A relative carries the body of Palestinian child Muath Al-Basus, who was killed in an Israeli military strike, during his funeral outside Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, September 4, 2025
UN specialist speaks out as Gaza tribunal told of atrocities
MINISTERS could face prosecution for war crimes as the Gaza tribunal today heard that Israeli military deliberately mutilated boys’ genitals for “target practice.”
UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese said that British policymakers who green-lit economic ties with Israel, and who allowed the trade of arms during the genocide met the “criminal threshold” for complicity in war crimes.
The Jeremy Corbyn-led tribunal also heard shocking first-hand accounts from medics and humanitarian workers and legal experts who worked in Gaza.
British doctor Nick Maynard, who recently returned on his third trip to Gaza since October 7, told of the injuries he saw while working at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, which he said amounted to a “daily witnessing of war crimes.”
He said that Israeli forces targeted specific body parts of Palestinian children, citing examples of bullet wounds in their head, neck and abdomen.
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Ms Albanese said that Britain’s failure to uphold the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide could leave government officials at risk of prosecution.
She said: “This failure to abide by international obligations alone could be sufficient to establish a case for criminal complicity in the actions of Israel.
“Conduct such as the present and moral support [for Israel] has been found to meet the criminal threshold for complicity for individuals before international tribunals.
“Government officials can be held individually responsible if found complicit of crimes .
UK Labour Party government Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are participants and complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide providing Israel with army 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.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
Palestinians walk through a makeshift tent camp for displaced people near the Gaza City port, September 1, 2025
A SPOTLIGHT will be shone on British state complicity in the Gaza genocide tomorrow [today] as Jeremy Corbyn’s Peace and Justice Project launches an independent probe into the government’s role in the crisis.
It comes after ministers blocked a widely supported Bill presented by the former Labour leader for an official inquiry into Britian’s involvement in Israel’s war crimes.
The tribunal, to be held at Church House in Westminster, will hear from United Nations special rapporteur Francesca Albanese among other witnesses over the next two days.
Writing in the Star, Mr Corbyn outlined the tribunal’s plans, which, he stressed, are not a substitute for an official probe, which would have more powers.
He said: “Earlier this year, I presented a private member’s Bill to Parliament, calling for an independent, public inquiry into Britain’s involvement in Gaza.
“I wanted to know: Why does our government continue to provide military support for Israel? What weapons have been supplied? Which of those weapons have been used in Gaza? Why does our government permit the supply of components for F-35 jets?”
Yet the government blocked the Bill. Mr Corbyn writes: “If the government had nothing to hide, it would stop blocking our efforts to expose the truth.”
The tribunal will issue a public report, focused on whether Britain has upheld its legal obligations to prevent genocide, which all scholars now concur is under way in Gaza.
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.
Lamees M of the Palestinian Youth Movement speaking at the People’s Conference for Palestine in Detroit on August 30. Photo: Jaylen Strong
Lamees Mehanna, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement, spoke on the panel “Gaza is the Center of the World” at the People’s Conference for Palestine
The second annual “People’s Conference for Palestine: Gaza is the Compass” seeks to strengthen the growing movement for Palestinian liberation within the United States – Israel’s largest political and financial backer. The conference taking place in Detroit, began on August 29 and will conclude on August 31.
On the second day of the conference, Lamees Mehanna, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), spoke in the keynote session “Gaza is the Center of the World” reflecting on the centrality of Gaza and Palestine in today’s world and how the liberation of Palestine is part of transforming the entire world predicated on exploitation and war.
Read her full speech below:
For our generation, Palestine and Gaza are truly the defining issue of our time. For the PYM, Gaza has always been a centering force. In fact the PYM was formed during the 2009 war on Gaza 16 years ago. It is the issue that has transformed the lives of everyday people, people like you and I, who have rearranged, redefined, and recommitted our lives to struggle for Palestine.
The movement for Palestinian liberation has been able to weaken the bases of support for Israel and revealed the true face of Zionism as synonymous with genocide. There are many millions now around the world, including within the US, who will never believe Israel’s propaganda again, generations will grow up knowing the truth about Palestine. There have been major developments through organizing that we might have never thought possible a few years ago.
And yet, to our devastation, against our will, and at the cost of so many lives in Gaza, all of our actions have not stopped the genocide. And so our question is why?
Why has the genocide continued when the masses of the world have shown day in and day out where they stand? Why has the genocide continued when over 80% of Americans support a ceasefire? Why has the genocide continued when international bodies, human rights organizations, genocide scholars and historians globally have laid out, in excruciating levels of detail, the reality of this genocide?
Why can’t the ICC actually prosecute Netanyahu? Why hasn’t the UN intervened in any real or tangible way? Why hasn’t every single country sanctioned Israel? Why are there still any corporations facilitating this genocide, from tech to logistics? Why does mainstream media continue to cover, euphemize, obscure, and hide Israel’s crimes?
One could look at these questions and feel stuck in their organizing or movement work across the world, and especially here in the United States.
But the continuation of this genocide is not due to a lack of will, or lack of hope, or lack of desire on the part of the people or the part of the movement to stop this. It is ultimately due to the character of our global system, and the role of states and corporations within it. The world order is designed to benefit the interests of a few states, and ultimately a few people, at the expense of the masses of the world, including the working people of this country. This genocide has revealed that, it has revealed the undemocratic nature at the core of the status quo.
The people of the world, the masses that stand with Gaza see this clearly now. This is what I think it means to say that Gaza is the compass. It means, then, that the only logical conclusion to ending this genocide is transforming the world that has allowed for it to happen. Gaza has made so clear the importance of confronting decades of policies that favor endless wars, lobbied for by weapons manufacturers, the pro-Israel lobbies, such as AIPAC, and other warhawk politicians. Policies that continue to line the pockets of billionaires, at the expense of the global majority, including the millions of hard working families in this country.
And the supporters of this genocide know this. They know if we are able to bring about the changes needed to not just end this genocide but to hold all those who have been complicit accountable, it means we have ushered in a new world. And so their response is to do anything they can to stop the march towards the truth, and to put forth such bold-faced lies.
That they’re telling you to deny what you see with your own two eyes. They’re telling us to deny our own intellect and morality, deny the burning tents and hospital beds, deny the double tap executions of medical workers and journalists, deny world-renowned research institutions that have published the death tolls, deny what every international human rights body has said and the international courts that have classified it as a genocide. They are telling you to deny the truth, and believe the Zionist propaganda instead.
But they make a huge miscalculation, which is that you and I, all of us in this room are proof of that. Which is that our commitment to truth and justice is unshakeable, our morality and our intellect will not be insulted, we will not be intimidated, and we will not be made to turn away from Gaza and we will not be complacent with a world system that does.
We will not be denied the future Gaza deserves, the one where the Palestinian people can self-determine their future, see their children grow up and grow up to fulfil their dreams and aspirations, the one where international institutions can actually move to uphold conventions on human rights, without obstacle or fear of US intervention and sanctions, the one where we elect people that can actually represent us and not the interests of the few who bought their campaign. A future that brings an end to war profiteers and to the very idea of genocide and occupation.
This is what they fear the most. They fear a reality where Gaza is world altering; because it is. Gaza shows us that the choices are between building a just world or sliding into full scale barbarism. And we have chosen a just world
The movement for Palestinian Liberation is the movement of our lifetimes, it’s the movement that we have all chosen, it’s the movement of the future, it’s the only option and it’s the movement for all people of conscience, it’s a charge for all those who are willing to take it.
As Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta often says and reminded us just now, tomorrow is a Palestinian day. Free, free Palestine!
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 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.
Metropolitan Police officers observing a protest in central London in support of Palestine Action, organised by the Defend Our Juries group, July 5, 2025
COUNTER-TERRORISM police arrested key members of Defend Our Juries today in “an unprecedented assault on free speech” just hours before the group was due to hold a press conference on an upcoming mass protest against proscribing Palestine Action.
Despite the arrests, the group confirmed that the protest will go ahead on Saturday, having met its target of securing 1,000 pledges to attend.
The protesters will gather in Parliament Square holding signs reading: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action,” challenging the police’s ability to crack down on supporters of the proscribed group.
Defend Our Juries founder Tim Crosland and law student Paddy Friend, who were due to speak at the press conference, were among those arrested during dawn raids today.
They were arrested along with three others under section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which prohibits support for proscribed organisations.
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A Defend Our Juries spokesperson said: “Locking up our key spokespeople just hours before they were due to hold a press conference announcing more peaceful Lift the Ban protests constitutes an unprecedented assault on free speech in our country.
“This level of political repression is not what we expect in a democracy — it’s the kind of tactic typically associated with authoritarian regimes around the world.
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Chief Superintendent Helen Flanagan said: “There are serious consequences for those who are found guilty of an offence under the Terrorism Act, so I would urge anyone considering showing public support towards this proscribed group to reconsider.”
Kerry Moscogiuri, from Amnesty International UK, said: “Criminalising speech or protest is only permitted when it incites violence, hatred or discrimination.
“To be clear: expressing support for Palestine Action does not meet this threshold. In fact, arresting and prosecuting people in this context, is a violation of the UK’s obligations under human rights law.”
