General Sir Nick Carter negotiated the deal in Israel. (Photo: GPO / Screengrab)
A military agreement Britain and Israel signed in 2020 has not been modified despite Israel’s attacks on Gaza, the Ministry of Defence admits.
In December 2020, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tweeted that it had signed a military agreement with the UK.
It said British and Israeli military chiefs had agreed to “formalise and enhance the defence partnership and support the growing Israel-UK partnership.”
In Britain, the government gave the new agreement no publicity. Months passed in silence, with no press release or mention by the Ministry of Defence, together with no noticeable interest from the national media.
The silence was broken in May 2021 when Kenny MacAskill MP questioned the government in parliament, requesting it to publish the accord.
But Conservative defence minister James Heappey said the agreement was “being kept at a higher security classification and therefore it will not be made public”.
Heappey said the accord “strengthens the defence relationship between Britain and Israel” and was “an important piece of defence diplomacy”.
…
Now, a response by the MoD to a freedom of information request states that “no amendments or modifications to this agreement exist”, confirming it is still active.
The admission is significant, showing that UK ministers have been content to keep a military accord alive with a state engaged in genocide.
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.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Ten-year-old Mohammed Ashraf Abu Muhsin, who lost his parents and siblings in an Israeli strike on the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City, struggles to survive alone with a cast on his leg and wounds on his face at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza on September 30, 2025. [Abdallah F.s. Alattar – Anadolu Agency]
In Gaza, silence has become the only language left for thousands of children who have survived the ongoing genocide but not its psychological aftermath.
In recent months, international and local organisations have documented a surge in cases of children losing the ability to speak—not due to physical injuries, but because of the unbearable psychological trauma of war.
According to a report by the Gaza Community Mental Health Program (GCMHP), increasing numbers of children exhibit severe post-traumatic symptoms, including chronic nightmares, hypersensitivity to loud sounds, and bedwetting. Many remain completely silent despite having no damage to their vocal cords.
Doctors identify this condition as “traumatic mutism”—a psychological disorder in which overwhelming fear or shock silences a child’s voice, forcing them to communicate instead through gestures, looks, or repetitive movements.
“Psychological exhaustion in Gaza has become widespread,” said Dr Yasser Abu Jamea, Director of the GCMHP. “Medical teams are working under conditions of annihilation that make the continuation of treatment nearly impossible.”
A doctor with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) described the situation starkly: “A child in Gaza doesn’t live with the memory of one airstrike—they live waiting for the next.”
Speech therapist Heba Haidar, a specialist in language and swallowing disorders, told Quds Press that reports from UNICEF and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have confirmed cases of stuttering and speech loss directly linked to exposure to Israeli bombings.
“Children pulled from beneath the rubble have stopped speaking,” Haidar said. “Even adolescents are struggling to form words—as if language itself has broken under the weight of trauma.”
Before the latest escalation, more than half of Gaza’s children already showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to mental health surveys. Now, Haidar warns, those psychological wounds have deepened into a “linguistic and emotional collapse” that threatens an entire generation.
Efforts by therapists abroad to provide remote treatment have been obstructed by power cuts, communication blackouts, and continued bombardment. “Specialists in Jordan have tried to volunteer their services to children in Gaza,” Haidar revealed, “but ongoing shelling and the total collapse of communication networks have made these efforts nearly impossible.”
She cautioned that experiences from Rwanda, Bosnia, and Syria show that untreated war trauma can persist across generations if children are not provided with psychological care today.
Despite the devastation, Haidar believes that an “urgent psychological response plan” can still be implemented inside Gaza. She envisins mobile mental health units in displacement camps, child-centered play therapy, and structured pronunciation exercises for children with speech loss—alongside remote support programs coordinated with international experts. “The world must listen to Gaza’s silent children,” Haidar said. “They are not just victims of war—they are survivors losing their voices. Helping them speak again means helping them reclaim their humanity.”
Since October 2023, Israeli forces—backed by US and European support—have waged a campaign of destruction across the Gaza Strip, defying international appeals and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt the assault.
