A tent camp for displaced Palestinians is set up amid destroyed buildings in the west of Al-Shati camp, west of Gaza City, March 3, 2025
LAUNCH a full public inquiry into Britain’s complicity in the Gaza genocide, left MP Jeremy Corbyn has told the government.
The former Labour leader has written to Keir Starmer warning that he will be working with colleagues to “pursue all avenues to establish a public, independent inquiry into the UK’s involvement in Israel’s military assault in Gaza.”
This probe should “establish exactly what decisions have been taken, how these decisions have been made, and what consequences they have had,” he said.
Mr Corbyn’s move comes as pro-Palestine campaigners face a growing police clampdown, with several summoned for police interview over purported offences at January’s Gaza demonstration.
The letter to the Prime Minister cites the precedent of the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war which, though protracted, eventually laid bare the sheer extent of deception undertaken by the Blair government regarding the 2003 aggression.
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“Britain has played a highly influential role in Israel’s military operations,” Mr Corbyn writes, “including the sale of weapons, the supply of intelligence and the use of RAF bases” in Cyprus.
“Many of us have repeatedly raised objections over the continued sale of F-35 components. We have repeatedly asked for the truth regarding the role of British military bases.
“And we have repeatedly requested the publication of legal advice behind the government’s currently unknown definition of genocide. Our requests have been met evasion, obstruction and silence, leaving the public in the dark,” he added.
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/O74hZCKKdpAUK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
An Israeli soldier carries a U.S.-supplied 155mm artillery shell near a self-propelled howitzer deployed at a position near the border with Lebanon in the upper Galilee region of northern Israel on October 18, 2023. (Photo: Jalaa Marey/ AFP via Getty Images)
Like the Biden administration, Trump is claiming an “emergency” in order to bypass Congress.
As Palestinians released from Israeli imprisonment recount torture and other abuse suffered at the hands of their former captors, the Trump administration on Friday approved a new $3 billion weapons package for Israel.
The new package, reported by Zeteo‘s Prem Thakker, includes nearly $2.716 billion worth of bombs and weapons guidance kits, as well as $295 million in bulldozers. The Trump administration said that “an emergency exists that requires the immediate sale,” allowing it to bypass Congress, as the Biden administration did on multiple occasions. However, the weapons won’t be delivered until 2026 or 2027.
The Trump-Vance State Department just approved $3.01 billion in arms & equipment sales to Israel$2.04 billion in bombs$675.7 million in bombs & weapon guidance kits$295 million in bulldozersAdministration said "an emergency exists that requires the immediate sale," waiving congressional review
From October 2023 to October 2024, Israel received a record $17.9 billion worth of U.S. arms as it waged a war of annihilation against the Gaza Strip that left more than 170,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing and millions more displaced, starved, or sickened. Israel is facing genocide allegations in an International Court of Justice case brought by South Africa. The International Criminal Court has also issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Reporting on the new package came after U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Monday announced an effort to block four other arms sales totaling $8.56 billion in offensive American weaponry to Israel.
Meanwhile, some of the approximately 1,000 Palestinians released by Israel as part of a prisoner swap described grim stories of abuse by Israeli forces. The former detainees, who were arrested but never charged with any crimes, “have returned visibly malnourished and scarred by the physical and psychological torture they say they faced in Israeli prisons,” according to The Washington Post. Some returned to what were once their homes to find them destroyed and their relatives killed or wounded by Israeli forces.
Eyas al-Bursh, a doctor volunteering at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City when he was captured by Israeli troops, was held in Sde Teiman and the Ofer military prison in the illegally occupied West Bank for 11 months.
“The places where we were held were harsh, sleep was impossible, and we remained handcuffed and blindfolded,” al-Bursh told the Post.
“We endured psychological and physical torture without a single day of respite—whether through beatings, abuse, punches, or even verbal insults and humiliation,” he added.
The Israel Defense Forces told the Post that it “acts in accordance with Israeli and international law in order to protect the rights of the detainees held in the detention and questioning facilities.”
However, farmer Ashraf al-Radhi, who was held for 14 months—including at the notorious Sde Teiman prison in Israel’s Negev Desert—told the Post that “we witnessed all kinds of humiliation.”
