The unnecessarily violent police intervention at a Quaker place of worship is a PR disaster and will only serve to deepen the chasm between them and the public. SYMON HILL reports
THE police raid on a Quaker place of worship last week was not about preventing crime or arresting criminals. It was an attempt to intimidate peaceful protesters. It will not succeed.
At about 7.15pm on Thursday March 27, at least 20 police officers broke down the door of Westminster Quaker Meeting House in St Martin’s Lane in London. They could have just rung the doorbell.
The police, some armed with tasers, charged into a room where the non-violent protest group Youth Demand were holding a welcome talk. Women in their late teens and early twenties were grabbed and handcuffed behind their backs.
They swarmed through the rest of the building, entering every room, including one that had been hired by a life drawing class and even a room where a private counselling session was taking place.
This horrific incident was made possible by the draconian anti-protest laws introduced by the previous Tory government and maintained by their Labour successors. The police reportedly used the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act as they arrested six women. The youngest was 18.
When the Act was passed in 2022, we were told that the police would use it only in extreme situations. That promise is now as broken as Westminster Meeting House’s door.
In their media statement, the Metropolitan Police said that Youth Demand are planning civil disobedience in London. In recent years there has been a noticeable increase in campaigners being arrested for things they are only talking about doing. Even so, this went further.
This Youth Demand gathering was a welcome talk. It was a public event, open to people who had never even considered engaging in civil disobedience before. The police arrested other Youth Demand members in London and Exeter on the same day.
The police’s thuggery seems designed to intimidate Youth Demand from going ahead with their plans for April. The police may hope that the publicity around the raid will deter others from joining in.
Typically, the police have seriously underestimated the determination of people whose rights are denied.
Mourners carry the shrouded body of one the 15 Palestinian first responders killed by Israeli forces in southern Gaza, during a March 31, 2025 funeral. (Photo: Hani Alshaer/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Genocide, ecocide, mass infanticide, rape, sexual assault, torture, slavery, sniping children, bombing hospitals, executing aid workers,” said one critic. “We are funding an endless nightmare and it should haunt us forever.”
As Israel Defense Forces bombing continued to kill and maim large numbers of Palestinians across the Gaza Strip over the weekend and into Monday, the discovery of the bodies of medical workers who were apparently executed by their captors and the publication of several reports in which Israeli soldiers admit to torturing prisoners and using civilians as human shields have drawn renewed war crimes accusations and calls for accountability.
On Sunday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said it had recovered the bodies of 15 Palestinian first responders from a mass grave, including eight Red Crescent workers and six Civil Defense personnel, who were killed by Israeli forces on March 23 while traveling “on duty” in five ambulances, a fire truck, and a United Nations vehicle in the al-Hashashin area of southern Gaza.
Jonathan Whittall, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Gaza, said Sunday that the vehicles were picked off “one by one.”
“Their bodies were gathered and buried in this mass grave,” Whittall added. “We’re digging them out with uniforms, with their gloves on. They were here to save lives. Instead, they ended up in a mass grave.”
The IFRC condemns the killing of eight Palestine Red Crescent Society medics in Gaza.We are heartbroken. These dedicated humanitarians, killed while responding to the wounded, should have been protected. We mourn their loss and stand with the Palestine Red Crescent.Full statement: bit.ly/427LXxp
The Gaza Health Ministry said that “some of these bodies were bound and shot in the chest” before being “buried in a deep hole to prevent their identification.”
Accusing Israel of a “heinous crime,” the ministry called on U.N. agencies “and relevant international bodies to conduct an urgent investigation into these crimes and hold the occupation accountable for committing them.”
Genocide, ecocide, mass infanticide, rape, sexual assault, torture, slavery, sniping children, bombing hospitals, executing aid workers.
Israel has committed every atrocity imaginable these past 18 months.
We are funding an endless nightmare and it should haunt us forever.
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said troops opened fire on the convoy because it was “advancing suspiciously” toward their position.
“Following an initial assessment, it was determined that the forces had eliminated a Hamas military operative, Mohammad Amin Ibrahim Shubaki, who took part in the October 7 massacre, along with eight other terrorists from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad,” the spokesperson claimed.
Israeli officials routinely claim—often with little or no evidence—that Palestinian first responders, United Nations workers, journalists, and other civilians that it kills are members of Hamas or other militant resistance groups.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said in a statement Sunday that it is “outraged” by the killings, which it called “the single most deadly attack on Red Cross Red Crescent workers anywhere in the world since 2017.”
