JAMES BIRMINGHAM JOINS SIMON AND JON FOR A TRANSATLANTIC SHOW TO KICK OFF 2026 ~ US bellicosity in Venezuela and Greenland has shocked the world with what has been a naked display of gangster tactics in the first instance, and a seeming disdain for Nato in the second – and just today it has announced withdrawal from 66 international organisations. The shooting in Minneapolis of Renee Good meanwhile has been kicking off protests nationwide. Back in Blighty, the Filton Palestine solidarity hunger strike has seen one of the hunger strikers, Teuta Hoxha, forced to stop amid fears she has suffered irreversible damage to her body, while Kamran Ahmed was admitted to hospital for the sixth time yesterday and his immediate family notified. The hunger strikers are between 50 and 70 days in, which is the same range that killed Bobby Sands. In London, a recent FT story has gone into a bit of detail over a proposed data centre at the Truman Brewery on Brick Lane. And last but not least, Freedom has published an exclusive interview with Iranian group the Anarchist Front about the uprising which is taking place there  The post Anarchist News Review: The US gets aggressive while the UK sits around appeared first on Freedom News.

COMPANY “COMPLICIT IN THE WORLD’S WARS AND GENOCIDES”, SAY ACTIVISTS ~ Cristina Sykes ~ Groups including Shut the System, Carnage Total and Scientist Rebellion say their activists last night smashed windows and spray-painted offices of Allianz, a major global insurance company, over its complicity in Israeli arms. The groups said offices were defaced in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Taiwan, and Birmingham. Provided photos from Paris The actions follow the 1 November renewal of Allianz’s contract with Israeli arms company Elbit Systems. The group noted the actions coinciding with the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration in 1917. “Palestine is a crux point for our shared struggle for justice against imperialist forces”, said a UK spokesperson in a press release. “They massacre communities so that greed-driven multinationals can ravage the land for oil, gas and minerals, devastating the support systems for all life on Earth”. Elbit Systems supplies up to 85% of Israel’s military drones and land-based equipment, while its British exports to Israel mostly concern drone and aircraft components, military electronics, and target and acquisition systems The post Elbit insurer Allianz targeted in 8 countries appeared first on Freedom News.

THE GOVERNMENT AND MEDIA ARE PRETENDING TO SUPPORT THE JEWISH COMMUNITY—BY OBEYING THE FAR RIGHT ~ Tabitha Troughton ~ Maccabi Tel Aviv fans have just been rioting in Tel Aviv itself, with the match banned as a result. For the previous 72 hours, the British public were once again instructed, by the media and politicians, not to believe their lying eyes. Forget videos of Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters running riot in Amsterdam in November, or of Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters beating someone in Athens unconscious in March last year: banning Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters from a game at Aston Villa is, according to the UK’s prime minister, antisemitic. It did not need confirmation from the Israeli Minister for Foreign Affairs that the British government is now entirely obeying the diktats of the State of Israel. “A line must be drawn” Gideon Sa’ar reports having told foreign secretary Yvette Cooper yesterday (19 October), listing the measures necessary further to spread fear among, and alienate, British Jewish people. This included the banning of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans. Sa’ar: “expressed our clear and unequivocal expectation that this disgraceful decision be revoked and that Maccabi Tel Aviv fans be allowed to attend the game”. The resulting campaign is just the most recent in a redoubled wave of attacks on fact and community, clearly at the Israeli state’s behest. It is worth examining the run up to it. At the start of October, thirteen UK citizens were among those kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli military. Millions of people worldwide had been watching live-streamed footage from the Global Sumud Flotilla; around 50 small, civilian boats on a humanitarian mission to break Israel’s 17 year-long blockade of Gaza. By 2 am on Thursday 2nd, around 13 of the boats had been boarded and seized by Israel, with the rest still under pursuit. In total, 462 peaceful flotilla activists, from around 45 countries, were eventually taken hostage. Many would later report being tortured. By Thursday evening, emergency protests in support of the flotilla crew had erupted across the world, through the whole of Europe through to Dhaka, Rio and beyond. The UK public’s response, while comparatively muted, was no different. Earlier that day, the British Transport Police had issued a warning. Protests were expected “in response to Israel detaining activists on the Global Sumud Flotilla in the early hours of this morning”. Emergency gatherings indeed sprang up that evening around the country, from Edinburgh to London Piccadilly. Later that morning, in Manchester, two Jewish people had tragically been killed, and others injured, after a terrorist attacked a synagogue. The feelings of shock, dismay and horror across the population were heartfelt: condemnations of the act, and support for the victims and the wider Jewish community poured in from across all spectrums – religious, political and communal. And then one of the largest of disinformation campaigns slammed into action. It was spread by a variety of actors with a variety of motives, but the strategy was the same. To start with: tell people that the UK flotilla protests were not protests in support of the flotilla. Tell them they were protests in celebration of the Manchester terrorist attack. The flotilla protests were “a shameful response to the Manchester attack” according to The Spectator. “Vicious Jew-hatred was indulged, yet again” agreed the Scotsman. “They weren’t demonstrating. They were, actually celebrating. I can’t even imagine whoever’s seen such vile scenes on our streets” Farage told his followers. “I could not take it that after such