Uncertain ‘peace’ in Gaza. 103rd vigil takes place
November 2025
Cold, wet, dark and miserable was the setting for our 103rd vigil with around 25 in attendance. Gaza has dropped out of the news now that there is supposed to be a peace deal and attention has switched to the terrible events in Ukraine. Drone and rocket attacks are increasing in intensity with little sign of an end despite another of President Trump’s one-sided peace deals which has to be agreed by this Thursday.
Both Gaza and Ukraine demonstrate similar characteristics namely, Trump’s seeming admiration for tyrants and bullies. The Gaza peace process looks precarious and one report suggests 310 Palestinians have been killed in the past 6 weeks. Aid is still only entering in small quantities.
One major effect of the peace deal is a significant drop off in aid. One charity has reported a 51% fall in contributions and another used to sent $5000 per week now can only send $2000. Other charities report similar falls.
Other reports to emerge in recent weeks concern the appalling conditions Palestinians are held in. Some are in an underground prison never to see daylight for months at a time. The prison in question is Rakefet.
Israel’s intention to introduce the death penalty has been met with widespread alarm and criticism form both within and outside the country. The bill was introduced by Itama Ben-Gvir who afterwards distributed baclava pastries to celebrate. The last time Israel used the penalty – which has been on the books since the country was founded – was in 1962 for the Nazi Adolf Eichmann.
“An indelible stain on Israel” Haaretz editorial 3 November
The law as proposed, is drafted in a way to apply only to Palestinians and is another example of the
apartheid system which operates in the country. It will be administered by military courts peopled often by individuals who have little or no judicial experience.
Neither will the court have discretion since the sentence will be mandatory. It is Ben-Gvir’s claim that the penalty will be a deterrence. There is next to no evidence for this and the same arguments against the use of the penalty apply here as to the rest of the world. It is barbaric and reduces the state to the level of the perpetrators. Mistakes cannot be rectified. It is not a deterrent. One of the few notionally civilized countries which retains and uses the penalty is the US. A study there between the States with the penalty and those without found no difference in murder rates. In fact, murder rates are higher in states with the death penalty.
Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns, Erika Guevara Rosas, said:
“There is no sugarcoating this; a majority of 39 Israeli Knesset members approved in a first reading a bill that effectively mandates courts to impose the death penalty exclusively against Palestinians. While the text of the bill does not specifically single out Palestinians, the mental element required for the offence concerned signals its primary victims are going to be Palestinians and would include those who committed the punishable offences before the law is passed.
“Knesset members should be working to abolish the death penalty, not broadening its application. The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment, and an irreversible denial of the right to life. It should not be imposed in any circumstances, let alone weaponized as a blatantly discriminatory tool of state-sanctioned killing, domination and oppression. Its mandatory imposition and retroactive application would violate clear prohibitions set out under international human rights law and standards on the use of this punishment.“
Sources: Knesset, BBC, CNN, Haaretz; le Monde, Amnesty
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.
Today, 21 September, the UK government announces that it is to recognise the state of Palestine. It has joined the majority of countries around the world and joins Canada and Australia who did the same today. The decision has come after months of hesitation and was delayed until after the visit to the UK by President Trump who does not agree with it. To an extent, the government’s hand was forced. The disproportionate response to the horrific attack by Hamas on October 7th with the destruction of huge parts of Gaza, a death toll now over 65,000 many or whom are women and children and the deliberate introduction of siege conditions leading to more deaths by starvation, has left the government little option but to take action. Public opinion has also been a factor and the images of emaciated children have horrified many.
Britain’s decision is more than symbolic since the 1917 Balfour Declaration was instrumental in the creation of the state of Israel. The declaration was vague however since although it recognised that Arabs and Palestinians already lived there and said ‘nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine‘ it made no provision for protecting their claims or rights.