“After seven days of silence and having access denied to the area of Rafah where they were last seen, the bodies of ambulance officers Mostafa Khufaga, Saleh Muamer, and Ezzedine Shaath and first responder volunteers Mohammad Bahloul, Mohammed Al-Heila, Ashraf Abu Labda, Raed Al Sharif, and Rifatt Radwan were retrieved today,” the statement noted. “Ambulance officer Assad Al-Nassasra is still missing.”
Absolutely barbaric. According to the Red Crescent, Israel handcuffed the first responders, executed them in cold blood and then threw them in a mass grave. https://t.co/ItdAjpL2B8
Noting that at least 30 Red Crescent workers and volunteers have been killed by Israeli forces during the war, IFRC secretary general Jagan Chapagain said: “I am heartbroken. These dedicated ambulance workers were responding to wounded people. They were humanitarians. They wore emblems that should have protected them; their ambulances were clearly marked. They should have returned to their families; they did not.”
“Even in the most complex conflict zones, there are rules,” Chapagain stressed. “These rules of international humanitarian law could not be clearer—civilians must be protected; humanitarians must be protected. Health services must be protected.”
“Our network is in mourning, but this is not enough,” he added. “Instead of another call on all parties to protect and respect humanitarians and civilians, I pose a question: When will this stop? All parties must stop the killing, and all humanitarians must be protected.”
Journalist Mohammad Alsaafin compared the killings to last year’s IDF massacre of 6-year-old Hind Rajab, five of her relatives, and two PRCS medics who rushed to the site of the attack in a doomed bid to rescue the wounded child after she called for help.
This is the Hind Rajab nightmare all over again. Red Crescent rescuers sent on a mission to rescue people wounded in an Israeli attack are themselves killed by Israeli forces. https://t.co/IZdBjvErSi
On Sunday, the British newspaper The Independent published an investigation into alleged Israeli torture of Palestinians detained at facilities including Ofer Prison in the illegally occupied West Bank and the notorious Sde Teiman base in the Negev Desert.
The report begins:
Handcuffed and cowering on the floor of a cell in a military base in southern Israel, the Palestinian found himself surrounded by five soldiers. Armed with dogs, the five reservists allegedly kicked, punched, and stamped on the man as he lay on the ground. Continuing their assault, they are accused of attacking him with Taser guns and sharp objects, sexually abusing him with these instruments. At one point, the soldiers allegedly stabbed him so hard that they pierced his buttocks and anus. The brutal alleged assault left the man hospitalized with a punctured lung, cracked ribs, and a tear in his rectum needing surgery for a stoma. He had not been charged with any crime.
The Independent noted details regarding some of the dozens of Palestinian detainees who have died in Israeli custody. The IDF is currently conducting its own probe into the deaths of at least 36 Sde Teiman prisoners, including one who died after allegedly being sodomized with an electric baton.
“The fact that we see some signs of abuse means that this is probably the tip of the iceberg,” said one Israeli physician who has overseen multiple autopsies on dead detainees.
Israeli civilians were invited to Israeli torture camps to watch nude Palestinians get searched and raped, according to the testimonies of Palestinian women released by the IOF. Both female and male Israeli soldiers raped Palestinian women from Gaza and the West Bank. The… pic.twitter.com/dS0fT6qvbS
— Translating Falasteen (Palestine) (@translatingpal) March 22, 2025
In an anonymous testimony leaked to The Independent, one Sde Teiman guard described a prevailing attitude of “Yes, they need to be beaten, it must be done.”
“We began looking for opportunities to do so,” the soldier said, adding that when he spoke out against the beating of one detainee, he was told, “Shut up, you leftist, these are Gazans, these are terrorists, what’s wrong with you?”
One former Sde Teiman detainee said that “every meter you moved, they beat you, they hit you, they insulted you; they used dogs, tear gas, and electric shock.”
IDF troops and veterans who were posted at Sde Teiman have provided similar details about “Israel’s Abu Ghraib,” a reference to the U.S. torture prison outside Baghdad during the Iraq War. Israeli doctors and medics have described forced starvation and 24-hour shackling so severe that prisoners have had limbs amputated.
A number of Sde Teiman guards were arrested last year following the leak of a video allegedly showing them raping a Palestinian detainee. The arrests outraged far-right Israelis, a mob of whom stormed Sde Teiman in a failed bid to free the accused guards.
As The Independent noted, “Among those held in [Israeli] detention are many of Gaza’s healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses, and paramedics.” Some of these prisoners have died in custody, including the renowned surgeon Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, who may have been raped to death, according toFrancesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967.
