I Am A Palestinian!

I am a refugee!

I am a socialist!


I am not represented!


Well, I am still just about permitted to openly converse with family, neighbours, friends and colleagues, few of whom seem to wish, or are rationally able, to contest the issue. In which case, they may also currently remain unheard. Few if any of us is really being represented at present, not in any seriously democratic manner!

A few months prior to settling down to a second screening of 'Oh, Jeremy Corbyn: The Big Lie,' I sat through a heart-wrenching showing of 'Eleven Days in May.' 'The Big Lie,' I endeavoured to watch through twice, more because this very act seemed to so enrage Sir Keir Rodney Starmer, former Head of the Crown Prosecution Service, than because it unearthed anything unanticipated or new. Outrageous, undemocratic, troubling, all these things and more, none of them good, but nothing new. 'Eleven Days in May,' is far too harrowing to, yet, consider a second sitting! It documents a tiny window into just a few of the Gazan families who lost beloved children to Israel's bombing campaign of May 2021. Much of the footage is shown from the perspectives of the targeted children's surviving siblings and closest friends. Two-and-a-half years later few of us cannot even begin to contemplate where or if those families still survive. 'Eleven Days in May,' has since been violently dwarfed by the War Crimes currently unfolding inside Gaza, and, undercover upon a far smaller scale, inside the West Bank.

Home Secretary Braverman seeks to twist and to butcher history, such that it fits her narrative. Ms Braverman would have us believe that both prior to, and post, 7th May 2023 life inside the Occupied Territories and Israel existed in some sort of alternative reality, perhaps her idea of Utopia? She faces the camera and speaks as if the events of 7th May 2023 exist in some sort of hermetically sealed vacuum, with neither context nor consequence. As if her hands, and those of others, may be washed clean. A woman who has mastered the nuances of absolute hatred, her sights are currently upon the Palestinians, asylum-seekers specifically to UK shores and the homeless but it could just as easily be you or me, or Israel, should the winds change.

Another facet of UK legacy in mind, King Charles is attempting to circumvent other inconvenient facts in Kenya (Mau Mau) but
History does not work like that!
It squeaks out through the cracks, sometimes decades too late. Incontrovertibly, Denied facts remain facts!
Step away from royal protocols and draw the obvious parallels with Gaza and the West Bank, parallels whose silence currently screams through the 'politer' editorial suites of MSM.

One book that meticulously maps out the Israeli onslaught, the Genocide, upon the Palestinians, both inside and beyond the border, thus contextualising 7th May 2023, is Rashid I. Khalidi's volume, 'The Hundred Years' War on Palestine.' The Chapters detail:
* From the Balfour Declaration in 1917, when one occupying nation handed over a landmass that wasn't their's, into the control of a second occupier- the Mandate for Palestine. The land was already populated but those people mattered not to Lord Balfour.
* The 1948 Nakba. The 'Catastrophe,' when an estimated 700,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes; towns, villages, communities, mosques, whole regions displaced, erased! Written over! An Ethnic Cleansing! The refugee families to this day being denied the right to return by the occupying Israelis.
* Israel's 1967 annexation of chunks of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Eastern Jerusalem, now termed the Occupied Territories of the Gaza Strip, West Bank and the Golan Heights. International law still regards those territories as 'occupied!' The Golan Heights, then home to thousands of Palestinian families has all but been 'atomised,' via ongoing Israeli bulldozing of homes and the persecution, terrorizing and state-protected murder of locals.
* Israel's expanding 1982 war into Lebanon, supposedly to eradicate many of the formerly displaced Palestinians.
* Israeli's protracted eight-year period of intensifying bombing (1987-95), allegedly consequent to Palestinian resistance (First Intifada) to the previous forty years of annexation and persecution by the upwardly-US-enabled, surely ironically titled, Israeli Defence Force.
* Culminating with the 2000-2014 periods of rise-and-fall of bombardments, under increasingly sophisticated US supplied weaponry.
If Rashid's book was being composed in the black shadow of today's Genocide and Second Nakba it would be a far, far weightier tome. We can only speculate as to the volume of any speculated additional, updated chapter, should this ever happen!
Those years not covered in the book should be regarded as years of, perhaps more invisible, everyday Israeli violence, enacted upon the Palestinians. Everyday! Generally not internationally newsworthy! Just the every day and ongoing Israeli murder of the oppressed Palestinians. In the context of, perhaps consequent to, towering BBC-circumvented awareness, the book is now a best seller. Ms Braverman's narrative wishes to seriously amend but history is not (yet) her's to control! Her version will not be widely read.

