Wes Streeting, Peter Kyle and Jonathan Reynolds leave Starmer’s first cabinet meeting. (Photo: Alamy)
Declassified Exclusive: Labour’s top team has accepted over £600,000 from pro-Israel funders.
Pro-Israel lobbyists have donated to 13 out of Labour’s 25 cabinet members since they were first elected to parliament, Declassified can reveal.
The list of recipients includes prime minister Keir Starmer, his deputy Angela Rayner, chancellor Rachel Reeves, foreign secretary David Lammy and home secretary Yvette Cooper.
Jonathan Reynolds, who will oversee arms exports to Israel as UK trade secretary, is another beneficiary, alongside Labour’s election mastermind Pat McFadden, whose responsibilities now include national security.
Some of the donations were provided by Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), a lobby group which takes MPs on “fact-finding” missions to the region.
Reeves, McFadden, Reynolds and technology secretary Peter Kyle were recently listed as vice-chairs of LFI.
Other major funders include pro-Israel businessmen Gary Lubner, Trevor Chinn, and Stuart Roden.
The total value of the donations amounts to over £600,000.
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Vote For Genocide Vote Labour.Zionist Keir Starmer is quoted “I support Zionism without qualification.” He’s asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.
Israel continues to besiege the Nasser Medical Complex. Photo: via Palestine Chronicle
Patients and staff were forced to leave the European Gaza Hospital following new orders from Israel, increasing pressure on the few remaining medical centers in the south
Nasser Hospital in the Gaza Strip has faced a surge of patients after the European Gaza Hospital was emptied following evacuation orders from the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) on July 1.
The European Gaza Hospital, with a capacity of approximately 650 beds, had about 320 patients at the time of the evacuation. All patients, staff, and families fled by the evening of the next day, fearing the hospital would be surrounded, besieged, and raided by the IOF—a pattern observed in other medical centers since October 7. While some patients were transported by ambulances, others had no choice but to walk 10 kilometers to Nasser Hospital.
“We have heard that patients have traveled on their own, either arriving at Nasser Hospital in beds or being walked by their families,” reported Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
Although international organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), supported the translocation of equipment and supplies to Nasser Hospital, the situation remains unsustainable. MSF reports that departments designed to host approximately 50 patients have recently admitted double that number.
MSF staff also warned that patients are now lying on blankets on the floor due to a shortage of mattresses and beds.” The team has put nails on the wall so we can hang the intravenous fluids and medication we need to give patients, but it’s a very difficult situation, and the team is exhausted,” said MSF nurse activity manager Cristina Roldán.
“Overall, it’s a comprehensive issue—from shortages of beds and supplies to the lack of surgeons. With yet another hospital closed, patients’ lives are even more at risk,” commented Javid Abdelmoneim, another MSF staff member at Nasser Hospital.
The supply of medicines and fuel to the 15 partially operational hospitals in Gaza remains far below what is necessary. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that health infrastructure in Gaza needs at least 80,000 liters of fuel per day, while only 90,000 liters overall entered the Strip on July 3. Consequently, those organizing and delivering humanitarian aid and health workers are forced to make impossible choices about fuel allocation and delivery of care.
The obstruction of humanitarian aid by the IOF, along with ongoing physical attacks impeding movement within Gaza, has severely continued to hamper planned humanitarian missions. The United Nations reported that between July 1 and 4, of the 13 planned missions to northern Gaza, only one proceeded as scheduled. Nine missions were impeded, two were canceled for logistical and security reasons, and one was denied access.
The combination of attacks and lack of essential supplies continues to exacerbate health problems in the area. Nutritious food is unavailable to an overwhelming majority of Gaza’s population, especially in the north, contributing to issues like anemia in children. “No commercial food supplies have reached the area [Jabaliya] for nearly two months, and the prices of the few products available on the local market are exorbitantly high,” the UN stated.
No improvement in the state of health and healthcare in Gaza can be foreseen unless there is an immediate and sustained ceasefire.
Zionist Keir Starmer is quoted “I support Zionism without qualification.” He’s asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.Vote For Genocide Vote Labour.
