Updated 2024-03-25
2024-03-14 New UK Definition of ‘Extremism’ Called Attack on Right to Dissent “The government should recognize that real British values involve defending the rights of all political opponents to speak freely and openly,” said one advocate.
Coming weeks after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claimed the United Kingdom is in danger of “mob rule… replacing democratic rule,” a new definition of “extremism” published by the government on Thursday was viewed by one rights advocate as a “smash and grab” on the right to protest, among other freedoms.
The Conservative government updated the definition of the word under its anti-extremism agenda, known as Prevent. The government will now treat as extremism “vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs.”
“The government will undertake a robust process to assess groups for extremism against the definition, which will then inform decisions around government engagement and funding,” said a public notice from Michael Gove, Sunak’s secretary of state for leveling up, housing, and communities. The government is expected to release a list in the coming weeks of groups it deems as in violation of the new definition of extremism. https://www.commondreams.org/news/uk-extremism-definition
2024-02-14 “Democracies” Deny the Popular Will While Suppressing Protest and Dissent Most people here in the United States, 61% according to one poll , want a ceasefire in Gaza. That number is significant but it shows no correlation whatsoever with how the state acts. Only 69 members of the House of Representatives and 5 members of the Senate have publicly called for a ceasefire.
The same is true in the rest of the “democratic” nations known as the Collective West. A leaked letter from a cabinet level ministry in the Netherlands read in part, “What can we say so that it appears that Israel is not committing war crimes?” The outgoing prime minister is angling for the NATO General Secretary’s job and wants to stay on the good side of the U.S., hence the need to give the appearance that Israel isn’t committing crimes that the whole world can see. Meanwhile, Dutch civil servants protested against their own government’s support for Israel and yes, they were ignored. That nation has been ordered by its Supreme Court to stop selling F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel but the elected government has chosen to appeal their court’s decision.
Not to be outdone, France is forcing any organizations receiving governmental aid to repeat debunked allegations that Hamas committed atrocities on October 7. https://blackagendareport.com/democracies-deny-popular-will-while-suppressing-protest-and-dissent
2023-11-27 BBC Censors BAFTA Acceptance Speeches Expressing Solidarity with Palestine In Glasgow, Scotland, the BBC has been accused of censorship after the network edited calls for a Gaza ceasefire out of its coverage of an awards ceremony. This is BAFTA-winning director Eilidh Munro, who won for her short film “A Long Winter” but had her acceptance speech cut from BBC’s edited version of the ceremony posted online.
Eilidh Munro: “We have got a responsibility to elevate the world’s most important stories, and we want to take this opportunity tonight to say that we stand in solidarity with everyone in Palestine.” https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/27/headlines/bbc_censors_bafta_acceptance_speeches_expressing_solidarity_with_palestine
2023-10-25 Craig Murray: The Chances of a Regional War As countries with influence over Israel actively encourage the slaughter, Murray considers what will happen internationally and what is happening in Western societies.
Most of our eyes are indeed horrified. The gap between the western political and media elites and their people on this issue is simply enormous. Western leaders have not only failed to restrain Israel, they have almost unanimously egged Netanyahu on, with the continued repetition of the phrase “Israel’s right to self-defence” as justification for the mass bombing, removal and starvation of an entire civilian population. The Western leadership glee in vetoing every attempt at a ceasefire resolution at the U.N. is astonishing.
Massive demonstrations have been taking place across Europe against this unspeakable massacre, and the knee-jerk reaction of politicians at their isolation from public opinion has been to try to make such shows of dissent illegal. In the U.K. people have been arrested for displaying Palestinian flags. In Germany pro-Palestinian demonstrations have been entirely banned. Something similar has been attempted in France, with predictable failure.
I have myself attended pro-Palestinian demonstrations in three countries, and the most striking thing on each occasion was the strong support of passers-by, and the number of people spontaneously coming out to join the demo as it passed.
