PROTESTS in 18 towns and cities and Britain’s biggest hunger strike since the Troubles were announced today amid intensifying calls to reform Britain’s repressive terror laws behind the ban on Palestine Action.
Organisers said around 1,500 people could take part in the demonstrations next month, while others will begin rolling hunger strikes this Sunday.
More than 2,000 people have been arrested for allegedly supporting Palestine Action during mass events where protesters held placards saying “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action,” after it was proscribed as a terrorist group in July.
Suspects face up to two years in jail without charge.
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The demonstrations come ahead of a legal hearing against former home secretary Yvette Cooper’s decision to proscribe the group under anti-terror laws.
Defend Our Juries spokesman Dr Clive Dolphin said: “This is about here in the UK, people having the right to protest, the right to speak up to government when they think the government has got something wrong, and fundamentally this is about the fact that the British people oppose genocide.
“They do not want to be complicit in war crimes. They do not want to see people starved to death in an artificial famine. British people oppose genocide.”
Palestine Action joke that appeared in the UK satirical magazine ‘Private Eye’.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
David Lammy met Benjamin Netanyahu in July 2024 soon after Labour won power. (Photo: Ben Dance / FCDO)
Book review: Peter Oborne spares neither Labour nor the Conservatives in his searing history of Gaza’s destruction.
As British people have turned against Israel’s destruction of Gaza, leading figures in its present and former governing parties still deny that Israel has committed even war crimes, let alone genocide.
Some of these denialists are hardened Zionists, others are opportunists, but the bottom line is summed up in the one-word title of Peter Oborne’s timely book. They have made themselves “complicit” (at the very least) in Israel’s monstrous crimes.
Oborne traces British complicity through Rishi Sunak’s unconditional backing for Israel after 7 October 2023, and Keir Starmer’s outrageous statement that Israel had the right to cut off power and water, to their joint opposition to a ceasefire.
Through a “cross-party cartel”, they “established the political foundation that would make Britain complicit” in massacres, indiscriminate bombing, torture and displacement.
This led to specific contributions to Israel’s genocide. Britain sold parts for the F-35 fighter jets that it used to kill civilians, and withdrew funding for UNRWA, the agency that provided Gaza’s humanitarian lifeline.
The RAF flew hundreds of reconnaissance flights, as Declassified exposed. The pretext of helping to find Israel’s hostages was quickly undermined as it became clear that Netanyahu was sacrificing them in his pursuit of endless destruction.
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/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to members of his country’s internal spy agency on October 27, 2025 in Jerusalem. (Photo by Benjamin Netanyahu/X)
Israel accused Hamas of breaking the US-brokered ceasefire in a manner in which no one was physically harmed. Gaza officials say Israel has violated the truce 125 times, killing or wounding hundreds of Palestinians.
Following Israel’s 125 reported violations of the October 10 Gaza ceasefire in attacks that have killed or wounded hundreds of Palestinians, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday ordered “powerful strikes” in response to an alleged Hamas breach of the deal in which no one was physically harmed.
Netanyahu’s office said the right-wing prime minister instructed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to immediately carry out the attacks on the flattened strip, where two years of genocidal war and siege have left at least 248,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing, hundreds of thousands of others starving; and the vast majority of Gaza’s more than 2 million people forcibly displaced.
Israel said the decision to escalate came after IDF invaders—none of whom were reportedly harmed—came under fire in southern Gaza, and amid Israeli anger over alleged Hamas subterfuge regarding the return of bodily remains from an Israeli hostage abducted during the October 7, 2023 attack.
Netanyahu’s announcement also came on the same day that the prime minister appeared in a Jerusalem court to continue his testimony in his ongoing trial for alleged fraud, breach of trust, and bribery. His testimony was cut off three hours early due to unspecified “security developments.” Critics, including relatives of hostages, have accused Netanyahu of unnecessarily prolonging the war in order to further delay his trial. The prime minister denies any wrongdoing.
Hamas said it would respond to Israel’s escalation by delaying the handover of the remaining 13 dead hostages it either holds or is trying to locate. The armed resistance group, which governs Gaza, said Tuesday it had recovered the body of another hostage.
The Gaza Government Media Office responded to Israel’s accusation of Hamas ceasefire violations by noting what it said are 125 incidents in which Israeli forces broke the truce, “resulting in the killing of 94 Palestinians and the injury of more than 344 others.”
