Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during an interview at the Senedd, in Cardiff, Wales, during his tour of the UK following Labour’s victory in the 2024 General Election, July 8, 2024
ONE of the clearest messages from last week’s general election was the disillusionment very many British Muslims feel with the Labour Party.
Labour’s vote fell far further in constituencies with a large Muslim electorate, confirming the antipathy expressed in May’s local election results.
After that poll, the party claimed that it was ready to listen to the community’s concerns. Yet just a few weeks later, it axed Faiza Shaheen, a Muslim, as a party candidate in a brutal and unjustifiable fashion.
The core concerns of Muslims, who are in the great majority working-class, about Labour come under two well-understood headings.
First, there has been the persistent willingness of Starmer and his party apparatus to ignore or downplay evidence of Islamophobia. It is simply not taken as seriously as other forms of racism by Labour.
Indeed, Starmer has not seemed averse to consciously indulging in it, as when he made dog-whistle remarks about deporting Bangladeshis in the last week of the campaign.
Second, of course, is the party’s position on the genocide in Gaza, which it gave full-throated support to at the outset. For week after murderous week it refused to call for a ceasefire and only eventually did so when Washington had given permission to shift line.
The slaughter of Palestinians has aroused revulsion in all parts of the community. But there is no doubt that this indifference to the lives of Israel’s victims is particularly keenly felt in Muslim communities.
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.
Fatma Hijazi, the mother of 10-year-old Palestinian boy Mustafa Hijazi, who died due to malnutrition and lack of medication, holds the lifeless body of her child in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on June 14, 2024. (Photo: Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The starvation of Palestinians in Gaza “is a form of genocidal violence,” said 10 rights experts.
While the United Nations still has not formally declared a famine in Gaza after nine months of Israel’s near-total blockade on humanitarian aid, 10 top U.N. experts on Tuesday said they have seen enough.
“We declare that Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza,” said the experts.
Michael Fakhri, special rapporteur on the right to food, was joined in the statement by other experts including Francesca Albanese, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, and Paula Gaviria Betancur, special rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons.
They said the recent deaths of three children in various parts of the enclave led the experts, who do not speak on behalf of the United Nations as a whole, to declare a famine has taken hold.
“Fayez Ataya, who was barely six months old, died on May 30, 2024 and 13-year-old Abdulqader Al-Serhi died on June 1, 2024 at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah,” said the experts. “Nine-year-old Ahmad Abu Reida died on June 3, 2024 in the tent sheltering his displaced family in Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis. All three children died from malnutrition and lack of access to adequate healthcare.”
“With the death of these children from starvation despite medical treatment in central Gaza, there is no doubt that famine has spread from northern Gaza into central and southern Gaza,” they continued.
We are now seeing famine across the whole of Gaza. All houses destroyed, food systems destroyed and healthcare destroyed. And kids are dying. Is there any humanity left? https://t.co/jjI5ZHAvbA
— UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing (@adequatehousing) July 9, 2024
At least 34 Palestinians in Gaza—the majority being children—have now died from malnutrition since October, when Israel began its bombardment of the enclave in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced there would “be no electricity, no food, no fuel” allowed in to Gaza.
Israeli officials said in response to Tuesday’s statement that it has increased the aid allowed into Gaza recently, but hundreds of delivery trucks remain stranded in Egypt and a floating pier built by the U.S. has not significantly improved the humanitarian crisis.
The U.N. experts said that with the first death of a child from malnutrition and dehydration, it should have been considered “irrefutable that famine has taken hold.”
“When a two-month-old baby and 10-year-old Yazan Al Kafarneh died of hunger on February 24 and March 4, respectively, this confirmed that famine had struck northern Gaza,” they said. “The whole world should have intervened earlier to stop Israel’s genocidal starvation campaign and prevented these deaths… Inaction is complicity.”
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, which is backed by the U.N., said last month that Gaza is at high risk for famine and that nearly half a million people were facing “catastrophic” food insecurity, with an extreme lack of food.
In May, Human Rights Watch co-founder Aryeh Neier, who had previously hesitated to say Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, said Israel’s “sustained policy of obstructing the movement of humanitarian assistance into the territory” ultimately convinced him that Israeli officials are “engaged in genocide.”
In March, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to ensure its military refrain from violating the Genocide Convention by preventing humanitarian aid from reaching people in Gaza, saying that “the catastrophic living conditions of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have deteriorated further” and that “famine is setting in.”
