HEAVY HANDED: A police officer detains Reverend Sue Parfitt who declared her support for Palestine Action
… The strongest sign of a new direction on Palestine would be to end the repression.
Reverse the outrageous ban on Palestine Action as a “terrorist” group. Stop the legislation placing further restrictions on protests. Apologise to the thousands rounded up by police for sitting down holding placards. Burnham mentions none of this.
On genocide, he hints it’s for the courts to decide. So address Britain’s appeal to the International Court of Justice to refuse to hear the genocide charges against Israel brought by South Africa, and state that we will no longer obstruct these cases. Call out the US bids to undermine international courts for daring to hold Israel accountable, and its sanctions on UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese.
Burnham rightly observes that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to make a two-state solution impossible. But pretending that Netanyahu’s excesses have nothing to do with what went before will not wash.
The occupation and colonisation of Palestinian land has proceeded over decades and a fundamental break with Tel Aviv on this, tied to sanctions and a total ban on arms sales, is urgent.
Ultimately that means a fundamental break with Washington. Burnham will hardly say so, but our movement must raise the stakes.
Britain supports the illegal occupation of Palestine because we are tied into a wider network of imperialist alliances led by the United States.
It is inconsistent to demand justice for Palestine while backing Trump’s rearmament drive and remaining a junior military and intelligence partner to the United States. We need an independent foreign policy.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.
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Smoke rises from the town of Kfar Tebnit and the Ali al-Tahir hill area in the Nabatieh Governorate of southern Lebanon following Israeli airstrikes on June 19, 2026. [Ramiz Dallah – Anadolu Agency]
The Israeli military on Saturday launched a fresh wave of airstrikes in southern Lebanon despite a US-brokered framework agreement between Beirut and Tel Aviv, Lebanese state media reported.
Three airstrikes targeted the al-Mashaa neighborhood in the town of al-Mansouri in the southern Tyre district, according to the National News Agency (NNA).
Israeli forces also blew up homes in the town of Houla in the southern Nabatieh district, the agency said.
A separate Israeli drone strike targeted the town of Kfar Tebnit, according to the NNA.
The attacks came despite Lebanon and Israel signing a US-sponsored framework agreement last month that provides for a phased Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory.
Since March 2, more than 4,300 people have been killed and over 12,000 injured in Israeli attacks on Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Israeli forces continue to occupy parts of southern Lebanon, including areas held for decades and others seized during the 2023–2024 war. In the latest offensive, Israeli troops advanced more than 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) into Lebanese territory.
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Israeli security forces take measures along the road as Israeli settlers, protected by Israeli forces, block roads leading to Palestinian farmers’ lands in the town of Izna, near Hebron in the West Bank, Palestine on July 10, 2026. [Wisam Hashlamoun – Anadolu Agency]
Israeli occupiers on Saturday attacked municipal workers south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank and destroyed a farm northwest of the city in the latest attacks across the occupied Palestinian territory, Anadolu reports.
The occupiers attacked municipal workers from Qabalan while they were installing an electricity line in the Ain al-Qasab area, forcing them to suspend the work, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, citing local sources.
In a separate incident northwest of Nablus, occupiers attacked a farm in the al-Masoudieh area, on land belonging to Burqa town, destroying its contents, including an agricultural structure, according to Diab Haji, head of the al-Masoudieh Land Defense Committee.
In the northern West Bank governorate of Jenin, local sources told Wafa that occupiers attacked Khirbet Masoud near the town of Ya’bad on Saturday morning and released their livestock onto agricultural land, damaging crops and trees.
Khirbet Masoud and its surrounding areas have been subjected to repeated attacks by occupiers and the Israeli army, including raids on homes and grazing areas, as well as assaults on residents and their property, the agency added.
In the central West Bank governorate of Ramallah and Al-Bireh, occupiers also damaged crops in the Al-Khalayel area of Al-Mughayyir village, east of Ramallah, after grazing their livestock on Palestinian-owned farmland.
Since October 2023, the occupied West Bank has witnessed intensified Israeli military raids and occupier attacks that have killed at least 1,175 Palestinians, injured 12,919 others, and led to the arrest of around 24,000 people, according to official Palestinian figures.
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Hundreds of people, holding banners and flags, gather to protest Israel’s attacks on Gaza, violations of ceasefires, and restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into the region in Stockholm, Sweden, on July 11, 2026 [Atila Altuntaş – Anadolu Agency]
Hundreds of people gathered in the Swedish capital Stockholm on Saturday to protest Israel’s attacks on Gaza, ceasefire violations, and restrictions on humanitarian aid entering the enclave, Anadolu reports.
The demonstrators gathered at Odenplan Square following calls by several civil society organizations.
Protesters carrying Palestinian flags chanted slogans against Israel and called for the immediate lifting of the blockade on Gaza.
They also accused Israel of violating the ceasefire reached on Oct. 10, 2025.
Dror Feiler, a Swedish Jewish activist and chair of European Jews for a Just Peace, told Anadolu that the demonstrators were standing up for Palestinian rights, justice and equality.
“A peace achieved without justice is not real peace and will ultimately lead to another war,” Feiler said.
