Need for vigil continues

The Salisbury vigil is needed more than ever as UK continues its support for Israel

June 2026

Imagine. If during the ‘Troubles,’ that is the campaign by the IRA in Northern Ireland and on the UK mainland, UK forces had issued a 24 hour warning to the towns and villages in the Irish Republic within 10 miles of the border, ordering them to evacuate their homes, and had then bombed them flattening a large number of buildings killing those living inside, followed by bulldozers and other equipment crossing the border to demolish entire villages. Had uprooted orchards and destroyed other agricultural assets included acres of glasshouses, and had used white phosphorous bombs to contaminate the land for a generation. Imagine the government claimed it had the right to do this because it knew or suspected that the villages were shielding IRA operatives and that the IRA were using women and children as ‘human shields’. Imagine it also bombed and destroyed medical facilities, water treatment plants and other infrastructure. Army units then seized medical and other staff, subjecting them to months of serious ill-treatment and torture denying them access to lawyers or even saying where they were held, many of whom would die in custody. Imagine if the UK had behaved that way.

The world would have erupted. The international outcry would have been enormous. The US would have made life extremely difficult for the UK and imposed financial sanctions sufficient for the country to face collapse as it did with the Suez escapade. UN resolutions would pile in. The UK would have become an international pariah. UK news media – even the BBC – would have fulminated against the atrocity being committed. Parliament would have been in uproar. It is indeed unimaginable.

Slide show

“You don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you’re looking for somebody, because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses, and they’re not all Hezbollah”. President Trump at the G7 meeting

Despite the bombings both here and in Northern Ireland and the thousands killed, peace was eventually achieved in the Good Friday Agreement and although not perfect, a degree of normality has been achieved in the Principality. We cannot of course make exact comparisons so different are the circumstances – although both conflicts have their roots in British imperialism and colonial conquest – but looking at the scale of destruction with nearly 76.000 dead in Gaza and over 4,000 dead in Lebanon, who can see an end to this? Unlike what would have happened in Ireland, the US continues to arm and finance Israel. UN resolutions are ignored. The UK happily supplies arms, support and intelligence to Israel including two warships off the coast. Many of our news media have turned a blind eye or given highly sanitised versions of the atrocities. The only problem for Israel is that it has lost the moral high ground and the sympathy it received after the October 7th massacre has evaporated.

Government’s responses are feeble and a ‘gimmick’

The government has failed to take resolute action. It claims to have stopped arms sales while continuing to issue licences to arms firms. A recent example of their limp responses is Yvette Cooper’s recent statement in the House of Commons that the government had referred the ‘Great Israeli Real Estate Event‘ to the Advertising Standards Agency, Kristyan Benedict, Amnesty International UK’s Crisis Response Manager, said:

“Referring an event that enables war crimes and crimes against humanity to the Advertising Standards Agency is a ridiculous gimmick that fails to understand the devastation Israeli settlements cause for Palestinians.

“Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The UK government has said so itself. The International Court of Justice has called on all states, including the UK, not to provide support or assistance that would help sustain Israel’s continued illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The UK’s failure to prevent this event from going ahead directly undermines its own position, the rights of Palestinians, and international law.

“Yvette Cooper was warned this event was coming and did nothing to stop it. That is not leadership – that is burying your head in the sand and hoping the problem goes away whilst illegal occupation, annexation, and apartheid continue at pace.

“If the government is serious about its opposition to settlements, it can start with a full ban on trade with Israeli settlements, ensure UK authorities properly investigate the organisers of the Great Israeli Real Estate Event, and ensure an event that enables war crimes and crimes against humanity is never allowed to take part on British soil again.”

The Jewish News denies that West Bank land is being marketed. They say the allegations are “motivated by anti-Israeli and terrorist supporters”.

NO sign of the Salisbury MP Mr John Glen at this or any of the previous 131 vigils. He is a ‘proud member’ of the Conservative Friends of Israel group which is thought to be the best funded of all the parliamentary lobby organisations and which has been able to subdue criticism of their country’s activities in parlaiment.

Our vigils will continue the next is on Saturday 27th at 5pm in the Cheese Market (by the Library).

June 21, 2026 0

125 and counting …

The vigils continue while terrible events take place in the Middle East

April 2026

Over 30 attended our 125th vigil – an activity which we started with no intention of it lasting so long. But the violence continues, homes are being systematically destroyed in southern Lebanon, much of Gaza has been destroyed and the killings and starvation continue. So there is no let up and people need to be reminded of the terrible events which are taking place in the region and the suffering which is happening. The British government tries to play a double game of saying the right things and condemning the violence, but quietly continues to offer support and weapons to Israel.

Of interest is an article in the Observer newspaper concerning Forensic Architecture which forensically analyses and documents using architectural techniques, human rights abuses around the world. It was founded by a Jewish man Eyal Weizman who has just written a book Ungrounding: The Architecture of Genocide (Fern Press, pub. available on May 7th).

He has devoted time to the genocide taking place in Gaza and his forensic methods enable a high degree of certainty to the crimes they describe. As usual with those pointing to these crimes, he has suffered de-platforming and the familiar accusations of anti-Semitism. This is especially inappropriate as not only is he a Jew but lost people ‘connected to my family’ as he put it, on October 7th massacre.

It is a long article but a particularly moving passages are:

“FA has also worked at a larger scale, mapping the pattern of expulsions driven by Israeli forces. On 13 October 2023, thousands of leaflets fell on Gaza City, telling residents to move out of what was now a “battlefield”.