a horrendous terrorist attack, I could see marches of celebrations in London and other cities that celebrated this murderous attack”, Israeli deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel said, on Good Morning Britain. The next immediate target was larger; hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people: those who had marched peacefully through London, month after month,  against their government’s complicity in genocide. Suddenly, once again, the marches were “hate marches”, specifically a mass of “Jew hate”, and directly linked to the Manchester terror attack. “Everyone on pro-Palestine marches this weekend is complicit” threatened the Express. Social media was bombarded by posts from right wing accounts: “Anti Semitic mobs have been allowed to march through our streets, waving their terrorist flags and shouting Death to Jews” was one exemplar. “People like killing Jews” the Mail on Sunday’s Dan Hodges clarified. Until now, coverage of the silent, seated, placard-holding Palestine Action protests had been sympathetic. It would, you would think, from the footage of priests, pensioners, Quakers and disabled people being arrested under the Terrorism Act, and carried off by reluctant police, be difficult to sell this as an antisemitic hate event. But not this time. “We’ve had Swastikas, pro-Hamas posters, pro-terror posters and calls for Intifada”, Dan Hodges asserted, of the most recent Palestine Action protest in Trafalgar Square on 4 October, which he does not appear to have attended. The supposed evidence for this came from three photos of people on the fringes of the protest: a grey-haired man with a t-shirt which compared the Israeli government to Nazis, and one person with a placard saying they supported Hamas’ right to resistance. A banner from Cage, the campaigning civil rights organisation demanding that the government “Abolish terror laws” was presumably “pro terror”. The Times’ Matthew Syed, wandering around the sombre square on Saturday, was asking people, there to protest their government’s support of an ongoing genocide, whether “Hamas were partly responsible”. Told to piss off with his stupid questions by women there to witness the protest, Syed extrapolates this into a “hatred of Jews”. Many participants in the protest were Jewish and the protest itself was supported by Jewish organisations, including Jewish Voice for Labour and Na’amod. There were placards affirming the general grief for Manchester, but Syed comes away with “the pervasive view that the Manchester atrocity was not a heinous attack but righteous comeuppance for an evil people”. The protestors, from priest to Quaker, were “almost gloating over the Yom Kippur attack” the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews later told his Jewish audience. Coasting on the back of this, like a surfer upon sewage, was the British government. Naturally they wanted to end the protests; the public accusations of their engagement in the mass slaughter of defenceless people. And yet, interviewed by Owen Jones and Rivkah Brown at the Labour Party conference last month, it was clear that they were not about to do this by stopping their diplomatic and military support for the current Israeli government. Indeed, the government can do nothing to go against the Trump/Netanyahu axis, or so it has persuaded itself. Consider the haunted grey face of Yvette Cooper, questioned by Jones over Gaza. Or Jess Phillips, pursued by an incredulous Rivkah Brown with questions about the proscription of Palestine Action. “We’re just doing what we’re told” shrugged Phillips’ body language. “Are you daft, or something?” “I just do as I’m told, you know”, Labour’s Peter Prinsley confirmed to Declassified UK outside the conference. So this ideologically authoritarian, blindly in thrall government doubles down. The Prime Minister told the country that there are “people on our streets calling for the murder of Jewish people”. He did not mean the threat, to all people, of insane extremist violence; he meant what Gideon Sa’ar has instructed him to mean: the schoolgirls, students, pensioners, white and brown, singing “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”. According to Sa’ar, and the right wing press, and their supporters, this calls for “the elimination of the State of Israel” – and is therefore antisemitic. Legislation, said Sa’ar, was needed. And thus the UK’s right wing, and its convenient dupes, flog the fallacy that the majority of the country who demanded arms sales to Israel be suspended, or who think banning Maccabi Tel Aviv fans is a good idea, simply hate Jewish people. Meanwhile, the Israeli state not only invites in, but parades, a man known as one of the UK’s most unwanted Nazi-adjacent mortgage fiddlers. The shock among the British Jewish community when Tommy Robinson’s trip was announced was palpable, including from the British Board of Deputies of British Jews, which described him as a “thug” who represented “the very worst of Britain”. Robinson was urging supporters to rally at the Maccabi Tel Aviv/Villa game, where the Prime Minister and his accomplices are simultaneously attempting to expedite, as directed by Sa’ar, an influx of notoriously violent foreign race-haters, screaming “antisemitism” if challenged. If there were a better way to spread fear, division and hatred among our Muslim and Jewish communities, it is difficult to think of one. “If Tommy Robinson wants to show he’s a friend of Jews I urge him not to go after Jewish journalists just because they happen to disagree with him” pleaded one Jewish journalist. It is a terrible and damning game that this government and its allies are attempting: pretending to support the Jewish community by obeying the far right. Meanwhile, excluding figures from London, religious hate crimes targeted at Muslims rose by 19% in the year before March, including direct attacks on mosques and Muslims themselves. Communities are standing up to this, as they have, and they can, and they will.  The government, clearly, will not. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Photos: Israel Police / Sports5. Maccabi Tel Aviv banners read “We’re back from reserve duty” and “Harbu Derby“ The post Red card for reality appeared first on Freedom News.

