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Zarah Sultana speaks on main stage at Forwards Festival

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https://www.bristol247.com/news-and-features/news/zarah-sultana-speaks-on-main-stage-at-forwards-festival

Photo: Khali Ackford

Zarah Sultana made a surprise appearance on the main stage at Forwards, delivering a passionate speech to the crowd before introducing Nia Archives.

The MP for Coventry South resigned from the Labour Party in July in order to co-found a new grassroots party with fellow independent MPs including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Earlier on Sunday, Sultana had taken part in a panel discussion called The Movement Forward: Pissed off with Politics on the Information Stage at the festival on the Downs.

On the main stage, Sultana said: “A lot of people are fed up. I am too. Fed up with being told that this is just how things are. Fed up with being asked to settle for less. Fed up with the idea that the best we can do is manage decline, implement austerity, blame migrants, Muslims and trans people, enable genocide in Gaza, and have fascism growling at the door.

“But here’s the truth: politics is not only what happens in parliament or on the news. Politics is us. It’s here. It’s all of you.

“It’s people deciding they won’t accept the world as it is. It’s people daring to imagine the world as it should be.

“Every great change we’ve ever seen, from rights at work, to votes for women, to the NHS didn’t come from the top down.

“It came because ordinary people stood up and said: we aren’t going to take this anymore.

“And when people come together with that conviction, something powerful happens: hope.

“Not the shallow kind that tells us to just wait and see, but the deep kind that comes when we believe we can build something new, and we start doing it.”

…

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Continue ReadingZarah Sultana speaks on main stage at Forwards Festival

Illegal Israeli settlers storm Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque amid tension

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Dozens of fanatical Jewish groups, accompanied by Israeli police, storm the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Mosque within the Purim celebrations in Old City of Eastern Jerusalem on March 24, 2024. [Mohammad Hamad – Anadolu Agency]

Scores of illegal Israeli settlers forced their way into the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem on Wednesday morning, local media said.

The settlers toured the compound and performed Talmudic rituals under the protection of Israeli police, the official news agency Wafa reported.

The settler incursion came amid rising tensions across the occupied West Bank over Israel’s deadly assault on the Gaza Strip, where nearly 63,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the world’s third-holiest site for Muslims. Jews call the area Temple Mount, claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.

READ: Saudi Arabia condemns Israeli provocations at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque

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
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Continue ReadingIllegal Israeli settlers storm Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque amid tension

Microsoft employees, activists protest tech giant over ties to Israel’s Gaza war

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A sign is seen at the Microsoft headquarters on July 3, 2024 in Redmond, Washington [David Ryder/Getty Images]

A group of demonstrators, including current and former Microsoft employees, staged a protest at the company’s Redmond headquarters in the US state of Washington against the tech giant over its ties to the Israeli army amid the ongoing Gaza war, according to media reports.

The protest was organized by a group called No Azure for Apartheid, named after Microsoft’s flagship cloud computing service Azure.

Protesters gathered inside the office of Microsoft President Brad Smith in Building 34, where they chanted slogans and held banners.

One sign renamed the office the “Mai Ubeid Building,” honoring a Palestinian software engineer from Gaza killed in an Israeli airstrike in 2023. Another banner called on Microsoft to “cut ties with Israel,” among other demands.

Police arrested seven people who entered Smith’s office, reports said.

READ: OCHA warns famine in Gaza may soon reach central and southern areas

Bloomberg previously reported that Microsoft has faced a “small but persistent revolt” over the past year from employees urging the company to end its business ties with Israel amid the Gaza war.

The company reportedly sought help from the FBI and worked with local law enforcement to monitor and suppress protests.

The latest demonstration follows reports that Israel’s Unit 8200 used Microsoft Azure to store Palestinian phone call recordings. Earlier this year, the Associated Press revealed Microsoft’s partnership with Israel’s Defense Ministry to process intelligence for target selection.

After the AP report, Microsoft said an internal review found no evidence that Azure or its AI technologies were used to target or harm people in Gaza. While it did not publish the review, the company said it would share factual findings from a follow-up review prompted by The Guardian once completed.

Israel has killed nearly 63,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave, which is facing famine, rendering it uninhabitable.

READ: Israel claims double strike on Gaza’s Nasser Hospital targeted Hamas “surveillance camera”

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
UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel's Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don't do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
Vote Labour for Genocide.
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Continue ReadingMicrosoft employees, activists protest tech giant over ties to Israel’s Gaza war

Israeli army storms northern West Bank’s Nablus, injures 25 Palestinians

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A view of the clashes that broke out Israeli soldiers and Palestinian youths protesting the raid of Israeli forces after Israeli army carried out a raid in Nablus, West Bank on August 27, 2025. [Nedal Eshtayah – Anadolu Agency]

The Israeli army stormed the northern West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday morning, injured 25 Palestinians and laying siege to its Old City, eyewitnesses told Anadolu.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a statement that its teams treated 25 people who suffered from tear gas inhalation during ongoing clashes in Nablus.

One person was transferred to the hospital, while the rest were treated on the spot, the organization said.

Witnesses said clashes erupted between dozens of Palestinians and Israeli army forces around the Old City of Nablus, where youths pelted the army with stones, which responded by live fire, rubber-coated bullets, and tear gas canisters to disperse protesters.

Witnesses said military reinforcements were deployed in and around the city, with troops forcing several families to evacuate their homes and turning them into military posts.

READ: Illegal Israeli settlers establish 3 new outposts in southern West Bank: Rights group

Israeli forces also began conducting house-to-house searches in multiple neighborhoods across Nablus.

On Tuesday, the Israeli army withdrew from the central West Bank city of Ramallah after an hours-long raid that left 58 Palestinians injured and three others detained, according to medical sources.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in separate statements that its teams treated and transported 58 injured people, including eight wounded by live fire, five by shrapnel, and 14 by rubber-coated bullets. Another 31 Palestinians suffered from tear gas inhalation.

Since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, more than a thousand Palestinians have been killed and 7,000 injured in the occupied West Bank by Israeli forces and illegal settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal. It demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

READ: Netanyahu backs settler attacks in west bank, signals move to annex territory

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
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Continue ReadingIsraeli army storms northern West Bank’s Nablus, injures 25 Palestinians

UNRWA chief condemns Israel’s denial of Gaza famine as ‘shameful’

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Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) holds a press conference in Berlin, Germany on October 16, 2024 [Halil Sağırkaya – Anadolu Agency]

The head of the UN agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) on Tuesday slammed the Israeli government’s policy of denying the famine in Gaza as “shameful”, Anadolu reports.

Speaking to the press at a seminar held in Santander, northern Spain, Philippe Lazzarini said: “There is a famine right now in Gaza. This is a man-made famine driven by political and military will.”

Lazzarini said Gaza is facing a situation that has “hit rock bottom” in humanitarian terms, adding that the failure of the international community to heed warnings about the famine is “shameful.”

“Gaza today is like hell. People are not only dying under bombardments, they are dying of hunger, and even when they go out to look for food, they are killed. Those who could reverse the situation in Gaza are doing nothing — no measures, no condemnation.

“Today we are witnessing complete impunity for Israel. There is no economic, political, or diplomatic cost for those committing these violations,” he said.

READ: OIC calls for suspension of Israel’s UN membership

Calling for an immediate ceasefire and unrestricted access for humanitarian aid in Gaza, Lazzarini noted that aid equivalent to 6,000 UNRWA trucks, enough to cover the food needs of the Palestinian population for two months, is being held outside the Gaza Strip.

“The Israeli government’s policy of denying the famine in Gaza is shameful,” he said.

He also recalled that the number of humanitarian workers killed in Gaza is very high, with more than 360 UNRWA staff members having lost their lives.

Lazzarini strongly condemned the Israeli army’s airstrike on the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, which left journalists civilians dead.

He also called for support for Palestinian journalists, stressing that they remain the only witnesses to what is happening in Gaza, as Israel refuses to allow international reporters into the enclave to verify the situation on the ground.

READ: Ireland calls for UN force to ensure aid reaches Gaza

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
Vote Labour for Genocide.
Vote Labour for Genocide.
Continue ReadingUNRWA chief condemns Israel’s denial of Gaza famine as ‘shameful’