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.
Danny Kruger is the MP for East Wiltshire (part of a county in England) and was voted in as a Conservative candidate in 2024. He switched just over a year later to become a Reform MP. He has a range of largely bizarre views and was interviewed by a Guardian journalist the results of which were published on 22nd of this month.
Our concern is not with his overall political views but on the specific remarks he made in answer to questions about Israel and Gaza which have implications for human rights. The journalist is Charlotte Edwardes. That section is as follows:
“[…] We move on to the conflict in Israel and Gaza, because he’s declared Palestine woke and I’d like to know how. He says the position of Israel is important to our politics in the UK, but also to the west in general, “because it stands for the idea of the nation and of western civilisation being something worth defending. [Israel] is fighting the battle for all of us in the Middle East”.
“Kruger does not believe Israel is committing genocide in the region: he says all the deaths in Gaza are the responsibility of Hamas. Nor does he feel Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has gone too far. “The children wouldn’t die if Hamas was not a security threat to Israel” he argues. “I can’t judge the precise tactics of particular IDF operations. I can well imagine there have been atrocities and excesses, as happens in wartime.” Is there no price too great in terms of human life for the elimination of Hamas? “Well, if that price is the elimination of Israel, then nothing is too great […].”
Normally, statements such as these would go unremarked being just one of many foolish statements made by a variety of MPs. But Kruger is advising Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform who, current polls predict are in a good position to form a government in the next election. He is thus someone who is influential and may be in a position to influence policy if Reform are successful in forming a government. A reading of the whole article – the result of three interviews – sees another journalist struggling to make sense of his remarks.
Comments
His comments are simplistic. To say ‘all the deaths in Gaza are the responsibility of Hamas’ is a gross distortion. It is accepted that Hamas is a terrorist organisation and the attack on October 7th was horrific. But Israel’s response has been wholly disproportionate making Gaza a wasteland and killing 70,000 Palestinians – many of them women and children.
He shows no sign of recognising the history of the conflict. It did not start on October 7th as so many of the Israeli cheerleaders want us to believe but its roots lie in the events following 1948/9 and the brutal expulsion and murder of at least 750,000 Arabs and Palestinians. He makes no reference to the system of apartheid operating in Israel making non-Jews second class citizens. As someone who has a DPhil degree from Oxford, it might be expected to see a greater understanding of historical causes of conflict.
It displays a degree of callousness to the suffering of the people of Gaza. To say ‘the children would not die if Hamas was not a security threat to Israel’ is crass not to say offhand. Elsewhere in the interview (and in other interviews and commentary) he makes great play of his Christian faith yet there is no sign of this in these comments.
Denial. He denies that Israel is committing genocide. He echoes the Labour government’s position on this which is no recommendation. How would you describe the deaths of 70,000, the deliberate destruction of all the hospitals, schools and water treatment plants, preventing food, water and medicines to enter the area? Perhaps there is another word Mr Kruger would like to deploy?
‘Palestine [is] woke’ means what exactly? The interviewer does not get an answer.
The use of weasel words and phrases. ‘I cannot judge the precise tactics of IDF operations …’ is trite although he admits there have been atrocities and excesses. He has been quick to condemn Hamas (does he know the ‘precise tactics’ of their operations?) but tries to excuse IDF operations with these weasel words. The use of cluster munitions, using massive 500lb bombs to blow up entire buildings with no concern for who’s inside, parking remote control vehicles packed with explosives outside apartment blocks and blowing them up ditto.
His statement that Israel ‘stands for the idea of the nation and of western civilisation being something worth defending’ and that the country is ‘fighting the battle for all of us in the Middle East’. Can this really be true? How does apartheid fit into that? How does attacking olive farmers and destroying their trees count as civilised? Gangs attacking Palestinian villages at will with the police and army standing by – is this fighting the battle for all of us? The murder of many Palestinians in Israeli prisons. Holding over a thousand Palestinians in sometimes underground cells and the use of vile torture methods – are these values Mr Kruger wants us to support?
Finally, no mention or recognition of the violence on the West Bank.
His answer to the question ‘is there no price too great … ?’ is especially damning.
What emerges is someone who has a surface view of history and seemingly no understanding of the conflict or its roots. It is a combination of naivete and surface thinking. He seems to have swallowed Israeli ‘talking points’ wholesale. It lacks balance. Perhaps the most shocking part of the interview is the shear callousness concerning the death of children in vast numbers. We could add those who have lost limbs or have starved to death. This throwaway remark seems to be widely at odds with his purported Christian beliefs. He may be in an influential position in government after the next election when these beliefs will matter.