WHILE ISRAEL BRANDS IT AS ‘TERRORISM’, GENOA DOCKWORKERS THREATEN MASS ACTION SHOULD THE FLOTILLA BE INTERCEPTED ~ Santiago Navarro F, Avispa Midia ~ As the Sumud Flotilla sails through the Mediterranean, Israel’s stance has been swift, threatening to label its crew, from more than 44 countries, as terrorists and to arrest and imprison them. Following these threats, Italian dockworkers in the port of Genoa have warned that if they lose contact with the flotilla for even 20 minutes, they will block the departure of 14,000 containers of merchandise to Israel. The flotilla of over 50 boats set sail on Sunday (30 August) from Barcelona, carrying trade unionists, doctors, parliamentarians, and activists such as American actress Susan Sarandon and Portuguese actress Sofía Aparicio, as well as Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who was detained and deported last June while attempting to break the Gaza blockade with the then-called Freedom Flotilla. Their objective is threefold: to deliver aid directly, to break the media and political isolation of Gaza, and to denounce to the world what they describe as a “genocidal war” and an “illegal siege”. Since October 2023, Israel has killed more than 62,000 Palestinians and injured more than 157,000. Meanwhile, it continues to systematically obstruct the entry of food and humanitarian aid into the enclave. “It’s unfortunate that we have to do it ourselves; that we have to load ships with humanitarian aid to try to break the blockade and stop the genocide”, said Saif Abukeshek, a spokesperson for the flotilla, who was detained by Egypt last June during the Global March for Gaza. “We’re not just announcing the mission itself, but the building of a global solidarity movement that works with all oppressed peoples”, he explained. Abukeshek speaking in Barcelona. Photos: Albert Hernández Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir warned that activists travelling aboard the flotilla will be subjected to prolonged detention and will be denied privileges. “We will not allow people who support terrorism to live in comfort. They will face the full consequences of their actions”, Ben-Gvir said. Responding from Genoa, Riccardo Rudino, representative of the Autonomous Committee of Stevedores (CALP), issued an ultimatum in a video warning that if contact with the fleet is lost for even 20 minutes, “we will block Europe”. He also emphatically stated that “not a single nail will come out. We will go on an international strike, block roads, and block schools”. In Genoa alone, more than 300 tons of humanitarian aid were collected prior to the flotilla’s departure. This cargo was sent to the port of Catania and distributed to Italian ships that will join the humanitarian voyage. The voyage is planned to last seven to eight days. Strict security and discretion measures have been implemented, mindful of previous experiences with Israeli repression. This year has already seen two bitter precedents: the Madleen, with Thunberg on board, and the Handala, which were intercepted in June and July respectively by drone attacks and boarded by Israeli commandos in international waters. Their passengers were beaten, kidnapped, deported, and had their phones confiscated. Despite the drone overflights of the vessels near the coasts of Mallorca and Menorca, which the Flotilla has reported, they continue on their way to Gaza. The vessels advance each day toward their destination, with actions in different countries taking place at all times, ranging from words of encouragement to the addition of more vessels and people. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Edited machine translation The post Sumud flotilla heads to Gaza “to break the blockade and stop the genocide” appeared first on Freedom News.