Palestine Action joke that appeared in the UK satirical magazine ‘Private Eye’.Keir “I support Zionism without Qualification” Starmer supporting 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/O74hZCKKdpA
Zack Polanski is the new leader of the Green party in England and Wales after winning a leadership election promising a programme of “eco-populism”. Polanski beat incumbent leader Adrian Ramsay and his partner on the ticket, Ellie Chowns.
It’s been just over a year since the party celebrated its best ever results in the most recent general election. In July 2024, it doubled its vote share and quadrupled its representation in the House of Commons to four MPs.
The same election saw terrible results for the Conservatives and even for Labour, despite its win, raising questions about whether two-party politics was well and truly over. Since then, as professor John Curtice has vividly described, things have started to look even shakier.
This year’s local election saw a “record-breaking” fragmentation of the vote in which less than a quarter of local council seats went to the two main parties. The Greens now hold over 800 seats in more than 170 different councils, adding to their electoral portfolio – which also includes two members of the House of Lords and three London Assembly members.
While Polanski will be celebrating today, party members will look to him to raise their electoral fortunes even further. The electoral challenge for the Greens in England and Wales is two-pronged.
First, the party needs to maintain its position in the seats it has already secured. Its four MPs have fairly comfortable majorities, the smallest being Chowns’ 5,800 majority in North Herefordshire. Second, and perhaps most importantly, it needs to maximise its success in the 40 constituencies where it came second. All but one of these constituencies were won by Labour, which makes Labour voters the prime targets.
My research has shown how the Green party has followed a policy of “total engagement” in recent years. It takes its parliamentary work very seriously, using any and every opportunity to get its message across, even in lower-priority policy areas.
The goal here is to build credibility with the electorate. Small parties tend to want voters to think they are bigger than they are, so they can present themselves as realistic contenders for taking on the heavy work and responsibility of government. Caroline Lucas did a fantastic job of this, punching well above her weight as the party’s only MP between 2010 and 2024.
Together, the Green MPs have made over 380 contributions in the House of Commons. Chowns in particular has been a prolific backbencher, making 161 contributions, while the previous co-leaders Carla Denyer and Ramsay have been much quieter.
With Polanski sitting in the London Assembly rather than the House of Commons, this will inevitably change. The four Green MPs will collectively have more time on their hands and, with the right direction from their new leader, will have the space to be more strategic in their parliamentary activities.
Outsiders
But the Greens have always acted as something of an atypical party too, keeping one foot outside Westminster. Lucas was regularly involved in activism, joining protesters campaigning against tuition fee increases and fracking and to support refugees, to name just a few. She was even arrested in 2013 after joining a protest against energy firm Cuadrilla in Sussex (she was later cleared of all charges in court).
The new Green MPs have continued in this vein, with Sian Berry joining a peaceful protest against far-right agitators in Brighton last year and Chowns pressing the government to water down anti-protest laws.
The new leadership will need to decide whether this strategy enhances their electoral appeal. Does it highlight the Greens’ distinctiveness from the establishment parties, or does it imply they aren’t responsible enough to manage being a party of significant size? The answer depends on who you ask. Polanski has participated in several protests in the past, so chances are this activism will continue to be a core feature of Green party politics.
An added complication for the Greens is that two other parties are also chasing left-leaning voters. One of these is Reform UK. Although associated with rightwing views on social issues, the party came second in many Labour seats in 2024 and needs to appeal to both sides of the political spectrum.
This may explain why the Greens have focused their efforts on highlighting Reform’s failures. Berry, for instance, recently challenged Nigel Farage and his colleagues to publish a log of all their meetings since entering the Commons, arguing that it would be in the public interest.
The other outside threat is Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s new and currently nameless party of the left. While we know little about this party’s policy platform right now, it seems to be veering towards a similarly bottom-up democratic model of organisation which has long been favoured by the Greens – possibly even with co-leaders.
The challenge for the Greens will be to better establish their niche on the left, to ensure they capture voters who are disillusioned with Keir Starmer’s wobbly start. Part of the solution could be to focus on a handful of key policy areas which go beyond the Green party’s niche of environmental issues. At the moment, its MPs take something of a scattergun approach in the Commons, contributing on everything from local buses and universal credit to Ukraine and the Middle East.
Some of the most recent questions asked during Prime Minister’s Questions by Greens hint at the options they might pursue. Ramsay has pushed for a wealth tax on the super rich, and an end to the two-child benefit cap. Both Corbyn and Sultana have, of course, been outspoken on these issues in the past.
If the Greens can’t forge a different path to this new left party, they may have no choice but to consider an electoral pact to avoid splitting the anti-Labour vote right down the middle.
A relative carries the body of Palestinian child Muath Al-Basus, who was killed in an Israeli military strike, during his funeral outside Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, September 4, 2025