Israel arrested the director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital in December. Since then, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya has been subjected to intense forms of torture and held in Israeli prisons with “no legal justification.” pic.twitter.com/iio2V9Uo4U
Earlier this month, an independent U.N. panel found that Israel has “systematically” used reproductive, sexual, and other forms of gender-based violence against Palestinian men, women, and children during the war.
The IDF has responded to these and other allegations by claiming it “operates in accordance with international law.”
However, the International Criminal Court last year issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—who ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza blamed for deadly starvation and disease there—for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel is also the subject of an ongoing International Court of Justice genocide case brought by South Africa.
Also on Sunday, Haaretz, Israel’s oldest newspaper, published a piece by an anonymous Israel soldier who said that “in Gaza, almost every IDF platoon keeps a human shield.”
“We operate a sub-army of slaves,” the soldier said, describing how innocent Palestinians are used to check buildings for Hamas fighters or booby traps before IDF troops enter.
“I recently saw that the IDF’s Military Police Criminal Investigation Division opened six investigations into the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields, and my jaw dropped,” he wrote. “I’ve seen cover-ups before, but this is a new low.”
The IDF’s thoroughly documented use of noncombatants as human shields stands in start contrast with mostly baseless claims of Hamas using Palestinian civilians in such a manner.
The new reports come as Israeli forces continued their assault on Gaza. Health and medical officials in Gaza said at least 41 Palestinians were killed in airstrikes throughout the strip on Monday, the second day of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr. This followed the killing of at least 64 Palestinians across Gaza on Sunday.
Approximately 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel resumed its assault on the embattled coastal enclave on March 18, including hundreds of children. Israel’s 542-day annihilation of Gaza has left more than 175,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing since October 7, 2023, when Hamas led the deadliest-ever attack on Israel.
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/O74hZCKKdpAUK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
The young sister (C) mourns for her siblings and other members from the Abu al-Rous family who were killed when their house was hit by Israeli bombardment, during the funeral at the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on March 25, 2025. Israel, vowing to destroy Palestinian militant group Hamas, on March 18 resumed intense bombardment of Gaza and redeployed ground troops, shattering a truce that had largely held since January 19. (Photo by EYAD BABA/AFP via Getty Images) Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP
While the Israeli leader claims that his goal is the elimination of Hamas, the evidence is clear that his real intention is to save himself and his government—and in this he has had a willing accomplice.
When the Israeli Knesset passed its 2025 budget this past week, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu breathed a sigh of relief. Had the budget not been approved by March 31, the Knesset would have been automatically disbanded, and new elections would have been called. Polls indicate that Netanyahu and his coalition would have decisively lost.
The negotiations over a ceasefire in Gaza had resulted in the desertion of one of his coalition partners and the alienation of some members of his own party, putting his government at risk. Once the ceasefire was announced, Netanyahu’s problems grew. His trial on charges of corruption and abuse of his office was once again centerstage as were his Trump-like theatrics in response to the grilling he received from the prosecutors. Also plaguing Netanyahu were reports of his government’s failures emanating from the ongoing investigation into the October 7th Hamas attack.
With his coalition hemorrhaging and his personal position weakening, renewing the war in Gaza provided Netanyahu with a way out. His coalition was restored. His budget was passed. He had a distraction from his trial. His cabinet approved his decision to remove the head of Israel’s domestic intelligence agency who was faulting him for the October 7th attack. And he was in a position to once again advance his legislative efforts to “reform” what he views as the obstacles presented by Israel’s pesky judiciary.
Further compounding Netanyahu’s dilemma were the expectations created once the implementation of the ceasefire agreement began. The world witnessed the powerfully moving scenes of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians trekking northward to return to their demolished homes and communities in the north of Gaza. Compassion grew for Palestinians as did revulsion for the gratuitous devastation wrought by Israel’s bombardments.
There were other factors that weighed heavily on Netanyahu in this period.
Hamas, as expected, overplayed their hand with disgraceful scenes of bravado during each of the hostage releases. Most likely done out of a need to demonstrate control, their behavior was stupid and provocative, especially in the face of the enormity of the suffering endured by their people. One might reasonably ask Hamas’ leadership, “How many times can you foolishly kick the hornets’ nest before you understand the consequences of your actions?”
Gaza’s Palestinians, who our polling establishes have long had unfavorable views toward Hamas, are now demonstrating their anger at both Israel and Hamas. But the last thing Netanyahu wants is an alternative Palestinian leadership in Gaza, as that would threaten his continuation of the conflict and his rule.
The ceasefire agreement of January 19th included three phases, with the second and third phases ultimately leading to an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the war. As the negotiations themselves had already cost Netanyahu coalition partners, he promised his allies that he would never allow the process to get to phase two. As a result, early in the implementation of phase one, Netanyahu began seeking an escape, claiming that Hamas was violating the terms of the agreement and pressing unacceptable demands that he sought to add to the first phase.
Then came the Arab peace plan to end the conflict. The plan, which would fulfill phase three of the ceasefire agreement, called for an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the positioning of an Arab/international peacekeeping force, the establishment of Palestinian governance linked to the Palestinian Authority, and a plan to reconstruct Gaza. This Arab plan has won broad international support and, if adopted, would have spelled the end of Netanyahu’s reign in Israel.
In the face of all these challenges, Netanyahu felt compelled to break the ceasefire. The renewed campaign has been a ruthless continuation of genocide. For one month now, Israel has withheld entry of all aid and medical personnel from the north of Gaza, implementing what was once termed “the General’s plan” of starving the Palestinians in that area, forcing them to leave. The Israelis have also continued their bombing campaign, taking the lives of hundreds. They have retaken areas of Gaza, promising to annex them to Israel, and are exploring plans to forcibly evict Palestinians from Gaza to both sabotage any effort to allow for Palestinian governance and facilitate Israel’s conquest and annexation of more of Gaza’s land.
While Netanyahu claims that his goal is the elimination of Hamas, the evidence is clear that his real intention is to save himself and his government—and in this he has had a willing accomplice. The Trump administration has supported Israel’s trashing the very ceasefire agreement Trump once boasted as his personal diplomatic victory.
And so here we are, a little over two months after the announced ceasefire and Palestinians are once again victims of slaughter and mass starvation. Instead of being an agreement that would lead to an end of the conflict, the ceasefire, as I feared, turned out to be nothing more than a pause or a cruel ruse that was sacrificed on the altar of Netanyahu’s political survival.
There are no good guys to this story, only Palestinian victims. As tens of thousands of Israelis are demonstrating in opposition to Netanyahu because he is risking the lives of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza, it is time for Arabs to unite in defense of the Palestinian people and their own peace plan to end the genocide.
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/O74hZCKKdpAUK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
Lengthy prison sentences have been imposed on five Just Stop Oil activists for coordinating direct action on the M25, the main ring road around London. For a non-violent protest, there is no equivalent in modern times.
The five years for Roger Hallam and four years for the remaining four: Daniel Shaw, Louise Lancaster, Cressida Gethin and Lucia Whittaker de Abreu, have been widely condemned as grossly disproportionate. According to one snap poll, 61% of the public consider the sentences too harsh.
But nobody should be surprised: these sentences are a logical outcome of Britain’s authoritarian turn against protest over the past five years.
Protest in England and Wales was previously dealt with by the courts according to what we call Hoffmann’s Bargain. This meant protesters should accept their guilt in court, but their conscientiousness – along with the wider importance of disruptive protest to democracy – would be rewarded with lenient sentences.
This changed with the prosecution of the Stansted 15, who were charged and found guilty of terrorist-related offences for stopping a deportation flight in 2017. The 15 were sentenced to community service, fines, and for some, short suspended prison sentences. On appeal, the Court of Appeal threw out the charges in 2021, but at the same time hardened the general approach of the courts to protest, confirming that a key defence (known as necessity) was not available to protest defendants in court.
Making it harder for activists to defend themselves
Since then, three things have happened. First, other potential defences that protesters could rely on, including lawful excuse, have been systematically restricted by the Court of Appeal.
Second, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has sought where possible to bring more serious charges against protesters than used to be the case. In this they have been encouraged by new legislation brought in by the last government, notably the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act (2022) and the Public Order Act (2023).
Third, judges have typically sought to control and reduce the time that defendants have in court to explain their motives to the jury, because – without a defence in law – the defendants’ arguments are, in legal terms, not relevant.
We saw each of these dynamics in the Just Stop Oil “Conspiracy 5” trial. Before 2018, public nuisance itself was barely used for protest offences, but the CPS now regularly brings this charge against peaceful protesters. But the charge of a conspiracy to cause public nuisance, which these five defendants faced, is a further escalation as it treats protest movements as a criminal enterprise, and does not allow a lawful excuse defence. As a consequence, the stakes are higher and the outcomes more serious.
In court, the defendants were unable to argue that they had a lawful excuse for their action (Hallam repeatedly tried to argue this in court, and was repeatedly shut down by the trial judge). Finally, although the defendants did manage to explain their motives to the jury, the jury had no opportunity to find them not guilty in law. Although juries still have the power to find defendants not guilty by making a moral rather than a legal decision, this is much harder and rarer.
The result is that the first part of Hoffmann’s Bargain is being abandoned. With no recourse to a defence in law, protest defendants are now regularly being found guilty. But the second part of the bargain, leniency at sentencing, is increasingly being forgotten.
A new benchmark
In April 2023, Just Stop Oil activists Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker were sentenced to three years and two years seven months in prison respectively after being convicted of public nuisance for disrupting the Dartford Crossing, a large bridge over the Thames to the east of London. Upheld by the Court of Appeal, these sentences have now become a benchmark.
In the Conspiracy 5 case, the trial judge explicitly cited this benchmark as the basis for the sentences he imposed, and any appeal against them will have to reckon with the Court of Appeal’s determination that they are fair.
This case brings into sharp focus two very contrasting visions of what a trial is, and what the criminal law is for. The courts are effectively treating protest trials as a legal flowchart, with a strict distinction between what is and what is not relevant on the shortest route to a verdict.
But defendants often see the courts as a place where they can make urgent arguments about moral values and social justice. Rather than a public nuisance, they consider their actions a public service. By not allowing defendants to account for their actions properly, the courts create an artificial separation between law and politics, and diminish the democratic agency of juries.
By imposing prison sentences on non-violent protesters, they impose authoritarian responses to pressing social problems.
Keir Starmer confirms that his government is cnutier than Suella Braverman on killing the right to protest.Orcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels.
PRCS workers bidding farewell to the 8 PRCS workers who were targeted and killed by Israel. Photo: PRCS
The mass killings tainted the supposedly joyful occasion in Gaza with blood, and replaced celebrations with funerals.
Over 60 Palestinians were killed in multiple Israeli airstrikes that rocked different parts of the Gaza strip, on Sunday, March 30, which also marked the first day of Eid Al-Fitr holiday.
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) intensified their aerial attacks on the besieged enclave in the early hours of Sunday and throughout the day. However, hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza gathered to perform Eid prayers atop the rubble of demolished mosques, in a clear message to the world that their will to survive is greater than Israel’s destruction.
Israel deliberately targeted rescue teams in Rafah
The first day of Eid saw another incident of tragedy for the people of Gaza, after the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) announced that it retrieved the bodies of 14 aid workers in Rafah, southern Gaza. The 14 included eight PRCS medics, five staff members of the Palestinian Civil Defense agency, and an employee working with a UN agency.
The recovery of the bodies was announced six days after the PRCS had lost contact with the rescue teams. The release of satellite images exclusively obtained by Al Jazeera demonstrated that the IOF destroyed at least five rescue vehicles belonging to the PRCS and the Civil Defense, who were on a humanitarian mission in Tel al-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah. The IOF did so after they targeted the teams of both organizations, which included 15 volunteers.
Mourning its executed staff, the PRCS said in a statement that “they were targeted by the Israeli occupation forces while performing their humanitarian duties as they were heading to the Hashashin area of Rafah to provide first aid to a number of people injured by Israeli shelling in the area.” The organization added that a ninth medic remains missing.
The PRCS called the massacre a “tragedy” not only for the organization “but also for humanitarian work and humanity.” Emphasizing that the incident was a deliberate execution the PRCS said that the rescue teams were targeted by the IOF “despite the protected status of their mission and the Red Crescent emblem.”
It also pointed out that the incident “can only be considered a war crime punishable under international humanitarian law, which the occupation continues to violate before the eyes of the entire world.”
Meanwhile, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) expressed its outrage at the deaths of eight medics from the PRCS.
The IFRC stressed that when the medics were killed, their ambulance vehicle was “clearly marked” and they were wearing emblems that “should have protected them.”
“I am heartbroken. These dedicated ambulance workers were responding to wounded people. They were humanitarians. They wore emblems that should have protected them; their ambulances were clearly marked. They should have returned to their families; they did not.” IFRC Secretary General Jagan Chapagain stated.
“Even in the most complex conflict zones, there are rules. These rules of International Humanitarian Law could not be clearer – civilians must be protected; humanitarians must be protected. Health services must be protected.” He added.
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/O74hZCKKdpAUK Labour Party Shadow Foreign Secretary repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party’s support for and complicity in Israel’s genocide of Gaza.
