A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard the RNLI Dungeness Lifeboat following a small boat incident in the Channel, September 3, 2024
AT LEAST 12 people trying to cross into Britain from France have died after their boat sank in the English Channel.
The deaths were confirmed today by the French coastguard after a rescue operation near the coast of Cap Gris-Nez, off Wimereux, took place.
Up to 65 people were rescued and two were still missing as the Morning Star went to print.
According to the mayor of Le Portel – where the surviving refugees were being treated – the bottom of the boat “ripped open.”
The people on board the dinghy ended up in the water and several of them needed emergency medical care, the French coastguard said.
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The International Organisation for Migration, which records Channel crossing deaths as part of its Missing Migrant Project, estimates 226 people including 35 children are missing or have died after attempting the crossing as of January this year.
According to the French coastguard, there have been at least 19 deaths in 2024 prior to Tuesday’s incident, including nine since the start of July.
Last week, France and Britain agreed to deepen co-operation on so-called illegal migration in the Channel.
At least 2,109 people have tried to cross since – the highest number of the year.
People take part in a national demonstration for Gaza from Russell Square to Whitehall in London, June 8, 2024
SCOTLAND YARD has been urged to abandon plans to impose new orders that would seriously disrupt Saturday’s March for Palestine demonstration in London.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), union leaders, MPs, peers and coalition partners expressed concern over the force severely restricting the protest in an open letter today.
The Met was accused of employing tactics “to deter people from attending” the 18th national peaceful demonstration against the Gaza genocide since last October.
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On Monday, the Met was accused of refusing to participate in negotiations in a “transparent and accountable” way with the march’s organisers.
Signatories of PSC’s letter raised concerns over the eleventh-hour announcement that the Met wanted the march delayed by nearly two hours “without explanation or rationale” and its refusal to allow Pall Mall as an assembly point.
They added: “We worry that these kind of delays, and late challenges and conditions to the plans of what are entirely peaceful demonstrations, are forming a pattern.”
An Israeli soldier holds a weapon atop an armoured personnel carrier [File: Baz Ratner/Reuters]
Thirty out of 350 licences to be suspended, citing ‘clear risk’ they could be used in breach of international humanitarian law.
The United Kingdom says it would suspend 30 out of 350 arms exports licences to Israel, citing a “clear risk” they could be used in a serious breach of international humanitarian law.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy told parliament on Monday the partial ban covered items “which could be used in the current conflict in Gaza” against Hamas but did not include parts for the F-35 fighter jets.
He said the decision to suspend the licences did not amount to a blanket ban or an arms embargo, adding that the UK continues to support Israel’s right to self defence in accordance with international law.
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“It is with regret that I inform the House [of Commons, lower house of parliament] today the assessment I have received leaves me unable to conclude anything other than that for certain UK arms exports to Israel, there does exist a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law,” Lammy said.
UK Labour Party Shadow Foreign Secretary repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party’s support for and complicity in Israel’s genocide of Gaza.
People march through Manchester demanding Britain impose an arms embargo on Israel, August 31, 2024Photo: John Nicholson
THOUSANDS of protesters across Britain again marched for Palestine on Saturday as Israel intensified its war on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
In major towns and cities calls were made to step up the worldwide Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel following news that international coffee shop chain Starbucks saw its market share fall by billions of dollars as customers rebel against the company’s involvement with Israel.
Protests also took place in Israel demanding a ceasefire after Hamas said that six Israeli hostages found dead in Gaza had been killed in Israeli bombing and shelling. Israel said the hostages had been murdered by Hamas as its troops approached.
Calling for more action against organisations investing in firms involved in Israel, Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) said its research has revealed that local government pension scheme funds in Britain collectively invest over £4.4 billion in companies complicit in Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.
The PSC said: “Councils must take immediate action to end ties with companies that are complicit in abuses of Palestinian rights, including by divesting pension funds they administer from companies enabling Israel’s genocide. The deferred wages of local government workers must not be used to fund injustice.”
British pro-Palestine activist and journalist Sarah Wilkinson—seen here in an undated photo—was arrested on August 29, 2024 for what police said was “content that she has posted online” amid Israel’s Gaza onslaught. (Photo: Sarah Wilkinson/X)
“1984 has arrived and is alive and well in the United Kingdom,” said musician Roger Waters.
At least a dozen police officers raided the home of British pro-Palestine activist and journalist Sarah Wilkinson on Thursday over “content that she has posted online” that allegedly ran afoul of the United Kingdom’s anti-terrorism law.
“The police came to her house just before 7:30 am,” Wilkinson’s son, Jack Wilkinson, said on social media. “There were 12 of them in total, some of them in plain clothes from the counterterrorism police… Her house is being raided and they have seized all her electronic devices.”
Police—who later freed Wilkinson on bail—did not disclose what content she posted that led to her arrest. Wilkinson has been a tireless critic of the U.K. government’s support for Israel and has posted many images of the death and destruction in Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed and wounded more than 144,000 Palestinians. Israel is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.
“The British prime minister is determined to terrorize into silence critics highlighting his, and now his government’s, complicity with Israel and its genocide in Gaza.”
Pro-Israel media reported Wilkinson called the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas-led militants an “incredible infiltration” and hailed the late Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh—who was assassinated last month in Iran—as a “hero.”
Section 12 of the U.K.’s Terrorism Act of 2000 criminalizes anyone who “invites support for a proscribed organization” or “expresses an opinion or belief that is supportive” of such a group. Violators can be punished with up to 14 years’ imprisonment and a fine. Hamas is included on the U.K. government’s list of proscribed groups.
Critics say the U.K. government uses the highly controversial anti-terror law to silence dissent.
Israel-based British journalist Thomas Cook said in a Friday blog post that Wilkinson’s arrest is “definitive proof” that U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s “authoritarian purges of the Labour left are being rolled out against critics on a nationwide basis.”
“The British prime minister is determined to terrorize into silence critics highlighting his, and now his government’s, complicity with Israel and its genocide in Gaza,” Cook added.
Musician and staunch Israel critic Roger Waters, who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd, said in a video posted Thursday on social media that Wilkinson was arrested “for standing up for human rights and campaigning against genocide.”
Thank you @rogerwaters & for everyone’s support for my mother’s arrest, interrogation, injuries and theft of her property by 16 balaclava-clad thugs pic.twitter.com/VeK0UoJY9I
“If you allow this to stand, the arrest of Sarah Wilkinson and the persecution of my friend Craig Murray among others, then you have absolutely accepted that England is now a fascist state,” Waters asserted, adding that “1984 has arrived and is alive and well in the United Kingdom.”
In addition to her pro-Palestine activism, Wilkinson is a news contributor for the Lebanon-based news site MENA Uncensored.
“The pro-genocide U.K. regime has arrested MENA Uncensored‘s roving reporter and human rights activist Sarah Wilkinson for supporting the Palestinian resistance and relaying what is really happening in Gaza and the West Bank to the world,” the outlet said on social media.
Wilkinson’s arrest came one week after Syrian-British independent journalist Richard Medhurst was apprehended at London’s Heathrow Airport and held for nearly 24 hours for allegedly violating Section 12 with social media posts “expressing an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organization.”
BREAKING: After a targeted campaign by the zionist lobby, Palestine Action's co-founder Richard Barnard is facing three charges for two speeches.
He is accused of supporting a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act and encouraging 'criminal activity'. pic.twitter.com/cWq0qwk15v
Richard Barnard, co-founder of the London-based group Palestine Action—with which Wilkinson has been involved—is also facing three criminal charges for two speeches allegedly supporting a proscribed organization.