A wave of racism has been unleashed in the U.K. and elsewhere. I am astonished by the Islamophobia and racial hatred released online, with no apparent comeback. U.K. ministers claim to be alarmed at the “terrorist sympathies” of pro-Palestinian demonstrators, yet it is perfectly legal to call for Palestinians to be exterminated, to compare them to different types of animal and vermin, and suggest they should be driven into the sea. That does not horrify ministers at all. It has also become dangerous to merely suggest that Palestinians too have a right to self-defence and may offer armed resistance to genocide — a right they enjoy beyond doubt in international law. Remember, Israel has formally declared war. Is it the position in British law that the only belief it is legal to hold and express, is that in this war the Palestinians must simply line up quietly to be killed? The major cause of terrorism here is Israel, the terrorist apartheid state. https://consortiumnews.com/2023/10/25/craig-murray-the-chances-of-a-regional-war/
2023-10-24 Incredibly, I Face Investigation for Terrorism – Defense Funds Appeal My phone is not being returned to me by police as, astonishingly, I am now formally under investigation for terrorism. Whether this relates to support for Palestine or for Wikileaks has currently not been made clear. https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2023/10/incredibly-i-face-investigation-for-terrorism-defence-funds-appeal/
2023-10-19 Silencing Palestinian voices helps no one cope with the war On Oct. 13, the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany announced it would no longer host an award ceremony for the Palestinian writer Adania Shibli and her book “Minor Detail.” A public discussion with Shibli and her translator was also canceled. The German literary association Litprom, which is behind the award, stated that its decision was “due to the war started by Hamas, under which millions of people in Israel and Palestine are suffering.”
“The terror war against Israel contradicts all the values that Frankfurter Buchmesse stands for,” said Frankfurt Book Fair director Juergen Boos. “Frankfurter Buchmesse has always been about humanity, its focus has always been on peaceful and democratic discourse.” He added that “we want to make Jewish and Israeli voices especially visible at the book fair.”
It is understandable why, especially in Germany, people felt the need to stand unequivocally against the brutal murder of Jews. But why sharing in Israeli mourning required silencing a Palestinian writer with no connection to Hamas — why Palestinians could not be part of the book fair’s peaceful and democratic discourse — was not explained. The very notion of a Palestinian being recognized, speaking in public, was evidently beyond the pale. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/10/19/palestinian-writers-canceled-censorship-literature/
2023-10-13 Western Governments Ban Palestinian Solidarity Demonstrations The French government has banned all rallies in response to the Israeli bombardment and total blockade of Gaza. On Thursday, police in Paris used tear gas and water cannons against pro-Palestine protesters who gathered despite the prohibition. In the United Kingdom, activists have vowed to take legal action if officials ban the Palestinian flag. British Home Secretary Suella Braverman has urged police forces to use the “full force of the law” against protesters waving the Palestinian flag, which she said “may not be legitimate” if it’s found to be a sign in support of “terrorism.” In Australia, human rights defenders are warning of the government’s escalating repression against actions in support of Palestine. https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/13/headlines/western_governments_ban_palestinian_solidarity_demonstrations
2023-09-25 UK and Israel: Has the fightback against weaponized antisemitism begun? There has been a wave of highly damaging but unsubstantiated allegations of antisemitism against students and academics, according to a new survey of British universities. In 38 of 40 cases brought against lecturers, students, student unions and societies in the five years to 2022, no evidence was found to support the accusations of antisemitism. Hearings in the other two cases have yet to conclude.
Hidden in the raw figures is the enormous toll such false allegations take on the accused: personal suffering and reputational and career damage, as well as the additional chilling effect on academic freedom in the wider university community. That is unlikely to be an unfortunate side product of these allegations. It seems to be precisely their point.
The spate of allegations was unleashed after universities began adopting a revised, and highly controversial, definition of antisemitism issued by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) in 2016. In truth, that was always the aim. The IHRA definition grew out of covert efforts by the Israeli government to blur traditional distinctions between antisemitism and anti-Zionism to shield itself from critics, including human rights groups, who were highlighting Israel’s apartheid rule over Palestinians. https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/uk-and-israel-has-the-fightback-against
2010-09-18 Censorship of Al Jazeera Documentary Exposes Influence of Pro-Israel Lobby A documentary film that aimed to expose Israel’s covert influence campaign in the United States has been leaked to the media after the government of Qatar pulled it from Al Jazeera, a media outlet Qatar funds. In August 2018, excerpts of the censored documentary were leaked and later published by a number of online independent media outlets, including the Electronic Intifada, France’s Orient XXI, and Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar. An undercover reporter for Al Jazeera became an intern at the Israel Project, a pro-Israeli organization in Washington, DC, in order to research and document what a November 2018 Electronic Intifada article summarized as “the efforts of Israel and its lobbyists to spy on, smear and intimidate US citizens who support Palestinian human rights, especially BDS,” the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. https://www.projectcensored.org/19-censorship-of-al-jazeera-documentary-exposes-influence-of-pro-israel-lobby/
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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict
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