Met police confirm protesters held on suspicion of public order offences, including one related to placard
Four people were arrested on Saturday on suspicion of public order offences while attending a pro-Palestinian march in central London, including one relating to a placard.
The Metropolitan police confirmed on X that three people were held on suspicion of breaching Public Order Act conditions imposed on the march, with a fourth man detained on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence relating to a placard.
Organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets on the first day of a new Labour government to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
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This latest protest comes after the health ministry in Gaza confirmed that at least 38,098 Palestinians have been killed and 87,705 others injured since Israel’s military offensive in Gaza began on 7 October.
Jeremy Corbyn, the independent MP for Islington North, joined pro-Palestine march in London. Photograph: Yann Tessier/Reuters [Jeremy Corbyn 2nd from right is joined by Andrew Feinstein, far right, former ANC Member of the National Assembly of South Africa who stood as an independent candidate against Starmer because of Starmer’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide.]
In attendance was the re-elected independent MP for Islington North, Jeremy Corbyn, who told protesters that “a change in government doesn’t change the facts that the people of Gaza are still being murdered in their sleep”.
“We said it to the Tories, and now we will say it to Labour: a government that sells arms to Israel is a government that is complicit in crimes against humanity.”
Zionist Keir Starmer is quoted “I support Zionism without qualification.” He’s asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.
Relief workers distribute food in Gaza City, Gaza on March 14, 2024. (Photo: Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Providing aid to Gaza and ensuring the reconstruction of the strip must not be a political item for negotiations. It is a basic human right that must be honored under any circumstance.
Humanitarian aid should never be politicized though, quite often, the very survival of nations is used as political bargaining chips.
Sadly, Gaza remains a prime example. Even before the current war, the Gaza Strip suffered under a 17-year hermetic blockade, which has rendered the impoverished area virtually “unlivable.”
That very term, “unlivable” was used by the then-United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Situation of Palestine, Michael Lynk, in 2018.
Scenes and images of thousands of starving Palestinians chasing after boxes of aid parachuted into Gaza will remain etched in the collective memory of humanity as an example of our failed morality.
As of mid-December of last year, “nearly 70% of Gaza’s 439,000 homes and about half of its buildings have been damaged or destroyed,” The Wall Street Journal reported, citing experts who conducted a thorough analysis of satellite data.
As tragic as the situation was in December, now it is far worse.
Sixty-seven percent of Gaza’s water, sanitation facilities, and infrastructure have been destroyed or damaged, according to a statement by the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, on June 19, leading to the spreading of infectious diseases, which has ravaged the beleaguered population for months.
The spread of disease is also linked to the accumulation of garbage everywhere in Gaza. Earlier, the refugees agency reported that “as of June 9, over 330,000 tons of waste have accumulated in or near populated areas across Gaza, posing catastrophic environmental (and) health risks.”
The situation was already disastrous. Indeed, three years before the war, the Global Institute for Water, Environment, and Health (GIWEH) said, in a joint statement with the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, that 97% of Gaza water was undrinkable and unfit for human consumption.
Yet, so far, any conversation on allowing aid to Gaza, or the rebuilding of Gaza after the war, has been placed largely within political contexts.
By shutting down all border crossings, including the Egypt-Gaza Rafah Crossing—which, on June 17, was set ablaze—Israel has politicized food, fuel, and medicine as tools in its war in the strip.
This is not a mere inference, but the actual statement made by Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, who on October 9 declared that he had ordered a “complete siege” and that “there will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, no water” entering Gaza.
The timing of the statement, which has indeed been put into action from the first day of the war, suggests that Israel did not apply the strategy as a last resort. It was one of the most important pieces in the war stratagem, which remains in effect to this day.
Instead of pressuring Israel, Washington tried to obtain its own political leverage, also by politicizing aid. On March 2, the U.S. Air Force started airdropping aid into northern Gaza. A far more conducive and less humiliating option for Palestinians, however, would have been direct U.S. pressure on Israel to allow access to aid trucks arriving through Rafah, Karem Abu Salem Crossing, or any other.
Scenes and images of thousands of starving Palestinians chasing after boxes of aid parachuted into Gaza will remain etched in the collective memory of humanity as an example of our failed morality.