Some argue this is symbolic since with American support and ever increasing violence by settlers in the West Bank, the prospects of an actual state on the ground are receding. Some suggest that this means the conditions for statehood as set out in the 1933 Montevideo convention are not achievable. The Israeli government has rejected the decision saying ‘it categorically rejects the one-sided declaration of a Palestinian state by the UK and some other countries.’ It claims the decision does not promote peace. A spokesman for the British Board of Deputies interviewed on the BBC was critical of the decision and said it would cause deep dismay across the Jewish community in the UK. It says it is a reward for Hamas violence.
Implications
What are the implications? It will take some while for the implications to percolate through the claims and counter claims of the various political interests. It will enable the Palestinians to open an Embassy in the UK which will improve their status. It will enjoy diplomatic rights which will be significant. Up until recently, the Israelis have enjoyed almost uncritical support from governments but its continued violence in the West Bank and Gaza is seeing that support melt away.
It is unlikely to bring a peace deal any closer. Wars end because a kind of exhaustion sets in and the population goes weary of war-time restrictions and the loss of soldiers. This shows no sign of applying in Israel. Seemingly limitless weapons supplies from America and a huge military advantage in weapons and materiel mean any exhaustion is a long way off. IDF deaths are modest 464 [Jewish News Syndicate, 18 September]. The far right members of the Knesset such as Bezalel Smotrich see Gaza as a ‘property bonanza’ and claim the ‘demolition phase is over’.
Recognition will make it harder for the UK government to continue its support of Israel – open and covert – with RAF overflights for example, and ignore the plight of the Palestinians. It may even see some more robust reporting from the BBC whose lamentable performance has slowly begun to change.
Amnesty has said it is a ‘hollow gesture’ and without meaningful action to end the genocide, end violence in the West Bank and ending the Apartheid system against the Palestinian people. Real action needs to be taken to end arms sales and divest from companies which continue to sell arms to Israel. A report by CAAT sets out the details of arms export to Israel.
At the beginning of the month, a protest march concerning Palestine Action which was peaceful and attended by large numbers of elderly people, resulted in over 800 arrests. No police officers were reported to be injured.
On Saturday, 110,000 attended a rally in London where the police struggled to restrain the violence, where bloodthirsty, threatening and violent statements were made by Elon Musk and others and 26 police officers were injured. There were 28 arrests.
Local MP takes aim at ‘gesture politics’ concerning Palestine and Gaza
August 2025
In a previous post we analysed the Commons statements by our three local MPs, Mr John Glen, Mr Danny Kruger and Sir Desmond Swayne. We concluded that the latter was the only one who spoke up about the war in Gaza. Mr Glen is a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel so any comments or speeches critical of Israel were unlikely. Mr Kruger appeared to have accepted the claims from Israel that Hamas fighters were embedded in the various buildings they are bombing.
In a piece in this week’s Salisbury Journal, Sir Desmond Swayne (Conservative, New Forest West) writes about Palestine under a piece entitled Britain’s gesture politics are a disgrace (28 August). He refers to the government’s intention, along with France, to recognise a Palestine state. He acknowledged this was ‘gesture’ politics but accepts that sometimes such gestures are called for.
‘For years the objective of [British government policy] has been the implementation of a Palestine state base on the occupied West Bank. Throughout this time however, Israel’s actions have been designed to thwart any such prospect’ he writes. He mentions the growing policy of apartheid in the country.
The recent announcement by the Israeli government to build a further illegal settlement which will cut the West Bank in two thus making the prospect of a functioning Palestine state almost impossible. ‘The intention is clear’ he notes quoting Bezalel Smotrich, the Finance Minister, who said “they’ll keep talking about a Palestinian dream, and we’ll keep on building a Jewish reality … a reality that buries the idea of a Palestinian state, because there’s nothing to recognise.”
David Lammy ‘at a complete loss’
How are we to respond? he asks to the man-made famine in Gaza, as well as the continuing devastation of civilian life. Every time ministers come to the Commons to face the anger of what is being done in Palestine they reiterate that they are ‘very cross about it’. Ministers point to the modest actions they have taken but when MPs point out that these actions have had no impact, the Secretary of State, David Lammy refers to ‘further actions’ that they will consider. Sir Desmond reports that when he asked the SoS ‘what further actions?’ he was directed to the Oxford English Dictionary to look up the meanings of the two words. Very drole.