So, barely contextualised, here's a considered timeline...

1953:
The American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has morphed many times since its origins. Even at it's outset its objectives were questionable, although the extent to which supposedly democratic governments have been undermined will have then been way beyond the wildest dreams of even its least honourable proponent. Supposedly, AIPAC's 1953 purpose was to 'influence' USA future legislation on matters relating to Israel. In 1951 the shadow and shame of WW2 was still immense- few would have objected- few could have then imagined into what it may have evolved in the intervening six decades. Prior to AIPAC striding from infancy to adulthood even Pinochet-friendly Thatcher was loathe to fall in step with Israel's expansionist ambitions.

AIPAC prefers to operate below the radar, in the shadows, and why not, it's hardly a democratic asset. AIPAC does not, officially, operate inside the UK but its fingers of influence are far reaching, beyond what any other nation, save perhaps the USA, can imagine. AIPAC necessarily dresses down so as not to attract attention. The Pinsker Centre, lovechild of AIPAC, boasts its aims as, "A think tank supporting free speech and open debate on university campuses," and under this cloak it immediately set about doing exactly the opposite. Apart from the 'McCarthyite' Jewish Chronicle and its interchangeable cousin, Jewish News- in breach of the watery IPSO Code of Practice as many as 28 times- there are increasingly 'untouchable' lobbyists now encamped in all three major political parties: Conservative Friends of Israel, Labour Friends of Israel, Jewish Labour Movement, Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel. The AIPAC acronym has barely registered within the UK's MSM, and yet- think more widely of the USA- it's darkening shadow has never yet permitted the light of justice to shine down upon the residents of Palestine. Even in the midst of a televised Genocide Labour's front bench may not progress beyond "Israel has a right to defend itself!"

A gradual yet relentless deflation of the (self-proclaimedly impartial) BBC, more so under thirteen unbroken years of increasingly dictatorial Conservative Government. The demise is impossible to pinpoint precisely, so, under the same shadow...
March 2015:
The Guardian replaces Editor Alan Rusbridger with Katherine Viner, whereupon investigative journalism is sacrificed to 'choice' opinion columns, more tabloid styled, more tightly edited. The feedback 'comment' of readers falls under a new and more partisan censorship. Many of the paper's better journalists drift away, or are otherwise pushed out. Thus, the 'paper' is perfectly positioned to take up arms with the coming anti-Semitism smears. In recent weeks long-standing and highly-respected cartoonist Steve Bell is the latest to fall foul of Viner's editorial 'slant.'


August 2015:
Accusations of raging anti-Semitism in the British Labour Party, are sparked in Lee Harpin's Jewish Chronicle, after the Labour Party's unexpectedly positive showing in the General Election. Not known at the time, certain Labour MPs and staffers tirelessly work to undermine their own party's chances. MSM devote the next four years to bringing down the then Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn. Since when several thorough investigations into the anti-Semitism claims have been undertaken, subsequently and to different degrees suppressed, sometimes by the very same person (Sir Keir) that instigated the investigation: Shami Chakrabarti Inquiry into Racism, Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism (2016), Forde Report (2020), The Lobby, TV series (2017). Sir Keir's Labour is tight-lipped about the growing evidence, which continues to leak through the cover-ups- example Ben Westerman recorded in John Ware's Panorama, 'Labour and Anti-Semitism' (17th February 2019), misrepresenting his own assertion of anti-Semitism. Reported here in the Guardian, somewhat ironic, four years too late! The news agenda soon moves on. History!

June 2016:
Brexit happens. Key amongst the reasons cited for the UK shooting itself in the foot and voting to cut itself adrift from its closest neighbours and allies, is 'Taking Back Control!' Sovereignty and control of borders is lost to an increasingly reactionary Government. Asylum Seekers are scapegoated as figures of contempt, even hatred! A tightly edited press orchestrates attacks on asylum-seekers and refugees, many of whom may well have been made homeless via overseas use of GB sourced arms. Victims of persecution, torture and war, those who do not perish en route, are 'housed' in inhuman conditions, prisons, the Legionnaire's-infested Bibby Stockholme prison ship. Some are packed into seaside holiday resort hotels, then targeted by angry tabloid-inflamed droids. There is open talk of enabling the sinking of refugee-packed inflatables.

