Jeremy Corbyn MP, former leader of the Labour Party
Group calls for more MPs to join and vows to campaign on issues such as austerity and two-child benefit cap
Jeremy Corbyn is to form an official parliamentary alliance with four independent MPs who were elected on pro-Gaza platforms – issuing a call for more MPs to join.
The group will have the same number of MPs as Reform UK and the Democratic Unionist party, who each have five MPs, and more than the Green party and Plaid Cymru on four.
Promising to fight austerity and campaign on issues including the winter fuel allowance, the two-child benefit limit and arms sales to Israel, the group also explicitly invited MPs to join them, a reference to seven rebel Labour MPs suspended by the party for voting to axe the two-child benefit cap.
Corbyn, a former Labour leader, was elected as an independent MP for Islington North after being barred from standing as a Labour candidate at the last election. The group will also include the MPs Shockat Adam, Ayoub Khan, Adnan Hussain and Iqbal Mohamed.
The MPs said: “We were elected by our constituents to provide hope in a parliament of despair. Already, this government has scrapped the winter fuel allowance for around 10 million pensioners, voted to keep the two-child benefits cap, and ignored calls to end arms sales to Israel.
“Millions of people are crying out for a real alternative to austerity, inequality and war – and their voices deserve to be heard. As individuals we were voted by our constituents to represent their concerns in parliament on these matters, and more, and we believe that as a collective group we can carry on doing this with greater effect.
“The more MPs who are prepared to stand up for these principles, the better. Our door is always open to other MPs who believe in a more equal and peaceful world.”
An Israeli soldier holds a weapon atop an armoured personnel carrier [File: Baz Ratner/Reuters]
Thirty out of 350 licences to be suspended, citing ‘clear risk’ they could be used in breach of international humanitarian law.
The United Kingdom says it would suspend 30 out of 350 arms exports licences to Israel, citing a “clear risk” they could be used in a serious breach of international humanitarian law.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy told parliament on Monday the partial ban covered items “which could be used in the current conflict in Gaza” against Hamas but did not include parts for the F-35 fighter jets.
He said the decision to suspend the licences did not amount to a blanket ban or an arms embargo, adding that the UK continues to support Israel’s right to self defence in accordance with international law.
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“It is with regret that I inform the House [of Commons, lower house of parliament] today the assessment I have received leaves me unable to conclude anything other than that for certain UK arms exports to Israel, there does exist a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law,” Lammy said.
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.
People march through Manchester demanding Britain impose an arms embargo on Israel, August 31, 2024Photo: John Nicholson
THOUSANDS of protesters across Britain again marched for Palestine on Saturday as Israel intensified its war on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
In major towns and cities calls were made to step up the worldwide Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel following news that international coffee shop chain Starbucks saw its market share fall by billions of dollars as customers rebel against the company’s involvement with Israel.
Protests also took place in Israel demanding a ceasefire after Hamas said that six Israeli hostages found dead in Gaza had been killed in Israeli bombing and shelling. Israel said the hostages had been murdered by Hamas as its troops approached.
Calling for more action against organisations investing in firms involved in Israel, Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) said its research has revealed that local government pension scheme funds in Britain collectively invest over £4.4 billion in companies complicit in Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.
The PSC said: “Councils must take immediate action to end ties with companies that are complicit in abuses of Palestinian rights, including by divesting pension funds they administer from companies enabling Israel’s genocide. The deferred wages of local government workers must not be used to fund injustice.”
Israeli people, holding Israeli flags and banners, stage a demonstration demanding hostage swap deal and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to sign a ceasefire in Gaza, on August 31, 2024, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Photo by Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images.
‘Starting tomorrow, the country will tremble. We call on the public to prepare. The country will grind to a halt. The abandonment is over.’
Tens of thousands rallied across Israel on Saturday night, demanding a hostage deal and against the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In Tel Aviv, tens of thousands of demonstrators, including relatives of those held hostage in Gaza, gathered at the Hostages Square for a rally demanding their loved ones’ return and pled with the prime minister and negotiating team to reach an agreement before time runs out. Roving groups of right-wing activists cursed and spat on the demonstrators.
Along with the mass demonstration in Tel Aviv, large protests were held in cities nationwide, drawing thousands of demonstrators.
Later Saturday night, the Israeli Defense Force announced it had located several bodies in the Gaza Strip, which might be the remains of Israeli hostages. “At this stage, the forces are still operating in the area and carrying out a process to extract and identify the bodies, which will last several hours,” the military says.
After the IDF says it has found bodies in Gaza that possibly are of hostages, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum issued a statement calling on the public to prepare to hold sweeping protests tomorrow.
“Netanyahu abandoned the hostages. It is now a fact. Starting tomorrow, the country will tremble. We call on the public to prepare. The country will grind to a halt. The abandonment is over.”