Sir Desmond concludes that David Lammy is no doubt appalled by what is happening but is ‘at a complete loss’. We are in thrall to the Trump administration and we know that they will not allow any effective sanctions against Israel. It is refreshing to hear a politician spell out the plain fact that Britain is largely powerless. To quote Sir Desmond “it is time to call a spade a bloody shovel”.
“So we stand and watch as Gaza burns and the West Bank is swallowed. We will be judged accordingly”. (Sir Desmond Swayne, Salisbury Journal).
88th vigil well attended. Fears of police action unfounded
August 2025
The vigils still continue in Salisbury with unflagging attendance despite the passage of time. It must be a first that a protest of this nature has carried on for such a time despite an almost complete absence of coverage by the local paper, the Salisbury Journal. It is a demonstration that many people feel outraged by the behaviour of the IDF and the use of starvation as a weapon of war. The number of those dying this way is now over a hundred and the death toll now stands at 61,000 with many thousands more buried in the rubble that is now Gaza.
Many nations – including the UK belatedly – are beginning to withdraw their support from Israel. Germany announced last week that no more arms will be sent. German commentators have called this action ‘monumental’ and one the government would have preferred not to have taken. Germany has spent decades trying to make amends for the terrible events committed by the Nazis in the Second World War. Like many other countries around the world, the disproportionate killing of civilians in Gaza and the increasing death toll from starvation is having a profound effect on public opinion.
The Knesset last week voted to take military control of the whole of Gaza in an operation due to commence in the Autumn. It is interesting looking at the values the IDF profess to have including: The IDF and our soldiers are obligated to protect human dignity. Every individual is of inherent value, regardless of their ethnicity, religion, nationality, gender or status. IDF soldiers appear to have shot 1,373 Palestinians seeking food since the 27 May. Human dignity?
There was a rare weekend meeting of the UN Security Council on 10 August to discuss Israel’s plans to occupy the whole of Gaza seen widely as a backwards step likely to lead inevitable to more death and destruction.
There seems no end to it and the only people who can end it are the Americans who are determined supporters of Netanyahu.
Palestine Action
Over the weekend there were widespread protests and many arrests of those alleged to be in support of Palestine Action, now deemed a ‘terrorist’ organisation by the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper. Over 500 were arrested. Cooper has defended her action saying people do not know the full truth about the organisation.
The human rights charity Amnesty International’s chief executive Sacha Deshmukh suggested the response to the protest was disproportionate.
He said: “We have long criticised UK terrorism law for being excessively broad and vaguely worded and a threat to freedom of expression. These arrests demonstrate that our concerns were justified.”
RAF flights
The depth of feeling about the government and its continued support for Israel is profound. People are deeply upset at seeing an entire population subjected to the brutal treatment by an extremely powerful army such as the IDF knowing that the UK is supporting them behind the scenes. The RAF continue to overfly Gaza with hundreds of sorties. Over 500 have taken place up to March this year with 215 since Keir Starmer became prime minister. The purpose of these flights is shrouded in mystery and the claim that they are to ‘help locate hostages’ is especially weak: 500+ flights and not to find one? Bit of a waste of money surely? There is no parliamentary oversight of these flights the purpose of which are obscure and troubling.
The RAF enjoys a fine reputation in the UK. Here in Salisbury – where Spitfires were manufactured in various places around the City and the airfield where they left for service is near where this is being typed – especially so. They valiantly defended the nation at the start of the war and ‘the Few’ are the stuff of legend. It is a shame therefore to see them being deployed in what appears to be shady activities in defence of the IDF.
Around 35 attend the 82nd vigil. Alarming allegations in Haaretz
June 2025
On a really hot day, around 35 attended the 82nd vigil in Salisbury for peace in Gaza. Gaza dropped out of the news briefly with the bombing of Iran but the stories of people being killed trying to get food continue. Food is being distributed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and the aid points are positioned in IDF military zones. This seems to be a reason (or justification) for soldiers to fire on the people desperate to get hold of supplies. The most alarming news to emerge yesterday was a report in Haaretz which has alleged IDF soldiers are ordered to fire on unarmed Palestinians. In an article ‘It’s a Killing Field’ one soldier said it was a total breakdown of IDF’s ethical codes.
