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Category: human rights violations

  • Labour held secret meeting with top Israeli arms firm

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    https://www.declassifieduk.org/labour-held-secret-meeting-with-top-israeli-arms-firm

    Keir Starmer with Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. (Photo: Benjamin Cremel / Alamy)

    DECLASSIFIED UK Exclusive: Home Office met with Elbit Systems amid crackdown on Palestine Action, documents reveal.

    Keir Starmer’s government held a private meeting with Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons company, Declassified has found.

    The meeting occurred in December 2024 and was attended by three representatives from Elbit Systems and three officials from Yvette Cooper’s Home Office.

    It took place months after Israeli forces used an Elbit drone to kill three British military veterans in Gaza who were protecting a humanitarian aid convoy.

    The revelation comes in documents obtained by Declassified through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

    Under the previous Conservative government, the Home Office also met with Elbit Systems and attempted to encourage the UK police to crack down on pro-Palestine activism.

    Elbit’s efforts to counter Palestine Action in Britain seem to have gone even further. 

    Documents seen by Declassified reveal the company has its own “intelligence cell” and shares “information with the [UK] police across the country on a two weekly basis”.

    The Home Office is refusing to release details about its most recent meeting with Elbit Systems, including which officials were present and what was discussed. 

    It said that a recording of the meeting was made “but by mutual agreement [with Elbit] this was agreed… not to be released” through FOI.

    Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori told Declassified: “There is clear evidence of collusion between government, prosecutors, police, the Israeli government and Elbit Systems in a bid to crackdown on Palestine Action’s relentless direct action campaign. 

    “Such collusion likely amounts to political and foreign interference in our judicial system, a potential abuse of process in prosecutions against Palestine Action”.

    …

    Palestine Action’s Huda Ammori added: “Eighteen Palestine Action prisoners are detained under counter-terrorism powers in an unprecedented crackdown against anti-genocide activists. 

    “There must be full transparency of meetings with the government which reference Palestine Action, and an independent investigation into the validity of prosecutions against us, given the evidence of judicial interference”.

    The Home Office and Elbit did not respond to a request for comment.

    https://www.declassifieduk.org/labour-held-secret-meeting-with-top-israeli-arms-firm

    Keir Starmer confirms that his government is cnutier than Suella Braverman on killing the right to protest.
    Keir Starmer confirms that his government is cnutier than Suella Braverman on killing the right to protest.
    Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
    Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA

  • MSF condemns Israel’s ‘use of aid as a tool of war’

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    This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

    Palestinians wait in long queues to receive pots of food as they face food crisis following the end of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, which lasted for 42 days, Israel stopped all humanitarian aid supplies from entering the Gaza Strip at the Jabalia Refugee Camp in Gaza Strip on March 11, 2025 [Mahmoud İssa/Anadolu Agency]

    Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has condemned Israel’s “use of aid as a tool of war in Gaza.”

    In a statement released yesterday, the medical organisation said it “strongly condemns” the Israeli-imposed siege on the Gaza Strip, which deprives Palestinian civilians of basic services and vital supplies, “including access to water by cutting electricity”.

    Israel is using “collective punishment” and has “instrumentalised humanitarian needs by using it as a bargaining chip” during a period when negotiations are due to be held on the second phase of the ceasefire deal.

    “Israeli authorities are yet again normalising the use of aid as a negotiation tool. This is outrageous. Humanitarian aid should never be used as a bargaining chip in war,” said Myriam Laaroussi, MSF emergency coordinator. “The blockade on all supplies is inevitably hurting hundreds of thousands of people and is having deadly consequences.”

    “A ceasefire without scaling up humanitarian aid is contradictory,” she warned, adding that the group’s hands would be tied if fuel isn’t allowed into the enclave.

    MSF called on “Israeli authorities to respect international humanitarian law and uphold its responsibilities as an occupying power, and to end this inhumane blockade of the Strip.”

    Adding that Israel’s allies, who have “ignored this grave violation of international humanitarian law” must “refrain from normalising such actions” and act “to prevent Gaza from plunging further into devastation.”

    On 2 March, when the ceasefire deal was due to go into its second phase, Israel announced that it had closed all crossings into Gaza, besieging the devastated Strip. One week later it cut the electricity supply to Gaza’s last remaining desalination plant leaving Palestinians with no way to access clean water.

    Critics have warned that Israel is trying to force Palestinians to extend the first phase of the ceasefire deal, see the release of the Israeli captives held in Gaza in return for no concessions from the occupation state. It would then return to bombing the enclave in an effort to force Palestinians out of it.

    UNICEF: 90% of Palestinians in Gaza lack access to clean water

    This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

    Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
    Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
    Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
    Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA

  • Israel carrying out ‘fastest starvation campaign in Gaza in modern history’: UN envoy

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    This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

    United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Michael Fakhri, at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland on March 08, 2024 [Muhammet Ikbal Arslan/Anadolu via Getty Images]

    The UN special rapporteur on the right to food warned today that Israel is carrying out an unprecedentedly rapid campaign of starvation in Gaza, calling it “the fastest in modern history.”