He accused the international community of turning away from alleged crimes against humanity and violations of international law in Gaza.
Feiler also criticized what he described as the collapse of the international order and laws established following World War II and the Holocaust, arguing that powerful actors apply rules according to their own interests.
Rejecting accusations of antisemitism against the demonstrations, he said protesters opposed oppression regardless of who carries it out.
“Criticizing the Israeli government or Zionism … does not make someone antisemitic,” Feiler said.
UK Labour MP Andy Burnham is seen following a media interview in London on July 2, 2026. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
“Andy Burnham knows that war crimes are being committed in Gaza, but has he got the courage to do anything about it?” asked the Greens’ deputy leader.
Labour MP Andy Burnham, who is on track to become Britain’s next prime minister following Keir Starmer’s resignation last month, apologized Thursday for his party’s initial response to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza—but critics said his circumspect atonement fell short of the mark.
“Let me start by saying the unbearable suffering in Gaza is a scar on our collective conscience,” Burnham, the erstwhile Manchester mayor who won last month’s Makerfield by-election, said in a three-minute video. “It’s completely unacceptable that innocent Palestinians, including children, continue to be killed, that there’s still a humanitarian crisis with too little aid getting in, and that the Israeli military continues to expand the area it controls in Gaza.”
“We’ve got to do more to put pressure on the Israeli government,” he asserted. “The response has too often not been good enough. We need to do better. Yes, we have taken some important steps. These include recognizing the Palestinian state, placing sanctions on Israeli ministers, and imposing waves of sanctions on violent settlers and the organizations that support them.”
First part of this statement by @andyburnham is welcome, but it's spoiled by trying to appease the genocidal Zionist lobby with the obligatory condemnation of Hamas and accepting Zionist propaganda that anti-Semitism makes British Jews feel unsafe.
“But let’s be honest, the UK was too slow to call for a ceasefire, and we must now do more to strengthen our approach,” Burnham continued. “Israel continues to violate the ceasefire agreement, killing innocent Palestinians. We’re seeing a surge in settler violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the continued expansion of illegal settlements, displacing Palestinian communities.”
The lawmaker accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government of “clearly attempting to make a two-state solution impossible.”
“That’s why we need to do more, which includes looking at further sanctions, both on those involved in the violence in Gaza, but also looking at measures to ban trading goods with illegal settlements,” he said.
“There’s increasing evidence that war crimes appear to have been committed,” Burnham added. “There must be accountability for the depth of the suffering the people of Gaza have experienced. Ultimately, however, it must be for the international courts to determine, rather than politicians.”
While some Zionist UK MPs denounced Burnham’s comments as anti-Israel, Burnham’s pledge of a “fair and balanced approach” to Israel and Palestine, his placing of the onus on courts and not elected officials, and the fact that he did not say the word “genocide” in his apology drew criticism from Palestine defenders.
“Gaza has now endured more than 1,000 days of genocide,” Green Party Leader Zack Polanski said in response to the video. “Andy Burnham must answer: As prime minister, will he end Britain’s participation in genocide or continue it?”
Deputy Green Leader Mothin Ali told The Guardian that Burnham is hiding behind international courts “because admitting that the British government knows war crimes are being committed would trigger a legal duty to immediately halt arms sales.”
Andy Burnham knows that war crimes are being committed in Gaza, but has he got the courage to do anything about it?Britain must halt arms sales to Israel immediately
Adnan Hmidan, chair of the Palestinian Forum in Britain, said that Burnham’s “recognition that far stronger action is needed to confront the grave violations committed against the Palestinian people” is an important step.
“But the scale of devastation, killing, starvation, and forced displacement inflicted upon Gaza demands far more than acknowledgement,” he continued. “It requires courageous political action.”
“As an increasing number of legal experts and international human rights organizations have concluded, we hope more British political leaders will recognize that the atrocities committed in Gaza constitute genocide under international law, and will support the measures necessary to ensure accountability, end impunity, and uphold international law without exception or double standards,” Hmidan added.
British political commentator Saul Staniforth said on social media that “it was clear from the very start that what Israel was doing in Gaza was genocide… and yet over two-and-a-half years later, Burnham still refuses to call it genocide. Why? Because if he did, he’d have to take action as PM.”
“Burnham only made his statement yesterday on Gaza because of pressure, and meaningful action by a government led by him will only happen because of pressure,” Staniforth added.
Queen Mary University of London politics professor Tim Bale told Al Jazeera that Burnham is “trying to repair damage, but his remarks are probably more symbolic than substantive.”
Noting that Labour has “only just recovered from the accusations of antisemitism that were swirling around it during the [Jeremy] Corbyn era,” Bale asserted that “the UK is already at the edge of what it’s likely to do and say on Israel.”
“It also has to worry about maintaining relations with a profoundly pro-Israel US administration,” the professor added.
Keir Starmer explains that UK is participating defensively in Trump and Israel’s criminal war for Israel’s genocidal expansion in Iran and states that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
HEAVY HANDED: A police officer detains Reverend Sue Parfitt who declared her support for Palestine Action