Israeli violations of the current ceasefire include several massacres, such as the October 18 bombing of a bus that killed at least 11 members of the Abu Shaaban family, who were trying to return to inspect their home in Gaza City. Among the victims were three women and seven children ages 5-13.
Israel was also accused of nearly 1,000 violations of the previous ceasefire earlier this year—breaches that officials said left at least 116 civilians dead and nearly 500 others wounded.
There has been scant reporting of Israeli ceasefire breaches in the US corporate media. In a glaring act of apparently selective inattention, the Associated Press on Tuesday called Netanyahu’s strike order “a new test for the US-brokered ceasefire.”
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.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/O74hZCKKdpAOrcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
In Gaza, the word “ceasefire” feels more like a loophole than a real promise. The 10 October truce, hailed by Washington as a “turning point” was never designed to stop the bloodshed. While in practice it functioned as a calculated break, a short interval that allowed Israel to regroup, re-arm and resume its mass killing campaign with the full backing of the US.
The playbook was all too familiar: announce a hiatus, collect the PR points and then pick up right where things left off with the same objectives and impunity. Only this time, it comes with the package of having played the “peace” card.
The deal was never about peace in the first place. It was literally a hostage swap disguised as diplomacy. President Trump might seem to help broker the deal but its main goal actually was the return of Israeli captives not the protection of Palestinian lives.
Even Trump made it clear that Israel would be “free to act” once the exchanges were complete, signalling that military operations could resume with zero consequences. Obviously, this was all part of a bigger game plan being played out between Washington and Tel Aviv.
And the game plan unfolded exactly as expected. Just days into the truce, explosions in Rafah shattered the pause. Israel as usual, immediately blamed Hamas for violating the agreement and resumed its strikes. Instead of re-assessing the situation, Trump insisted the ceasefire was still “in effect”—a rhetorical move that swept the renewed brutality under the rug and allowed Israel to continue its offensive, all while the US maintained the illusion of diplomacy.
This is the reality Palestinians face: a world where pauses are rebranded as progress and impunity is re-labelled as immunity. The ceasefire was never a commitment to peace; it was a strategic pause that allowed the violence to continue under a different name with a different justification.
The US was not just a silent bystander in this repackaging but rather a manager of the brand itself. While Israel again treated the ceasefire as a pit stop, Washington did nothing to challenge that view. If anything, it helped to sell the illusion of restraint while its “little brother” kept stretching the limits of what a truce is supposed to mean.
Under Trump, the priorities could not have been more transparent. At a summit after the initial hostage exchange, he applauded the Gaza ceasefire as “the greatest deal of them all,” celebrating the return of Israeli captives while ignoring the broader question of peace. His framing was not just tone-deaf but revealing.
Clearly, the primary concern here was solely Israeli lives, never about Palestinian survival and suffering. Trump’s message to his partner in crime, Netanyahu was loud and clear: as long as the hostages were returned, military aggression would face no serious pushback.
Moreover, the rhetoric must match the reality on the ground. Calling this fragile ceasefire just a “pause” between attacks is not being cynical—it is just stating the obvious. Saying Washington’s complicity is not a wild accusation either; when you cover for violations with diplomatic spin, you are part of the problem.
It is totally ridiculous to claim a ceasefire is still “in effect” when bombs keep dropping all over Gaza. What is more, blaming “rebels within Hamas” for every breach without any single shred of proof is just a cheap old trick played and recycled again and again to divert the world’s attention from Israel’s ongoing relentless genocidal campaign.
Trump must stop acting like ceasefires are just for show and start treating them as serious commitments. That means enforceable terms, independent monitoring and actual punishment that are not subject to political shielding. A ceasefire should not be a PR tool—it should be a binding agreement that protects civilians and holds the violator, none other than the Zionist regime to pay the price.
For Palestinians in Gaza, the truth could not be more obvious. That ceasefire? It was a mere gimmick—gone almost as soon as it began. What came next was more of the same or even worse: chaos, grief and the dream of self-determination pushed even further out of reach.
A ceasefire that jumps right back into war is not a ceasefire—it is a dirty tactic. This whole thing is not about finding peace but totally about keeping control. Unless the international community starts holding Tel Aviv and its powerful enabler, Washington, accountable, these so-called peace deals will keep being empty gestures.
Gaza does not need another “pause” dressed up as progress. It needs real, lasting peace—not another round of diplomatic theatre.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.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/O74hZCKKdpAOrcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Zack Polanski, Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn offer hope for the British left | Ben Montgomery/Stringer / Leon Neal/Staff / Kristian Buus/Contributor / Getty Images / Composition by James Battershill
In choosing big business over ordinary people, the PM has sacrificed the heart of the Labour Party. So what next?
