Category: Gaza

150 Weeks of Salisbury Peace Vigils Marked by Strong Turnout


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 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.

Three women standing outdoors, holding large numbers '1', '5', and '0' to signify '150'. They are in front of a restaurant with outdoor seating.

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

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NAZA – the film


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 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.

Trailer

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Latest vigil and other things


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.

To mark this event we have produced a video called Because ... in which those who have been attending are asked the reason why they come.

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.

Sources: Guardian, AP, Islamic Republic News Agency. Photo courtesy Peter Gloyns

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Three years on …


Three years since the October 7th massacre. What have we learned?

The first casualty of war is truth is a well worn saying and in the case of the war in Gaza it can be modified to say truth has been a continuing casualty. In this post we want to discuss the things we have learned about this conflict which has inflicted such terrible harm.

The recent history stems from the dreadful massacre which occurred on October 7th three years ago. 1,200 were murdered by Hamas attackers and 251 were taken hostage. It sent shock waves around Israel and around the world. It kicked off a series of violent events including the deaths of over 74,000 Palestinians in Gaza.

A desolate urban landscape featuring crumbling buildings and rubble, with five silhouetted figures standing in the background. In the foreground, a teddy bear sits alongside scattered papers and a book.

But what has been learned or achieved from this violence?

1 The first truth is that it has not brought Israel the peace and tranquillity it has for so long sought. The Zionist quest for a homeland has left them surrounded by neighbours who are at least wary of the state or are solid in their hostility. It has chosen the path of becoming a military superpower as far as the region is concerned. Its answer to so many questions and issues is violence. Violence in the West Bank is increasing and is largely unchecked.

That they are able to pursue this path of violence has largely been down to the support, military and diplomatic, which has been given to it by Western powers in particular the US. The UK has supported them but at a lower level. Despite the wholly disproportionate violence meted out on the population of Gaza, this support has continued. It seems impervious to public protest and disquiet.

2 Which leads directly to the second point which is the distorted way news of the conflict has been treated by the British media. The BBC has come in for serious criticism from the Centre for Media Monitoring and also the journalist Peter Oborne who came to Salisbury to speak about his book Complicit. In their defence it can pointed out that independent journalists have been banned from Gaza and large numbers of journalists who are there have been murdered by IDF snipers. Despite that, the corporation has given unequal weight to its reporting. At the head of this piece we quote the number of hostages taken by Hamas. There were frequent bulletins by broadcasters about their plight, moves to secure their release, interviews with those who were released and with Israeli politicians expressing horror at their captivity.

There was almost no mention of Palestinian hostages by contrast. The BBC and other media referred to them as ‘prisoners’. There were no interviews, bulletins or commentary for them. The horrific treatment they endured in an underground prison where torture was routine, was hardly mentioned. It was almost as though there were two worlds: one where Israeli’s suffering as hostages and whose plight was regularly detailed and another where Palestinian hostages almost became invisible. Any mention of ‘genocide’ will result in an immediate rebuttal by presenters. What the purpose of RAF overflights was likewise almost never mentioned.

This, and other omissions means we cannot rely on balanced reporting from our domestic media particularly with a conflict so politically weighted as this.

3 The shortcomings of our media are exceeded by the shortcomings of the political system. Many have noted the extensive membership of the various Friends of Israel groups in Parliament with around 150 MPs signed up. It really does raise a serious question about impartiality. Harking back to the previous point, it almost always the case that political interviewees are never asked about their membership. It has proved remarkedly easy for the Israeli government to suborn our politicians.

More serious is the continuing sales of arms to Israel only belatedly and partially curtailed by David Lammy MP. (there are doubts even about that. Israel import records showed no change). Along with sales to other despotic or authoritarian regimes, it seems as though arms sales take precedence over any consideration of the death and destruction they cause. Government claims that export controls are ‘robust’ are close to insulting the intelligence of the public.

Lesson: the political class is compromised and is not acting in the best interest of the country.