PALESTINE SOLIDARITY GESTURES HAVE MULTIPLIED IN FOOTBALL—OFTEN REFERRING TO HANDALA, AN ICONIC CARTOON CHARACTER AND SYMBOL OF HOPE ~ Yann Dey-Helle, Dialectik Football ~ At MetLife Stadium in suburban New York, Wessam Abou Ali recently celebrated his second goal against FC Porto by posing with one hand behind his back and the other making the victory sign. A nod to Handala, a character created in 1969 by cartoonist Naji al-Ali, who first appeared in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Seyassah. Handala is inspired by Naji al-Ali’s own experience, forced to leave his home in the village of Al-Sharaja in Palestine in 1948 during the Nakba. “This little barefoot child is a symbol of my childhood. He is the same age I was when I left Palestine, and even though it was 35 years ago, I am still that age today”, the cartoonist explained in an interview with Egyptian novelist Radwa Ashour, published in 1985 in the newspaper Al Muwagaha. “I still remember the details. I remember every plant, every stone, every house, and every tree I passed as a child in Palestine”! Initially, Handala was depicted facing forward, but starting in 1973, Naji al-Ali chose to portray him from behind with his hands clasped. A form of silent rebellion. While Handala turns his back on the audience, his gaze is turned toward Palestine, where he will return. The popular character outlived his creator, who was assassinated in London in August 1987. Naji al-Ali was a strong critic of the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. This long led to him being considered a pariah. EGYPTIAN FOOTBALL AT THE FOREFRONT Since the first massive Israeli army bombardments of the Gaza Strip in October 2023, “Handala-style” goal celebrations in solidarity with the Palestinian people have multiplied. Bordering Egypt was the cradle of this movement, initiated by players of the U20 national team. During the U20 women’s match against Sao Tome Principe, striker Hala Mostafa also mimed Handala after scoring. Handala and his creator, Naji al-Ali Before Wessam Abou Ali, Zamalek players celebrated their goals in this manner during a big victory against Smouha SC in the Egyptian Premier League. Photos of Zizo and captain Shikabala had made an impression. A few days earlier, on the pitch of Tanzanian team Simba SC in the African Champions League, Al Ahly players had done the same, under the gaze of FIFA President Gianni Infantino. But this gesture had already been seen on a football pitch. According to the Egyptian Chronicles website , this type of celebration first appeared in May 2021, with attacking midfielder Ahmed Abdelkader of Smouha SC, during a match against Al Entag Al Harby. It was already a way of showing support for the Palestinian people in the face of the deadly Israeli army bombardments of Gaza. At the time, few people would have understood this gesture until the Palestinian embassy in Cairo highlighted its significance and thanked Ahmed Abdelkader. HANDALA CENSORED BY DAZN AND FIFA? While Palestinian flags and messages for Gaza have been spotted in several stands in Europe and the Maghreb, Handala’s appearances are rarer outside of Egyptian stadiums. One example is CD Palestino’s Felipe Chamorro’s celebration of one of his Copa Libertadores goals against Millonarios in April 2024. It’s quite logical to see this reference to Handala from the historic club of the Palestinian community in Chile, and it’s not a complete surprise. In recent years, supporters have also been seen using Handala, such as the ultras of Club Africain in Tunisia, or those of Bnei Sakhnin FC, an Arab club in the Israeli D1. In a recent song, entitled “Al-Qadiyya”, Raja Casablanca supporters express their attachment to Palestine. The lyrics pay tribute to Mohammed al-Durrah, a child martyr killed by the Israeli army in September 2000 during the second Intifada, and to the iconic figure of Naji al-Ali: “We live the spirit of Handala, a symbol of pride and dignity, Gaza, Hebron, and Ramallah”. During the Club World Cup, Wessam Abou Ali’s celebration was crudely framed by the broadcaster in its summary of the Al Ahly-Porto match. This discreet censorship was rectified on social media, where Abou Ali’s image was widely republished and commented on. Shortly before the competition, the organization had also deleted the official photos of his teammate Hussein El Shahat, replacing him with a simple “Free Palestine” bracelet. As journalist Leyla Hamed recently wrote on X, “FIFA is not only silent on the genocide, it is gagging anyone who talks about it”. Handala has seen it all. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Machine translation The post The footballing lives of Handala appeared first on Freedom News.