According to the newspaper:
Radhi said he “wished for death” during his detention, which included long periods when he was blindfolded, handcuffed, andcrammed into a filthy cell with dozens of other prisoners. The 34-year-old said he had no access to a lawyer; no idea why he was there; or what, in his absence, had become of his family.
Rahdi also said that Mohammed al-Akka, a 44-year-old detainee held with him, died last December. Al-Akka is one of dozens of Palestinian prisoners who have died in Israeli custody, some from suspected torture and, in at least one case, rape with an electric baton. A number of Israeli reservists are being investigated for the alleged gang-rape of a Sde Teiman prisoner.
Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
A pro-Palestinian protester holds a placard accusing U.S. President Joe Biden, former U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of war crimes at a demonstration against Israeli attacks on Gaza in central London, U.K. (Photo: Andy Soloman/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
In less than a year, more than a dozen U.S. officials publicly resigned in protest of Biden’s policy on Israel-Palestine. I was one of them.
Every so often, countless young hopefuls arrive in Washington, D.C., eager to help implement policies that improve the lives of Americans. But some quickly come to find out that U.S. imperialism bleeds into all areas of policy, it impacts all facets of government directly or indirectly, and sometimes at the expense of Americans in need. That was my rude awakening, at least.
I was one of those young hopefuls, and two years later, I publicly resigned from my post as a political appointee in the Biden-Harris administration because the cost of U.S. imperialism occupied every one of my thoughts. I felt I strayed away from my goal of pursuing justice through policy every time I thought about the cost of funding destruction and death in Palestine at the expense of us Americans, roughly half of whom are struggling to afford food, clothing, and housing.
And I am not the only one who resigned under President Joe Biden. In less than a year, more than a dozen U.S. officials publicly resigned in protest of Biden’s policy on Israel-Palestine, and many others left quietly. This level of dissent within the realm of government is unheard of and it can be characterized as a fight against imperialistic policy.
If, in his final days, Biden strayed away from the norm far enough to pardon his own son, exemplifying the instinct we have to protect our family and keep them safe, he should have known of the hypocrisy in enabling the orphaning and killing of children in Palestine.
The imperialistic features of our government disillusion passionate people, it turns them away from a life of public service. It is difficult to stay motivated while seeing the military spending in our country grow astronomically by the year while education and transportation face steep budget cuts. Americans do not get to see the benefits of high military spending materialized, but they would directly benefit from sufficiently funded schools and public transportation. And imperialism only succeeds abroad in ruining the United States’ reputation, casting it as a force wreaking havoc in the Global South. So, when I think about the United States’ role in supporting Israel’s aggression in Palestine, I wonder what it is all for in the grand scheme of bettering the lives of Americans.
If the administration’s insistence on supporting Israel no matter the cost was about maintaining the status quo, something the Biden-Harris administration had no trouble straying away from in other cases, then it was both a failed and hypocritical policy. Biden did not mind the status quo when he chose a woman as a vice president in a historic first or when he nominated the first Black female Supreme Court Justice. One can argue those steps were superficial, but regardless, they signaled progress to some. It is unfortunate, to say the least, that the same administration that took those steps tarnished their legacy when they, time and time again, failed Palestine on a catastrophic level.
My generation and community will remember this administration for one thing: genocide. It will go down in history as the administration that could not stray away from the status quo on Israel-Palestine policy at the expense of Americans in need, the lives of American activists like Ayşenur Eygi, and the safety of Arab and Muslim Americans. Not to mention, the Biden-Harris administration and Democratic Party leadership at large sacrificed the 2024 presidential election and Democratic voters in the process when they refused to campaign differently on Palestine.
As the Biden-Harris administration departs, their legacy is being immortalized. The hundreds of thousands of Americans who have advocated for a change in policy since October 2023 can argue that the legacy of the administration becoming stained permanently was avoidable.
If, in his final days, Biden strayed away from the norm far enough to pardon his own son, exemplifying the instinct we have to protect our family and keep them safe, he should have known of the hypocrisy in enabling the orphaning and killing of children in Palestine. If he was able to use his authority for good to commute the sentences of 37 prisoners on federal death row, he should have known to uphold the law and ensure Israel is not receiving an endless supply of weapons illegally. What may be worse than ignorant leaders are ones who are aware and indifferent, willingly complicit, and that may very well be the Biden administration’s legacy.
