We asked Starmer’s MPs about Gaza – they ran away
Hundreds of Thousands Flood Cities Across Europe to Demand End to Genocide in Gaza
Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
An estimated 250,000 people dressed in red crowded into Museum Square in Amsterdam, demanding that the Dutch government end its support for Israel.
Expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and pressuring Dutch officials to end their longtime support for Israel were the goals of a massive demonstration in Amsterdam Sunday—one of the largest pro-Palestine protests held in Europe over the weekend as the two-year anniversary of Israel’s bombardment of the exclave approached.
“The bloodshed must stop—and we unfortunately have to stand here because we have such an incredibly weak government that doesn’t dare to draw a red line. That’s why we are here, in the hope that it helps,” protester Marieke van Zijl told the Associated Press on Sunday in Museum Square in central Amsterdam, where an estimated 250,000 people gathered.
The protests in Amsterdam and across Europe came as Israel garnered global condemnation for its interception of more than 400 humanitarians from around the world who sailed toward Gaza in recent weeks with the Global Sumud Flotilla with the aim of delivering aid to the besieged territory, where a famine was declared in August due to Israel’s near-total blockade on food, water, fuel, and other necessities entering Gaza.
In Sofia, Bulgaria, citizens carried signs reading, “Gaza: Starvation Is a Weapon of War,” while in Turkey’s capital of Ankara, protesters held up placards condemning Israel’s genocide in Gaza, where more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023.
Scholars on genocide and the Holocaust have joined leading human rights organizations—including some in Israel—and United Nations experts in declaring that Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is a genocide. The International Court of Justice is also considering an ongoing genocide case brought by South Africa regarding the military assault and starvation policy.
In Amsterdam, most protesters wore red in solidarity with Palestine and many displayed Palestinian flags.
In the Netherlands, the government has long been a staunch supporter of Israel but in recent months has increasingly denounced its attacks on Gaza. In July it banned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir from entering the country because they “repeatedly incited violence against the Palestinian population.”
On Friday, Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel said he was “unlikely” to grant an export license to send F-35 fighter jet components to Israel. The country’s Supreme Court last week ordered the government to review the currently suspended license to determine whether reinstating it would violate international law. The Netherlands is home to one of three regional warehouses for components of the US-made fighter jets.
Marjon Rozema, a spokesperson for Amnesty International, which helped organize the demonstration, called for the Dutch government to use “all economic and diplomatic means to increase pressure on Israel.”
Mass demonstrations were also held over the weekend in countries including Spain and Italy, where demonstrators demanded the release of organizers who had been aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla.
Hundreds of thousands of people marched in Rome, Madrid, and Barcelona, home of former Mayor Ada Colau, who was among those detained by Israel last week.
Organizers in Rome said 1 million people took part in Saturday’s march, which followed Friday’s one-day general strike across Italy.
“Governments, especially the Italians, are not taking action against what is happening in Gaza,” one university teacher told the BBC on Friday at a rally. “We’re here to say that it is time to intervene and solve things.”
“The Italian demonstrations for Gaza and the flotilla have been of a rather unprecedented power in recent times,” said scholar Bruno Montesano on Monday. “And they have had a global resonance that is equally surprising. And perhaps its strength derived from a sort of widespread spontaneous humanitarianism, as well as from the clashing contradictions between Western liberal-democratic chatter—certainly weakened even further due to the rise of the far right—and the racist and colonial practice of supporting Israeli fascism.”
Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
- Dozens Arrested as 1,000+ Jews Demand Gaza Ceasefire at Rabbi-Led Yom Kippur Protest in NYC ›
- ‘Stop Starving Gaza’: 50 Arrested for Jewish-Led Protest at Schumer and Gillibrand’s Offices ›
- Gaza protest deaths: Israel may have committed war crimes – UN ›
- Protests explode across Israel amid growing frustration over the war … ›
“No One Can Say We Didn’t Know”: Greta Thunberg, Others Speak After Israeli Detention
It starts with Palestine protests. But where will the crackdown on Britain’s democratic freedoms end?
dizzy: This is a small excerpt (the closing paragraphs) of a long Guardian article by journalist Owen Jones. The whole article is recommended. Will these new laws lead to widespread challenges just as the proscription of Palestine Action has done? Is it too much to expect the arrogant Zionist Labour government to learn from it’s mistakes?
…
On the same day as the synagogue attack, the Israeli army killed at least 57 Palestinians in Gaza – another hideous tally in two years of daily atrocities that have left tens of thousands dead. British politicians and media outlets have barely concealed the lack of value they attach to Palestinian life. It is among the most brazen expressions of racism of our time. One wonders how history will judge this moment: politicians are accusing people who are protesting against genocide of inciting hatred, while they are supporting those who are committing genocide.
Our government has already crossed a dangerous threshold by proscribing Palestine Action, a non-violent, anti-genocide direct action group. More than 2,000 British protesters have been arrested, mostly for holding placards opposing genocide and supporting the banned organisation. Many of them are pensioners; one is a retired priest, another the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. When the state begins calling movements “terrorism” when they are nothing of the sort, it is attacking democracy itself.
It’s not hard to see where this all leads. In the US, Democrats helped to demonise pro-Palestinian protests: the former house speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested that some were “connected to Russia”, while Joe Biden called such protests antisemitic. In doing so, they only helped to legitimise the authoritarian crackdown on such protests – and on freedom of expression in general – under Donald Trump. If Nigel Farage becomes prime minister, a hard-right government would be granted sweeping powers to control dissent. What do you think a Reform government would do with this repressive toolkit? Our ancestors struggled, suffered and died to secure our freedoms. We will come to rue how casually we let them go.
Original article at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/06/palestine-protests-labour-democratic-freedoms-nigel-farage
How do Britons see Labour, ahead of their 2025 party conference?
Public largely see Labour in negative terms, with even Labour voters tending to not trust them in key policy areas
Labour’s annual party conference is kicking off this weekend in Liverpool. There is likely to be a very different tone to last year’s gathering, which was held in the aftermath of their landslide victory at the 2024 general election.
Now, just one in seven Britons (14%) approve of the government’s record to date, while seven in ten (69%) disapprove of Labour’s performance in office. This gives a net approval rating of -55, near identical to the final -56 rating for the previous government last July, just before the Conservatives lost power.
Even among Labour voters, a majority (53%) disapprove of the government, with just 29% feeling positively about the record of the government they elected.
…
Two thirds of Britons (66%) see Labour as out of touch, relative to just 14% seeing them as in touch, while the public believe it’s unclear what the party stands for by a similar ratio (65% vs 16%).
Furthermore, around six in ten Britons describe Labour as weak rather than strong (62% vs 9%), untrustworthy rather than trustworthy (61% vs 14%), and incompetent rather than competent (59% vs 17%). Labour are also twice as likely to be seen as serving their own interests (54%) than trying to do the right thing (25%), or caring about a select few (50%) instead of caring about ordinary people (23%).
…
Original article at https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/53058-how-do-britons-see-labour-ahead-of-their-2025-party-conference
Full results: https://ygo-assets-websites-editorial-emea.yougov.net/documents/Internal_LabourTrust_250901.pdf