With its mask of 'new found' sovereignty the UK lurches yet further rightwards, more accepting of homelessness, more racist- genuine cases of anti-Semitism are up, likely in consequence of the weaponisation of the same hate-crime. The UK is more unequal, more intolerant of asylum-seekers, more intolerant of Europe, more arrogant, more isolated!

AIPAC continues to shackle huge numbers of both Republicans and Democrats in the US. America's narrative increasingly dictates that of the UK! But, we're not yet in the realms of an alternate reality... Right? Or are we? Either, 'to such an extent has the narrative been cast into the realm of the alternate reality' or else similar forces have 'relinquished that grasp upon this reality. Ponder this! Marks and Spencer have been forced to pull their 2023 Christmas Ad. Further, Marks and Spencer have released a statement: "We have removed the post following feedback and we apologise for any unintentional hurt caused." Hurt? How, where? We learn that the alarm was raised by 'several social media users.' Right. Several, was it? Upset by... The Benin flag, was it? Or maybe it was Bolivia, Bulgaria, Burundi? No perhaps, Cameroon, Comoros, surely Comoros! Unless maybe, the Republic of Congo? But wait, what about Equatorial Guinea or Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau? No, surely Guyana? Yes, Guyana! Unless perhaps, Iran, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait looks suspicious. Maybe Lithuania, Libya, Malawi? Or was it Mali, Martinique seems possible? Mauritania, Mauritius? Mozambique for sure! Except... Myanmar, Namibia, New Caledonia, Niger, Oman? Saint Kitts and Nevis? Nah! Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal? Then there's the Seychelles, no? South Africa, or was it maybe South Sudan, or maybe just Sudan? Suriname, Tajikistan, Togo, United Arab Emirates? Vanuatu looks guilty, or maybe not? Surely not neighbouring Wales? Western Sahara or Zimbabwe? Nope, it's definitely, definitely Palestine! And as many as 40 complaints? Wow! Maybe it's elemental fire itself? Christmas? The variably-watery regulator, Ofcom, says it is reviewing complaints to determine whether weightier action is required. Best first identify the flag, then, or the season. Or the 'element!' Fire can be mighty destructive! "Unintentional hurt!" but no, definitely Palestine!

Somebody's definitely controlling a narrative here! Marks and Spencer has caved and taken down Christmas, some of it. Further, they've cowed and apologised, awaiting further punishment. One wonders whether, down the line, many northern hemisphere countries will now be required to rethink their flag. Just in case! Is there any salvation to be found in the happy fact that the vast majority of southern hemisphere countries are, increasingly urgently, demanding that Israel stops bombing innocent civilians! Ceasefire now! Armistice! Even the Pinsker Centre might have their work cut out with the Celtic fans in this link. They can't all be Marks and Spencer regulars?

December 2019:
After a sustained, four-year series of attacks upon the Labour Party the General Election is lost. Twitchy, more openly dishonest, Sir Keir misrepresents himself, clear through to new Leader of the Labour Party. Like an old man tripping and stumbling through a barricade of upturned furniture, Sir Keir Rodney Starmer, breaks more pledges and promises than does Boris Johnson, as he crampons over and shuts down many of his betters. To this day, Sir Keir Rodney Starmer is prepared to lie remorselessly, shoring up leaking evidence that anti-Semitism in the Party was indeed weaponised. Starmer, himself, is on film saying as much. Sir Keir's documented lies are too numerous to list here, the accumulation leading several journalists to start to delve more scrupulously into the man's record at Head of the Crown Prosecution Service.

15th May 2021:
The Israeli Defence Force targets the Al-Jalaa Building, levelling the site. Inside are news outlets, Al Jazeera, Associated Press and other news organisations. Israel's closest ally, the US, and all other sources have never since seen evidence that Hamas ever used the site. The attack was condemned by multiple journalists; Reporters Without Borders called for a War Crimes investigation. The news agenda soon moves on. History! AIPAC?

So, it must be beyond reasonable doubt- barely touched upon in the UK- that the IDF are not, in fact, after Hamas. A year before the Guardian replaced Rusbridger with Viner, back in July 2014, the paper sacked journalist, Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, when he reported upon ongoing Israeli colonisation of Palestinian resources. The same, shutting-down agenda may be seen in current government attempts at shackling BDS.

