Keir Starmer

Swiss politicians push to revoke UEFA’s tax-exempt status over complicity with Israeli apartheid

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

A banner which reads ‘Stop killing children – Stop killing civilians’ is displayed as players of both side’s line up prior to during the UEFA Super Cup 2025 match between Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham Hotspur at Stadio Friuli on August 13, 2025 in Udine, Italy. [Photo by Chris Ricco – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images]

Swiss lawmakers have launched a formal effort to revoke UEFA’s tax-exempt status in Switzerland, citing the European football governing body’s continued affiliation with the Israeli Football Association (IFA), which includes clubs based in Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The move follows a growing campaign by human rights advocates and football activists under the banner of #GameOverIsrael, which argues that UEFA is complicit in Israel’s apartheid and war crimes by continuing to grant legitimacy and financial support to the IFA. Swiss MPs and campaigners say UEFA is in breach of the very conditions that earned it tax benefits in the country, namely, its stated commitment to promoting peace, inclusion, and anti-racism through sport.

READ: Why a match with an Israeli team should not be taking place in my city

A resolution introduced by Swiss legislators references the 19 July 2024 International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling confirming Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land. It argues that Swiss citizens, specifically in Vaud, are funding the illegal activities of the Israeli Football Association, and calls for an end to the double standards that allow UEFA to sanction Russian teams while taking no action against Israel.

“UEFA enjoys preferential tax treatment in Switzerland. This comes with certain obligations, including promoting the values of peace. A double standard is unacceptable. While UEFA has rightly chosen to sanction Russian teams, it has taken no action or measures against Israel to date,” said Raphaël Mahaim, Member of the National Council of Switzerland.

Campaigners note that the IFA currently fields five teams located in illegal Israeli settlements and continues to receive financial and institutional backing from UEFA. “UEFA is at the forefront of funding and normalising the apartheid and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian territories,” said Ashish Prashar, former Middle East Peace Envoy and Campaign Director for Game Over Israel. “The simple solution for UEFA and their President if they truly believe in international law, national law and promoting peace – is to suspend Israel.”

READ: What does the ICJ ruling mean for Israel’s supporters? MEMO in conversation with Kathryn Ravey

Legal experts and former UN officials have also weighed in, warning that UEFA’s credibility and tax status are both at risk. “UEFA has an opportunity… to align with the forces of law, justice, and global conscience,” said Richard Falk, former UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Palestine. “The refusal to take such a stand would be negatively etched in the collective memory of humanity.”

UEFA’s headquarters are located in Nyon, Switzerland, where local authorities are also considering action. Craig Mokhiber, former UN human rights official and President of the Gaza Tribunal, stated: “Today, on 10 December (International Human Rights Day) Swiss and cantonal authorities will start the debate on the continuation of UEFA’s privileged tax status. That status should be revoked until UEFA ends its complicity in the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. And Swiss authorities should know that their international reputation as a leading proponent of humanitarian law is itself on trial in this process.”

The #GameOverIsrael campaign is backed by a broad coalition including ADC, Athletes 4 Peace, CODEPINK, The Gaza Tribunal, Health Workers 4 Palestine, the Hind Rajab Foundation, Tech for Palestine, and numerous legal scholars, footballers, and human rights defenders. The debate on UEFA’s tax status is expected to intensify ahead of a formal vote scheduled for January 2026.

READ: FIFA, UEFA flayed for disregarding international law by continuing to include Israel in competition

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

Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
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 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.
Vote Labour for Genocide.
Vote Labour for Genocide.
Continue ReadingSwiss politicians push to revoke UEFA’s tax-exempt status over complicity with Israeli apartheid

Another Palestinian Infant Dies of Hypothermia in Storm-Battered Gaza

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Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

A Palestinian man carries the shrouded body of Taim Al-Khawaja, an infant who died of hypothermia in the Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, on December 12, 2025. (Photo by Hamza Qraiqea/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Palestinian babies freeze to death as shelters and lifesaving humanitarian aid—located just a few miles away—for 1 million civilians is blocked by Israel,” noted one journalist.

A second Palestinian infant and a young girl died of hypothermia in Gaza as heavy rains and flooding—whose effects are exacerbated by Israel’s genocidal annihilation and ongoing siege of the coastal strip—raised the death toll from Storm Byron to at least 16.

Taim Al-Khawaja—who was several months old—died in the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza, while 9-year-old Hadeel al-Masri died in a shelter west of Gaza City, according to local officials. Their deaths follow that of Rahaf Abu Jazar, an 8-month-old who died Thursday of exposure after floodwaters inundated her family’s tent in Khan Younis.

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At least five other people were killed when a building in Beit Lahia collapsed amid the storm, and two others were killed when a wall collapsed onto tents housing displaced Palestinians in the Remal neighorhood of Gaza City. According to Gaza’s Government Media Office (GMO), at least 13 buildings have collapsed and more than 27,000 tents have been destroyed or left uninhabitable by Byron’s winds, rain, and floodwater.

