Showing posts with label Britain. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 9, 2026

Miliband rejects chief rabbi’s claim that West Bank sanctions put UK Jews at risk. Foreign secretary says Sir Ephraim Mirvis wrong to suggest measures against Israeli settlements will make British Jews less safe

Ed Miliband said the UK government’s sanctions, coordinated with France, Canada and nine other countries, were the ‘right thing to do’. Photograph: James Manning/PA

Aletha Adu Political correspondent

Wed 9 Sep 2026

Ed Miliband has rejected warnings from the UK’s chief rabbi that the government’s sanctions against illegal Israeli settlements will make British Jews less safe, as he emphasised ministers can confront the actions of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government while also fighting antisemitism.

The foreign secretary announced sweeping sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank on Tuesday, with the government taking the position that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territory was unlawful.

The measures were coordinated with France, Canada and nine other countries that were also introducing sanctions on Israel over the increasing expansion of settlements, which the UK government says is threatening the future of a Palestinian state.

In a joint statement, leaders including Andy Burnham, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney said: “The time has come to take further action to uphold our commitment to protect the two-state solution, our interests and to stand up for our values, before it is too late.”... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/sep/09/ed-miliband-rejects-chief-rabbi-claim-west-bank-sanctions-british-jews-less-safe

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies here, there- and everywhere]

The Guardian view on Britain’s new Middle East policy: an unlawful occupation must carry a price- Ed Miliband has delivered Britain’s toughest indictment of Israeli conduct in Palestinian lands - and rightly says this has economic consequences

Aqraba, West Bank: A view of a new illegal Israeli outpost being built on Palestinian land south of Nablus Photograph: Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP/Getty Images ...The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

Opinion

Palestine

Tue 8 Sep 2026

Rarely in recent years has the Commons felt like the cockpit of history. On Tuesday it did. The foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, placed Britain at the head of a 12-country coalition considering economic restrictions on Israel’s illegal settlements, with the UK, France and Canada committing to national trade bans.

The move comes after escalating numbers of attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinian villages in the West Bank. International opinion seemed to shift decisively after Israel gave the go-ahead for 1,200 homes in the E1 settlement that would cleave the West Bank into two – using illegal settlements to bury Palestinian statehood for good. Mr Miliband added that evidence of war crimes in Gaza was mounting, making the overdue case for Britain to recast its economic and military relationship with Israel.

Mr Miliband, who is Jewish and lost more than 60 relatives at the hands of the Nazis, declared himself to be a friend of Israel. But clearly he thinks friends should talk straight to each other. Mr Miliband has delivered perhaps the toughest official British indictment of Israeli conduct in recent history, declaring that “ethnic cleansing” is taking place in the West Bank and accusing members of Israel’s government of supporting forced displacement.

Probably the most consequential move by Mr Miliband is to formally declare the occupation of the Palestinian territories unlawful, in line with the international court of justice’s 2024 opinion. The import ban logically follows. But private acts will have to change too. British companies could soon have to ask whether they are profiting from – or helping to sustain – an illegal occupation.

To emphasise this point, the foreign secretary also promised to take action against those providing construction, infrastructure and financing services, because a goods-only ban would leave untouched the commercial activity sustaining unlawful settlements. He also committed to target extremist settlers and to refuse to license arms sales that “contribute to the occupation”. By simultaneously sanctioning Iran and Hezbollah, the UK is signalling that it recognises the threats Israel faces while opposing its illegal actions... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/08/the-guardian-view-on-britains-new-middle-east-policy-an-unlawful-occupation-must-carry-a-price

"Our sanctions aren’t about the Israeli people, but about the unacceptable policies of the Israeli government, and the suffering they cause Palestinians" Andy Burnham, prime minister of the United Kingdom

The aftermath of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a nearby medical supplies and pharmaceuticals warehouse belonging to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, in Deir el-Balah, Gaza, 1 August 2026. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Opinion

Palestine

I believe in a two-state solution in the Middle East. That’s why we’re taking action to keep that hope alive

Andy Burnham

Tue 8 Sep 2026

In a difficult and dangerous world, a decade on from Brexit, there is a risk that Britain loses the confidence to lead and stand up for its values. I’m not prepared to let that happen. It is more important than ever that Britain stands for something.