Some updates have been made throughout this piece at the author’s request.
Palestinians are surrounded by buildings destroyed by Israeli attacks in Khan Younis, Gaza on December 10, 2024. (Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Failure to do so not only risks our leverage in ceasefire negotiations, it undermines our country’s own national security and weakens America’s commitment to human rights as a cornerstone of our foreign policy.”
Twenty progressives in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday wrote to top Biden administration officials arguing that “the United States government must suspend offensive weapons” to Israel over its destruction of the Gaza Strip, citing federal and international law.
Led by Reps. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) and Greg Casar (D-Texas), the incoming Congressional Progressive Caucus chair, the lawmakers began by thanking U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin for their October 13 letter threatening to cut off weapons to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government if it did not dramatically improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
“However, despite your administration acknowledging that the Netanyahu government did not fully address the United States’ concerns over Gaza and has failed to meet all of the conditions stipulated in this letter, the State Department decided not to take further action, including the suspension of offensive military assistance, to ensure full compliance,” the Democrats wrote.
“We believe continuing to transfer offensive weapons to the Israeli government prolongs the suffering of the Palestinian people and risks our own national security by sending a message to the world that the U.S. will apply its laws, policies, and international law selectively,” they continued. “Furthermore, a failure to act will put Israeli lives in danger by prolonging Netanyahu’s war, isolating Israel on the international stage, and creating further instability in the region.”
The new letter comes just over a month away from President Joe Biden leaving office and follows one from last week signed by 77 House Democrats—including Casar—that demanded “a full assessment of the status of Israel’s compliance with all relevant U.S. policies and laws, including National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20) and Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act.”
This one goes further, explicitly urging the Biden administration to suspend offensive military transfers and warning that “failure to do so not only risks our leverage in cease-fire negotiations, it undermines our country’s own national security and weakens America’s commitment to human rights as a cornerstone of our foreign policy.”
“We remain committed to saving Palestinian and Israeli lives. This means doing everything possible to prioritize the release of hostages, secure a lasting cease-fire deal, and move toward long-term peace,” the 20 progressives concluded.
In addition to Lee and Casar, Tuesday’s letter was signed by Democratic Reps. Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.), Cori Bush (Mo.), Joaquin Castro (Texas), Lloyd Doggett (Texas), Veronica Escobar (Texas), Jesús “Chuy” García (Ill.), Al Green (Texas), Sara Jacobs (Calif.), Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), Hank Johnson (Ga.), Jim McGovern (Mass.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Mark Pocan (Wis.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Delia C. Ramirez (Ill.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (N.J.).
It came on the same day as a lawsuit filed by Palestinians and Palestinian Americans accusing the U.S. State Department of creating “unique, insurmountable processes to evade the Leahy Law requirement to sanction abusive Israeli units.”
As of Tuesday, the 14-month Israeli assault on Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack has killed at least 45,059 people and wounded another 107,041, according to local officials. Israel’s slaughter and starvation of Palestinian civilians have led to a genocide case at the International Court of Justice as well as International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant.
A lifeguard hut rests on its side after Hurricane Milton, October 11, 2024, at Clearwater Beach, Fla.
RICH countries received strong criticism at the Cop29 conference in Azerbaijan today for wanting to spend more on wars and weapons than on preventing climate change.
“Global military spending stands at $2.5 trillion (£1.9trn) annually,” Panamian climate envoy Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez told delegates at the faltering annual talks sponsored by the United Nations.
“For some, $2.5trn dollars to kill each other, it’s not enough, but $1trn to save lives is unreasonable.”
“Causing our own extinction is the most ridiculous thing. At least the dinosaurs had an asteroid. What is our excuse?”
Palestinian Environment Quality Authority chairwoman warned that Israel is committing “ecocide” after over a year of bombardments in Gaza.
“Protection of the environment is actually not an ancillary issue, it is not a secondary option, it is a basic right that is related to all of us as human beings,” she said.
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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva urged developed nations to consider moving their 2050 emission goals forward to 2040 or 2045.
“The G20 is responsible for 80 per cent of greenhouse-effect emissions,” he said. “Even if we are not walking the same speed, we can all take one more step.”
Meanwhile, a new scientific study has found that climate change has made Atlantic hurricanes about 18mph stronger in the last six years.