It is astonishing to report that around 90 people attended the silent vigil in Salisbury’s market place. There have been a few occasions over the past 2 years when we have considered stopping, usually after a ceasefire or peace initiative when some might have believed that the killing was over. The recent ceasefire was no exception with a huge amount of fanfare from President Trump supported by a degree of pressure on Israel to stop. Well, it hasn’t lasted with over 100 killed on Tuesday and the creation of a semi-permanent line being established taking yet more territory from Gaza. Hamas have returned the remaining live hostages and Israel has released 250 prisoners and 1,700 ‘detainees’.
There are arguments about the remaining dead hostages with Hamas claiming that they are finding it difficult to locate them in the rubble. As Israel will not allow foreign journalists into Gaza, truth is hard to determine but it would seem probable that Hamas’s account is likely.
We put detainees in inverted commas because the hostages taken by Hamas on their violent raid on October 7th two years ago received, rightly, considerable coverage and few will be unaware of the numbers killed or taken. Media coverage has consistently used the word ‘hostage’ for those taken by Hamas. Those taken by Israel – in considerably larger numbers and who were subject to horrific treatment and torture – are referred to as ‘detainees’. British media has continued with this fiction since the conflict began.
The death toll in Gaza is nearly 69,000.
That such large numbers turn out on a Saturday evening is a testimony to the strongly held convictions about many aspects of the conflict. Whilst acknowledging the brutal nature of Hamas and the horrific attack on October 7th, the destruction of Gaza, the imposition of a food and medicine blockade and the wanton killing of women and children has profoundly shocked many. The British government’s continued support for Israel – directly and covertly – has also produced great anger.
UK arms sales reached a record level in June and the notion that the UK has ‘robust’ measures to control such sales is in tatters according to Campaign Against the Arms Trade. Exact details are impossible to determine as the licensing is vague and because of secrecy. The plain fact is that we continue to supply arms and overfly Gaza despite the appalling carnage that has taken place there.
One hundred vigils and no sign of the local MP Mr John Glen at any of them nor any mention in his weekly piece in the Salisbury Journal. Mr Glen is thought to be a member of Conservative Friends of Israel.
We held the 98th vigil yesterday (18th October) even though there is a ceasefire in place. We have debated during the last two vigils whether to carry on but the feeling is that the peace deal will not last. In the last few days and hours, 9 more have died in Gaza bringing the total to 67,967 of whom 20,179 are children. Injuries are put at 170,179 since the conflict began. There have been sporadic clashes between the IDF and Hamas the truth of which is impossible to discern. Ben-Gvir the security minister for Israel is quoted as saying to the prime minister ‘order the IDF to fully resume combat in the Gaza strip with maximum force. An air attack on Rafah took place today while this was being typed. No independent journalists have been allowed into the territory.
All the hostages have been returned but Hamas are having difficulty (they claim) in locating all of the deceased hostages under the rubble. Two more were returned today.
At present, the prospects do not look promising. Hamas has not disarmed and there was footage of executions taking place in the street. These were claimed to be members of gangs allegedly armed and funded by Israel, operating in Gaza.
Massive aid convoys have been held up on the Egyptian border.
[Below] mourner at the grave of one of the returned hostages (picture: Haaretz)
The 97th vigil in Salisbury – peace at last in the region?
October 2025
This vigil, the 97th, took place after ceasefire and hostage release deal was agreed a few days ago. The remaining hostages will be released very soon – maybe tomorrow (Sunday) – and a significant number of Palestinians will be released from Israel jails. The bombing appears to have stopped and thousands are returning to what’s left of their homes in north Gaza. The IDF has pulled back and now occupies less of Gaza than recently.
With the ceasefire underway and negotiations continuing concerning the 20 point plan initiated by the Americans, we wondered, as we said in our last post, whether to continue. A kind of answer was delivered at this vigil when well over 40 attended with a number of new faces, and 29 cars and other vehicles, sounded their horns in recognition.
Needless to say we wish the process well and hope the negotiations bear fruit. We would like nothing more than to stay home on a Saturday evening. Will it last? The first thing to note is that it was forced on both sides by the Trump administration and their shift in tone followed the bombing of Qatar where they have their major Middle Eastern base.
Peace will last if both sides see it as being in their best interests to do so. It is not clear that is the case and there are extreme positions on each side. Israel has suffered in the conflict with a rising deficit, low growth of around 1% and a large exodus of skilled people. Since the tech sector is a major part of their economy, this is of concern. Foreign direct investment is falling and the shekel is weak. It is close to becoming a pariah state as witnessed at the UN with the hall emptying when Netanyahu arrived to speak. Despite this, the resolve to destroy Hamas and prevent a Palestinian state is a powerful force.