The Forum says it will provide further details tomorrow morning.
via @NYTimes: Included was the body of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli-American. “I am devastated & outraged”, said. Understandable comment. But in sharp contrast to the lack of anger & sympathy he’s shown re the Israeli killing of 1,000s of Palestinians. https://t.co/tMuUAw5dyo
IDF: The IDF located a number of bodies during combat in the Gaza Strip.
At this time, the troops are still operating in the area and are carrying out a process to extract and identify the bodies that will last several hours. We ask to refrain from spreading rumors.
A large crowd gathered at Hostage Square tonight in solidarity with the families of the hostages, chanting: “We will not allow Prime Minister Netanyahu to sacrifice the lives of the hostages.”
This evening, following the decision by the Prime Minister and the Political-Security… pic.twitter.com/Q0YArmtRt8
#TelAviv tonight: Tens of thousands 🇮🇱 calling for an immediate hostage/ceasefire deal in Gaza, the ousting of Netanyahu and new elections. pic.twitter.com/A1Z3sud6W6
British pro-Palestine activist and journalist Sarah Wilkinson—seen here in an undated photo—was arrested on August 29, 2024 for what police said was “content that she has posted online” amid Israel’s Gaza onslaught. (Photo: Sarah Wilkinson/X)
“1984 has arrived and is alive and well in the United Kingdom,” said musician Roger Waters.
At least a dozen police officers raided the home of British pro-Palestine activist and journalist Sarah Wilkinson on Thursday over “content that she has posted online” that allegedly ran afoul of the United Kingdom’s anti-terrorism law.
“The police came to her house just before 7:30 am,” Wilkinson’s son, Jack Wilkinson, said on social media. “There were 12 of them in total, some of them in plain clothes from the counterterrorism police… Her house is being raided and they have seized all her electronic devices.”
Police—who later freed Wilkinson on bail—did not disclose what content she posted that led to her arrest. Wilkinson has been a tireless critic of the U.K. government’s support for Israel and has posted many images of the death and destruction in Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed and wounded more than 144,000 Palestinians. Israel is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.
“The British prime minister is determined to terrorize into silence critics highlighting his, and now his government’s, complicity with Israel and its genocide in Gaza.”
Pro-Israel media reported Wilkinson called the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas-led militants an “incredible infiltration” and hailed the late Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh—who was assassinated last month in Iran—as a “hero.”
Section 12 of the U.K.’s Terrorism Act of 2000 criminalizes anyone who “invites support for a proscribed organization” or “expresses an opinion or belief that is supportive” of such a group. Violators can be punished with up to 14 years’ imprisonment and a fine. Hamas is included on the U.K. government’s list of proscribed groups.
Critics say the U.K. government uses the highly controversial anti-terror law to silence dissent.
Israel-based British journalist Thomas Cook said in a Friday blog post that Wilkinson’s arrest is “definitive proof” that U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s “authoritarian purges of the Labour left are being rolled out against critics on a nationwide basis.”
“The British prime minister is determined to terrorize into silence critics highlighting his, and now his government’s, complicity with Israel and its genocide in Gaza,” Cook added.
Musician and staunch Israel critic Roger Waters, who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd, said in a video posted Thursday on social media that Wilkinson was arrested “for standing up for human rights and campaigning against genocide.”
Thank you @rogerwaters & for everyone’s support for my mother’s arrest, interrogation, injuries and theft of her property by 16 balaclava-clad thugs pic.twitter.com/VeK0UoJY9I
“If you allow this to stand, the arrest of Sarah Wilkinson and the persecution of my friend Craig Murray among others, then you have absolutely accepted that England is now a fascist state,” Waters asserted, adding that “1984 has arrived and is alive and well in the United Kingdom.”
In addition to her pro-Palestine activism, Wilkinson is a news contributor for the Lebanon-based news site MENA Uncensored.
“The pro-genocide U.K. regime has arrested MENA Uncensored‘s roving reporter and human rights activist Sarah Wilkinson for supporting the Palestinian resistance and relaying what is really happening in Gaza and the West Bank to the world,” the outlet said on social media.
Wilkinson’s arrest came one week after Syrian-British independent journalist Richard Medhurst was apprehended at London’s Heathrow Airport and held for nearly 24 hours for allegedly violating Section 12 with social media posts “expressing an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organization.”
BREAKING: After a targeted campaign by the zionist lobby, Palestine Action's co-founder Richard Barnard is facing three charges for two speeches.
He is accused of supporting a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act and encouraging 'criminal activity'. pic.twitter.com/cWq0qwk15v
Richard Barnard, co-founder of the London-based group Palestine Action—with which Wilkinson has been involved—is also facing three criminal charges for two speeches allegedly supporting a proscribed organization.