11th May 2022:
Israeli Government and the IDF increasingly push their agenda onto UK media. Frequently, the BBC does not bother to question the honesty of Israeli or IDF spokespeople. An increasingly impotent United Nations and International Criminal Court are sidelined by Israel, often via the puppeteering US, perhaps again AIPAC? In such a climate the IDF guns down fully-jacketed journalist, Shireen Abu Ahkla, one amongst a growing line of murdered colleagues. The news agenda soon moves on. More History!

In a brief window when international Media display (limited) outrage, it is made possible to (mis)believe two things: that the killing is committed by a non IDF individual, also that killing of journalists inside the Occupied Territories is an isolated occurrence. Dutifully, MSM quickly move on. By the time that it is admitted by the IDF, that the killing is perpetrated by an IDF sniper news media is already busily diluting the news with other, newer 'newsworthy' events. Still the incident is presented as 'an isolated' incident. In reality the targeting of journalists inside the Occupied Territories happens too frequently to be anything other than strategic. On 2nd May 2001 Welsh Cameraman James Miller is gunned down whilst filming inside Gaza. The IDF defaults to misinformation. A UK court finds that Miller had been murdered but, after a closed Israeli 'investigation,' killer, First Lieutenant Hib al-Heib, is promoted to Captain. Many foreign journalists have succumbed to current Israel strikes, several known to have been operating at sites away from immediate conflict. The true numbers of brave and real journalists lost to their vocation inside Gaza may now only be possible to estimate in the eventual aftermath.

Jodie Ginsberg, President of the Committee to Protect Journalists, has said that their organisation is, post 7th May 2023, struggling beyond anything it has before encountered. The situation for journalists reporting inside Gaza is more perilous than during any other conflict. In 30 years of documentation the organisation has found none to be so dangerous as Gaza 2023! The IDF want to control (corrupt) the narrative and so have targeted and murdered at least 36 journalists in 4 weeks. Under the rubble the facts will likely prove to be even worse! CNN, who have broadcast the above, linked 'snippet,' have only been permitted certain protections, from this period onwards, because they have 'agreed' to run all future footage under the forensic microscope of the IDF. This Narrative is lost! The news moves on. More history!

26th September 2022:
The undersea Nord Stream Pipeline is sabotaged. Russia's means of supplying gas to Europe is severed. Immediately, the US cites Russia who, obvious to the Rest of the World, are the nation least likely to have done so. Almost immediately, various trusted sources find themselves favouring a US or US-sourced attack. The US steps in to corner the gap in the overseas gas market. The news agenda soon moves on. More History!

In June 2023 Israel grant approval for the development of Gaza Marine, an oil strip off the Gazan coast thought to contain an estimated trillion tonnes of natural gas. Israel will reap the benefits of the occupying power!

May 2023:
The nation knows what happened on 7th May 2023, every broadcast moment of doubt cast upon the Israeli orchestrated Genocide of Gaza is drowned beneath echoed condemnation of the act, although the 'act' is almost never contextualised. Often the echoed condemnation of the act of 7th May 2023 subsumes questioning of the ongoing Genocide. The act of 7th May 2023 slots into the narrative, shortly after used by MSM as the filter, deployed such that each and every condemnation of Israeli Collective Punishment becomes diluted, of somehow lesser weight. 'Israel has the right to defend itself!' we are fed, yet 'Palestine does not!' we are led to deduce. Such butchering of news reporting is not possible without AIPAC (1953) and the multiple Israeli lobbyists and groups interwoven into our MSM and Parliament.

There are surely only so many times that "Israel has a right to defend itself!" may be echoed before the sheer weight of Genocide, War Crimes, Collective Punishment, Targeting of Civilians, Forced Transfer, will bury the act of 7th May 2023? History will judge the moment, whether it be long since past or current. PM Sunak, Home Secretary Braverman, Foreign Secretary Cleverly, Sir Keir Starmer MP, Shadow Foreign Secretary Lammy, et al, can only echo the deflection so many times before the sonic-screen wears thin, people again able to detect the denied truths. For the sake of all Palestinians we must pray that the weight of culpability bears weight now! Before yet more Innocent Lives are Consumed Beneath a MSM Enabled Rage and Hatred!