JEWISH RADICALS HAVE LONG CHALLENGED THE STATE PROJECT BUILT IN OUR NAME ~ James Horton ~ In view of the modern genocide the Israeli state is undertaking against the Palestinian people, it may not seem advisable or desirable to look at one’s own position in relation to it. It can feel self-centred to take a moment to interrogate one’s personal history in the face of such dystopian suffering. As a Jew, though, this feels slightly different. We’re told that the only way to establish security for Jews is through a nation-state with exclusionary policies that favour us. But should anyone, Jewish or not, pursue an interest in the history of politically active Jewish communities, they will find a richness of radical anti-nationalism—indeed, internationalism. Zionism was a story perniciously crafted by the Jewish upper classes, and its project relied on convincing working-class Jews to fight the fight and build the Jewish-only fortress on stolen land. The history of Jewish involvement in left-wing movements is far too extensive to summarise. Emma Goldman and Rosa Luxemburg are just two of the bigger names, but there were countless Jewish shop-floor strike coordinators, unknown newspaper editors, educators and artists—people of action and people of thought, who had a titanic influence not only on the left but on political discourse at large. Milly Witkopf, for example (1877–1955), married to the more famous Rudolph Rocker, and the Jews of her ilk are frequently absent from the discussion—despite the fact they did much of the groundwork on which movements were built. In modern times, these figures have been the target of naked smears by Zionist intellectuals and activists. The charge is often that they hold lofty “lefty” expectations (otherwise known as political principle), and care too little for the safety of the Jewish people. But for anyone with an ounce of media literacy, these smears come from the same figures who cheerlead the Netanyahu administration in its policy of ethnic cleansing—and so cannot be trusted. But for those foolish enough to take them seriously, such figures at least resemble serious political actors and must be discussed to the extent one can stomach. CLASS AND ZIONISM, THEN AND NOW The Zionist project, when distilled to its essence, is an elitist ideology. It began as a project among the Central European bourgeoisie—both Jewish and Christian—as a “solution” (always a troubling word in politics) to Jewish oppression in Europe and the US. But as scholar Albert S. Lindemann points out, Zionism chose to “solve” the problem not by fighting modern nationalism, but by following in its footsteps and crushing class solidarity. Early Zionists collaborated with the same imperialists who had collared the social rights of Jews—men like Arthur Balfour, a vicious opponent of Jewish migration while Prime Minister (1902–1905). Chaim Weizmann, later Israel’s first president, was a known anti-Bundist, led the Zionist Federation and attacked leftist Jews whom he rightly saw as potential challengers to the nationalist fantasy he sought to realise. He and others advanced the Zionist cause with the institutional and physical backing of some of the most vile antisemites of the era. Even down to the Language Wars—when in 1900, 8 million Jews spoke Yiddish—Zionists weren’t satisfied with this mongrel language of the working class. They saw it as synonymous with exile, failure, and persecution—not one of liberation, as Bundists did in Russia or anarchists in London. Using direct violence against their own people, including the burning of Yiddish publication houses, Zionists split the Jewish working class from their linguistic roots, seeking to homogenise them for a nationalism they would then exert on others. Today, Yiddish is considered a “dead language”, with only around a million native speakers globally. Where does this history leave us in an era of unmasked cruelty against Palestinians? One takeaway from the growing pro-Palestinian movement in the West is that more Jews raised on the idea of Israel are revolting against it. The 2023 Al Jazeera documentary Israelism tries to understand this phenomenon—though it has attracted heavy criticism. What Zionists push—through festivals, trips abroad, and propaganda—is that Zionism is sexy, and more importantly, necessary for Jewish security. Young Jews, mostly from New York and Los Angeles, are sponsored on trips to a land they are encouraged to inherit, with wealthy philanthropists manufacturing the same Zionist fervour they have always sought in the Jewish working class. But as before, many are slipping out from under this weight of radicalisation and standing for Palestinian self-determination. Jewish activists and writers, doing serious work at local and national levels, often speak of the “Not In Our Name” position. Crucially, it comes with a call not only to challenge the genocide in Gaza and the West Bank, but to build a new system in which oppression in all forms is no longer tolerated. Emily Apple, a Jewish woman and former editor at The Canary, said to me: I feel really strongly about the ‘Not In Our Name’ idea. When I was growing up, the distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism didn’t need to be made—it was just a given. Now a lot of Jewish people have been sold a lie that isn’t in the interest of Jews or Palestinians. When I see other Jews going after radical voices that want to make change—for Palestinians, for refugees, for anyone facing oppression—it makes me feel sick. Being Jewish for me is about my place in the world and my history. My great-great-grandparents’ generation were all refugees. When I’m engaging in campaigns, I feel that sense of responsibility really strongly. Jewish history is inspiring. Writing and fighting in any language and on any land they stood, radical Jews fought for the emancipation of workers, the end of colonial dominion, and the liberation of people deemed unconventional. That is not just our history—it is our present. And Zionism is a colossal obstacle to its continuation. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Photo: Peter Marshall The post Class, memory, and Jewish anti-Zionism appeared first on Freedom News.