While farmers in neighboring Israel welcomed the torrential rains, which delivered relief from drought conditions, the storm is devastating Palestinians already reeling and weakened from nearly 800 days of war and siege. Israel’s US-backed onslaught has left more than 250,000 Gazans dead, maimed, or missing and 2 million more starved, sickened, or displaced. Roughly 1.5 million Palestinians are currently living in tents or other makeshift shelters.

The recent hypothermia deaths evoked horrific memories of the past two winters in Gaza, when more than a dozen Palestinians—most of them infants and children—died from hypothermia caused by exposure. While many Israelis and their supporters abroad point to the relatively mild Mediterranean winters in an effort to deny these deaths, experts note that hypothermia can be deadly at temperatures over 60°F (15°C) in overexposed conditions such as those in Gaza.

Reporting from Gaza, Al Jazeera‘s Ibrahim al-Khalili said Friday that genocide-ravaged Gazans are now enduring “an added layer of suffering.”

“The tents are collapsing. The cold is unbearable. Basically, they don’t have anywhere to go. What is unfolding is devastating,” he said. “It’s not just a storm; it’s a new wave of displacement even after the war has stopped. Many people here told me that a new war has really begun after this flooding, and people are being forced to flee whatever fragile shelters they had.”

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem on Friday called the recent exposure deaths a “continuation of the war of extermination.”

“The successive collapses of homes bombed during the war of extermination on the Gaza Strip, caused by the storm, and the resulting deaths, reflect the unprecedented scale of the humanitarian disaster left by this criminal Zionist war,” he said.

Jonathan Crickx, chief of communications for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), told Agence France-Presse Friday that Gazans are also enduring “absolutely appalling hygiene and sanitary conditions.”

“There aren’t enough toilets; there are places—I saw some in Gaza City—where large pools of water are essentially open sewers right next to the displacement camps,” he added.

While the shaky two-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has somewhat eased the Israeli blockade on Gaza, the GMO said Friday that “the occupation continues to close crossings and prevent the entry of humanitarian aid and materials that could provide shelter.”

“This includes blocking the entry of 300,000 tents, prefabricated mobile homes, and caravans,” the agency added.

https://embed.bsky.app/embed/did:plc:skmvc4cstxwtt3oct44fpf66/app.bsky.feed.post/3m7t3otbj7w2f?id=6146816129335417&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.commondreams.org%252Fnews%252Fgaza-infant-hypothermia&colorMode=system

In a statement Friday, Doctors Without Borders Gaza emergency coordinator Caroline Seguin said that the charity is “very, very worried about the next month with the winter coming and the heavy rain.”

“Last year we saw a huge increase in respiratory infections for children, diarrhea as well, and of course all the wounded that are living inside the tents will have big difficulties to heal their wounds and will have probably an increase of infection for the wound of the wounded,” Seguin noted. “It’s near to be not possible to live in this conditions.”

Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

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 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.

Continue ReadingAnother Palestinian Infant Dies of Hypothermia in Storm-Battered Gaza

‘Stop Arming Israel,’ Jewish-Led Groups Tell DNC Leaders at Party Summit

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Original article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

A massive smoke and dust cloud rises after Israeli forces demolish several buildings in the Shujaiyya neighborhood located inside the so-called yellow zone in northern Gaza City, Gaza on December 9, 2025. (Photo by Khames Alrefi/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“The American public is demanding decisive action to end US complicity in the Israeli government’s war crimes by stopping the flow of weapons to Israel.”

Jewish Voice for Peace Action on Friday led a coalition of groups demanding that the Democratic Party stop providing arms to the Israeli government.

Speaking outside the Democratic National Committee’s Winter Meeting in Los Angeles, Jewish Voice for Peace Action (JVP Action) held a press conference calling on Democrats to oppose all future weapons shipments to Israel, whose years-long assault on Gaza has, according to one estimate, killed more than 100,000 Palestinian people.

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While carrying banners that read, “Stop Arming Israel,” speakers at the press conference also called on Democrats to reject money from the American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC), which has consistently funded primary challenges against left-wing critics of Israel.

JVP Action was joined at the press conference by representatives from Health Care 4 US (HC4US), Progressive Democrats of America, the Council on American-Islamic Relations Action (CAIR Action), and the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) Board of Directors.

Estee Chandler, founder of the Los Angeles chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, warned Democrats at the press conference that they risked falling out of touch with public opinion if they continued to support giving weapons to Israel.

“The polls are clear,” Chandler said. “The American public is demanding decisive action to end US complicity in the Israeli government’s war crimes by stopping the flow of weapons to Israel, and the Democratic Party refusing to heed that call will continue to come at their own peril.”

The press conference came a day after the progressive advocacy group RootsAction and journalist Christopher D. Cook released an “autopsy” report of the Democratic Party’s crushing 2024 losses, finding that the party’s support for Israel’s assault on Gaza contributed to last year’s election results.

