The right to protest is being eroded as we more and more resemble a Soviet State

 Todays march against the genocide of the Palestinian people by Israel has police asking for members of the public to  hand over photographs of demonstrators supporting a democratically elected government in Palestine.. I seems that our government meanwhile is sharing intelligence and providing armed support to those committing genocide and running an apartheid regime in the Middle East. Shame on them.. I never thought that I would live to see the day in this country.

Israel’s War Crimes will only end when they have exterminated the Palestinian people.

 The Nakba (Arabic: النَّكْبَة, romanized: an-Nakba, lit. 'the catastrophe') is the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Arabs through their violent displacement and dispossession of land, property, and belongings, along with the destruction of their society and the suppression of their culture, identity, political rights, and national aspirations.The term is used to describe the events of the 1948 Palestine war in Mandatory Palestine as well as the ongoing persecution and displacement of Palestinians by Israel. As a whole, it covers the fracturing of Palestinian society and the long-running rejection of the right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

During the foundational events of the Nakba in 1948, approximately half of Palestine's predominantly Arab population, or around 750,000 people, were expelled from their homes or made to flee through various violent means, at first by Zionist paramilitaries, and after the establishment of the State of Israel, by its military. Dozens of massacres targeted Palestinian Arabs and over 500 Arab-majority towns, villages, and urban neighborhoods were depopulated, with many of these being either completely destroyed or repopulated by Jews and given new Hebrew names. Israel employed biological warfare against Palestinians by poisoning village wells. By the end of the war, 78% of the total land area of the former Mandatory Palestine was controlled by Israel.

The Palestinian national narrative views the Nakba as a collective trauma that defines their national identity and political aspirations. The Israeli national narrative views the Nakba as a component of the War of Independence that established Israel's statehood and sovereignty. Also, they negate or deny the atrocities committed, claiming that many of the expelled Palestinians left willingly or that their expulsion was necessary and unavoidable. Nakba denial has been increasingly challenged since the 1970s in Israeli society, particularly by the New Historians, although the official narrative has not changed.

Extracted from Wikipedia.

 Meanwhile succesive British governments have contributed to this slaughter by supplying Israel with intelligence and arms.

 Our present Prime Minister and his wife meanwhile busy themselves with accepting thousands of pounds worth of luxury clothes.

 Shame on them all. I am so mortified of this country’s policies in the Middle East that I no longer possess a British passport.

All of my heroes are dead.

 Pete Seeger was the last to go; Phil Ochs the first. I suppose it is the result of being very old myself and I,  certainly, won't be anyone's hero. The following extract is taken from "The Church Times" ( yes I am very catholic in my reading habits - no pun intended) and is taken from a review of a new biography on the subject. Any guesses from my two readers out there? Clue - he was not a folk singer.

Nevertheless, the author points to the many government reforms that civilised Britain in ways that we now take for granted. Among these were further regulations on racial discrim­­ination, abolition of capital pun­ishment and corporal punishment in prisons,  legalising abortion and same-sex relations, reforming divorce laws, and the creation of the Open University.

Further, the Government could be proud of its record on housing, social services, health, and its help for the poorest, promoting equal pay for women and attempting to end the stigma attached to those on state benefits by recognising that the re­­cipients had rights

Julian Barnes

 "The world had moved on, become more scientific, more practical, less under the sway of the old superstitions. And tyrants had moved on as well. Perhaps conscience no longer had an evolutionary function, and so had been bred out. Penetrate beneath the modern tyrant’s skin, go down layer after layer, and you will find that the texture does not change, that granite encloses yet more granite; and there is no cave of conscience to be found”.

Nakba

 

The Invasion continues..

 

Yesterday was Nakba day - watch the videos.

 

View this email in your browser Dear Readers, Today is Nakba Day, when we commemorate the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 when over 500 Palestinian towns and villages were destroyed, and over 750,000 Palestinians forcibly displaced.   Over ten thousand of you marched with us in London over the weekend to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Nakba and stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and their struggle for freedom and justice. The Palestinian people today mark the Nakba not just as an historical moment of trauma but as an ongoing process of dispossession and colonisation. Today on Nakba day Palestinians wake up to the realities of  military occupation. They continue to suffer conditions of apartheid and face ongoing attempts by Israel to remove them from their homes, villages, and neighbourhoods in Jenin, Jerusalem, Nablus and Masafer Yatta.  In Gaza they continue to face a punishing blockade which makes living conditions unbearable and regular deadly airstrikes by Israel. 75 years later, the majority of the Palestinian people are still in exile, prevented by Israel from returning to their homeland.   We know that their resitance to this ongoing injustice is steadfast and that their will is unbreakable. Today we collectively renew our commitment to stand with them. We will never stop marching, will never stop boycotting, will never stop protesting until Palestine is free from the river to the sea.    As Jeremy Corbyn said at our rally, “For those that think we are going to go away, dream on! We will never give up on the rights of the Palestinian people.”   The Palestinian people will never stop resisting. But they need our support.   Palestinians have called on all people of conscience across the world to spread awareness of their struggle and the historic and ongoing Nakba. We must answer them and continue to put pressure on Israel and our governments to demand Palestinians rights are respected.   Here’s what you can do today. Share our Nakba stories videos on Twitter, to help spread knowledge about the Nakba and build international solidarity for Palestine. Share our Nakba story videos Thanks for taking action and for supporting our work. If you missed yesterday’s protest and want to get involved, head to our website to join your local branch of PSC.  In solidarity,    Gabriel PSC Communications Officer Copyright © All rights reserved.   Palestine Solidarity Campaign Ltd is limited by guarantee and registered in England and Wales, Number 5213508. The Registered Office (not for correspondence) is 5th Floor, 65 Leadenhall Street, London EC3A 2AD. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list