From the Red Cross Site: Rights of International Law (Occupied and International Humanitarian Law) states that:
* The occupant does not acquire sovereignty over the territory.
* To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the occupying power must ensure sufficient hygiene and public health standards, as well as the provision of food and medical care to the population under occupation.
* Collective or individual forcible transfers of population from and within the occupied territory are prohibited.
* Collective punishment is prohibited.
* Reprisals against protected persons or their property are prohibited.
* Private property cannot be confiscated by the occupier.
* The Occupying State (Israel) bears these obligations.
* The Occupied People (Palestinians) have the international rights to resist occupation.

International law may have been ridden over, yet it is still there. Historians, academics of more honourable intent, will still record the events. At some indeterminate period in the planet's uncertain future, another like an Israeli equivalent to King Charles may be required to deliver the message of consolation, the Israeli 'Contrition' for their Enacted Genocide! One can merely speculate as to whether the enabling colonial powers will also be taking the stand, USA, UK, Australia, Canada, several EU Nations? The news will move on! More history!

May 2023:
A Second Nakba accelerates. The cause, or the excuse, is well known. Inside Gaza and the other Occupied Territories, largely unreported , Palestinians know that The 1948 Nakba never really finished, it just slowed, simmered, lurched and chipped away! Relentlessly so! Now, the Israelis are off the leash! At least Israeli Cabinet Minister, Amihai Eliyahu, hopes so.

Israeli reprisals have been swift, draconian and disproportionate! But then, anybody who has been following Israel in the real news recognises that Israel's treatment of Palestinians has always been thus. Gaza is a smouldering graveyard. A smouldering graveyard, enabled by, amongst others, the UK. Israeli Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu's rabid hatred briefly appears to stand apart from many of his fellow warmongers but it is an illusion. It is more likely that he has been disciplined by Netanyahu for such an open 'admission' that the nation possesses nuclear weapons, than because he is so eager to deploy them. The wreckage and deaths may well have already surpassed those of the man-monster's vile dreams! Have we, in our nation's part, enabled Israel's Final Solution for the Palestinians?

Israel demands release of all hostages taken (242 BBC) by Hamas, the world concurs. MSM neglects to mention that last month over 2,000 Palestinians were imprisoned, many subjected to torture. The same MSM neglects to demand release of Palestinians being held in Israeli cells. The precise numbers are unknown but it is estimated that Israel currently holds approximately 7,000 Palestinians. It is currently impossible to calculate the number of children being held. The War Crimes are many yet the specifics may prove more poignant!

19th October 2023:
A missile, one amongst thousands, kills hundred of Palestinians at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital! Hamas cite an Israeli air strike! The IDF cite Hamas but most UN and other humanitarian workers at the site are convinced the explosion and destruction are caused by an IDF strike. US President Biden, reading from the given hymn sheet, cites, "the other team." But the world does not seriously concur. IDF spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagri, lends a face to the desired narrative. The cards he holds up are not quite high school mock-ups, the Huey and Dewey tape he dutifully translates falls further below the low bar! Rear Admiral Daniel Hagri looks relaxed, not quite smiling. But, his assumed confidence is misplaced. Israel may well possess one of the most heavily armed militias on the planet, they may well be comfortable with a monopoly upon Western MSM but they are over-confident, unrehearsed! The media regurgitates the narrative but nobody seriously believes him. Acting as they please, the IDF presents like an infant who has not even bothered to wipe the chocolate from his face. Rear Admiral Daniel Hagri knows he is lying and we know he knows he is lying. In his eyes it is possible to detect that he knows that we know that he knows he is lying.

The BBC are lost, flailing somewhere between a proscribed narrative, bolstered through both Labour and Tory ministers, far too many IDF spokespeople and comment from Editor of the Spectator on one hand, and some sort of Ghost of Christmas Truth on the other. Murdoch's Times newspaper publishes an article entitled, 'BBC Staff Crying at Work Over Israel-Gaza Coverage,' (25th October 2023.) The article opens a lid on growing unrest at the corporation's inability to properly hold Israel to account, the BBC's not so subtle acceptance of dehumanising language used by the IDF to portray and misrepresent Palestinians, it brings into question an inability to break free from the handed-down narrative. Spouting Sir Keir's particular spin, Wes Streeting,, looks to blind audiences to Genocide with 'Israel's right to defend itself.' But the message is wearing thin. Over 300 hundred high school pupils walk out of an assembly he is 'addressing' at Beal High School, Ilford. Just twenty or so remain, 'opportunity' for Labour to deploy its honed art of the tight camera angle? 400 hundred constituents later gather outside his office, demanding Labour back the Ceasefire. Another of Starmer's front-benchers resigns. Where is the BBC? The dead lie buried under the rubble of their former homes! The news moves on! History!