The genocide has left more than 238,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them women and children. Over 11,000 remain missing, while famine, displacement, and the near-total destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure have erased entire neighbourhoods from the map.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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.
This article by republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
On February 16, 1959, Cuba established the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the executive body of their defense force, and its first Army General, Raúl Castro Ruz. Photo: Miguel Díaz-Canel/X
A recent webinar by Pan Africanism Today and the International Peoples’ Assembly looked at global struggles, from Africa to Latin America, showing how Cuba’s enduring resistance offers vital lessons in organization, unity, and internationalism for today’s movements fighting oppression and war.
The world is in an era marked by relentless wars and overlapping crises, from the devastating civil war in Sudan and violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo to the unfolding genocide in Palestine. The demand to end all wars has never carried greater urgency. And in the midst of all these visible battlegrounds persists a more enduring and insidious conflict; the hybrid war and economic blockade waged against the Cuban people and their revolution.
This was the central focus of a recent global webinar convened under the banner of Pan-African and internationalist solidarity, bringing together progressive voices to draw lessons from Cuba’s anti-imperialist struggle. The session, held on October 15, was facilitated by Mbali Gwenda from Pan Africanism Today, who situated the discussion within a broader historical and moral framework, invoking the revolutionary spirits of Thomas Sankara, martyred on the same date in 1987, and Assata Shakur who recently passed, and whose life consistently symbolized uncompromising resistance to oppression.
“We are dealing with the question of the hybrid war and blockade against the Cuban Revolution and her people,” Gwenda said. “A revolution that has been a source of inspiration for all oppressed peoples throughout the world till this day.”
The keynote address was delivered by Manolo De Los Santos, executive director of The People’s Forum and a researcher at the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, who framed Cuba’s defiance not as a miracle, but as the outcome of a centuries-long process of people’s struggle, organization, and consciousness.
The long arc of revolution
De Los Santos began by looking at Cuba’s revolution more than an event confined to the years 1953–1959, when Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and others led the guerrilla war against the Batista dictatorship. Revolutions, he reminded the audience, are not events but processes, collective journeys of resistance that unfold across generations.
Cuba’s revolution, he argued, has roots reaching back to centuries of anti-colonial and anti-slavery resistance, when the island was still a colony of the Spanish Empire. Unlike many independence movements in Latin America, Cuban revolutionaries understood that genuine freedom required addressing three interlinked questions:
Could Cuba truly be independent if it remained a slaveholding society?
Could it be free if it continued under the exploitative system of capitalism?
Could it claim sovereignty while dominated by imperial powers, first Spain and later the United States?
These questions shaped the consciousness of generations of Cuban patriots, culminating in the 1959 triumph of the socialist revolution. But as he explained, the revolution’s endurance has rested on three essential pillars: organization, unity, and internationalism.
Organization: the bedrock of resistance
Organization, De Los Santos emphasized, has been the Cuban people’s greatest weapon against imperial aggression. From the early independence wars to the 26th of July Movement led by Fidel Castro, Cubans have understood that only a disciplined, organized people can confront an empire with infinite resources.
This organizational spirit persisted after 1959, with the creation of mass democratic structures that unite workers, women, peasants, students, and youth. The Federation of Cuban Women, for example, mobilizes millions in defense of gender equality and revolutionary ideals, while student and peasant organizations remain vital spaces for political education and collective problem-solving.
Even under today’s extreme shortages such as the lack of fuel to power garbage collection, Cuban communities respond not with despair but with collective initiative, a reflection of their revolutionary organization and social consciousness.
Unity, he continued, has been the second indispensable lesson from Cuba. Every time the people were divided, the empire gained the upper hand; every time they stood together, they won. This unity has transcended class, race, and regional divisions, dismantling the legacies of slavery and racism that imperialism imposed.
The Cuban Revolution’s unity was forged not just through ideology but through practice, through collective participation in building a new society. It remains, as Manolo put it, “the most important defense the Cuban people have.”
Internationalism is the soul of the revolution
If organization is the body and unity the shield, then internationalism is the soul of the Cuban Revolution.
Quoting Fidel Castro, the New York-based researcher reminded participants that “a people who are not willing to fight for the freedom of others will never be able to fully fight for their own freedom.”
