Category: Gaza

Vigils to continue


Vigils to continue. Violence intensifies on the West Bank

January 2025

In a previous post we said we hoped that tonight’ vigil (25 January) would be the last following the cease fire deal agreed. It seems we were a trifle premature. Although the deal is holding for the moment with three more hostages released today, violence in the West Bank has escalated with settlers attacking Palestinian villages and setting fire to homes and vehicles.

“No such thing as a Palestinian” Mike Huckabee

But the biggest worry is the future with the impending appointment of Mike Huckabee as the US Ambassador to Israel. President-elect Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he has nominated former Arkansas Governor, Mike Huckabee who is a strong defender of Israel who once argued that there was “no such thing as a Palestinian.”

Trump is quoted as saying: “Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years. He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!”

Gov. Huckabee has been staunchly pro-Israeli throughout his career – including on what he says is the country’s claims to the West Bank. On Wednesday he said it was “of course” possible that the US would back the Israeli government if it were to try and annex the Israeli-occupied territory. The full throated support for Israel’s claims to the West Bank and the denial of a Palestinian state or indeed a two state solution, can only mean an increase in tensions in the area. The Atlantic reports that the majority of American Jews (66%) support a two state solution. He has also gone further than most US politicians with his stance on the West Bank saying: “There is no such thing as a West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria. There’s no such thing as a settlement, they’re communities, they’re neighbourhoods, they’re cities.”

As a result, we shall be continuing with our vigil and we shall be back next Saturday 1st February at 5pm. Over 40 attended today (25 January) and we had a display of flowers thinking we had a small thing to celebrate. The increased violence in the West Bank and Huckabee’s likely appointment means continued violence is a likelihood.

Sources include: Jewish Chronicle, The Atlantic, CNN,

Amended, 26th Jan

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The penultimate Vigil?


Will tomorrows Vigil, the 60th, be our last?

January 2025

Around 40 attended this evenings Vigil in Salisbury (18th January) with the highest number of passers-by stopping to join us even if it was for a short while. Tomorrow, the peace process starts with another 6 weeks of negotiations to discuss a peace deal. Will it hold? Listening to Netanyahu’s address this evening, it does not look promising. As the Israeli human rights organisation Gisha says ‘we are hopeful but not optimistic’.

Penultimate Salisbury Vigil for peace?

There are many problems for both sides to overcome. This deal has been achieved largely through American pressure. The fundamentals of the conflict remain unresolved. The factors which research shows lead to the ending of hostilities are only partially present. One factor for example, is the exhaustion of both sides with losses of soldiers and weaponry making further advances difficult. Another factor is the public getting tired of the war with restrictions and higher prices. This does not look to be true here. Israel has lost around 900 soldiers. The Israeli public is largely supportive and the Americans are committed to supplying as much weaponry as needed. Hamas is much reduced but not eliminated.

Netanyahu said the IDF will keep control of the Philadelphi corridor with more troops. Gaza will remain contained. In his statement last evening, he said Israel can re-enter Gaza at any time. A lot will depend on aid being allowed in.

We must hope that peace will hold and the first phase is successful with hostage and prisoner swaps successfully achieved. A video of the Vigil can be viewed here. It is noteworthy that the local MP for Salisbury Mr John Glen, has never appeared at any of the 59 Vigils.

We will hold our 60th Vigil today, Saturday 25th January at 5pm as usual. If you are planning to come, please bring flowers.