We have called for years for a two-state solution in the Middle East, but we must recognise that those words are meaningless unless we back them up with action.

For too long, we have been hesitant to act, fearful of being accused of being anti-Israel. Today we are announcing carefully judged, targeted steps that are not aimed at the Israeli people, but at the unacceptable policies of the current Israeli government.

The suffering of the Palestinian people is a scar on the conscience of the world. Innocent Palestinians, including children, continue to be killed in Gaza. And there is still a humanitarian crisis, with far too little aid getting in.

The scale of destruction is hard to comprehend. More than 70,000 people lie dead – at least 20,000 of them children. Families and communities have been torn apart. Millions displaced. And the population of Gaza is now penned into just one third of the territory.

I know that people across the UK feel very deeply about this issue – and... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/08/uk-sanctions-israel-two-state-solution-middle-east-palestinians-andy-burnham

Saturday, August 22, 2026

Former British and French diplomats urge action over Israel’s ‘erasure’ of Palestine. In letter to Macron and Burnham, more than 100 senior figures accuse Israel of ethnic cleansing and call for measures including trade ban

The diplomats’ letter states: ‘Nothing justifies Israel’s systematic policy of destruction of Gaza and its population.’

Photograph: Mahmoud Issa/Reuters

Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor

Sat 22 Aug 2026 05.00 EDT

More than 100 French and British former diplomats have said Palestine is being erased in front of the world’s eyes and called for urgent action including trade and arms sales bans to press Israel to accept a Palestinian state.

An unprecedented joint letter dispenses with diplomatic language by accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing and warning that the world no longer sees Israel as a genuine democracy.

Arguing that Britain and France played a key role in the formation of the modern-day Middle East and noting that both countries took the step of recognising Palestine as a state in 2025, the diplomats contend that their countries now have a responsibility “to make common cause on the region’s fundamental fault line – equal rights for Israeli and Palestinians”.

The letter, addressed to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the British prime minister, Andy Burnham, has been signed by 52 French former diplomats and 50 British former ambassadors, many of whom served in the Middle East, in senior posts in Egypt, Iran, Bahrain, Israel, Syria, Turkey, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The list of... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/22/uk-france-diplomats-israel-palestine

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Monday, May 25, 2026

Albert Einstein and Hannah Arendt's 1948 letter to the New York Times: They saw the creation of a Jewish ethnostate in Palestine at the expense of its indigenous Muslim and Christian population as a profound injustice and moral catastrophe. Einstein and the other signatories explicitly compared Begin’s Herut (Freedom Party), born from the Irgun, to Nazis and Fascists, warning that their ideology of racial superiority and violent ethnic nationalism posed a grave danger to the moral and political future of the new state.

https://x.com/mazzenilsson/status/2058596779835469875/photo/1

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https://archive.org/details/AlbertEinsteinLetterToTheNewYorkTimes.December41948/page/n2/mode/1up

Albert Einstein and Hannah Arendt's letter to the New York Times: December 2, 1948

Signed by Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt, Sidney Hook, Rabbi Jessurun Cardozo, Irma Lindheim, and 22 other Jewish scholars, writers, and public figures. (Published December 4, 1948, in The New York Times.)

Saturday, May 16, 2026

Nakba: The Palestinian catastrophe, explained Middle East Eye breaks down the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948, which continues to define events in Israel-Palestine today

More than 750,000 Palestinian were forcibly expelled from their homeland by Zionist militia in 1948 (AFP)

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/nakba-palestine-catastrophe-explained

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By MEE staff

Published date: 15 May 2026

It's a date inked in infamy for generations of Palestinians.