Award winning journalist, Jonathan Cook- another who used to occasionally write for the Guardian- offers the sort of insight so often lacking with the UK's media. He contextualises the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital strike via the language openly spoken by the army of occupation and siege- "human animals," "damage not accuracy," "[Gaza reduced] to a city of tents." Jonathan Cook has studied and knows Israeli tactics, he recalls the two smaller 'warning' strikes, delivered earlier, the 'Get Out!' order. He draws attention to the powerful 'Whoosh!' of a larger, targeted munition. He shows us that Israeli Adviser to Netanyahu, Hananya Naftali, posted/gloated about the IDF strike. He does proper journalism, citing pulled and suppressed videos with the wrong time-stamp, that the constructed tape of so-called 'surprised Hamas operatives is in the wrong dialect, that it had been manipulated. He situates the 'incident' upon the established timeline of former IDF misinformation and lies. But, the doubt is sown. The news moves on! History! Little wonder Jonathan Cook is not comfortable at the Guardian.

31st October 2023:
An IDF airstrike smashes into the Jabalia Refugee Camp in Northern Gaza! The BBC are on it with 'clarification' from IDF spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, perhaps BBC staff are again crying in the toilets. Brushing aside collateral body parts, Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus 'elaborates upon the 'vast underground tunnel complex, proof of which the world is not permitted to see, in which "multiple dozens" of Hamas fighters allegedly died. This, he tells us, "cannot be avoided." He announces the IDF is investigating claims of “collateral damage” and “non-combatant casualties.” Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus has form. so, unfortunately, does the BBC. The Hamas-run government media office speaks of 195 Palestinians killed, conceivably none of whom is deployed by Hamas. The rubble has yet to reveal the truer numbers.

The BBC ‘colludes’ with the IDF in order to ‘safely pierce’ the Israeli ring about Gaza. The corporation ‘reports’ being ‘shown’ the “miles of tunnels used by Hamas fighters.” Independent journalism is not permitted. The world is denied corroborated evidence that there were ever any tunnels beneath Jabalia Refugee Camp.

3rd November 2023:
An Israeli airstrike is targeted upon a convoy of ambulances at the Al-Shifa Hospital. Bodies, and parts thereof, scattered, Palestinians and other relief workers, paramedics, children, women! But, hey, the IDF have 'confirmed' an unspecified number of Hamas operatives are amongst the body-parts. Israeli Collective Punishment continues unabated. BBC holds the line. The news moves on! More history!

5th November 2023:
State of the art Israeli missile thuds into Al-Maghazi Refugee Camp, killing scores of Palestinian Refugees. Turkish Journalist for Anadolu, Mohammad Al-Aloul, learns that four of his five children, four brothers and their children are all killed in the strike. The bereft photographer breaks down on camera. The images of his distress are hard to watch. Yet, the incident is far from isolated, nor is it an error, nor is his family 'collateral.' Journalist homes are being specifically targeted by the IDF. The Israeli Defence Force tells Reuters and Agence France Presse it cannot guarantee the safety of their journalists in Gaza, leading the news agencies to release a joint statement describing the situation on the ground as “dire.” On 31st October Palestinian TV Correspondent, Mohammad Abu Hattab is killed along with 11 members of his family, targeted in his home in Southern Gaza, to where Israel has demanded Palestinians flee. As of 3rd November 31 Palestinian Journalists, 4 Israeli and 1 Lebanese Journalists have been killed. In so far as it is possible to determine- the entire purpose of honest journalism- 3 more are missing, 8 injured and 8 more detained, presumably for undertaking independent journalism. 5th November 2023 is just one date amongst many! BBC launch 'BBC Verify' "Transparency in action – fact-checking, verifying video, countering disinformation, analysing data and explaining complex stories in the pursuit of truth," your BBC boasts. Will it deal with the 'staff crying in toilets' issue? Will it pick through the selected weight of the verbs it deploys? Will it also search out the omitted detail that has been left in the editing suite? Will it show consumers that "we understand that their trust must be earned"? As ever, the news moves on! More history!