Hamas has been seriously weakened and Iran is not at present able to offer the same level of support to the various terrorist groups in the region.
We will continue with the vigils in the hope that the ceasefire continues. At present there seems no prospect of a Palestinian state.
The Salisbury MP, Mr John Glen, has never appeared at these vigils nor mentioned them in his weekly column in the local paper. He is listed as being a member of the well funded Conservative Friends of Israel group.
With the peace deal in place, we wondered if it was necessary or appropriate to hold a vigil today 11th October. Surely, it might be argued, the fighting has stopped and the IDF has withdrawn from parts of Gaza. Might this be an end to the 2 years of hostilities and some kind of peace can now take place? Can we not be optimistic rather than hold a vigil for a cause which is now history?
Of course we can hope that this is a lasting end to the violence. With President Trump essentially twisting the Israeli government’s arms, there will be a stop to the ceaseless bombing and parking loaded people carriers next to apartment blocks and blowing them up.
But, will it last? Israel has no intention of allowing a Palestinian state. Elements in the Knesset want Gaza to be flattened and its inhabitants to be sent elsewhere. Settlers will continue with their nightly violence and killing of Arab and Palestinians living in the West Bank. Will Trump stay engaged in the coming months to ensure the two sides stay on course? Will Hamas quietly put down their guns and stop sending rockets over to Israel? Aid is to be allowed in but will that continue? And we must keep in mind that Gaza is one vast prison with no port, no boats allowed into the Mediterranean and with no airfield. All access in and out tightly controlled by Israel with queues sometimes lasting hours for no apparent reason. And Gaza is now a wasteland with water treatment plants destroyed, hospitals reduced to rubble, and agricultural land made infertile.
These are huge barriers to be overcome and overcome they might with goodwill. But is there goodwill? Or do the hatreds run too deep?
So while we welcome the ceasefire and hope that it will be sustained if only because of sustained and outside pressure, whether it will last is not at all uncertain.
We will be holding a vigil today, 11th starting at 5pm as usual.
Home Secretary will aim to increase curbs on repeated protests
October 2025
Governments throughout history have disliked protests and demonstrations. Thousands of people marching through the streets of London loudly, or even peacefully, stating their grievance or demanding a right denied to them, has long been part of our national life. Indeed, Sir Ian Gilmour in his book Riot, Risings and Revolution* describes the very many such events which took place in eighteenth-century Britain. Such was the violence that parliament was sometimes unable to sit for fear of MPs being dragged from their carriages. It is important to remind ourselves of this because the impression is sometimes created by present day politicians and some media commentators that this is some kind of new phenomenon. They are disliked because they disturb the current order. They give voice to injustice.
As we have noted before, the current home secretary, Shabana Mahmoud, is a woman as were previous home secretaries viz. Yvette Cooper, Suella Braverman, Amber Rudd, Theresa May and Priti Patel. All have the vote, all were/are MPs and are, or were, in parliament. That this is so is as a result of prolonged protest over many decades. They became violent as a (male) parliament refused to allow female enfranchisement. We could list other protests: to allow non property owners get the vote, for safety in the factories, to stop impressment and many other causes. All have the same or similar causes: people who feel that a government is more interested in satisfying or appeasing the powerful and are not listening to the powerless. Arms companies for example, have no need to spend a Saturday marching through London streets risking arrest and blistered feet, they – or their lobbyists – have direct access to ministers and senior civil servants all too happy to accommodate their wishes.
Frequency the problem
Mahmoud wants to get legislation passed to amend the Public Order Acts to clamp down on frequent protests. ‘Frequency of particular protests in particular places‘ she says ‘is in and of itself a reason for the police to be able to restrict and place conditions’. As a variety of civil rights organisations have pointed out, it is frequency which is the point. A single march or demonstration is unlikely to achieve anything much – the million or so who protested against the calamitous war in Iraq is an example.
She also claims, ludicrously, that they were ‘un-British’ and ‘dishonourable’. Clearly a minister who has only a slender grasp of British history.
There are a number of factors which seem to be at play here. The current ministerial statement came after the dreadful attack on a Synagogue in Greater Manchester. Marches were planned two days later on the Saturday in support of Palestine. There were many calls for the marches to be postponed. The organisers would not and went ahead with 488 arrested in Trafalgar Square. We can get a sense of the tensions at play in a Daily Telegraph article on 2 October Israel blames Starmer after synagogue terror attack which quoted without evidence, an Israeli source claiming the attack may have been ‘directed by Hamas’. Raphi Bloom is quoted in the Jewish Chronicle ‘that the community “will not forget the betrayal” over the UK recognising a Palestinian state, saying: “When you fail to act on constant calls to globalise the intifada, the results are that intifada came to our Manchester Jewish community with horrific consequences”.