A woman named Ghaneyma Joma told Reuters on Monday at a hospital in Khan Younis that she feared her son would soon die of starvation.
“It’s distressing to see my child… lying there dying from malnutrition because I cannot provide him with anything due to the war, the closing of crossings, and the contaminated water,” she told the outlet.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations called on the U.S. government, the biggest international funder of Israel’s military and a persistent defender of its actions in Gaza, to ensure that a cease-fire agreement is reached and that Palestinians receive necessary humanitarian aid.
“The intentional starvation of the Palestinian people in Gaza can only occur with the active complicity of the Biden administration in Israel’s campaign of genocide,” said Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for the group. “This complicity must end, and the Palestinian people must be offered a future in which they are free of occupation and can live in dignity.”
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.
Injured Palestinians lay on the floor at Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza on July 8, 2024, following Israeli attacks on Gaza City. (Photo: Mahmoud Issa/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Patients were forced to move to other facilities in northern Gaza, where one hospital was at “triple capacity” and providers were struggling to provide care amid fuel and medical supply shortages.
Healthcare officials were joined by human rights experts on Tuesday in condemning Israel’s latest evacuation orders for Gaza City, which the World Health Organization director said would “further impede delivery of very limited lifesaving care” as hospitals in the area struggled to treat sick and wounded Palestinians.
The Israel Defense Forces claimed on Tuesday morning that there was “no need to evacuate the hospitals and medical facilities in the area,” after it had issued an evacuation order for 70% of Gaza City on Monday. The IDF has ordered civilians to evacuate parts of the city three times since June 27 as it has intensified its military operations, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee.
Despite the IDF’s claims, the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which partially operates al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, said it had closed and evacuated all patients and workers after a series of drone strikes in the facility’s “immediate vicinity.”
“To our great dismay, our hospital is now out of operation at a time when its services are in very significant demand and where injured and sick people have few other options for places to receive urgent medical care,” said the diocese in a statement.
“Key hospitals and medical facilities could quickly become nonfunctional due to hostilities in their vicinity or obstruction to access.”
Healthcare authorities have been forced to transport patients to other hospitals that are also struggling to provide care, as Israel’s near-total blockade on humanitarian aid since October has caused dire shortages of fuel and medical supplies.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of the World Health Organization, said Patient’s Friends Benevolent Society Hospital in Gaza City was also out of service due to the evacuation order, putting more strain on other facilities in the northern city of Beit Lahia, including Kamal Adwan and Indonesian hospitals.
Those medical centers are “suffering shortage of fuel, beds, and trauma medical supplies,” said Tedros on social media. “Indonesian Hospital is triple over its capacity. Al-Helou Hospital is within the blocks of the evacuation order but continues to be partially functional. As-Sahaba and al-Shifa hospitals are in close proximity to the areas under evacuation order but remain functional so far. Six medical points and two primary healthcare centers are also within the evacuation zones.”
“These key hospitals and medical facilities could quickly become nonfunctional due to hostilities in their vicinity or obstruction to access,” he added before repeating a demand: “Cease-fire!”
Israel’s claim that the hospitals in Gaza City remain safe despite the evacuation orders comes after several Israeli bombings of medical facilities and other so-called “humanitarian areas” since October.
Hospitals including al-Shifa in Gaza City have become major targets of Israel’s assault on the enclave, prompting outcry from human rights advocates who have demanded that the IDF follow international humanitarian law.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Tuesday said it was “appalled” by the IDF’s latest evacuation order, noting that Palestinians have been killed after fleeing to supposedly “safe” zones since Israel’s bombardment began.
Many of the people fleeing Gaza City this week “have been forcibly displaced multiple times, to evacuate to areas where IDF military operations are ongoing and where civilians continue to be killed and injured,” said the OHCHR.
Deir al-Balah, where Gaza City residents have been told to move in the latest order, “is already seriously overcrowded with Palestinians displaced from other areas of the Gaza Strip,” the office added.
The Gaza Health Ministry reports that 38,243 people have been killed in the enclave since Israel began its attacks in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on October 7.
As Israel forced hospitals in Gaza City out of operation and occupied the southern part of the city, including around the headquarters of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, another Israeli attack on the Bureij refugee camp killed nine people on Tuesday, including five children.
The IDF also said its warplanes had attacked “a school complex” in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
“There’s really no safe corner in Gaza,” said Tedros.
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.