4 Knowledge of the origins of the conflict are not widely known or understood. There are many who believe October 7th was the start. Many believe the firing of rockets by Hamas is a cause. Few are aware of the 1948/49 Nakba (catastrophe) in which around 700,000 or more Arabs and Palestinians died. Few are aware of the Apartheid system in Israel (denied by them). Few are aware of the Balfour agreement and how that came about. Not understanding the history and the role of the West, and in particular Britain, in creating the situation leading to the current state means we are doomed to carry perpetuating it.

The lesson here, often the fact in all wars and conflicts, is that history is important. Failing to understand the background and why we are where we are, means many are ill-informed. When they are politicians or political commentators, the results can be significant.

Overall conclusions

What are the overall conclusions? A powerful combination of a lack of historical perspective, combined with a desire to sell arms to almost all-comers, a parliament too easily suborned by a powerful and well-funded lobbying operation, and a media too frightened by the relentless claims of anti-Semitism or being anti-Israel, have led to a misinformed public and an epic disaster for the people of Gaza. 74,000 dead. More thousands lie buried in the rubble. Tens of thousands traumatise physically or mentally by the violence. This combination of cowardice and misinformation has played a key part in this disaster. It will come to haunt Israel in years to come.

There are signs of change. Ed Miliband’s statement a few weeks ago is welcome. The threatened closure of the Jerusalem consulate now to be a ‘mission’ demonstrates that criticism of violence in the West Bank is striking home. The mass walkout of the UN when Netanyahu rose to speak is a sign of Israel’s increasing pariah status. However, this change may well have come more quickly had the failings described here not taken place.

If politicians had resigned their membership of Friends of Israel, if the media including the BBC had treated both sides equally, had reported on things like apartheid, if both had not allowed themselves to bullied by claims of ‘anti-Semitism’ etc., and if there was greater recognition of an historical perspective, public attitudes might have been different.

It has been a tragedy made worse by our behaviour.

Another and depressing conclusion is the lack – in that favourite phrase deployed after a disaster or scandal – of ‘lessons learned’. There do not seem to have been any nor any move for an enquiry. We should be thankful at least for an absence of humbug.

Perhaps the biggest lesson is that any idea of a ‘new world order’ is dead. Or rather an order based on rights and the rule of law. It has been replaced by an order where might is right and notions of rights are a fond memory.

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Vigils, Violence and Votes: How Palestine Shapes Britain’s Debate


Palestine becoming ‘an election issue’ claim

September 2026

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.

Miliband spoke at the Labour conference but there is still concern about how real British actions are. It is reported that British diplomats have told the Americans the actions are merely ‘symbolic‘. It is noted that he did not accuse the Israelis of genocide.

Vigil
Two individuals holding protest signs. One sign reads 'Honk for Gaza' and the other says 'Honk for Peace.'

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.

Picture courtesy of Peter Gloyns

Sources: Middle East Eye, Guardian, Haaretz, Palestine Solidarity Campaign

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150 Weeks of Salisbury Peace Vigils Marked by Strong Turnout


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…

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150th vigil today!


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…

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NAZA – the film


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…

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Podcast Episode: From Gaza to Yemen: How UK Arms Exports Fuel Endless War


Podcast

September 2026

Pip: If you’ve ever wondered why British arms keep flowing to conflict zones despite mountains of evidence of civilian harm, welland2 has spent considerable effort mapping the answer — and it turns out “political cowardice, greed, and some perverse thinking” covers a lot of ground.

Mara: This episode follows that investigation closely — the machinery behind UK arms exports, the seven structural reasons those exports continue, and what it means for Gaza, Yemen, and British credibility on the world stage. Let’s start with how those exports get justified, and why they keep surviving scrutiny.

From Gaza to Yemen: Why UK Arms Sales Keep Flowing

Pip: The central question here is not whether harm is happening — the evidence on civilian deaths, destroyed hospitals, and ethnic cleansing is described as copious — but why successive governments, across both main parties, have worked so hard to keep the arms flowing anyway.

Mara: The post lays out the official reasoning and then dismantles it. On the pattern of civilian harm, it quotes directly: “a few incidents do not a pattern make, and the motives of those doing the killing cannot be known.”

Pip: That framing — we can’t know why they’re bombing the hospital — is doing a lot of work for a lot of arms licenses. The post calls the overall picture, plainly, lying.

Mara: Seven structural reasons are offered. Economics comes first: around 300,000 people are employed in the sector, many in marginal constituencies. But York University studies are cited showing the net economic value is nowhere near the headline figures once corporate welfare is factored in.

Pip: So the jobs argument is itself propped up by subsidies. The revolving door compounds it — 604 individuals moved from ministry or military roles into arms firms between January 2017 and June 2022, with CAAT describing it as “open office” corruption.

Mara: The post also identifies the F-35 issue as a sovereignty problem in plain sight. British-made components go into weapons used over Gaza and Lebanon, but the claim is they can’t be tracked — which the post calls an insult, given that goods are routinely tracked electronically. The real reason, it argues, is unwillingness to confront Washington.

Pip: Sovereignty reclaimed from Brussels, surrendered quietly to the Pentagon.

Mara: Fear of the antisemitism label is named as another factor — described as having percolated into media coverage, with the BBC reporting cited for double standards on language around hostages and prisoners. And roughly 150 MPs hold membership in Friends of Israel groups, raising direct questions about impartiality on arms votes.

Mara: The conclusion is direct: “It is a cover for political cowardice, greed and some perverse thinking around supporting Israel and the arms industry generally.” Yemen is named alongside Gaza — years of bombing, a massive death toll, and nothing resolved.

Pip: And the same pattern — unqualified support for Saudi strikes on civilian targets — repeated without apparent reflection.

Mara: The post ends by arguing that arming a regime conducting ethnic cleansing only postpones a reckoning, and that Britain’s role should be supporting dialogue and a viable Palestinian state — a commitment the UK has now formally made. The gap between that commitment and current arms policy is the political failure the piece is naming.

Pip: The stakes don’t get much higher than “destroys any hope born of the post-war Universal Declaration.” That’s where we land.

Mara: The through-line across all of this is the distance between stated values and actual policy — and the structural forces that keep that distance in place.

Pip: Next time, presumably, we find out whether any of those structures have shifted. The evidence so far suggests they are slow movers.

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Shocking report accuses government of ‘lying’


CAAT report describes how governments have continued supplying arms despite evidence of war crimes

September 2026

The Campaign Against the Arms Trade have just published a report called Dead Letter in which it details successive government’s determination to continue to supply arms despite mounting evidence of mass killing and war crimes. Reading the report it is difficult to believe we have governments with any semblance of integrity or humanity.

CAAT and other human rights agencies including Amnesty, have made various attempts to challenge the government but the legal process has been sadly and woefully insufficient to force them to change their ways. We have documented over several years the UK’s involvement in Yemen and more recently, Gaza and described the horrific death tolls which have taken place in both theatres.

Yemen

Up to the end of 2021, around 377,000 died in Yemen. The Saudis attacked population areas including hospitals, mosques, public gatherings, and food, water, energy and transport infra-structure. Few of these had a military objective. Despite copious evidence from a range of human rights organisations, the UN and observers on the ground the government claimed ‘it had not found evidence of International Human Rights non compliance‘. It relied solely on the evidence produced by the Saudis’ own Joint Incident Assessment Team which unsurprisingly, found nothing wrong. All other evidence was ignored.

Further, they argued that a small number of incidents did not represent a pattern despite the huge number of raids and the resulting death toll. British companies and the RAF were directly involved in the destruction.

Gaza

A similar pattern of behaviour was evident in Gaza. Here, despite the massive destruction of property in the territory, the policy of NAZA which involves bombing an entire apartment block in order to kill one suspected Hamas operative, the government steadfastly continued to supply arms to Israel. Their arguments here were specious beyond belief. Despite knowing of the destruction and killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians, they claimed they did not have sufficient information as to why the IDF and therefore could not conclude that it was a breach of IHL. This despite copious statements by senior Israeli politicians making it plain they were seeking the destruction of Palestinians.

Webinar

CAAT organised a webinar on 24th September which speakers from Mwatana and Shadow World Investigations discussed the report and its implications. An additional aspect is the ‘revolving door’ where senior military personnel, civil servants from the MoD and some politicians, take up lucrative directorships or consultancies when they retire. This thoroughly unsatisfactory and corrupt system goes a long way to explaining the almost desperate desire of governments to do almost anything to continue selling arms despite the terrible consequences of doing so.

It has had an effect on our politics in the UK. So desperate are the government that our democracy is being subverted. Protestors are arrested and the freedom of association is being curbed. Just reflect that our government is busy selling arms which cause terrible destruction and do not seem to achieve any tangible benefits for anyone at all (belligerents included) yet it is protestors who are arrested and accused of terrorism. Even the judicial process is corrupted by altering charges after sentence had been passed.

Special contempt was reserved for Sir Keir Starmer and his dreadful statement on the cutting off of food, water and power to Gaza. The Channel 4 Despatches programme aired on 24th, discusses the same issues focusing mostly on Gaza. It has obtained a mass of internal Foreign Office documentation showing that the government well knew what was happening but chose to look the other way. David Cameron comes off particularly badly.

Political process

The report is a must read and sets out in detail the extent to which our politics have been corrupted by the arms trade. The problem is that both main parties are involved so that there is no proper scrutiny. Recent events and statements by Ed Miliband are encouraging as far as they go but such are the tentacles of corruption whether real change will take place remains to be seen.

However, one is left with the question: why do our politicians twist themselves into such contortions to defend the indefensible?

Image prepared by AI

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Political Friends of Israel


Remarkable video discusses the extent of influence over political parties by Friends of Israel groups

September 2026

In many of our posts about vigils and the events taking place in the Middle East, Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, we have mentioned the role and influence of the various Friends of Israel groups in Parliament and Westminster generally. There is no inherent crime in lobbying: it is quite possible that UK citizens reading this will have lobbied their MP over a matter of concern to them. This is part of the political process and can be a way of informing an MP about an issue and the depth of feeling there is among their constituents.

We are currently in the middle of a major row concerning two massive donations of £36 million each to the Reform party which have the potential to be a game changer. What is concerning is the degree of organisation, funding and influence that some lobbyists are able to deploy. Arms firms, fossil fuel companies and as we shall see, the Israeli lobbying operation are sufficiently funded to exert considerable influence over policy. The real risk is that they can distort the democratic process to suit their agendas.

Video

YouTube Video

This remarkable video takes the viewer through the history and organisation behind the various Friends of Israel groups. It points out the differences of approach towards each party noting that the only one which seems untainted by this activity is the Greens. It shows how the lobbying is able to stay hidden and undeclared because of how the groups are structured.

A lot of the activity is not direct funding but it enables MPs to link up with other funders useful to them at election time. It is thought to be the best funded lobby group in Westminster.

They explain how new MPs arrive often having few opinions on the Middle East, are quickly invited to a trip to Israel. On return they are to be seen in debates echoing the Israeli line. It shows how although leaders come and go, the apparatus behind them remains stable. Nearly all of the Cabinet are members.

It is hard not to come away from viewing it without feeling troubled at how our governments and democracy are compromised by this well-funded and highly organised activity. There is no harm in Israel – or any state or organisation – putting their arguments to MPs and to government. But this activity goes well beyond that and clearly distorts our democracy.

The effects

It is not just of academic interest. The result is a Labour prime minister shamefully saying Israel had every right to cut off water and power to Gaza. It’s successive governments allowing arms sales to proceed despite the disproportionate destruction of Gaza. It’s the covert support by the RAF for example overflying Gaza in hundreds of missions allegedly to help in the search for hostages (completely unsuccessfully so what were they doing?). The staggering death toll of over 73,000 including around 20,000 children is a stain historians will find hard to explain. The hemming in of 2 million Palestinians into a smaller and smaller area by the yellow line. It has been a gross violation of the rights of Palestinians.

Many senior Israeli parliamentarians are open about their desire to expel all Palestinians and to destroy any idea of a separate Palestinian state. It is not some kind of hidden side effect of conflict – it is its purpose.

Despite the killing, massive destruction, wilful starvation and ethnic cleansing, only in past week has the UK government finally seen fit to take some action.

We have noted that the local MP for Salisbury, Mr John Glen, is a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel. He has never attended the 145 vigils held by some of his constituents. He has never mentioned them in his weekly column in the Salisbury Journal. He has never spoken in parliament on this issue.

As we have asked before – who are they representing? The British public or a bloodthirsty regime? It is not as though the activity is in the long term interests of Israel. A policy of violence, destruction, ignoring international humanitarian law and mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners has only one end. Members of parliament would do well to remember whom they represent.

Please view the video.

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Well attended vigil


The 145th vigil attracted over 45 people

September 2026

We were back to a strong turn out at last Saturday’s vigil (12th) which coincided with events happening in the Middle East. When we last posted, we questioned whether the British government was going to take action. It did so with a statement by the Foreign Secretary, Ed Miliband to parliament which was a significant departure from the previous weak actions by the Starmer led government.

He said that the prospects for a Palestinian state were being destroyed on the ground in particular with the plans for a massive settlement E1. He specifically called Israeli government actions as ‘ethnic cleansing’ a major departure for the government. He has arranged for settler goods to be barred from coming into the UK. Most importantly however is actions against banking system which will make it difficult for Israeli banks to fund settlements and keep their licence in London. Settler goods will be easy to circumvent – who knows where a mango or avocado comes from? – but banking restrictions are crucial.

International support

The government has also found support from a range of other countries including France and Canada. Altogether a significant shift in policy. He also disagreed with the chief Rabbi’s assertion that these additional controls will increase anti-Semitism in the UK. Sir Ephraim Mirvis often speaks as though the Jewish community in the UK are of one voice and that he speaks for them. It has been interesting to see that a number of other Rabbis and Jewish people have been interviewed or written letters saying they do not agree with his view and that there is need of concerted action against settler violence.

One Jewish person writing in the Guardian said:

“A substantial minority of British Jews like myself agree with the British government’s new use of the term ethnic cleansing to describe how armed settlers in the occupied territories evict Palestinians from their land with passive and sometimes active support from Israeli institutions. […] Tolerating settler violence is longstanding Israeli policy which I’ve seen with my own eyes [..]’.

“I saw with dismay the indulgent favour of state forces towards these most renegade settlers how regional police (settlers themselves) laugh contemptuously at villager’s complaints and when then called upon for protection, the Israeli army arrived slowly or not at all and did nothing.” (12 September)

Film

The film NAZA was screened at the Venice Film Festival last week and is a documentary about the mass slaughter which has taken place in Gaza. NAZA is the acronym for the number of civilians expected to die when an apartment block is bombed. The IDF prefers to kill suspected Hamas terrorists in their homes and that often results in a large number of civilians deaths. The producers hope to win an award.

The UK government’s actions seem to have had an effect in Israel. Reactions from the US have yet to emerge and may relate to changing public opinion and declining support for Israel.

UPDATE: Proposal to withdraw Israeli citizenship from the two film makers.

We shall be holding the next vigil on Saturday 19th at 5pm as usual and all are welcome.

Picture courtesy of Peter Gloyns.

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Is the UK government going to take action?


The signs of a more robust stance are promising

September 2026

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.

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