The Israeli government has denied the report calling it a ‘blood libel’. The problem for the Israeli government by not allowing foreign journalists into Gaza and always denying reports in their interviews, means they are becoming hard to believe. Over 56 000 have now been killed in the conflict and about 550 killed at the aid points.
BBC bias alleged in report
A report in the current addition of Byline Times concerns alleged BBC bias in its reporting of the conflict. Produced by the Centre for Media Monitoring it has analysed one year of the BBC’s reporting and find that it is wanting. There are many critics of the BBC – the bulk of it unmerited – but this is a serious look at issues of language, lack of balance and how partial it has become. The worry is that many within the Corporation are similarly concerned. The BBC may take comfort in the criticism of Israeli government supporters and from the Daily Telegraph which accused them of being captured by the ‘death cult’ of Hamas. The decision to scrap the film Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone does not help their case. Like other broadcasters, they are not allowed into Gaza which does weaken criticisms from Israel: what are they trying to hide?
Another report in Byline Times, courtesy of Middle East Eye, is that the then prime minister David Cameron, threatened the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan, that the UK would defund them and withdraw from the Rome Statute if it did not drop plans to issue arrest warrants for Prime minister Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. Khan ignored the threat and went ahead with warrants for using starvation as a weapon of warfare. The story has not been denied.
Do not forger there is an exhibition at the Methodist Church of the vigil photographs.
Government’s intention to proscribe Palestine Action regrettable
June 2025
UPDATE: July 3rd. Parliament voted to ban Palestine Action yesterday. They were included in a motion with Maniacs Murder Cult and Russian Imperialist Movement, two extreme organisations. Parliament voted 385 to 26 in favour.
Yvette Cooper is a woman. She has the vote. She is also a Member of Parliament and presently the Home Secretary. That she is able to vote and become an MP is in large part because beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century, a number of campaigners fought for female suffrage. They began peacefully, writing pamphlets and holding marches and some became suffragists. It availed them
nothing. Then, at the turn of the century in 1903, frustrated by years of inaction, their campaigning became more violent involving throwing bricks, disrupting public meetings, ruining golf courses, planting bombs and going on hunger strikes. They were termed ‘suffragettes’ a word coined by the Daily Mail as a term of disparagement. After the Great War, they achieved their goal, at least partly and today women have the vote. And a woman like Yvette Cooper can become an MP.
Palestine Action entered the news this week because of their action in Brize Norton. They did not disrupt the actions of the RAF as admitted by the Department of Defence. They did not throw a bomb and no one was injured. They did seriously embarrass the RAF however by showing how feeble their security was. Yet Evette Couper has decided that it is to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation. Great has been the chorus of condemnation. A local MP, Dr. Andrew Murrison said ‘they were a national security threat‘ in a
quote in the Jewish Chronicle. Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader said ‘this is not lawful protest but politically motivated criminality‘. Lord Walney (pictured), a former adviser on political violence and extremism, went into overdrive saying it was a ‘grotesque breach of national security … we should not let these criminal activists act like the Ayatollah apparatchiks by attacking the country from within … employees at the workplace they target have been systematically terrorised by Palestine Action for too long.’
At root is the issue of Palestine and Gaza. With 56,000 now dead in Gaza with more deaths daily adding to the total, there are many who object to the continued support being provided by the UK government to Israel. This includes arms supplies, diplomatic cover and – the issue behind the raid on Brize Norton – the activities of the RAF in overflying Gaza. Details of which are scant and which a government minister has claimed it is ‘solely in pursuit of hostage rescue.’ Another issue which has emerged is that the Israeli Embassy has been pressing the government to take action against Palestine Action. Heavily redacted internal government documents released under freedom of information laws have revealed meetings between the government and Israeli embassy officials, apparently to discuss Palestine Action. Ministers have also met representatives from the Israeli arms firm Elbit Systems.
