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WHY IS PARLIAMENT’S GENOCIDE WATCHDOG SO SILENT ON GAZA?

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https://www.declassifieduk.org/why-is-parliaments-genocide-watchdog-so-silent-on-gaza/

An injured child is treated at a hospital in Rafah on 8 May 2024. (Photo: Rizek Abdeljawad via Alamy)

Seven months into Israel’s genocide in Gaza, there remains little appetite among the Britain’s political class to end the slaughter, even after close to 40,000 Palestinians have been killed.

But the indifference to Palestinian suffering does not appear confined to individual politicians and vested party interests. Rather, it is a culture across Westminster.

One example is the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Prevention of Genocide (APPG-G).

This is a cross-party group which apparently aims to ensure Britain does all it can to stop genocides and crimes against humanity.

Yet the group has shown no urgency to save lives in Gaza.

Its chairwoman is Fleur Anderson, an opposition MP for Putney. She is also listed as a parliamentary member of Labour Friends of Israel (LFI). 

Can her APPG really be committed to preventing genocide while she also participates in a lobby group that whitewashes settler colonialism and ethnic cleansing in Palestine?

Just in January, LFI organised its largest solidarity delegation to Israel in over a decade and proudly posed with president Isaac Herzog.

They went there even as Israel was on trial for genocide at the World Court and Herzog himself was singled out for his dangerous language as evidence of incitement.

A closer inspection of Anderson’s work is revealing. In November, during parliament’s vote for an immediate ceasefire, 56 Labour MPs defied the party whip and voted for it. 

Anderson was not one of them. 

Less than a month later, she spoke in the House of Commons about the importance of parliamentarians doing more to ensure genocides never happen.

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Article continues at https://www.declassifieduk.org/why-is-parliaments-genocide-watchdog-so-silent-on-gaza/

Continue ReadingWHY IS PARLIAMENT’S GENOCIDE WATCHDOG SO SILENT ON GAZA?

LABOUR MPS HAVE ACCEPTED OVER £280,000 FROM ISRAEL LOBBY

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https://www.declassifieduk.org/labour-mps-have-accepted-over-280000-from-israel-lobby/

Labour MPs on a “solidarity mission” with Israel’s president. (Photo: LFI / X)

Twenty percent of Labour’s sitting MPs have been funded by pro-Israel groups or individuals – including 15 who have been directly funded by the Israeli state.

  • Israel lobbyists have paid for Labour MPs to travel to Israel on over 50 occasions
  • Remarkably, the number of MPs supporting Labour Friends of Israel has increased amid the Gaza genocide

Some 41 of Labour’s 197 sitting MPs have accepted money from the Israel lobby, Declassified has found.

The value of the donations amounts to over £280,000, with Israel lobby groups paying for Labour MPs to visit Israel on over 50 occasions since 1999.

The funders include parliamentary group Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), pro-Israel figures such as Trevor Chinn, and governmental bodies including the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Amid Israel’s genocide on Gaza, at least one Labour MP, Margaret Hodge, has continued to accept Israel lobby funds to travel to the country.

Labour Friends of Israel

LFI has described itself as a “Westminster based lobby group working with the British Labour Party to promote the State of Israel”. 

The organisation does not disclose its sources of funding, but is closely associated with the Israeli state.

LFI currently counts 75 Labour MPs as parliamentary supporters or officers – a number which, remarkably, has risen since the onset of Israel’s war on Gaza.

One of LFI’s main activities is taking Labour MPs on “fact finding” missions to Israel. 

The organisation has paid for 32 of Labour’s sitting MPs to travel to Israel since they were first elected to parliament, Declassified has found. 

The value of these donations is over £64,000, with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs often covering additional costs in Israel. 

Fifteen Labour MPs have accepted financial assistance directly from the Israeli state for these and other visits.

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Article continues at https://www.declassifieduk.org/labour-mps-have-accepted-over-280000-from-israel-lobby/

Zionist Keir Starmer supports Israel's Gaza genocide.
Zionist Keir Starmer supports Israel’s Gaza genocide.
Continue ReadingLABOUR MPS HAVE ACCEPTED OVER £280,000 FROM ISRAEL LOBBY

TWO-FIFTHS OF KEIR STARMER’S CABINET HAVE BEEN FUNDED BY PRO-ISRAEL LOBBYISTS

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Image features the Labour Party's Keith Starmer, Rachel Reeves, Wes Streeting and Rupert Murdoch. Thanks to the Skwawkbox for the image.
Image features the Labour Party’s Keith Starmer, Rachel Reeves, Wes Streeting and Rupert Murdoch. Thanks to the Skwawkbox for the image.

https://www.declassifieduk.org/two-fifths-of-keir-starmers-cabinet-have-been-funded-by-pro-israel-lobbyists/

Some 13 of the 31 members of Labour’s shadow cabinet have received donations from a prominent pro-Israel lobby group or individual funder, it can be revealed. 

The list of recipients includes party leader Keir Starmer, his deputy Angela Rayner, shadow foreign secretary David Lammy, and even the former vice-chair of Labour Friends of Palestine, Lisa Nandy, who is now shadow international development minister.

These donations were provided by Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), a pro-Israel lobby group which takes MPs on “fact-finding” missions to the region, and Sir Trevor Chinn, a multi-millionaire business tycoon and long-time pro-Israel lobbyist.

More than half of Starmer’s shadow cabinet are listed as parliamentary supporters or officers of LFI.

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Pro-Israel lobbying

Sir Trevor Chinn is a British multi-millionaire who has spent decades working in the motor industry, chairing such organisations as the AA, the RAC, and Kwikfit.

Chinn is also a longstanding pro-Israel lobbyist. Since the 1980s, he has funded LFI and Conservative Friends of Israel and played a leading role in groups such as Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM) and the Jewish Leadership Council.

The Guardian described BICOM in 2009 as “Britain’s most active pro-Israeli lobbying organisation – which flies journalists to Israel on fact-finding trips and organises access to senior government figures”. 

It added that the organisation had “received nearly £1.4m in two years from a billionaire donor whose father made a fortune manufacturing arms in Israel”, referring to Poju Zabludowicz, a London-based business tycoon.

Starmer received a £50,000 donation from Chinn during his campaign for the Labour leadership in 2020 – and failed to declare this until after he’d won the election.

Declassified has found that Chinn has donated to eight other members of the shadow cabinet, including Rayner, Lammy, Reeves, Streeting, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson, shadow work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall, and shadow environment secretary Steve Reed.

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https://www.declassifieduk.org/two-fifths-of-keir-starmers-cabinet-have-been-funded-by-pro-israel-lobbyists/

Continue ReadingTWO-FIFTHS OF KEIR STARMER’S CABINET HAVE BEEN FUNDED BY PRO-ISRAEL LOBBYISTS