THE CLUMSY ATTEMPT TO SILENCE ARTISTS OPPOSING GENOCIDE ONLY MAKES THEIR MESSAGE LOUDER ~ Stanton Cree ~ Over the last week I found myself in the interesting position of having to navigate the British establishment’s censorship just to listen to a bit of music, watch some TV, and a film. I started my weekend wanting to catch Kneecap‘s Glastonbury set. I had to wait, however, until the BBC uploaded it to iPlayer after caving to government pressure and declining to livestream the group. Having missed Bob Vylan, I then had to search for a recording, as the BBC refused to upload it after an explosion of outrage from politicians and journalists. Next, I had to make time to watch To Kill a War Machine before it will presumably get banned for supporting non-violent direct action terrorism. Finally, I got to watch Gaza: Doctors Under attack on Channel 4 as the BBC, once again, refused to show it. By now I’m sure you’ve realised the thing that connects all this together is Palestine, and the suppression of anyone or anything that draws attention to the ongoing genocide. Enough has been said about the blatant hypocrisy of the garden-variety ‘Free Speech Warrior’ working to silence those speaking out against racism, sexism, homophobia, and genocide. What we are witnessing now, however, are very obvious examples of state censorship—ironic given those in government are always banging on about a ‘Free Speech crisis‘. Given my low opinion and regularly validated distrust of government, state censorship isn’t particularly surprising to me. The BBC has traditionally aligned itself with the imperial status quo, and the Labour party is just as much part of the establishment as the Tories. State intervention to deny artists their rights to expression is unfortunately nothing new either—an ongoing example is the cops’ continued gagging of Grime and Drill artists. What I do find astonishing is how quickly the pretence of state non-interference in the arts has been discarded. Politicians and media have shifted from quietly ignoring censorship to openly endorsing it when it comes to Kneecap and Bob Vylan—who have consequently had shows pulled. What is it that the powers that be find so egregious? Apparently, the idea that genocide is not just wrong but should also be resisted. What’s impressive is the lengths the establishment is going to in order to make such a mundanely moral stance as “stop genocide” seem sinister. The BBC and politicians have rushed to condemn the “antisemitic sentiments” and “hate speech” supposedly expressed by Bob Vylan, but none have bothered to show their work. Exactly what they’re referring to is left to speculation. Desperate to vilify the Vylans, the BBC’s cultural editor went as far as conflating two separate statements made during the set, which seems to be the basis for further erroneous claims that Bob Vylan were “calling for the death of Israeli troops”. But why let a little thing like context get in the way of a juicy story? The Mail on Sunday went even further, entirely inventing a quote to justify their unhinged front page demand for the state repression of musicians. Most of the focus has been on the chant of “death to the IDF”, which has been presented without any context even by supposedly unbiased, centrist, and liberal individuals and publications. International law recognises the legitimate use of force against an occupying army. The claim that the chant somehow calls for death to Israelis (let alone all Jews) makes about as much sense as saying that “death to fascism” was a call to kill all Italians. As for antisemitism—it is a common tactic of propagandists to muddy the waters by conflating the Israeli state with its citizenship or with the Jewish people as a whole. By saying an attack on the Israeli military is an attack on all Jews, they are playing right into the hands of Israeli state propaganda. The evolution of a lie, courtesy of BBC Culture Editor, Katie Razzall Bob Vylan have never hidden what they are about. They are aggressively and unapologetically political, snugly fitting within the traditions of both Punk and Rap. Their songs are typical anti-racist and anti-fascist fare and the combination of anarcho-punk with Grime hits hard and doesn’t leave much room for misunderstanding. Glastonbury’s own website describes their shows as “a cathartic experience where rage and protest meets positivity and joy”. Which begs the question, why pretend they didn’t know what they were getting? Yet now even Glastonbury’s organisers, who have long presented the festival as an open forum for left leaning politics, went from Michael Eavis saying last week that “People that don’t agree with the politics of the event can go somewhere else” to abruptly following establishment voices in distancing themselves from Bob Vylan. An impressive U-turn after their initial support of their line up. With no remarks regarding acts such as Amyl and the Sniffers, Inhaler, CMAT, and of course, Kneecap, it certainly appears to be a response to political pressure. The condemnation of Bob Vylans’s supposed ‘incitement to violence’ stinks of exactly the kind of liberal pearl-clutching addressed in the duo’s 2021 song “Pretty Songs”. As a society we have been conditioned to accept the idea that any grave injustice should be passively resisted and that any kind of physical resistance is morally questionable. The irony of the government condemning moral support for militant action, while it actively actively remilitarises and sells weapons abroad, should not be lost on anyone. Fortunately, the censorship crusade already seems to be backfiring in the most predictable way. The more power used to suppress the message, the louder it gets. Drawing attention to Bob Vylan, along with Kneecap, Palestine Action and others just increases support for them. The clumsy attempts to demonise these groups further exacerbates the growing rupture between the people and the political establishment. There is nothing ethically dubious in stating support for the right of victims to fight those carrying out a genocide. To suggest otherwise clearly favours annihilation. Pacifism is merely a pretty ideal that benefits the elite and those who seek to maintain the status quo. The appeal to pacifism and the presupposition that any and all violence is inherently wrong, strikes to the very heart of this storm in a teacup. Bob Vylan are under no obligation to pander to such sensibilities, and neither are we. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Top photo: Brian J. Matis on Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 The post Vilifying the Vylans or: How I learned to stop censoring and call for death to the BBC appeared first on Freedom News.