A familiar cry from politicians and some media commentators is that they are happy with peaceful protests but taking action by spraying RAF planes is not acceptable.
The Home Secretary’s response and proposal to proscribe the organisation is seen by many to be extreme. Peaceful protests are almost always ignored. Perhaps Ms Cooper should remember that she owes her exalted status to the violent actions of women a century or so ago. Left to the peaceful protests of the suffragists, she could now be an unknown and certainly not an MP.
Documentary this Friday 6th on this important topic
June 2025
PAST EVENT
The documentary, Censoring Palestine, will be shown at the United Reform Church in Fisherton Street on Friday 6th June starting at 7:00 for 7:30. It features Peter Oborne, Ken Loach, Alexei Sayle and others and will discuss issues around what we see and read about this tragic conflict and how censorship is active in the UK.
‘In war, the first casualty is truth’ attributed to the Greek philosopher Aeschylus applies in spades to the conflict in Gaza. Indeed, truth has long been a casualty in this conflict which predates the horrific attack on October 7th. The first casualty is that it did not start on October 7th but to the events of 1948 and ’49 when hundreds of thousands of Arabs and Palestinians were cleared from their villages and many were killed in the process. It also has roots in the Balfour Declaration of 1917. It is thought that between 750,000 and a million were displaced by the Jewish immigrants. Many of those, and their children, now live in Gaza. Hundreds of villages were blown up or destroyed by the Hagana.
Today, the Israeli government will not allow foreign journalists into Gaza to witness events there. The Israeli spokesman David Mercer said on Channel 4 recently (3 June) when challenged why Israel will not allow independent journalists into Gaza said ‘we are concentrating on getting our hostages out not on getting journalists in’. A weak answer since the two are unconnected. They claim that they are bombing hospitals, homes and other structures because Hamas terrorists are using them as control centres but no evidence has ever been produced. The killing of those desperate for food was because, the Israeli spokesman said on Channel 4 news last evening, IDF soldiers were ‘threatened’ by the surging crowds. The footage we saw was of crowds of people, with not a weapon in sight, hoping to get some food after weeks of the blockade. IDF soldiers are fully armed and there were tanks and quadcopters used to shoot people from the air. Quite how their soldiers were threatened Mr Mercer did not explain (he was asked). In a way the Israelis have hoist themselves by their own petard: we are asked to believe their claims but they prevent any independent verification. 54,600 have now died in Gaza.
British media have a poor record in this conflict. The BBC has been frightened of the anti-Semitic, anti Israel accusations that David Mercer hinted at with Guru Murthy last evening. Its policy of balance has severely let it down. There are some signs of toughening up however. The problem is that the West generally, and America in particular, have supported Israel in all sorts of ways: political cover; weapons; blocking UN resolutions and simply turning a blind eye. Combined with Netanyahu’s need to keep the war going to keep his coalition alive has meant the nation feels it can act with impunity. And it has to be said – they’re not wrong. Until now. The images coming out of Gaza will shock the hardest of hearts. Children sobbing over the bodies of their dead parents and desperately waving pots at food points must surely force some kind of change. Emaciated infants are distressing to behold. It does seem that the coverage is changing and the bland repetition of Israel statements is being more forcefully challenged.
Government failings
Our government has also deceived us in many ways. The Foreign Secretary, David Lammy for example claiming on a BBC programme and in parliament that he had stopped some arms sales when analysis of Israeli records shows that sales have increased. He was lucky to be interviewed by Evan Davies who failed to challenge him. The RAF is conducting hundreds of flights over Gaza the purpose of which is unclear. Yet call this fact up in a search engine and there is very little reporting of it by our media. Quite what they are up to is unclear but the lack of transparency is telling in itself.
The government is keen to use its new powers – gifted to them by the previous government – to arrest or frustrate protestors at the Israeli arms firm Elbit Systems near Bristol, who, their website claims, make the UAS [drones] which are the ‘backbone of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)‘. They denied this in court.
The tragedy of all this is that it will not solve Israel’s problems. Those children left homeless and without parents will prove to be the breeding ground for the next generation of people who will have a hatred of what Israel has done to them.
Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire 