Palestine Coalition statement in response to Met Police ban – 13 January 2025
Last week, the Metropolitan Police publicly confirmed its intention to prevent our planned protest at the BBC on Saturday 18 January, by imposing an exclusion order banning Palestine solidarity protestors from entering the area surrounding the BBC throughout the day. We will not be silenced.
Since the Police announced their imposing of orders to prevent a protest at the BBC, nearly 200 MPs, trade union and civil society leaders and groups including Amnesty International UK and Akiko Hart, Director of Liberty, Holocaust survivors and their descendants, lawyers, journalists and prominent cultural figures have spoken out in support of the right to protest. Today, they have been joined by over 700 members of the Jewish community.
In recent weeks, Israel has intensified its genocide against the Palestinian people – including massacres of civilians sheltering in so-called ‘safe zones’ and the destruction of the last remaining medical facilities in the north of Gaza. Our marches reflect the overwhelming outrage felt by those who have witnessed these atrocities for more than a year alongside the ongoing complicity of the British government.
Recent investigations have exposed widespread anger amongst BBC staff at the skewed nature of its coverage, and its consistent failure to adhere to its own editorial standards, including by dehumanising Palestinians and obscuring the truth of Israel’s crimes against them. It is entirely unacceptable for the Metropolitan Police to abuse public order powers to shield the BBC from democratic scrutiny.
Contrary to the excuse offered by the police – that they have taken this action to prevent potential disruption to a nearby synagogue – the closest synagogue to the BBC is not even on the route of the march. As the Metropolitan Police have acknowledged, there has never been any threat to a synagogue attached to any of our marches. In fact, every march has been joined by thousands of Jewish people – many in an organised Jewish bloc.
We are calling on all those who support an immediate ceasefire and an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, as well as everyone who believes in the democratic right to protest, to join us in London at 12 noon on Saturday 18 January. We will assemble in Whitehall, which will allow us to form up in massive numbers, and we will march in an orderly fashion towards the BBC. We call on the Metropolitan Police to drop these repressive restrictions and accept our right to demonstrate at the BBC.
JEREMY CORBYN has demanded ministers come clean about the RAF’s use of Cyprus bases to aid Israel.
The former Labour leader, now an independent MP, has written to the Foreign Office urging it to tell the truth about RAF Akrotiri’s role in the continuing genocide in Gaza.
He asked it to confirm if the base in Cyprus was being used to ship weapons to Israel and how many US air force flights had been made from it to assist the onslaught against the Palestinians.
“We deserve to know the full scale of our government’s complicity and participation in genocide,” Mr Corbyn said in the letter.
His intervention follows a Christmas visit by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to the base, where he boasted that it was not possible to talk publicly about the vital work being carried out there.
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 Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
Palestinian children play next to buildings destroyed by Israeli army strikes in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, January 7, 2025
PRESSURE continues to mount on the government over its backing for Israel and its failure to take any serious measures to impede its genocide of the Palestinian people.
MPs from all parts of the Commons united at the first opportunity in the new year to demand that ministers act.
Even many Tory backbenchers — although not Kemi Badenoch’s front bench — seem disgusted at Britain’s continuing complicity with Israeli war crimes.
Vocal support for Israel seems to be draining away on the Labour back benches, while Liberal Democrat, SNP, Green and independent MPs are more-or-less united in urging a change of course.
There are several concrete actions they are demanding that the government should take.
First is an end to all arms sales to the Israeli regime. So far the government has only suspended a minority of the licences which permit the export of British military equipment to Israel.
Yet there is now little room for doubt that the Israeli military is engaging in war crimes daily and is in continual breach of international law.
Continuing to supply the Israeli war machine with equipment makes ministers themselves culpable for the consequences.
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 Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
THE fight for Palestinian justice is critical in the “dangerous and unstable” coming year, the government was warned today as campaigners announced a new wave of mobilisations.
Thousands in Gaza entered 2025 battling to survive as Israel continued its ethnic cleansing campaign, blocking off aid and decimating medical facilities and shelters.
The Labour leadership has remained silent on the destruction of northern Gaza’s last functioning hospital, Kamal Adwan, last Friday.
The government continues to hold 330 active arms licences permitting exports to Israel, including for components for lethal F-35 jets that have dropped 2,000lb bombs on the innocent people of Gaza.
Campaigners from across the peace movement have pledged to intensify their efforts this year, pressing the government for a full arms embargo.
A spokeswoman for the Stop the War Coalition said: “As Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank continues in real time, we will not give up our fight for justice for Palestine and for ending this government’s complicity in genocide.
UK Labour Party Shadow Foreign Secretary repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party’s support for and complicity in Israel’s genocide of Gaza.
UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
Scenes from Israel’s siege on Kamal Adwan Hospital. On the left, the last photo of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya as he walks towards Israeli tanks. On the right, IOF forced health workers and patients to strip and evacuate the hospital. Photo: Screenshots
As part of its ethnic cleansing policies, Israel continues to systematically target medical facilities and health workers across the Gaza strip.
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) set Kamal Adwan Hospital on fire on Friday, December 27, putting the largest medical facility in the northern part of the besieged enclave out of service. Kamal Adwan is located in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip and was one of the last functioning hospitals in the area.
According to the Director of Gaza’s Health Ministry, Munir al-Bursh, the IOF ordered 350 people including 75 patients and their escorts along with 185 medical staff to evacuate the hospital, and move to a nearby school sheltering displaced people.
Gaza’s Health Ministry stated that it has completely lost contact with medics inside the Kamal Adwan Hospital since the IOF stormed the facility.
The whereabouts of the hospital director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, are currently unknown. Dr. Safiya had been providing constant updates on Israel’s siege of the hospital for the last several months and pleading for international institutions to take action to stop Israel’s attacks. On December 2, 2024, he penned a column in the New York Times titled, “I’m One of the Last Doctors in This Hospital in Gaza. I’m Begging the World for Help.” In the essay, he wrote, “We feel as if the rest of the world is wrapped up in a different world from the one we are in. We are suffering and paying the price of the genocide that is happening to our people here in the northern Gaza Strip.”
Notably, in its report on Israel’s final siege on the hospital, the Times depicts the travesty at Kamal Adwan as collateral damage in Israel’s “offensive against Hamas militants” uncritically repeating Israel’s allegation that “the hospital was a stronghold for Hamas and that it was carrying out ‘targeted operations’ in the area.”
In a statement published on Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) slammed Israel’s arson attack on the hospital, which used to serve over 400,000 Palestinian citizens. “This morning’s raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital has put this last major health facility in north Gaza out of service. Initial reports indicate that some key departments were severely burnt and destroyed during the raid,” the statement reads.
“60 health workers and 25 patients in critical condition, including those on ventilators, reportedly remain in the hospital. The patients in moderate to severe condition were forced to evacuate to the destroyed and non-functional Indonesian Hospital. WHO is deeply concerned for their safety,” the statement continues.
The WHO clarified that the raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital followed Israel’s escalating restrictions on the organization and its partners to access the hospital. The raid also came after repeated attacks on the hospital and its vicinity since early October. The organization considered the assault on the hospital as part of the systematic dismantling of the health system in Gaza, labeling it as a “death sentence for tens of thousands of Palestinians in need of health care.”
For its part, the Palestinian Presidency slammed the attack considering it as “part of Israel’s ongoing campaign of genocide and displacement against the Palestinian people”, and a “serious and blatant violation of international law and international agreements and conventions that protect medical facilities and personnel during armed conflicts.”
The Palestinian Presidency urged global health organizations, including WHO, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and other international humanitarian bodies “to fulfill their responsibilities toward stopping this crime against the Palestinian healthcare sector.”
The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) condemned the attack calling it a “war crime” committed amid “international inaction and full complicity from the US administration.”
In an Al Jazeerainterview on Friday, Hamas official Osama Hamdan refuted Israeli claims that there were Palestinian fighters in the hospital and stated that Kamal Adwan Hospital has been subjected to a massacre for 75 days. Hamdan added that the attack on the hospital is part of an attempt by Israel “to end all manifestations of civilian steadfastness in northern Gaza.”
One day prior to setting the facility to fire, Israeli fighter jets launched an airstrike on a building opposite of Kamal Adwan Hospital. At least 50 people were killed in the attack, including three health workers. Earlier in the month, IOF placed booby trapped devices around the hospital, and eyewitnesses said they saw explosive robots and hidden bombs deployed around the facility.
Kamal Adwan was not the only major medical facility to be targeted by IOF in Gaza during the past two weeks. Israel also intensified its attacks on the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya, and the Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia refugee camp north of Gaza city, which has prompted doctors and authorities in Gaza to request immediate intervention by the international community.
Yet, despite the numerous cries for help and warnings of dangerous escalation by Gaza’s health workers, Israel has been able to proceed with the destruction of healthcare and its genocide of the Palestinian people thanks to the full backing it enjoys by the United States government.
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 Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