This principle drove Cuba to send tens of thousands of its sons and daughters to fight alongside liberation movements in Angola, Namibia, and South Africa, contributing directly to the defeat of apartheid. As he noted, “Cuba doesn’t need gold or minerals from Africa, it knows that its freedom is tied to the freedom of the peoples of the African continent.”
Even today, with over 24,000 Cuban doctors working abroad, many across Africa, Cuba continues this legacy of solidarity. The US, in its campaign of distortion, now accuses Cuba of “human trafficking” for this very act of humanitarianism.
The United States’ war against Cuba has been fought through unconventional means. It is a hybrid war, a combination of economic blockade, financial strangulation, media disinformation, and covert sabotage.
For more than 65 years, the blockade has inflicted immense human and economic damage. In 2024 alone, it cost Cuba USD 7.5 billion, money that could have been used to buy food, medicine, or oil for its 11 million citizens.
The war is also fought in the terrain of ideas. US-funded media campaigns spread false narratives about repression and poverty in Cuba while erasing the country’s achievements in health, education, and solidarity.
Socialism and survival
When asked on how Cuba has managed to survive more than six decades of blockade, Manolo’s answer was clear: because Cuba made a socialist revolution.
Socialism, he said, allowed Cuba to create a system where the needs of the people come before profit. In capitalist societies, when crises hit, the rich survive and the poor starve. In Cuba, food, healthcare, and education are distributed equitably, even in times of scarcity. This social organization transforms a siege economy into a community of resilience.
This difference, he explained, is what makes Cuba unique among nations facing US aggression. It’s also what inspires global movements seeking alternatives to neoliberalism and imperial domination.
Cuba, Sankara, and the spirit of resistance
The session also honored Thomas Sankara linking a symbolic bridge between the African and Latin American revolutionary traditions. Both embodied a commitment to self-reliance, dignity, and international solidarity.
Sankara’s vision of a self-determined Africa resonated deeply with the Cuban experience. His assassination on October 15, 1987 marked a turning point in African politics, yet his ideas continue to inspire movements across the continent, just as Cuba continues to stand as living proof that another world is possible.
In closing, Manolo issued a clear call; the Cuban people will overcome the blockade, but they cannot and should not do it alone. Their survival depends on the solidarity of all who believe in justice, sovereignty, and equality.
Cuba’s endurance is not simply a Cuban story; it is a lesson for all peoples resisting imperial domination. As the world faces renewed militarization and economic warfare, the spirit of organization, unity, and internationalism must also be crucial as ever.
“When they stand with the Palestinians, when they stand with the Congolese, when they stand with the peoples of the African continent,” Manolo concluded, “they are breaking the blockade too.”
This article by republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
Activists block railway track into Rotterdam port, April 2025. Source: Geef Tegengas
The Port of Rotterdam faced major disruptions over the past several days as dockworkers and activists launched strikes and direct actions.
The Port of Rotterdam, one of Europe’s most important logistics hubs, faced serious obstructions over the past several days as a result of dockworkers’ strikes and direct action against complicity in genocide, human rights violations, and pollution.
According to the collective Geef Tegengas, approximately 800 people took part in a blockade of the port’s railway track as part of an international campaign organized by the network alongside Soulèvements de la Terre (France), Code Rouge, Stop Arming Israel, Soulèvements de la Terre Bruxelles (Belgium), and Disrupt Germany. Coordinated actions took place between October 10 and 12 under the umbrella of the International Days of Action Against Bombs, Barrels, and Bullshit.
“The organizations are fighting back against the global, capitalist system that is raining down bombs, pumping out pollutants, creating inequality, colonizing lands, fracturing communities and destroying ecosystems,” the coalition said in a joint statement.
Nora Kilembe of Geef Tegengas warned about the role of Rotterdam’s port in what the groups term as the Logistics Empire: a global network of transport companies, port authorities, shopping platforms, and terminals that prioritize private profit over human life and the planet’s health. “The Logistics Empire, Port of Rotterdam up front, is destroying our planet,” Kilembe said. “Indigenous peoples are robbed of their self-determination whilst Israel is committing a genocide against Palestinians. In the West, we are being brainwashed to keep on buying to fill our empty lives, leading to mass depression and alienation. All so the ultra-rich can further enrich themselves. This system of death can only be brought down if we fight back together.”