Frequently repeated, The First Casualty of War is Truth. Site HonestReporting claims "We embrace the principle that a healthy democracy requires a well informed citizenry.” HR's mission speaks of “truth, integrity and fairness.” But, read on, “as [journalism] impacts Israel.” Broadening stated goals, it has now stamped authority far beyond the claimed mission, naming journalists daring still to report with integrity inside ‘Israel’s kill zone,’ HR is ‘painting targets upon journalist’s backs.’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office states, “These journalists were accomplices in crimes against humanity.” “The ‘photojournalists’ who took part in recording the assault will be added to that list,” Danny Danon (Israeli Parliament) adds. HR’s HonestReporting’s Chief Executive Officer is Jacki Alexander, formerly AIPAC. Executive Director is Gil Hoffman, formerly Chief Political Correspondent, Jerusalem Post. Editorial Director is Simon Plosker, who formerly worked for the Israeli Government. Small world! Availing itself of the IDF editing service, Telegraph reporter Paul Nuki, Global Health Security Editor, appears content to condemn those still clinging to life inside the Indonesian Hospital. “Most agree that the Indonesian Hospital is empty now of patients and is simply being used by Hamas to wage war. Taking it down with an air strike to finish the fighting must surely be tempting,” Global Health man relays from the handed script. The IDF has boasted that, devoid of patients, the site becomes a legitimate target. No journalism awards for Paul then! Political and historical scholars will document the enabling of War Crimes. Genocide compounds. News moves on.

12:45pm, Saturday 11th November 2023:
In this context the number of global citizens prepared to gather, march, chant, question the coverage, swells! They are "Hate Marches!" Home secretary Braverman spits more confected hatred into the lens, just in case we'd forgotten how to recognise the rawness of the emotion. She appears increasingly unhinged! And, I was considering giving the next march a miss. Braverman seems set upon recruiting more citizens than she is intimidating. My seat is duly booked, travelling down for the next Hate March. We'll be calling for an Amnesty! a Ceasefire! Ms Braverman. I think you'll find they're one and the same thing.

Listening to the Home Secretary- reluctantly so- positively bristle under the weight, we now know what to look out for. We must be sure to keep an eye out for the hate platoons on this Saturday's march. One wonders how it was possible, twice, to completely fail to link up? Twice? Dare we venture that, just maybe, Ms Braverman is more interested in carrying on the Johnson legacy than she is in actually identifying any hatred? Looking very much in the wrong direction, Sue! There's far greater capacity for hatred in Ms Braverman and her predecessor than there is, and was, amongst the thousands with whom I marched, mingled and chanted. Ms Braverman certainly shows a fonder taste for the lie upon the tongue.

* Israel has occupied the entirety of Palestine for 56 years, really it is 75 years! The UK arms Occupying Israel to the tune of £216 million (figures for 2017). Palestine must not resist the occupation with any form of aggression, although international law actually permits this. More than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7th October 2023, although sources in Israel boast twice this. The Palestinian flag is shunned by UK parliamentarians, some pushing for its presence to be considered a hate crime. The imposition of ‘Sanctions against Israel’ could soon be considered against the law.
* Russia has occupied regions of Ukraine for 19 months. The UK arms Occupied Ukraine to the tune of £216 million (2022). Ukraine must resist the ‘tyranny’ and push Russia back beyond its borders. Up to 70,000 Ukrainians have been killed during 21 months of conflict. The Ukrainian flag is celebrated by UK parliamentarians, encouraged to be flown wherever feasible to do so. Sanctions against Occupying Russia are in place.
Consider how international sanctions against Occupying Israel would soon improve the lives of all Palestinians!

The UK has nurtured hostility to the 1951 concept of recognising and helping asylum seekers, giving a home to refugees. Is there not a tragic irony that its arms trade and constant investment in US-led international regime change has created so very many? Currently the Pakistan-Afghanistan border boasts up to 1.75 million asylum-seekers/refugees. How many more will Israel’s Collective Punishment and Genocide upon the Palestinians create, to whom the UK may soon be denying sanctuary

Truth is one amongst many casualties.


"Gaza is the Graveyard of International Law!"
Ghada Ageel, Palestinian Refugee.