ANDY MEINKE JOINS US FOR THE WEEKLY WAFFLE, LOOKING THIS WEEK AT LABOUR’S THRASHING ABOUT AS IT TRIES TO SIMULTANEOUSLY BACKTRACK ON WILDLY UNPOPULAR CUTS, PUFF UP ITS CAPITAL AND DEFENCE SPENDING CREDENTIALS, AND MAINTAIN AN AIR OF PARSIMONIOUS PENNY PINCHING. As billions are set to be put aside for yet more BAE subsidies, the question arises as to whether the anti-war campaigning on Palestine will energise broader peace activism, while at a lower level the newly-installed Reform councils are bracing for inspections of their coffers. Is that going anywhere? Probably not. The post Anarchist News Review: Budgets, Palestine organising and Reform Doge’ing repsonsibility appeared first on Freedom News.

THE ESCALATION OF OPPOSITION, AS ISRAEL INTENSIFIES ITS ATTACK ON GAZA, IS ESPECIALLY INCONVENIENT FOR THE UK GOVERNMENT ~ Scott Harris ~ The last several weeks have witnessed a surge in organising in support of Palestine in London. While the Israeli government first announced and then launched another extension of its invasion of Gaza, the British government was slow to respond, while activists took their anger to the streets. On Monday 5th May, the Israeli cabinet approved the expansion of the invasion of Gaza, publicly admitting the intention to keep a permanent military presence in the Strip. Continuing to openly express the far right’s genocidal intentions, Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich promised that “Gaza will be entirely destroyed”. With the death toll approaching 70,000, living conditions in Gaza are already impossible, with dire warnings of famine. As expected, the government in London initially gave out the weakest condemnation possible. Hamish Falconer, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan, condemned any attempt to annex land in Gaza and said that ministers “strongly oppose the expansion of Israel’s operations”. However, when pressed on whether Israel’s actions are condemned as ethnic cleansing, he dismissed it as a question to the courts. The BBC also played down Israeli actions, euphemistically calling them a plan to ‘capture’ Gaza. Grassroots resistance was quicker to respond. Palestine Solidarity Campaign protested with other groups against the BBC on the 8th of May. Other groups were already organising in the run-up to Nakba day, marking the mass displacement of Palestinians in the 1948 war. Students from ICL Action for Palestine held a week of action on 5-9 May with workshops, teach-outs and a rally. A mass teach-out took place on the last day, which included many groups from several of London’s universities and University and College Union. At King’s College London, students and staff opposed hosting the London Defence Conference, leading to confrontation with police. A few days later, on the 13th of May, students relaunched the solidarity encampment, and undeterred by intimidation tactics and harassment by security staff. Protest outside the Israeli Embassy, 24 May. Photo: Peter Marshall Meanwhile, Palestine Action targeted ADS, which lobbies Parliament on behalf of Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems. Nearly three-quarters of Co-op members voted for a ban on Israeli-produced goods from the stores. The UK chapter of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network was active as well, with weekly Friday pickets in front of New Scotland Yard and on weekdays in front of the parliament. Nakba Day itself was commemorated with a large demonstration organised by numerous groups. The momentum is strong and it is impossible to list all activities, direct actions, demonstrations or civil disobedience events in the last weeks. On the legal front, the High Court has been hearing a case against the British government by Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq over a loophole allowing sales of parts for F35 fighter jets to Israel. Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal confirmed that the former Home Secretary Suella Braverman had no power to allow the police to impose additional restrictions on protests, which were used repeatedly on pro-Palestine demonstrations. Finally, on 20th May British Foreign Secretary David Lammy condemned calls to “purify Gaza” by expelling Palestinians as repellent, monstrous and extremist. Keir Starmer joined Canadian and French Prime Ministers in a joint statement condemning the severe humanitarian situation in Gaza. The only immediate consequence, however, has been the UK government suspending negotiations on a new trade deal with Israel and reviewing the 2030 road-map for bilateral relations. While many are disappointed by the late condemnation and limited government action, protesters say what matters is that organising and pressure achieve results, and that consistent successes will de-normalise the genocide in Gaza. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Top photo: kclstands4justice The post Surge in organising for Palestine in London appeared first on Freedom News.