Chandler also called on Democrats to get behind the Block the Bombs Act, which currently has 58 sponsors, and which she said “would block the transfer of the worst offensive weapons from being sent to Israel, including bombs, tank rounds, and artillery shells that are US-supplied and have been involved in the mass killing of Palestinian civilians and the grossest violations of international law in Gaza.”

Although there has technically been a ceasefire in place in Gaza since October, Israeli forces have continued to conduct deadly military operations in the enclave that have killed hundreds of civilians, including dozens of children.

Ricardo Pires, a spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund, said last month that the number of deaths in Gaza in recent weeks has been “staggering” given that they’ve happened “during an agreed ceasefire.”

Original article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

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 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.

Continue Reading‘Stop Arming Israel,’ Jewish-Led Groups Tell DNC Leaders at Party Summit

Streeting warned ‘irresponsible’ public tirades won’t avert plans for doctor strikes

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/streeting-warned-irresponsible-public-tirades-wont-avert-plans-doctor-strikes

 Junior doctors and members of the British Medical Association (BMA) outside Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, January 3, 2024

…

NHS campaigners issued a furious response after he told LBC: “I cannot guarantee, I honestly don’t want to catastrophise or sensationalise, I cannot sit here and look you in the eye and tell you that no patient will come to harm.”

BMA resident doctors’ committee chair Dr Jack Fletcher said: “Ultimately, the health secretary has far more power to prevent NHS strikes than he gives himself credit for; not through confrontation, but by rebuilding trust and putting an offer on the table that creates sufficient brand-new training places for doctors, not changing the names of existing roles. 

“His current offer does not create any more capacity for us to treat patients, or do anything to help clear waiting lists; let’s be clear about that.”

…

Keep Our NHS Public co-chair Dr Tony O’Sullivan told the Morning Star: “It is the height of irresponsible behaviour from the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, to go to war with doctors and the BMA amid the flu epidemic and this, the second winter crisis since the Starmer–Streeting administration took office. 

“The government cannot pretend that they had no warning, that they didn’t see it coming. Nor should they deny that it is their responsibility to deal with it. 

…

“The government must take action to give NHS resident doctors, and other staff, the remuneration they deserve.

“But instead, as with the scapegoating of migrants and asylum-seekers as the cause of multiple ills, the government’s self-serving reaction is to scapegoat doctors and their union, the BMA, for the NHS crisis Labour was voted into office to solve.”

Original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/streeting-warned-irresponsible-public-tirades-wont-avert-plans-doctor-strikes

Continue ReadingStreeting warned ‘irresponsible’ public tirades won’t avert plans for doctor strikes

Morning Star Editorial: Time to stand up to Trump

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/time-stand-trump

 US President Donald Trump ‘dances’ to music after speaking at the Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, Decembe 9, 2025

EVERYBODY gets it except Keir Starmer.  Labour MPs, including those traditionally on the right, are clear that the basis for Britain’s alliance with the USA is collapsing.

The new US national security document — itself dismissive of Britain — is a manifesto for the advance of far-right and fascistic forces across Europe.

As Liam Byrne MP told the Commons, the strategy is saturated with far-right tropes from the 1930s. “The language of the US national security strategy was deeply regrettable and, frankly, it was not hard to see the rhymes with some extreme right-wing tropes that date back to the 1930s,” he said.

And Matt Western MP, chair of the joint committee on national security strategy, said the Commons “should be under no illusion, the United States consensus that has led the Western world since the second world war appears shattered.

“The prospect of United States interference in the democratic politics of Europe is chilling. Given certain UK dependencies on the United States, this leaves the United Kingdom especially vulnerable,” he added.

They are right. Alongside pursuing untrammelled hegemony through aggression in the western hemisphere, while seeking to pressure China economically, plunder Africa and centre the Middle East around Israel and the reactionary Gulf dictatorships, the Trump administration wants to impose its own far-right agenda on Europe.

And, as Washington’s strategy makes clear, it is willing to back far-right parties like Britain’s Reform UK in order to bring the continent into line, rhetoric about respect for national sovereignty notwithstanding.

This is a menace to democracy, an interference in our internal political affairs and a brazen plan to leverage the immense power of the US to gain advantage over its nominal “allies.”

Yet Starmer and the rest of the government profess that there is nothing to see here, that it is all business as usual.  Hypocritically, they even praise Trump for “working for peace,” when Starmer is actually working might and main to obstruct the US push to end the war in Ukraine.

It seems that the government simply cannot acknowledge the enormity of what is happening, since the entire strategy of the British state has pivoted for the last 80 years on the purported ”special relationship” with Washington.

Indeed, there are core functions which might seize up without US support, so deeply embedded has Washington become in the British state.

Yet the global drive towards a 21st-century form of far-right authoritarianism, now powered from Washington, demands a clear rupture with Trump and all his works.

Starmer’s mealy-mouthed evasions demean our democracy and only invite further pressure from over the Atlantic. Trump should be called out as the proto-fascist he is, and the US told that it can rely on British support for its adventures no longer.

Enough with the fawning. It is time to stand up for democracy.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/time-stand-trump

Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: Time to stand up to Trump