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Peace in Gaza, at last


Cease fire deal signed gives hope at last

January 2025

The cease fire deal signed yesterday, ahead of a full peace deal, timed to start the day before Donald Trump’s inauguration as president, is very welcome. It has taken a long time in coming. Haaretz reports that Netanyahu was ‘bulldozed’ into the deal by the Trump team. We must sincerely hope that it lasts. Gisha in a statement says it is ‘hopeful but not optimistic‘. It is worth pondering on the destruction caused and the following are the best estimates of the deaths, injuries and other losses during the conflict:

Palestinians killed in Gaza: 46,707

Children confirmed killed in Gaza: 13,319

Palestinians reported buried under rubble in Gaza: 11,000

Palestinians injured in Gaza: 110,265

Palestinians displaced in Gaza: 1.9 million (90% of the population)

Attacks on healthcare facilities during the war: 654

Health workers killed: 1,060

Schools damaged or destroyed: 534 (95% of schools)

Children out of formal education: 660,000 (all school-age children)

Homes damaged or destroyed: 436,000 (92% of total)

People killed inside Israel on 7 October 2023: about 1,200

People abducted to Gaza from Israel on 7 October 2023: 251

Hostages still in Gaza in January 2025: 101 (37 believed dead)

These are taken from a piece in today’s Guardian newspaper (16 January) which is a full summary of the damage done to the territory.

We shall be holding a Vigil today, Saturday 18th in the Market Place near the Library starting at 5pm as usual. We will hold what we hope may be our last Vigil the following Saturday 25th.

Gisha is an Israeli human rights organisation.

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Questionable logic by David Lammy


David Lammy suggests insufficient numbers killed in Gaza to merit calling it genocide

January 2025

As part of a statement to the House of Commons on 28 October 2024, in an answer to a question about claims by some Labour MPs about the alleged policy of genocide, annihilation and extermination of Palestinians in Gaza, the Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: “These are legal terms, and they must be determined by international courts. I agree with [Nick Timothy MP] that those terms were largely used when millions of people lost their lives in crises such as Rwanda and the Holocaust of the second world war. The way that people are now using those terms undermines their seriousness [Citation: HC Deb, 28 October 2024, C556].

Genocide is not about numbers killed

Lammy is completely wrong about this. Genocide is not defined by numbers killed. Article II of the Genocide Convention makes clear it is about killing members of a group (a); causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group (b) and deliberately inflicting on to a group conditions calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part (c). Numbers killed is not mentioned. Is Lammy suggesting that if yet more are killed, some kind of threshold will be reached at which point they will deem it genocide?

The minister will be well aware of the many reports concerning actions in Gaza. Organisations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, B’Tselem, Médicins sans Frontières, the UN and various agencies of the UN, have all produced copious details about what is happening there.

David Lammy also states that the current situation began on October 7th 2023 with the Hamas raid into Israel killing over 2,000 Israelis and taking over 200 hostages. There is no dispute about the horror of this attack and that Hamas committed a war crime. But the history of this conflict did not begin on October 7th but in 1948.

The debate is about the Israeli response and the killing of large numbers of civilians, women and children and whether this level of killing is proportionate to the threat they face. The death toll is now around 46,000. Despite this evidence ‘the government is unable to conclude whether Israel’s bombing campaign and military operations in general violate International Humanitarian Law‘.

There have been many calls for the UK to end arms sales to Israel. The government has suspended 30 licences but parts for the F-35 continued to be made. It is this aircraft which is used to bomb Gaza. It has allowed many ‘open licences’ which does not identify weaponry and according to CAAT ‘leaves holes you can fly and F-35 through’ (CAAT News, Issue 271).

The government is frightened of upsetting the Americans by stopping F-35 parts being made in the UK. With Donald Trump to become the president in a few days, cancelling the contract is politically impossible for them. It also shows the power of the arms industry to call the shots as far as government policy is concerned. In the same debate Lammy claims that ‘we have one of the most robust export licensing regimes in the world’. Despite this, evidence shows that large amounts of military equipment is finding its way to Israel. His statement to the House is a nonsense.