IN BRITAIN, ACTION TO DIVEST FROM GENOCIDE IS SHOWING NO SIGN OF ABATING, WHILE SOUTH AFRICA IS HAMMERING THE LEGAL CASE HOME AT THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE ~ Dominic Free ~ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “The world has failed Palestinian people. The only certainty they have is that tomorrow will be worse. We must save whatever is left of our humanity by ending Israel’s unlawful settler-colonial occupation, and its intentional starving of the Palestinian population, which is being systematically brutalised and deprived of the most elementary considerations of humanity.” ~ Jaymion Hendricks, representation for South Africa at the ICJ hearing, 29/04/25 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The bombings and ground invasion of Gaza continue. Israel’s genocidal blockade of humanitarian aid to the strip is bringing famine and death. With the history of apartheid still very much in public memory, South Africa’s government pulled no punches as arguments opened in the Hague this week as the ICJ hears arguments on Israel’s humanitarian obligations to the peoples of Palestine. Anticipating Israel’s main argument that the court should not make a judgement based on a lack of evidence (which Israel itself has caused through blocking outside observation or smearing observers, including from the UN), South Africa’s Director-General of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation Zane Dangor said: “Accepting Israel’s argument that this court has insufficient facts before it would be rewarding it for its own egregious conduct.”  “The international community cannot accept the reality in which an entire civilian population is deliberately starved by Israel. Where the UN is evicted and deprived of its immunities and privileges. Where third states and humanitarian organisations are prevented from rendering humanitarian assistance in solidarity and in fulfilment of their obligations. Nor can we accept when journalists, and aid workers, and first responders are being assassinated and then hastily buried in mass graves.” AMENSTY: ISRAEL COMMITTED GENOCIDE IN GAZA Arriving at the same time is the Amnesty International Annual Report 2025 which if anything is even more blunt in its assessment: “Israel committed genocide in Gaza, including by causing some of the highest known death tolls among children, journalists, and health and humanitarian workers of any recent conflict in the world, and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians conditions calculated to bring about their physical destruction. Armed conflict with Lebanon caused civilian deaths and mass displacement. “Israel committed the crime of apartheid, including through the forcible transfer and displacement of Palestinians both in Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. State-backed violent settlers enjoyed impunity while conscientious objectors were imprisoned. Hundreds of Palestinians were killed in militarized arrest raids in the occupied West Bank. Thousands of Palestinians were subjected to arbitrary detention and to ill treatment, amounting to torture in many cases. The International Court of Justice’s instructions to avert genocide and end illegal occupation were ignored. Freedom of expression and and peaceful assembly came under attack.” The full report of the devastation and horrific behaviour of the Israeli government and military is well worth reading in full. DIRECT ACTION IN BRITAIN Closer to home, multiple actions have been taking place pressuring the government to withdraw co-operation with Israel and participate in growing boycotts. The most recent action, by members of Youth Demand, saw two people leap the barriers of the London Marathon and fire off pink smoke while calling for Britain to “impose a total trade embargo on Israel, and make the super rich and fossil fuel elite pay damages to communities and countries most harmed by fossil fuel burning.” The bridge action followed on from Thursday’s road blockade, when around 25 supporters of Youth Demand disrupted traffic at first London Bridge South, departing after police arrived on the scene, then at Kennington Road. A Youth Demand Spokesperson said: “The UK continues to support Israel’s genocide through arms sales, logistical support and reconnaissance. Our leaders are participating in this genocide because they believe there is a tactical advantage to having somewhere in the middle east that is aligned with ‘Western values’. That is why they say there needs to be a ceasefire, whilst doing nothing materially to change the situation in Palestine. What are our values worth when they are based on the theft of peoples’ land and the murder of innocent children?” Such “swarm tactics” have been used regularly throughout the month to cause temporary disruption. Over at Palestine Action meanwhile there were celebrations last Tuesday (April 22nd) when actions against Manchester-based metal components manufacturer Dean Group International prompted an email to the group saying it has severed all ties with Instro Precision (a subsidiary of Israeli arms firm Elbit Systems UK), and has promised never to work with Elbit or its subsidiaries in the future. This followed a rooftop occupation of the firm’s site at Irlam, Greater Manchester in the end of March. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Images by Palestine Chronicle via QNN, Youth Demand and Direct Action Images The post Legal and grassroots resistance as Gaza starves appeared first on Freedom News.