Geef Tegengas emphasized the action targeted the sector’s deep complicity in Israel’s genocide and other human rights abuses. “We demand that the port of Rotterdam immediately implement a complete arms and trade embargo on Israel, stop importing products and raw materials from areas where human rights are violated, and make a plan to phase out all polluting waste as quickly as possible,” they said.
With the blockade, the group stressed, activists are reclaiming public control over vital infrastructure. “The port belongs to the people, not to big business,” they said. “They are demanding control over this port.”
The blockade coincided with the largest lashers’ – dockworkers responsible for securing cargo on vessels – strike in decades, which caused a backlog that port authorities say could take until the end of October to clear. Activists pointed out that the industrial action only reinforces the broader struggle for justice in Europe. “Their struggle for good wages and better working conditions is one that we wholeheartedly support,” they said, adding that the lashers’ demonstration of collective power should serve as an inspiration for all movements seeking a fairer society.
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.Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.
Trade unions and youth organizations in Spain held strikes and mass protests in solidarity with Palestine on October 15.
Trade unions and youth organizations across Spain held strikes and nationwide demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine on Wednesday, October 15. Tens of thousands of people joined rallies in major cities, demanding an end to ties with Israel, justice for Palestine, and expressing opposition to Europe’s militarization. They also criticized Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s administration for failing to take all necessary measures to sanction Israel despite formal condemnations of the genocide.
The actions in Spain came just weeks after two general strikes brought Italy to a halt over similar demands, underscoring that solidarity with Palestine remains a key moment for social movements in Europe.
Speaking at one of the rallies, Coral Latorre from the Students’ Union (Sindicato de Estudiantes) highlighted the crucial role of students and young people in sustaining the solidarity movement. Approximately 25,000 students participated in the demonstrations at Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, with thousands more joining protests in Barcelona, Tarragona, Valencia, and other cities following a wave of successful mobilizations earlier this month.
“Today we’re not only students [going on strike], but also workers,” Latorre said. “From the first hours of the morning, pickets, roadblocks, rallies in companies and factories, entire enterprises on strike… We said: we’ll block everything, and that’s what we’re doing with this day of general strike.”
October 15 rally in Barcelona. Source: Sindicato de Estudiantes/X
Frustration over the praise received by the recent ceasefire agreement announced by US President Donald Trump and Israeli authorities added fuel to the demonstrations. Protesters denounced the hypocrisy of European leaders congratulating Trump for his “peacemaking skills” while maintaining political, economic, and military cooperation with Israel and investing billions of euros in militarization.
“The ‘peace’ of the genocidal is not peace,” Latorre warned. “It is a farce to crown genocide, to turn Palestine into a colony, and to strip the Palestinian people of their right to exist […] This plan will bring neither justice nor freedom for Palestine.”
Workers’ organizations, including the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), contextualized European governments’ support for Israel under their broader programs of militarization and austerity. While workers have mobilized for peace and solidarity with Palestine since the beginning of the genocide, governments have instead chosen policies that fund arms manufacturers and eliminate social protections. “CGT bases the call for this day of strike in the fight for a redistribution of public spending in favor of workers, and against the rise of public investment in items aimed at defense and militarization,” the trade union wrote.
The CGT emphasized that ongoing trade relations with Israel and increased military expenditure both show “that public budgets are being used for interests far from the reality that workers live.”
In some cities, protesters reported police repression. According to the Students’ Union, attempts to suppress Palestine solidarity actions in Europe following the ceasefire announcement should be taken as a clear signal to intensify mobilization, not scale it back.
“The [Trump] plan is a scam made by the executioners of the Palestinian people,” Latorre said. “That is why mobilization must continue, and our efforts must be redoubled. They want us to leave the streets precisely because now we’re coming out in greater numbers than ever: we have to keep pushing and keep raising our voices.”
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.Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.