    “How is Israel able to starve 2.3 million people so quickly and so completely?” Michael Fakhri asked in a joint press briefing alongside other UN special rapporteurs in Geneva.

    “This is the fastest starvation campaign in modern history,” Fakhri said.

    As the entry of all humanitarian aid into Gaza is stopped by Israel, he said:

    This is not a ceasefire by any definition. This is a slowing down of military violence, but … unfolding of death through starvation.

    Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, told the briefing that even if the bombs and violence stop in Palestine today, “the genocide will continue because there are no ways to remedy the destruction” that has been made.

    Albanese also warned that “the genocidal violence is leaking out in the West Bank,” saying the violence is now “as acute as ever.”

    “I don’t know how many warnings the international community will need,” she said, adding: “We will miss human rights very much when they are no longer able to protect us.”

    Ben Saul, the UN special rapporteur on protection of human rights, for his part, said that he denounces US President Donald Trump’s Gaza relocation plan, saying: “It would shatter the most fundamental rules of international order and the United Nations Charter since 1945.”

    “It’s manifestly illegal to invade and annex foreign territory by force, to forcibly deport its population and to deprive the Palestinian people of their right to self-determination,” Saul said, underlining that any plan for the day after must be based on the popular will of the Palestinian people, including under any Arab proposal.

    He also condemned Israel’s “continuing illegal military provocation in the wider region.”

    READ: MSF condemns Israel’s ‘use of aid as a tool of war’

    This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

    Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
    Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
    Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
    Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.

  • The cuts agenda: disabled people in Labour’s sights

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/cuts-agenda-disabled-people-labour’s-sights

    HARMFUL RHETORIC: Keir Starmer and Liz Kendall

    Far from addressing the causes of ill-health and disability, Starmer, Reeves and Kendall are committed to unleashing more misery for disabled people, argues Dr DYLAN MURPHY

    In 2016 the UN Committee for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities conducted an investigation into the treatment of disabled people in Britain.

    It produced a damning report, which concluded that disabled people in this country faced systematic discrimination on multiple levels.

    In 2024, following the submission of evidence by Disabled People Against Cuts and other disability rights groups, the UN investigated Britain for a second time.

    In late April the UN committee for disabled people issued a 14-page report which concluded that Britain “has failed to take all appropriate measures to address grave and systematic violations of the human rights of persons with disabilities and has failed to eliminate the root causes of inequality and discrimination.”

    It also called on Britain to take measures to prevent disabled people on benefits from killing themselves. At the UN committee hearing in March 2024 it noted how hundreds of disabled people had killed themselves due to sanctions and other repressive measures of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which really should be called the Department for War on the Poor.

    Since this UN report Labour has been elected with a landslide majority. Yet in the many Bills announced for the new parliament not one addresses the serious issues raised by the United Nations.

    Sadly, both Liz Kendall, new boss of the DWP, and Rachel Reeves the Chancellor, between them have made it clear that people on sickness benefits are a burden on our society and that the money spent on sick people claiming universal credit, employment support allowance (ESA) and personal independence payments (PIP) could be better spent on more “important things” in our society. They have repeated reactionary Tory propaganda which the UN cites as a reason for a spike in disability hate crime which is massively under reported and rarely investigated by the police.

    …

    Original article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/cuts-agenda-disabled-people-labour’s-sights

    Keir Starmer confirms that he's proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
    Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
    Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.
    Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.

  • Palestine Action activists occupy Allianz’s offices in the City of London

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/palestine-action-occupy-allianz-building-city-london

    A screenshot from footage showing Palestine Action Activists outside Allianz Commercial offices in London, March 10, 2025

    CAMPAIGNERS targeted the offices of insurance giant Allianz in the City of London today over the firm’s complicity in the Gaza genocide.

    Palestine Action activists scaled the premises’ main entrance and doused it in red paint, rebuking the firm for insuring and investing in Elbit Systems, Israel’s biggest weapons manufacturer.

    A spokesperson for Palestine Action said: “By providing insurance, Allianz is directly enabling the production of Israeli weapons in Britain which are ‘battle-tested’ on Palestinians.

    …

    Today also saw the launch of the Boycott Bloody Insurance campaign, with a groundbreaking report showing how major global insurers actively enable Israel’s ongoing assault on Palestinians.

    The report, Ensuring Genocide: The Insurance Industry and Israel’s War Machine, reveals that insurers including Allianz, Aviva, AXA, Zurich, and RSA collectively invested over $1.7 billion (£1.3bn) in companies supplying military equipment used by Israel since October 7 2023.

    “Insurance giants claim to protect communities, but they’re funnelling our money into war, exploitation, and violence,” said Monika Nielsen, lead researcher at the new campaign, which “demands accountability from insurers profiting from human suffering.”

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/palestine-action-occupy-allianz-building-city-london