Labour’s political position is increasingly the reverse of the ‘for the many, not the few’ policy pursued under former leader Jeremy Corbyn. The party has embraced corporate capture and the main features of neoliberalism, albeit with incredibly poor timing, as the neoliberal economic model drives runaway wealth that increases dissent across much of the world.
It is no coincidence that, at the same time, when it should be coasting along on a huge parliamentary majority won less than 18 months ago, Labour has been plunged into political disarray and seen its lead disappear in the polls.
By cosying up to big business and failing to offer anything to substantially improve the lives of ordinary people up and down the country, Keir Starmer’s New-New Labour has seen a collapse in its general support and, more significantly, its membership.
The Labour Party has lost 300,000 of the 550,000 members it had in the Corbyn era. While it has been able to recoup the financial support offered by these ordinary members from a few big donors, it has in the process lost the heart of the party.
Many issues demonstrate this, but a few stand out. The government’s repeated refusal (now rumoured to be U-turned on at next month’s Budget) to lift the two-child benefit cap. Its flagship welfare bill (already U-turned on), which would have cut Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payments for millions of vulnerable people. The decision, announced in February of this year, to cut the foreign aid programme to increase military spending.
And then came perhaps the biggest problem of all for Starmer’s Labour: Gaza, where the UK government’s continuing support for Israel as it engages in genocide still beggars belief for many. There have been 32 mass demonstrations in London in the past two years, the most recent being one of the largest protests ever held in the UK. That level of political activity will continue, given Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu seems determined to avoid a peaceful outcome, and Starmer is unlikely to stand up to him or, by extension, the US.
Widespread dismay and depression on the backbenches may ebb and flow, but at this point, it feels like even a change of leadership may not be enough for a real change in fortune.
The government’s current predicament is the main reason why Westminster politics is so uncertain. Looking at the UK-wide parties, the far-right Reform UK is leading polls with vote shares that vary but are typically over 30%, having soaked up plenty of support as a substantial protest vote. If that persists through to the next general election in 2029, it will likely put Nigel Farage into Downing Street.
Labour’s support, meanwhile, is hovering at around 20%, the Tories more like 15% and the Liberal Democrats rather less.
And until three months ago, the Greens were still weak in polling terms – despite having made some progress since last year’s election – and millions on the left were still disenfranchised, having been disillusioned with Starmer’s Labour leadership.
Two things have changed; the first being Zack Polanski winning the Green Party leadership at the start of September. He has brought a more radical and left-wing perspective to the party, which has led to a jump in the polls and an 80% increase in new members. The Greens announced this week that its membership now stands at 126,000 – more than either the Conservatives or the Lib Dems.
The second change is in the fortunes of the new Your Party group, fronted by Corbyn and former Labour MP Zarah Sultana. While the party’s initial request for expressions of interest received a massive 800,000 responses – at which point it appeared likely to provide a serious challenge to Starmer’s Labour – it ran into internal disagreements six weeks ago that knocked it right back and led to a period of utter dismay and anger among supporters.
Those feelings have eased somewhat over the past two weeks, as Your Party has published draft versions of its constitution, standing orders and an organisational strategy, all of which are to be discussed and developed before being decided at a large national conference in Liverpool at the end of November. The documents, including a draft political statement, are open to all and will no doubt be subject to intense debate and plenty of disagreement, but they do appear to be a genuine attempt at accountability that is a very long way from the opacity of the Labour Party.
A typical meeting of supporters, of which there are hundreds around the country, still sees some of the anger of a few weeks ago, but now also more determination to see things through. If the new party can recapture the mood of three months ago – and particularly if it and the Greens are willing to work with one another – then there may be some hope for the disenfranchised left.
One of the most interesting aspects of these rapid political changes is the potential for the three figureheads of these two parties to have a substantial impact.
Zarah Sultana, with an often combative style, appeals particularly to younger and frustrated audiences, while Zack Polanski’s normal and measured approach is persistently disarming for Reform’s far-right politicians. Then there is Jeremy Corbyn, who is already a national figure known for a long-term commitment to a progressive agenda and a remarkable personal following.
These are very early days in a time of rapid political change. Reform is still on the up, but compared with just three months ago, there is now a lot more reason for hope on the left.
Keir Starmer explains that he feels no shame or guilt benefitting personally from gifts from the rich and powerful while insisting on policies of severe austerity causing suffering and death.Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.