Each year, on 15 May, millions mark the Nakba, or catastrophe, which refers to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Zionist militias to make way for the creation of Israel in 1948.

In a premeditated military campaign, Zionist forces killed thousands of Palestinians, destroyed hundreds of villages and forcibly expelled 80 percent of the Palestinian population from their homeland.

After more than a year of relentless violence, the newly created State of Israel captured 78 percent of historic Palestine.

The remaining 22 percent, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, were occupied by Israel 19 years later and remain under Israeli military rule.

Before the Nakba

Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years until it was captured by Great Britain at the end of World War One (1914-18).

The League of Nations gave Britain a "mandate" over Palestine after the war, in an arrangement that did not take into account the wishes of the native Palestinian population.

The declared aim of the League of Nations mandates was "the rendering of administrative assistance and advice" to the native populations until they are deemed capable of standing alone as independent states.

However, in the case of Palestine, the British Mandate incorporated the "Balfour Declaration" that pledged to establish "in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people", who made up less than 10 percent of the population at the time.

During the mandate years between 1923-48, Britain facilitated the immigration of European Jews to Palestine, increasing their population ten-fold, from 60,000 in the pre-Mandate era to 700,000 by 1948.

They also trained Zionist armed groups, provided them with weapons and allowed them a degree of self-governance.

Meanwhile, the native Palestinian population was violently suppressed following rebellions that called for independence and rejected European Jewish immigration.

In February 1947, Britain announced it would terminate the mandate and turn the question of Palestine over to the United Nations.

The UN adopted a partition plan in November 1947, which divided Palestine into two parts: 55 percent to a Jewish state, and 45 to an Arab state, while keeping Jerusalem under international control.

Palestinians were not consulted over the proposal which never materialised. From that point on, Zionist groups began their attacks.

The Nakba

Drawing upon military plans devised as early as 1945, Zionist armed groups began to systematically increase attacks against Palestinians from December 1947 with the aim of forcing them out.

Zionist strategy culminated in Plan Dalet, the blueprint for their military action that called for "destruction of villages" by "setting fire to, blowing up, and planting mines in the debris".

It also said that "in the event of resistance, the armed force must be destroyed and the population must be expelled outside the borders of the state".

Zionist forces used various tactics to force Palestinians out, including bombing campaigns, massacres and psychological warfare, among other means.

The crimes of 1948: Jewish fighters speak out

Thomas Vescovi

Read More »

Unarmed civilians were indiscriminately killed during the campaign, some of whom were buried in mass graves.

Between December 1947 and 14 May 1948, some 175,000 Palestinians were expelled and 200 villages and urban centres destroyed and occupied.

On 14 May 1948, the State of Israel was unilaterally declared, a day before the British Mandate officially expired.

Arab armies then entered Palestine to push back against the Israeli military advances.

Hostilities were officially brought to an end by July 1949 with the signing of armistice agreements between Israel and the Arab states.

Israel captured 78 percent of historic Palestine, while the remaining 22 percent was under Arab control.

Aftermath

By the end of the war, Zionist forces had killed 13,000 Palestinians, destroyed and depopulated around 530 villages and towns, committed at least 30 massacres and expelled 750,000 people.

Around 150,000 remained within the boundaries of the newly formed state of Israel, many of them internally displaced.

Israel then passed laws by which it seized Palestinian property and assets left behind by those expelled, including land, homes, cash, stocks, furniture, companies and other movable assets.

They also enacted the Law of Return, which grants Israeli citizenship to Jews who relocate to Israel, while denying Palestinian refugees from returning to their homeland.

Today, there are 5.8 million registered Palestine refugees living in dozens of camps in the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Internally displaced Palestinians, who were granted Israeli citizenship, amount to around two million people.

Every year, on 15 May, Palestinians across the world mark the Nakba, which they say has continued since 1948 in different forms of war, occupation, siege, home demolitions, land confiscations and more.