“People were given 24 hours to evacuate. For some pro-Israeli commentators, this was a sign of humanity; that the IDF gave people the chance to avoid obliteration. Weizman calls the leaflets “some of the most lethal things to have fallen on Gaza”.

“They were the beginning of a pattern whereby people would be forced into hazardous journeys east and south towards the most barren parts of the [Gaza] strip, to the dunes where they would struggle to survive. Some would be attacked en route.

“Undergrounding tells how Israeli forces also attacked hospitals, schools, universities, mosques and churches. They destroyed orchards, farms, greenhouses, fishing boats, water desalination plants and wells. They polluted the land and the sea. They killed almost all the cattle, sheep, goats and poultry, blocked aid and attacked people who tried to receive it.

“According to Weizman “they engineered famine”. […]

He discusses the defence that Hamas are hiding in these facilities and therefore the destruction is justified. However, he argues that the scale of destruction show an intent that can only be called genocidal.

NGO Monitor the Jerusalem based organisation, says FA “through slick graphic presentations, [it] creates a façade of credibility to mask analyses that are consistently misleading, blatantly biased and based on unverifiable ‘evidence’,” (Israel does not allow independent journalists into Gaza).

May we draw your attention to the local CND website which has a number of posts of interest. Of particular note is the piece Murder Most Foul concerning the death of another journalist Amil Khalil and the practice of ‘double tapping’ that is after a bombing or missile attack waiting for medical staff to appear and mounting a second attack. In this case medical help was denied. The story was covered on Channel 4. At least 226 journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 7th making it the deadliest conflict in history.

72,344 have died in Gaza and over 172,000 injured, many of whom are children.

No sign of the local MP, Mr John Glen, who is a member of the well-funded Conservative Friends of Israel group and indeed, told the readers of the Salisbury Journal that he was a ‘proud member’ of the group.

Previous posts:

Photo: courtesy of Peter Gloyns

April 26, 2026 0

Farage loses vote to leave the ECHR

Reform leader loses Commons vote

November 2025

Edited, 5 November

Last week, Nigel Farage, the leader of the Reform party, lost his Commons vote to leave the ECHR. Reform, along with many Conservatives, are pushing the idea of leaving the European Convention as means to solve the immigration crisis and in particular the Channel crossings. In a vote, 154 were against and 96 for leaving.

Farage is not alone and in the Guardian link to this story, local readers will see the East Wiltshire MP Danny Kruger sat beside him. The Salisbury MP Mr John Glen (pictured) has also joined the chorus, no doubt following his leader Kemi Badenoch, who made an abrupt U-turn on the subject at their conference in September. It appeared in the ‘View from the Commons‘ piece in the Salisbury Journal (16 October). Entitled ‘Exiting ECHR not about watering down our rights‘ it seeks to justify the U-turn by Kemi Badencoch.

‘We do not need it’ ‘Mr Glen told us claiming that Common Law is all you need because ‘we are perfectly capable of upholding our rights and freedoms‘. Why then did scores of people have to go to Strasbourg to get justice? Why did the Hillsborough families have to wait years to get their justice? And the Birmingham Six were finally exonerated when judge after judge failed in their duty? And all those who spent years in prison for crimes they didn’t commit. A list of other cases where people sought justice from Strasbourg can be found here. The Post Office scandal?

The Conservatives have hated the Human Rights Act and it’s noteworthy that both Glen and Kruger ‘generally vote against laws to protect equality and human rights’ according to They Work for You. They are happy with a legal system that largely protects the rights of the powerful and the property owners but are somewhat less concerned with the rights of the powerless even assuming they could contemplate using the law at all.

Mr Farage argues that we will not have true sovereignty until we leave the Convention, a similar argument to that put forward at the time of Brexit. The threat to our sovereignty is more likely to come from the Trump administration in the US. Trade sanctions and threats to NATO are much more serious than anything coming from Europe.

The Guardian piece above was written by Daniel Trilling who came to Salisbury to speak on immigration matters.

Image: Salisbury Radio noting that Mr Glen voted to leave the ECHR.

November 3, 2025 1

Numbers swell at vigil

Higher numbers still at 90th vigil in Salisbury

August 2025

Around 55 attended this week’s vigil exceeding last weeks total. More stood and took notice and many photos were taken by passers by. The ‘Honk for Gaza’ sign attracted 32 honks. Several new faces attended which is encouraging. An excellent video of the vigil is available here courtesy of Peter Gloyns. A feature of the vigils is the range of posters and signs that people bring.

Israel is now preparing to launch an offensive to capture Gaza City. Bombing has started already causing many casualties: the total known is now 62,000. Many thousands more lie under the rubble unaccounted for. Over a 1,000 have been shot by IDF soldiers and US mercenaries at the limited food distribution sites fun by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation GHF. What is upsetting many are the scenes of starving children, especially infants below the age of 5, for whom proper food is vital. Interviews with Israeli officials are met with denial. They claim there is no famine and that there is plenty of food available. According to Haaretz, the majority of Israelis are not aware of the famine in Gaza.

The UN declared a famine in part of Gaza this week: it is unable to do so for other areas as it cannot get sufficient data. António Guterres. the UN Secretary General said it was a ‘man made disaster, a moral indictment – and a failure of humanity itself’. Image: UN