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Vigil 58


Fifty eighth Vigil in Salisbury

January 2025

Around 30 attended the latest Vigil in the market place in Salisbury (a number of regulars were unwell). Gaza has disappeared from the news consumed as it is with the fires in California and various utterances of Elon Musk. But the violence still continues. The latest figures suggest around 46,000 are now dead the majority of whom are women and children. The Israelis say the figures are unreliable but they do not permit foreign journalists to enter Gaza. The Lancet in a fresh estimate of deaths think the figures are in the region of 55,000 to 78,000. A detailed analysis has recently been published.

We shall be present again next Saturday 18th January at 17:00 for half an hour.

A video of last evening’s Vigil thanks to Peter Gloyns for producing it.

Middleeasteye. Picture of Gaza City

Vigil

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New Year Vigil


Peace Vigil still going after a year of unceasing violence

January 2025

Another year and we held our 57th Vigil in Salisbury yesterday (4 January). A bitterly cold evening and snow threatened. Over 30 attended and we were pleased with some passers-by stopping to join us for a brief while.

The death toll is now around 46,000. It was reported that 6 infants died of cold.

Peace talks are set to resume, but they are unlikely to make much progress before President Trump takes office in a few weeks.

We are pleased to attach a video from yesterday made by Peter Gloyns;

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Médicins sans Frontières report


Another detailed report into the disaster that is Gaza. Video of Vigil

December 2024

As if we need another report into the dreadful destruction that is Gaza. Médicins sans Frontières is an organisation that provides medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from healthcare. Their teams comprise tens of thousands of health professionals, logistic and administrative staff, most of whom are hired locally. Their actions are guided by medical ethics and the principles of impartiality, independence and neutrality. [Update: 23 December]. The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights has also published a report stating their belief that Israel is engaged in genocide in Gaza].

They have published a detailed report into the humanitarian disaster that is Gaza. As with previous reports by HRW, Amnesty and the UN, it consists of many pages of details concerning the destruction taking place there. The evidence is overwhelming. Whatever Israel suffered in the appalling attack on October 7th 2023, the wholesale demolition of huge chunks of the territory go beyond a reasonable response to the attack. As far as we are aware, there has been no Israeli government response to the report.

Systematic denial of humanitarian assistance

Part of their report says that MSF has witnessed 14 months of repeated attacks on civilians, the dismantling of essential civilian infrastructure including healthcare facilities, and a systematic denial of humanitarian assistance, seemingly underpinning Israel’s campaign to unravel the very fabric of society in Gaza. Over the first 12 months of hostilities, MSF staff themselves have endured 41 attacks and violent incidents, including airstrikes, shelling and violent incursions in health facilities, direct fire on its shelters and convoys and arbitrary detention by Israeli forces.

Eight MSF colleagues and many of their family members have been killed, many more have been injured. Medical personnel and patients alike have been forced to urgently evacuate health facilities on 17 separate occasions, often literally running for their lives. MSF has only been able to restart activities in three facilities.

MSF describes Israel’s actions in Gaza as “clear signs of ethnic cleansing.” 22 December

Throughout the offensive, Israeli forces have blocked essential items such as food, water and medical supplies from entering the Strip. They have either denied, delayed or instrumentalised humanitarian assistance, allowing insignificant quantities of aid into Gaza with a complete disregard for the actual needs and the level of suffering of the population. Gaza’s last remaining oncological hospital had to shut down as it ran out of fuel on 1 November 2023. MSF teams had to carry out surgery without sufficient anaesthesia. The consequences of these impediments are made even more harmful due to the uniqueness of a war being waged on a besieged area from which nobody can escape.

The report calls for an end of unconditional support by Western nations, for border crossings to be opened and aid supplies to resume and for Unwra to be allowed to operate. It also calls for an end to arms supplies.

Vigil

We reported yesterday on the 55th Vigil held in Salisbury. As we said, it was well attended with over 40 people there. There is a moving video of the event with a reference to the MSF report. With thanks to Peter Gloyns for permission to post the video and for producing it in quick time.

Pic: Peter Gloyns

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Well attended Vigil


Over 40 attended the Vigil

December 2044

Over 40 attended the 55th Vigil this evening (21 December) in the days before Christmas. Over 45,000 are now dead in Gaza with thousands more unaccounted for. There are peace talks underway but how successful they will be remains to be seen. Without a Palestinian state being established and international pressure – including an arms embargo – on Israel to put a stop to the violence, a lasting peace looks unlikely.

This week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) published its report Extermination and Acts of Genocide claiming that Israel is deliberately depriving Palestinians in Gaza of water. This was stated quite openly by the then Defense Minister Yoav Gallant when he talked of a ‘complete seige’ including depriving the territory of water. The report is detailed and the Israeli government was invited to respond. It says:

[…] Israeli authorities and military forces have matched these statements with actions. Israeli authorities and forces cut off the water supply piped into Gaza from Israel and later restricted the supply, cut off the electricity supply from Israel to Gaza that was needed to operate water pumps, desalination plants, and sanitation infrastructure within Gaza, and blocked and restricted the fuel needed to run generators in the absence of electricity. They have also blocked United Nations agencies and humanitarian aid organizations from delivering critical water-related materials and other humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, damaged, and in some cases, deliberately destroyed water and sanitation infrastructure, including where Israeli forces were in control of the area, and prevented repairs by blocking imports of nearly all water-related material. Some Israeli strikes have killed water utility workers as they were trying to make repairs, while others have destroyed the main water-utility warehouse in Gaza which housed spare parts, equipment, and supplies critical to water production.

This report is another in the sequence which shines a light on Israel’s action in Gaza and accuses them of genocide. It includes a report by Amnesty.

Readers may recall a quite disgraceful remark by Sir Keir Starmer in an LBC interview in October last year where he supported Israel’s right to cut off water supplies. He was questioned about the use of collective punishment which is against International Humanitarian law but did not respond. Spokesmen for the Labour Party tried subsequently to defuse the comments by saying that Sir Keir only meant Israel had a right to defend itself. The fact remains he made the remarks and did not withdraw them. It is clear now from the HRW report that Israel is using water as a weapon against the population.

After the Vigil, there was a short session Voices from Bethlehem where we sang a carol. Marina Barham is the cofounder and General Director of al Harah Theater in Bethlehem. They are not having Christmas celebrations for a second year as ‘our children in Gaza, Jenin, Tulkarm, Salfit and other places are under rubble’. Since the terrible attack of October 7th, last year, killing around 1,200 Israelis and taking 254 hostages, over 45,000 have died in Gaza. 20,000 have been children and 15,000 were women. Over 2 million have been displaced, some many times. She emphasised that the violence did not start on October 7th but has been going on for 76 years. More and more land is being confiscated on the West Bank.

We shall return on Saturday 28th.

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Shameful media coverage


British media coverage of the Gaza conflict has been shameful

December 2024

A major human rights organisation publishes a detailed report on the activities of the IDF in Gaza with copious evidence that it amounts to genocide. An Israeli academic, also in an extremely detailed and well referenced report, alleges the same thing. A UN report points in the same direction. Since the events in Gaza, with 44,000 dead and many thousands missing, are of international importance, how they are reported is of great concern. Yet the coverage by our mainstream media has been exceedingly poor and the journalism of a very poor standard.

Coverage is important in terms of shaping public opinion. Since our politicians pay very close attention to how they are regarded by the media it matters for the shaping of policy and how they react to events in conflicts such as Gaza. The UK continues to supply weapons and offer aid to the Israelis precisely because they can and there is precious little media opprobrium.

How then would you expect a report produced by Amnesty International to be reported by a responsible

newspaper or broadcaster such as the BBC? You might expect that they would first of all spend a few minutes on what the report actually said commenting on its detailed nature and the evidence it has produced. You might also note that key aspects of the report were sent to the Israelis to ask for their response ahead of publication. Then you might, for the sake of balance, speak to a representative of the Israeli government or the IDF for a response. You would also expect that the report was actually reported on since the horror of events there are all too evident. So how did our media measure up to these expectations? In short – poorly.

Reporting is seriously wanting

A piece by Media Lens examines the reporting of the genocide in the British media and finds it seriously wanting. They note that in a sane world politicians such as David Lammy and Sir Keir Starmer would be under severe pressure to take a more robust line with Israel. They would call what is going on ‘genocide’ and would find calls to end arms sales all but irresistible.

They note the Daily Telegraph began with Israel’s denunciation of the report which was not in any way a detailed point-by-point rebuttal, just an accusation that Amnesty were ‘fanatics’. Sketchy details of the report appeared at the end of the piece. The Daily Mirror placed it on page 8 or 10 (according to edition). The Guardian reported it online. However, and shamefully, the Daily Mail, The Sun, The Times, and the Daily Express ignored it altogether. The BBC was also poor giving more time to the perpetrators than to the report itself. Media Lens claim that ‘the BBC’s balance and impartiality: [was] a brazen attempt to to protect Israel’s reputation from the truth during an ongoing genocide’.

They claim that the BBC’s much-vaunted impartiality has been increasingly exposed as a charade. They also claim that the BBC’s complicity in genocide and failure to give more than a passing mention of the reports on their news bulletins should be a matter of very serious concern by senior BBC managers.

Israel’s response

It has to be wondered why, in the face of such non-reporting by sizeable chunks of the British media, they should feel the need to respond at all. Media Lens quotes Mark Goldfeder of the US National Jewish Advocacy Center as saying Amnesty redefined the legal term of genocide to suit their accusation, stripping the term of its actual meaning in the process. He claims that they admit this themselves halfway through the report. It did not. The bias in our media is a regular feature of articles in Byline Times.

The failure of British media to give a proper account of the detailed reports, particularly as their own reporters are not allowed into Gaza, is shameful. It means a chunk of the British population is largely unaware of the true horror of what is happening. They are led to believe the events were a direct result of the horrific attack by Hamas on 7th October 2023 when the origins are much deeper. They are regularly told when a hospital is flattened or a refugee camp is bombed, that Hamas is using it as a ‘human shield’ with almost no evidence provided to substantiate this, even after a year. We are told by reporters that there are miles of tunnels packed with arms yet no footage has appeared to evidence that. If it was true, would not the IDF be keen to display it? They are led to believe that the actions of the IDF are a response to violence when the reality – sometimes from the mouths of Israel’s politicians – is to drive out all the Palestinians from the territory.

The British public is being seriously let down.

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Vigils: one year on


53rd Vigil held today in Salisbury

It is doubtful that anyone thought a year ago that we would still be turning up every Saturday for a Vigil. Today marks 53 weeks since the first was started and yet here we are. Despite the storm and some rain, 25 or so turned out this evening for the 53rd time. We were pleased that two passers-by spent time with us as well.

The violence shows no sign of ending. If you read the three reports featured in our recent posts – from the UN Rapporteur, Amnesty and Dr Mordechai – you will understand that it will not end. There seems to be copious evidence that Israel wants to clear the strip of Palestinians or as they term it ‘mow the lawn’. The attitude of Israelis themselves is a key factor as Dr Mordechai discusses. Similarly some Israeli leaders have made some atrocious comments.

They are secure in their support from the West and most particularly, the US. The UK is also a keen supporter and many Labour party politicians are members of Friends of Israel.

We are pleased to attach a video of the event produced in quick time by Peter Gloyns. The video contains an image showing the scale of the destruction which on its own belies the contention of targeted action by the IDF. We attach another such image (Al Jazeera).

We shall be there again next Saturday 16th starting at 5pm for half an hour. We may see you there.

Remember: what you are reading in the papers and watching on the news is only a fraction of the horror being perpetrated.

Post updated 8 December.

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