and and know no facts”. Strong stuff. A difficult claim to make as the Foreign Secretary is Jewish. The Times of Israel called his remarks ‘political positioning’ among other criticisms.
These are the familiar responses to any kind of criticism of Israel despite the mass of evidence of violence in the West Bank and Gaza.
Vigil
The 144th vigil took place yesterday (5th September) with around 25 in attendance. Filming has started of our video ‘Because …’ where we ask some participants why are they here. We will be continuing over the next few weeks running up to our 150th vigil.
The local MP, Mr John Glen has still not put in an appearance. We learned that one participant has written over 40 times to him yet has never received a reply. Mr Glen is a member the Conservative Friends of Israel lobby organisation. He has never mentioned the vigils in his weekly column courtesy of the Salisbury Journal. An MP is elected to represent all his or her constituents not just those who agree with them.
Double standards?
An enormous fuss was made last week over a Channel 4 film showing Reform party aids soliciting foreign donations which are illegal under electoral law. The undercover filming appeared to show the two of them seeking to conceal the source of foreign donations to make them appear as though they were from the UK. Two have been relieved of their posts. Yet there is no equivalent fuss of the huge amount of money the Israeli government has poured into its lobbying and the effect it has had on the attitudes of MPs towards the conflict. Background to James Orr can be seen here.
Around £1.5 million has been spent by the Israeli government on its parliamentary lobbying and it is thought that 180 MPs are members of the various party’s friends groups. This raises the obvious question ‘who are they representing?’ How can a member of parliament be such a friend and claim to be an impartial judge of both British interests and what is right in the Middle East and for Israel? Where do their loyalties lie?
Picture: courtesy of Peter Gloyns.
The next vigil is on 12th September at 5pm.
Sources: Times of Israel, Independent, MSN, Ha’aretz.
95th vigil well attended. Nearly 66,000 dead in Gaza
Video added 28th.
Over 45 came to the 95th vigil and a number of passers-by stopped to ask what it was about or take photos. It has been a momentous week with speeches in the UN General Assembly. Mahmoud Abbas was not allowed to attend in person because the US would not give him a visa. President Trump berated the UN in all manner of ways. Perhaps the most surprising event was the almost complete walk out by delegates when Benjamin Netanyahu arrived to speak. The UK and the US did not leave.
Netanyahu condemned the recent decision by Britain and others to recognise a Palestinian state as ‘sheer madness, it’s insane and we won’t do it’ adding that recognition by several other countries is “disgraceful. The speech was transmitted to residents of Gaza through massive loudspeakers.
An Istanbul news outlet reports that at least 65,926 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip since October 2023, the Health Ministry said on Saturday. A ministry statement said that 77 bodies were brought to hospitals in the last 24 hours, while 265 people were injured, taking the number of injuries to 167,783 in the Israeli onslaught. “Many victims are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.
The BBC has reported that the Allenby Bridge between the West Bank and Jordan has been closed with no reason given. It is the only crossing which leaves Palestinians stranded.
Journalists bannedfrom Gaza.
Israel does not want the world to report on the events in Gaza and has banned international journalists from going there. Only Palestinian journalists can report and more of them have been killed or murdered there than in any other conflict. Three news organisations [BBC, Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France Presse] have produced a short video, narrated by David Dimbleby, arguing for access by the world’s press. Israel is wont to claim that footage and reporting of their activities and claims of genocide and starvation are ‘Hamas lies’ and similar remarks. Allowing journalists to report would allow the world to see for themselves.This 2 minute video is recommended.
No sign of the local MP, Mr John Glen nor any mention in his weekly column in the Salisbury Journal of the previous 94 vigils held in his constituency. He is reported to be a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel group, thought to be the largest lobby group in Parliament.
Another vigil, number 81 and a reminder that the exhibition starts on Monday 23rd
June 2025
Still it goes on and today was number 81 in our series of vigils with around 35 in attendance. What was encouraging was an increasing number of people who are noticing it. It is hard to tell of course but over 100 seem to stop, pause or look at the banner and to at least be aware that we were there to urge peace in this troubled part of the world. The local MP, Mr John Glen has never appeared at one of the vigils nor referred to them in his column in the local paper.
The war with Iran is taking up most of the news with less attention being paid to Gaza. The death toll is now at 55,700 and the reports of people being killed seeking food at the limited number of food stations are distressing. Claim and counter claim are made but from the footage, it seems as though the crowds are of ordinary if desperate people. To be shot seems unjustifiable. As Israel does not allow journalists in to independently assess the situation it is difficult to come to a conclusion but it does look like gratuitous killings of unarmed individuals.
The BBC featured in the news this week for finally deciding not to show the documentary film Gaza: Doctors Under Attackallegedly for not meeting its high journalistic standards. This may come as a surprise to many listeners and viewers of the BBC output which has singularly failed to challenge the language and false narratives during this war. The journalist Peter Oborne has reported on the bias of the broadcaster and this clip from Middle East Eye is an example. They cannot be blamed for not being allowed into Gaza – along with other news outlets – but in comparison with Channel 4 for example, their coverage has been woeful. Essentially it looks as though they are frightened of the anti-Semitism gibe and of following propaganda put out by Hamas.
Israeli representatives are not challenged properly over highly dubious statements. The endless claims that destruction of property, hospitals and other buildings are because there are Hamas control centres underneath without ever providing evidence is shameful. Looking at the massive destruction does no one in the BBC newsroom ask themselves ‘hang on, there seem to be an awful lot of control centres in Gaza’. As the IDF control well over half the territory now, why has none of the interviewers ask ‘can you give us some evidence or footage of these control centres please?’
Over 100 BBC have complained about the coverage and some have left the corporation.
