Mass arrest of anti-Genocide protesters
Starmer must expel Israeli ambassador, say Scottish Greens
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/starmer-must-expel-israeli-ambassador-say-scottish-greens
Israeli ambassador to Britain Tzipi Hotovely arrives at BBC Broadcasting House in London, to appear on the BBC One current affairs programme, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, June 15, 2025SCOTTISH Greens have called for Sir Keir Starmer to expel Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely as they renew their calls for an end to political and military support for the “genocidal assault on Gaza.”
The party’s co-leader Lorna Slater made the remarks after the Prime Minister urged the Netanyahu regime to “reconsider” the escalation of its attack on Gaza, despite his government supplying the Israelis with the military intelligence and armaments necessary to continue an operation which has so far cost tens of thousands of lives.
She said: “The UK government has not been a detached observer in the genocide against Gaza, it has been an active participant.
“Urging restraint is not enough, the hypocrisy must end. The arms sales must stop and so must the military collaboration and political support that has gone with them.
“That must mean backing sanctions against Israeli forces and expelling the Israeli ambassador who has served as a mouthpiece for genocide.
“This has been a disgraceful chapter in UK foreign policy and has made the Prime Minister and his colleagues complicit in some of the worst war crimes of this century.”
Israel kills Al Jazeera news team near Shifa Hospital in Gaza
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Israeli forces killed an Al Jazeera news team near al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Sunday evening. The team’s tent was struck by Israeli warplanes, resulting in the deaths of five journalists and their driver.
The journalists killed included correspondents Anas Al Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Moamen Aliwa, and their driver Mohammed Noufal.
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) acknowledged the strike and claimed Anas Al Sharif was a Hamas cell leader responsible for rocket attacks. Human rights organisations and press freedom groups—such as the United Nations and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)—denounced the claim as unsubstantiated. Al Jazeera rejected the allegations, calling the attack an attempt to silence its reporting.
Al Jazeera described the strike as “yet another blatant and premeditated attack on press freedom” ahead of a possible occupation of Gaza. The network and press freedom advocates warned that targeting media workers threatens press safety in conflict zones and diminishes independent coverage.
READ: Around 260 journalists denounce Israeli restrictions ‘silencing independent observation’
Anas Al Sharif, aged 28, was especially known for his courageous frontline reporting from northern Gaza. He was seen as a “voice” for the hungry and bereaved in the Gaza Strip, especially with the intensification of the Israeli siege on the Strip.
Journalists Al-Sharif and Qureiqa were keen to convey the voice of civilians and the hungry in the Gaza Strip to the world and expose the crimes of the occupation.
Al-Sharif had been subjected to continuous and repeated incitement from Israeli officials and electronic media.
Days before his death, he warned of intense bombardments and emphasised the suffering of civilians in Gaza.
Al Jazeera called on the international community and all relevant organisations to “take decisive measures to halt this ongoing genocide and end the deliberate targeting of journalists”.
Since the conflict began on 7 October 2023, more than 200 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, according to Al Jazeera and Gaza authorities.
READ: 8 European countries ‘strongly condemn’ Israeli plans to occupy Gaza
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Hundreds Arrested In London for Opposing Ban on Nonviolent Group Palestine Action
Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
“Let us be under no illusion,” said one organizer. “The government is criminalizing the people of Britain for standing up against the biggest genocide of the 21st century, as it’s livestreamed from Gaza.”
British campaigners reported Saturday that the sheer volume of people who showed up in London’s Parliament Square to support the nonviolent advocacy group Palestine Action presented a major challenge for the Metropolitan Police, who had threatened to arrest anyone supporting the organization.
The campaign group Defend Our Juries reported that as of 4:00 pm local time, at least 200 people had been arrested for joining the protest, where more than 1,000 sat silently in the square with many displaying signs that read: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”
Others held signs reading, “Is this why you joined the police?” as officers arrested demonstrators including National Health Service workers; a blind man using a wheelchair; author Jonathon Porritt; and former Guantánamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg, who now advocates for wrongly-imprisoned people swept up in the War on Terror.
“The fact that unprecedented numbers came out today risking arrest and possible imprisonment, shows how repulsed and ashamed people are about our government’s ongoing complicity in a livestreamed genocide, and the lengths people are prepared to go to defend this country’s ancient liberties,” said a spokesperson for Defend Our Juries, which also organized a protest last month where more than two dozen people were arrested.
The protests have been held to demand that the government reverse its June decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organization after it vandalized two military airplanes. The ban on the organization means that anyone who publicly supports Palestine Action risks up to 14 years in prison.
Palestine Action was formed in 2020 to demand an end to Israeli apartheid policies in the occupied Palestinian territories including Gaza and the West Bank. It has organized nonviolent actions since Israel began bombarding Gaza and blockading nearly all humanitarian aid in October 2023—killing more than 61,000 Palestinians, injuring more than 150,000, creating the largest per capita population of child amputees in the world, and starving at least 212 people so far.
“Palestine Action and people holding cardboard signs present no danger to the public at large, whereas the people who have lobbied for this ban—the arms companies and Israel lobbies—have the blood of 60,000 Palestinians on their hands,” said Defend Our Juries.
The government’s ban, announced by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, faces a legal challenge scheduled to be heard by the U.K. High Court in November. The court granted a full judicial review to Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori.
United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk warned last month that the U.K.’s proscription of the group “is at odds with the U.K.’s obligations under international human rights law” and noted that “according to international standards, terrorist acts should be confined to criminal acts intended to cause death or serious injury or to the taking of hostages”—not property damage.
Defend Our Juries said the mass arrest of Palestinian rights advocates is taking place as Britain continues to provide support to the Israeli military, which is moving towards a full takeover of Gaza under the orders of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“They’re being arrested for holding signs in opposition to genocide and the ban of Palestine Action,” said the group as hundreds of people were carried away from Parliament Square by Metropolitan Police. “Meanwhile, the ones enabling the mass murder of Palestinians face no consequences.”
Support from civil society groups for Palestine Action and the organizations demanding a reversal of the ban grew this past week ahead of the protest. More than 300 Jewish Britons including film director Mike Leigh; children’s author Michael Rosen; and Geoffrey Bindman, a former legal instructor to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, calling the ban “illegitimate” in a letter to Downing Street.
“The government should stop deflecting attention from genocide by linking nonviolent protest to terrorism,” read the letter.
Begg noted Saturday that “historically, civil disobedience has been employed in this country, as well as by the American civil rights movement and the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, to challenge unjust and oppressive laws.”
“This action is not about Palestine Action, but wider issues of how anti-terror legislation curtails basic freedoms and undermines the rule of law,” he said. “There can be no doubt that such laws have been, and continue to be abused and exploited, to suppress free speech and put in place an oppressive infrastructure that represents a danger to our civil liberties.”
“In such moments, all those who resist are acting in the public interest and are motivated by the desire to protect fundamental principles of fairness, equality, and justice,” he added. “How can it be a crime to call for an end to apartheid and genocide? The planned action on August 9 is motivated by the highest moral principles that have underpinned our society and made it the envy of the world.”
“Let us be under no illusion,” said Begg. “The government is criminalizing the people of Britain for standing up against the biggest genocide of the 21st century, as it’s livestreamed from Gaza. That is why it must be opposed.”in for standing up against the biggest genocide of the 21st century, as it’s livestreamed from Gaza. That is why it must be opposed.”
Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
