Mass arrest of anti-Genocide protesters
Palestine Action co-founder accuses ministers of making defamatory claims
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/11/palestine-action-huda-ammori-ministers-claims
Huda Ammori says No 10’s allegations go against its own intelligence assessments, as pressure grows over mass arrests
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The number of people arrested for peaceful protests, together with the images of older people being led away and the demands placed on the criminal justice system, have led many to call into question the criminalisation of so many people.
On Monday, a Downing Street spokesperson responded by saying Palestine Action, which last month became the first direct action protest group to be banned, was “a violent organisation that has committed violence, significant injury, extensive criminal damage”.
The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, told the BBC that Palestine Action “is not a non-violent organisation” and claimed that court restrictions meant people “don’t know the full nature of this organisation”.
But Huda Ammori, co-founder of Palestine Action, said: “Yvette Cooper and No 10’s claim that Palestine Action is a violent organisation is false and defamatory and even disproven by the government’s own intelligence assessment of Palestine Action’s activities …
“It was revealed in court during my ongoing legal challenge to the ban that the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre’s (JTAC’S) assessment acknowledges that ‘Palestine Action does not advocate for violence against persons’ and that the ‘majority’ of its activities ‘would not be classified as terrorism’.
“Spraying red paint on war planes is not terrorism. Disrupting Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems, by trespassing on their sites in Britain is not terrorism. It is the Israeli Defense Forces and all those who arm and enable their war crimes who are the terrorists.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/11/palestine-action-huda-ammori-ministers-claims
Starmer must expel Israeli ambassador, say Scottish Greens
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/starmer-must-expel-israeli-ambassador-say-scottish-greens
Israeli ambassador to Britain Tzipi Hotovely arrives at BBC Broadcasting House in London, to appear on the BBC One current affairs programme, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, June 15, 2025SCOTTISH Greens have called for Sir Keir Starmer to expel Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely as they renew their calls for an end to political and military support for the “genocidal assault on Gaza.”
The party’s co-leader Lorna Slater made the remarks after the Prime Minister urged the Netanyahu regime to “reconsider” the escalation of its attack on Gaza, despite his government supplying the Israelis with the military intelligence and armaments necessary to continue an operation which has so far cost tens of thousands of lives.
She said: “The UK government has not been a detached observer in the genocide against Gaza, it has been an active participant.
“Urging restraint is not enough, the hypocrisy must end. The arms sales must stop and so must the military collaboration and political support that has gone with them.
“That must mean backing sanctions against Israeli forces and expelling the Israeli ambassador who has served as a mouthpiece for genocide.
“This has been a disgraceful chapter in UK foreign policy and has made the Prime Minister and his colleagues complicit in some of the worst war crimes of this century.”
Israel kills Al Jazeera news team near Shifa Hospital in Gaza
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Israeli forces killed an Al Jazeera news team near al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Sunday evening. The team’s tent was struck by Israeli warplanes, resulting in the deaths of five journalists and their driver.
The journalists killed included correspondents Anas Al Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Moamen Aliwa, and their driver Mohammed Noufal.
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) acknowledged the strike and claimed Anas Al Sharif was a Hamas cell leader responsible for rocket attacks. Human rights organisations and press freedom groups—such as the United Nations and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)—denounced the claim as unsubstantiated. Al Jazeera rejected the allegations, calling the attack an attempt to silence its reporting.
Al Jazeera described the strike as “yet another blatant and premeditated attack on press freedom” ahead of a possible occupation of Gaza. The network and press freedom advocates warned that targeting media workers threatens press safety in conflict zones and diminishes independent coverage.
READ: Around 260 journalists denounce Israeli restrictions ‘silencing independent observation’
Anas Al Sharif, aged 28, was especially known for his courageous frontline reporting from northern Gaza. He was seen as a “voice” for the hungry and bereaved in the Gaza Strip, especially with the intensification of the Israeli siege on the Strip.
Journalists Al-Sharif and Qureiqa were keen to convey the voice of civilians and the hungry in the Gaza Strip to the world and expose the crimes of the occupation.
Al-Sharif had been subjected to continuous and repeated incitement from Israeli officials and electronic media.
Days before his death, he warned of intense bombardments and emphasised the suffering of civilians in Gaza.
Al Jazeera called on the international community and all relevant organisations to “take decisive measures to halt this ongoing genocide and end the deliberate targeting of journalists”.
Since the conflict began on 7 October 2023, more than 200 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, according to Al Jazeera and Gaza authorities.
READ: 8 European countries ‘strongly condemn’ Israeli plans to occupy Gaza
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
