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People carrying Palestinian flags and banners, stage a demonstration and march to Wembley Stadium demanding Israel’s suspension from UEFA and FIFA, in London, United Kingdom on October 2, 2025. [Raşid Necati Aslım – Anadolu Agency]
Tens of thousands of signatures have been collected in England for a petition demanding that Israel be banned from international football over its actions in Gaza and calling for the cancellation of a match between Aston Villa and Maccabi Tel Aviv, Anadolu reports.
The petition, launched by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in the UK and signed by 25,000 people, was delivered to the Football Association at Wembley Stadium by the platform’s director, Lewis Backon.
Backon said outside Wembley Stadium that teams from a state responsible for genocide and apartheid should not be playing in international football competitions.
Aston Villa will face Maccabi Tel Aviv at home in the UEFA Europa League on Thursday.
West Midlands Police had classified the match as “high risk” based on current intelligence and past incidents, while the Safety Advisory Group, comprised of police, the municipality and security experts, had announced that away fans would not be allowed into the stadium.
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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.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/O74hZCKKdpA
Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks to members of staff during a visit to Leonardo, one of the biggest suppliers of defense and security equipment to the UK MOD, on May 2, 2025, in Luton, England. Henry Nicholls – WPA Pool / Getty Images
Pro-Palestine advocates say the announcement is a publicity stunt that will do little to end the genocide.
The U.K. government said on Tuesday that it is suspending free trade talks with Israel and imposing sanctions on some settlements in the occupied West Bank over Israel’s recent escalation in Gaza — an announcement being slammed by pro-Palestine advocates as “grotesquely inadequate.”
In remarks to Parliament, Foreign Secretary David Lammy criticized Israel’s recent escalation of its assault on Gaza and its lengthy total aid blockade on the region. He said that Israel’s plan to forcibly displace all Palestinians from Gaza is “morally unjustifiable” and “wholly disproportionate.”
“History will judge them,” Lammy said, ignoring the role of the U.K. and leaders of his own party in allowing Israel’s genocide to reach this point. “Blocking aid. Expanding the war. Dismissing the concerns of your friends and partners. This is indefensible. And it must stop.”
He said that the government is levying sanctions on three individuals and four entities involved in settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.
The announcement came after U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “horrified by the escalation,” following a joint statement with the French and Canadian governments threatening “concrete action” against Israel and calling for a ceasefire on Monday.
The U.K. has been in negotiations for a new free trade agreement with Israel since 2022, launched under conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Lammy said the existing trade agreement between the two governments is still in effect.
The U.K. has long faced criticism from advocates for Palestinian rights for the government’s support of Israel.
The Labour government announced shortly after taking control last year that it was suspending 29 of the U.K.’s 350 arms licenses to Israel, in a departure from the conservative government. However, data analyzed by pro-Palestine groups has shown that the U.K. has exported thousands of munitions to Israel since the suspension took effect — raising questions over whether the U.K. continued supposedly suspended shipments of F-35 jet parts.
Advocates for Palestinian rights said that the government’s actions do not erase the U.K.’s deep complicity in the genocide.
“Today could be a turning point, where the government begins to undo the depths of its complicity in Israel’s genocide, by treating Israel not as an ally, but as a rogue state carrying out atrocities. Or, without further action, it will be recognised as just a last ditch attempt to salvage its reputation as a government that has enabled these crimes,” the group said.
“Suspending the trade negotiations is a positive step forward but without bolder action this will have little impact. Without suspending parts for Israeli F-35 fighter jets, the UK Government remains complicit in the deaths of thousands of civilians across Gaza,” said Halima Begum, Oxfam GB’s executive director, in a statement.
“The Foreign Secretary should now suspend all arms exports to Israel and impose a full package of sanctions on political leaders and settlers in Israel who are seeking to erase Palestine from the map,” Begum went on.
Meanwhile, following Lammy’s announcement, left-wing members of Parliament grilled Lammyto account for arms exports to Israel, which have soared under Labour, but he refused to answer.
“I just asked the Foreign Secretary why arms sales to Israel under this Labour government now exceed those under the Tories. He dismissed it as ‘clickbait,’” said MP Zarah Sultana on social media. “There’s nothing clickbait about genocide. He has Palestinian blood on his hands.”
UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.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/O74hZCKKdpAVote For Genocide Vote Labour.
A protest outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court, February 13, 2025Photo: Jennie Walsh
Hundreds protest outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court as Stop the War Coalition and Palestine Solidarity Campaign activists attend court
HUNDREDS rallied outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court today to demand the government stop criminalising protest.
The large and noisy protest was held outside the court in support of Palestine marches chief steward Chris Nineham, who had his first court appearance today.
Mr Nineham, also long-standing vice-chair of the Stop the War Coalition, was violently arrested by police at the end of an entirely peaceful protest for Palestine in London last month.
He has been charged, together with Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) director Ben Jamal, with breaches of the Public Order Act.
Mr Jamal’s own hearing is next week. His was among 77 arrests made by police at the demonstration.
Demonstrators heard speeches linking the state attack on the right to protest with the overriding issue of solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Children play at a tent camp for displaced Palestinians in Gaza City’s Jabalya refugee camp, February 6, 2025, after collecting donated food
Urgent divestment call for local authority schemes
THE Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) has invested over £12 billion in firms complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide, new research by campaigners revealed today.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s (PSC) freedom of information requests have found that LGPS funds, administered by local councils across Britain, invest more than £450 million in BAE Systems, which manufactures components used by Israel’s F-16 fighter jets.
More than £80m is invested in Caterpillar, which produces bulldozers used by Israel to demolish Palestinian homes, schools and hospitals.
And more than £90m is invested in RTX Corporation, formerly Raytheon, which produces bombs used by the Israeli military.
Investments in Amazon and Google’s parent company Alphabet, purveyors of cloud computing infrastructure to Israel’s intelligence-gathering Project Nimbus, totals £4.7bn.
The research also shows that LGPS funds hold more than £28m in Israeli government bonds.
Police officers at a national march for Palestine in central London, January 18, 2025
OVER 40 legal experts have signed a letter to the Home Secretary demanding an independent investigation into the Met’s policing of London’s pro-Palestine protest at the weekend.
Saturday’s rally was met with a heavy-handed police presence which saw the arrest of 77 protesters — the most at any national demonstration for Palestine.
…
Organisers said there were a “series of complex restrictions” preventing people from assembling at Whitehall at various times, which resulted in arrests on “ flimsy pretexts including simply for inadvertently standing in this central area at the wrong time.”
The Met claims that protesters broke through police lines in a co-ordinated effort to breach the conditions.
But protest organisers backed by video footage contest this, stating that a small delegation, including an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor, who were seeking permission to lay flowers, were invited through.
Among those arrested was Stop the War’s Chris Nineham, chief steward of the protest, who has since been banned from attending demonstrations as part of his bail conditions.
Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign which helped organise the protest, was also subsequently charged with offences under the Public Order Act.