It is clear that many people are upset and angry about the continued and wholly disproportionate killing and starvation which is taking place in Gaza. They are angry at the government continuing to allow Israel to be supplied with arms and the covert support by the RAF with their hundreds of overflights of Gaza. UK sales of arms to Israel reached a record high in June this year. They do not accept that there is a connection between the killing in Greater Manchester and Israel’s activities in Gaza and the West Bank. It can be argued that the Israeli government has perpetually conflated criticisms of its actions in Gaza and inaction in the West Bank as ‘anti-Semitic’ or ‘hatred of Israel’ and more recently as being ‘pro Hamas’.
The Home secretary’s plans to add to the legislation passed by the Conservatives is unnecessary and to quote an Amnesty director ‘ludicrous’. They may be part of a plan by government to look tough in the face of the increasing popularity of Reform and Nigel Farage. They represent a further step in increased authoritarian government and a desire to restrict protests generally.
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.
Britain finally recognises its historic responsibility
September 2025
Last week, Sir Keir Starmer finally agreed to the UK recognising the state of Palestine a decision which has angered Israel itself and the USA or at least President Trump. In all the debates, panel discussions, broadcast interviews and statements by politicians, the historic role played by Britain, when it was a world power, has barely been mentioned. It is almost a though there is a blanket of embarrassment which is placed over the events in the region similar in many ways to the silence around the atrocities of slavery and the acquisition, and subsequent attempts to retain, our Empire. All sides refer to the events of October 7th, which, terrible though they were, were just one act in a drama that goes back to the Great War.
In an article in the New Statesman: Britain has a historic responsibility to aid the establishment of a Palestinian state by William Dalrymple in the ‘Another Voice’ column (19 – 25 September) he discusses our grim historic role which has had direct and lasting effects today. Most are familiar with the Balfour Declaration of 1917 which supported the national home for Jewish people in Palestine. How the existing population was to be treated was left vague. The British then disarmed the indigenous people and arrested their leaders and sent them to prison camps in the Seychelles and Cyprus. He recounts how the infamous black and tans were brought into quell the local population.
Considerable violence was inflicted on the Palestinian people with thousands of houses destroyed and thousands interned in concentration camps enduring violent interrogation and torture. Those between the ages of seven and 16 were flogged he says. Over 30 Arabs were executed. Such was the damage done to the Palestinian leadership that when the British pulled out in 1948, they were in no position to cope with the next phase of their misery when the Jews arrived who unleashed further violence in the Nakba.
The British have a special responsibility he argues to see the establishment of a Palestinian state who have suffered as a direct result of our actions over a century ago. Yet this violent history and mistreatment, murder and displacement of hundreds of thousands seem to be of no consequence in the reporting and interviews in our media. Instead, there is a relentless focus on the massacre on October 7th almost as though it came out of the blue.
Today (25 September) the American Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee was interviewed on Channel 4 news. It was not made clear to viewers that Huckabee is a Christian Zionist and says that on religious principle that the land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people and frequently guiding Christian pilgrimages to Israel since the 1980s. Neither was it explained that he has denied the existence of a Palestinian people and supports settlement activity on the West Bank and Gaza strip. On his organised trips he avoided Bethlehem as it was mostly occupied by Palestinians. He focused all his comments on the violence committed by Hamas. He had no answer to Matt Frei’s options for the Palestinians of either displacement, genocide or apartheid living as second class citizens in Israel. He repeated the canard that bombing was targeted on terrorists and that Hamas were using human shields.
Dalrymple ends his piece: ‘We must continue to believe in freedom and justice and dignity and decency and human rights. To dream of a world where Palestinians are not burned alive in their tents or herded like cattlefrom refugee camp to refugee camp to their final slaughter. We must dream of a Palestinian state alongside Israel where Palestinians can live in safety and without fear. And we must work to make sure that our dreams of an actual Palestine will one day soon become a reality’.
Over 65,400 have died in Gaza since hostilities started.
The latest vigil attracted around 25 attendees, lower than recently but passer-by interest was encouraging. Only one person in a car blasting his horn and made a disobliging gesture. Over 65,200 are now dead as a result of IDF bombing but the recently launched ground offensive in Gaza City is likely to see a rise in that number.
Tomorrow (Sunday) may see the British government come out with its long awaited support for a Palestinian state the subject of discussion with President Trump at his recent 2 day visit to the UK last week. We may amend this post tomorrow in the light of that.
Al Jazeera report that starvation deaths are now at 440 including 147 children.
Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire 