‘Workers For A Free Palestine’ protest at Instro Precision Ltd in Sandwich, Kent, a subsidiary of arms manufacturer Elbit Systems. Trade unionists responded to a request from Palestinan trade unions and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Over 150 young trade unionists created a blockade at the entrances to a factory in Kent this morning, which is the site of an Israeli weapons manufacturer.
Holding a banner reading ‘Workers For A Free Palestine’, the demonstration targeted Instro Precision Ltd in Sandwich, Kent, a subsidiary of arms manufacturer Elbit Systems which is one of Israel’s largest arms producers responsible for making drones and artillery for the military.
Members from the unions Unite, UNISON, the NEU, UCU, the BMA, BFAWU, RMT and IWGB were represented, demanding the UK stop arming Israel, in response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The action was organised by a new project called Workers for a Free Palestine, set up in response to an urgent call made by Palestinian trade unions for their international counterparts to halt arms trading with Israel.
Palestinian trade unions called on global workers to take action and “end all forms of complicity with Israel’s crimes” by refusing to build or transport weapons destined for Israel and to increase pressure on governments to call for a ceasefire.
According to Novara Media reporter Ash Sarkar, multiple lorries and vans were unable to make deliveries to the weapons factory after being turned away by the group today.
ISRAEL’S announcement that it will “teach a lesson” to the United Nations by denying visas to its representatives only highlights its growing isolation — and that of its Nato allies.
Its brutal bombardment of Gaza has already killed at least 29 employees of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the besieged strip, a tiny proportion of the civilian casualties but a telling sign of Tel Aviv’s contempt for international law.
The UN’s structure has prevented it from giving a clear moral lead with the United States vetoing calls for a ceasefire. But the remarks by secretary-general Antonio Guterres that have so riled Israeli leaders — that Hamas’s attacks on October 7 did not happen “in a vacuum” and must be linked to “56 years of suffocating oppression” of Palestine by Israel — were a statement of fact.
More could have been said. It is not just the decades-long denial of Palestinian statehood, the ongoing routine violence of the occupation or the siege of Gaza that set the scene for those terrifying events.
It is that the oppression of Palestinians has become rapidly more extreme in recent years, from Israel’s adoption of the racist Nation-State Law, through the massacre of unarmed demonstrators on the Gaza border during the March of Return protests, to the appointment of self-described fascist ministers who would have been beyond the political pale even five years ago.
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It is not Western peoples who are isolated, but our politicians, as the huge Palestine demonstrations and the growing backlash against Keir Starmer for endorsing war crimes show.
If world opinion is for a ceasefire, British public opinion is too. The gulf between people and politicians should be used to build an anti-imperialist movement strong enough to stop the war.
Starmer won the membership election to succeed left-winger and Palestine solidarity veteran Jeremy Corbyn last weekend.
His first act as leader has been to declare the party’s allegiance to the Israel lobby, and to signal an impending purge of the left wing of the party membership under the pretext of combating “Labour anti-Semitism.”
Throughout his four and a half years as Labour leader, Corbyn was incessantly defamed with a manufactured anti-Semitism crisis by the the Israel lobby and by the right wing of his own party.
“Anti-Semitism has been a stain on our party,” Starmer claimed in his victory speech, giving full credence to the smears against his predecessor.
“On behalf of the Labour Party, I am sorry.”
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The Israel lobby was jubilant, with one major group gloating that they had “slaughtered” Corbyn.
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“Within hours of the result, Keir Starmer called me to discuss anti-Jewish hate in the Labour Party,” wrote former Labour lawmaker Ruth Smeeth, in a Times of Israelblog post.
On Tuesday, Starmer wrote another simpering apology to the Israel lobby, published in both the Evening Standard and the anti-Palestinian newspaper, The Jewish Chronicle.
“Once the coronavirus pandemic is over,” he wrote, “I will be closing the Labour Party’s offices for a day and inviting representatives of the Jewish community to come in and facilitate a day’s training for all members of staff on anti-Semitism.”
I didn’t invite him or even know who he was, says disgusted imam of South Wales Islamic Centre after outrage over Starmer photo stunt
Skwakwbox’s image of Keir Starmer attempting to ‘mosque-wash’ his comments supporting and encouraging Israeli war crimes against Gaza at South Wales Islamic Centre, Oct 2023.
Keir Starmer’s attempt to mosque-wash his support for Israeli war crimes against Palestinian civilians has backfired enormously, after Muslims reacted with outrage to his appearance in the South Wales Islamic Centre – and the centre’s imam disowned him and said he didn’t even know who he was when Starmer turned up.
In a conversation related on a socialist WhatsApp group, the imam said that he had not invited Starmer – Starmer’s team had called the centre and said he wanted to visit – and had no idea beforehand that it would be cynically exploited for a photo opportunity. Moreover, he was asking the mosque committee to put out another statement about the visit and would never ‘betray the Palestinians’ by knowingly associating with a supporter of Israel’s war crimes against the Palestinians.
The message relayed from the Muslim scholar who spoke to the imam was as follows:
Starmer has been trying to repair his relationship with the Muslim community through a surprise visit to a mosque in Wales. The following was shared by a scholar friend of mine this morning:
I spoke to the imam of the South Wales Islamic Centre, Shaykh Muhammad (Egyptian), over the phone about these images which are being used by Keir Starmer as propaganda and PR to dilute and sanctify his statement in support of war crimes and genocide. I don’t know this imam personally; I didn’t know anything about him and had not spoken to him before this telephone conversation.
I shared my thoughts on Keir Starmer and the South Wales Islamic Centre propaganda before my conversation with the Centre’s imam. My thoughts on this issue have not changed. We all know that mosque imams in the UK are employees of mosque committees and have zero decision-making powers.
Since my phone conversation with the Imam of South Wales Islamic Centre was private, I asked for his permission to share on Facebook and with others the details I am going to share now, and he granted me his permission to do so. He was crying and upset as he explained to me the following:
1) South Wales Islamic Centre did not invite Keir Starmer. He was in Wales and his people made a phone call to South Wales Islamic Centre expressing their desire to come and visit the Centre.
2) The imam did not know who Keir Starmer was before he met him at the South Wales Islamic Centre. He’s Egyptian, can barely speak or read English and doesn’t follow local politics. He was also not aware of what Keir Starmer had said in support of genocide and war crimes. He wishes he had researched online before agreeing to meet him. Even if he had, he doubt that he would have found anything in Arabic. [It seems that the old issue of imams who are not familiar with the local context has still not been resolved. With notable exceptions, Al-Azhar graduates have not always been known to be politically and socially literate and aware. So, I was not surprised]
3) The imam was unaware that this visit would be exploited for propaganda and public relations. He was shocked when the angry phone calls starting coming in from various communities, and disappointed to see how the pictures from the visit were being used by Keir Starmer on social media for propaganda purposes.
4) He will ask the mosque committee to meet and draft ANOTHER statement to clarify what happened and state South Wales Islamic Centre’s position.
5) He cried as he explained that he would never betray Palestinians by associating or collaborating in the propaganda of anyone who supports war crimes and genocide against them. I believe everything he told me. The South Wales Islamic Centre and its committee should clean this mess.
Keir Starmer is complicit in Israel’s murders and starvation of Palestinian civilians and in the whole oppression, occupation and apartheid inflicted on the people of Palestine. No amount of white-, mosque- or any other kind of wash can cover or erase that.