News reports spoke of people who were killed under the weight of the dropped “aid,” much of which had fallen in the Mediterranean, never to be retrieved.
Even the Gaza pier, constructed by the U.S. military on the Gaza shore in May, did little to alleviate the situation. It merely transported 137 aid trucks, according to the U.S.’ own estimation, enough to cover Gaza’s need for food for a few hours only.
During the years of siege, an average of 500 trucks arriving daily in Gaza has kept the 2.3 million population of the strip alive, though malnourished.
To deal with the outcome of the war, and to stave off current starvation, especially in the north, the number of aid trucks would have to be much higher. Yet, whole days would pass without a single truck making its way to the suffering population. This is unacceptable.
Not only did the international community fail at ending the war, it has also failed in delinking humanitarian aid from political and military objectives.
The problem with politicizing aid is that innocent civilians become a bargaining chip for politicians and military men. This goes against the very foundation of international humanitarian law.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, citing the Hague Regulations, “international humanitarian law is the branch of international law that seeks to impose limits on the destruction and suffering caused by armed conflict.” In Gaza, no such “limits” have been “imposed” by anyone.
Providing aid to Gaza and ensuring the reconstruction of the strip must not be a political item for negotiations. It is a basic human right that must be honored under any circumstance.
Meaningful pressure must be placed on Israel to end the Gaza siege, and urgent plans must be drafted, starting today, by representatives of U.N. humanitarian institutions, the Arab League, and Palestinian and Gaza authorities to be the entities responsible for delivering aid to Gaza.
Humanitarian aid to Gaza must not be used as political leverage, or a tool in a cruel war, whose primary victims are millions of Palestinian civilians.
Zionist Keir Starmes is quoted “I support Zionism without qualification.” He’s asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.
Stuart Roden (glasses) celebrates behind Frankie Dettori after they win at Ascot. (Photo: John Walton / Alamy)
Stuart Roden started a company with an Israeli special forces veteran and a senior Conservative. He’s now among Labour’s top election donors.
Stuart Roden, the chairman of Israeli venture capital firm Hetz Ventures, has given the Labour party over half a million pounds ahead of the UK’s general election, Declassified has found.
His donations worth £570,000 were registered with the Electoral Commission after Rishi Sunak called the snap poll.
He is among a number of pro-Israel businessmen in Britain to have contributed to Labour’s election warchest, with figures such as Gary Lubner also donating £900,000 to the party in recent weeks.
Roden is joined at Hetz Ventures by an array of former Israeli soldiers, many of whom have served in elite intelligence units.
He is also the prime funder of a Zionist educational programme in Britain which teaches children that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) are acting proportionately in Gaza.
Roden was filmed shouting at peaceful pro-Palestine protesters outside the Labour party conference in October. “You murdered children” he screamed at the crowd, which included elderly women, telling journalists the demonstration should be banned.
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Roden has now donated over £1m in total to Labour since 2023. He has funded the party directly as well as shadow ministers Bridget Phillipson and Lisa Nandy.
Declassified approached his company for comment on why he is giving this amount of money to Labour. No response was received at the time of publication.
His donations are dwarfed by those of another pro-Israel funder, Gary Lubner, who has given Labour around £6m since Keir Starmer became party leader.
Lubner was a policeman in Apartheid South Africa whose family donated to the ruling white supremacist National party. Lubner claims he opposed Apartheid.
The scale of Labour’s funding from pro-Israel businessmen is significant and exceeds the £5.9m it received from trade unions last year.
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Andrew Feinstein, an independent candidate standing against the Labour leader in Holborn and St Pancras, told Declassified: “It’s absolutely appalling and indefensible that Keir Starmer is taking millions of pounds from pro-Israel lobbyists.
“Between Gary Lubner and Stuart Roden we’re talking about over £1.5m to fight this election, from two people whose primary interest would appear to be protecting Israel from criticism”.
Feinstein, the son of a Holocaust survivor, fears these donations could deter Starmer from speaking out over Gaza, where Labour has not demanded an arms embargo or unqualified ceasefire.
He added: “It is because of massive donations like this from incredibly wealthy individuals that today Britain has the best democracy money can buy.
Zionist Keir Starmes is quoted “I support Zionism without qualification.” He’s asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.