Green and independent candidates inflicted a series of blows against the Labour Party
Keir Starmer’s election victory has given Labour a firm grip on power – but a closer look at the results shows a party facing stiff opposition from the left. Many candidates standing on anti-austerity and pro-Palestine platforms have achieved impressive results, which could spark a wider political movement.
Across most of Great Britain, support for the Labour Party did not actually increase. It is thanks only to the UK’s First Past the Post electoral system that such a big landslide was possible.
With two seats still left to declare, Labour has won 9.6 million votes – around 33.7% of all votes cast. This is far less than the 12.8 million votes (40%) the party secured in 2017, when Jeremy Corbyn was leader.
Since the last election in 2019, Labour has increased its overall share of the vote by less than two points. Polling expert John Curtice says this was “entirely as a result of a 17-point increase in support in Scotland”, following a collapse in SNP support.
Starmer’s victory, Curtis explains, was not so much due to a rise in support for the party, but “largely on the back of a dramatic 20-point decline in Conservative support”.
The Labour leader’s allies will, no doubt, use the result to show that the party can win elections only from the centre ground – and will continue to push out any opposition from the left. But yesterday’s vote also represents a major shift in support for left-wing candidates.
At the last election, no independent candidates won a seat. This time around, independents secured an impressive share of the vote and inflicted a series of major blows to Labour, winning in five constituencies in England. Many such candidates had stood on pro-Palestine platforms, highlighting Starmer’s support for Israeli atrocities in Gaza.
Independent Shockat Adam defeated Labour shadow cabinet minister Jon Ashworth in Leicester South, which was meant to be a safe seat; Ashworth had won by more than 22,000 votes in 2019. After the result was announced, Adam said: “This is for the people of Gaza.”
Elsewhere, IT consultant Iqbal Mohamed, pulled off a landslide victory against Labour in the constituency of Dewsbury and Batley in West Yorkshire, winning by almost 7,000 votes.
A solicitor called Adnan Hussein, who stood as an independent candidate in Blackburn, secured a narrow win over Labour, in what the BBC described as a “stunning victory”.
And another pro-Palestine independent candidate, Ayoub Khan, beat Labour in the constituency of Birmingham Perry Barr.
Meanwhile, Corbyn – who also stood as an independent after being forced out of the party – won his seat in Islington North by more than 7,200 votes. This was despite Labour pouring significant support into the constituency, including visits from party grandees like Tony Blair’s former chief adviser, Peter Mandelson, and former deputy leader Tom Watson.
Corbyn, of course, benefited from being so well-known and having served the constituency for more than 40 years. But the scale of his victory was certainly not guaranteed. Shortly before the election, the constituency was described in the media as “marginal”.
Other independents came a close second or third. They include 23-year-old Liane Mohamed, who was within touching distance of kicking Labour’s shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, out of his seat in Ilford North. She lost by just 528 votes.
In Chingford and Woodford Green, the Labour Party scored a spectacular own-goal by ditching its popular local candidate, Faiza Shaheen, in a last-minute deselection that split the left-wing vote and allowed former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith to retain the seat with 17,000 votes. Shaheen – whom Starmer previously campaigned with and described as “a fantastic candidate” – stood as an independent and won almost 12,500 votes – only 79 less than Labour.
Even in Starmer’s ultra-safe central London seat of Holborn and St Pancras, an independent candidate emerged out of nowhere to land a considerable blow. The Labour leader lost nearly 18,000 votes (more than 17%) from the last election, falling from 36,641 to 18,884. His rival, the anti-apartheid campaigner Andrew Feinstein, came second with 7,312.
All of these wins should worry Labour. Although its victory is clear, the party faces a significant electoral and political threat from left-wing and pro-Palestine opponents. If it wants to secure another victory at the next election, it must think very carefully about its stance on issues like Gaza, the NHS and the cost of living crisis.
There are reasons independent candidates often struggle to win seats at a general election. They receive little airtime from the media and lack the big financial donations that larger parties rely on.
The First Past the Post system also greatly benefited Labour in this election, when compared to the Green Party and others. This will reignite calls for proportional representation.
But despite these systemic obstacles, this time around, many independent candidates succeeded. Their message resonated with the public. So what would have happened if they had worked together on a left-wing platform of fighting injustices, both in the UK and further afield? The results today could well be very different in many areas.
If there was ever a good time for them to consider a new party, it’s now. Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has shown that a new party can burst onto the stage and win seats in Parliament. Given the success of many left-wing independent candidates, and the purge of left-wingers from the Labour Party, could the left learn something from this in time for the next election?
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.
