Eleven air raids hit the Yemeni capital Sanaa, including the vicinity of Al-Sabeen Square, where around one million people were taking part in a weekly pro-Palestine march.
The Harf Sufyan District was hit by 12 airstrikes in the Amran Governorate of northern Yemen, while six hit the Hodeidah port west of the country. One strike also targeted the Ras Issa port north of Hodeidah.
The main power station in Haziz, south of Sanaa, was struck as well.
Lammy recently alleged that the term genocide referred to “when millions of people lost their lives in crises like Rwanda, the Second World War in the Holocaust” and that using it to describe Gaza “now undermines (its) seriousness”.
(…)
“Will the Prime Minister share (Lammy’s) definition of genocide with this House?” the lawmaker asked Starmer.
The prime minister answered by saying that “it would be wise to start a question like that by reference to what happened in October of last year”.
“I’m well aware of the definition of genocide, and that is why I’ve never described this as and referred to it as genocide,” he added.
(October 30, 2024)
The defence ministry told Middle East Eye: “As a matter of principle, we only provide intelligence to our allies where we are satisfied that it will be used in accordance with International Humanitarian Law, and in this instance, only information relating to hostage rescue is passed to the Israeli authorities.”
(…)
Brendan O’Hara, the Scottish National Party’s spokesperson for the Middle East, told MEE it was “inconceivable”, given the scale of the destruction and death in Gaza, that the flights “do not contain footage which would be of significant interest to the investigators from the International Criminal Court”.
(…)
Labour MP Rachael Maskell told MEE: “It is crucial that any intelligence of breaches of international law are shared with the courts so they can assess the evidence and secure justice.”
“I trust that the UK government is working with the international courts to aid them in their work.”
(May 8, 2024)
British spy planes have recorded up to 1,000 hours of footage over Gaza, including from the day Israel assassinated three UK aid workers.
Nagasaki decided not to invite Cohen to mark this year‘s 79th anniversary of the bombing, citing security reasons to avoid possible protests.
That decision prompted the ambassadors of the United States, Britain and the European Union, among others, to skip the ceremony and send lower-level officials instead.
The UK is failing to stand up for international law, as Israeli forces are forcibly transferring civilians from northern Gaza to the south and relentlessly bombarding the area, making it uninhabitable and stripping away the essential conditions that sustain life. The Government must demand that Israel end its heinous attacks, and take action to oppose any annexation or shrinking of Gaza. Its current silence is tantamount to complicity.
(…)
Signatories:
– Action For Humanity
– Amos Trust
– Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP)
– Welfare Association
– Caabu
– Sabeel-Kairos UK
– Amnesty International UK
– Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAPS)
– Islamic Relief UK
– Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR)
– Trócaire
– War on Want
– Action Aid UK
– Global Justice Now
– Oxfam GB
Announcing the move on Monday, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the decision to suspend 30 of 350 licenses did not amount to a blanket ban or an arms embargo, but only involved items with concerns over their use during the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The suspension, announced by Foreign Secretary David Lammy in parliament on Monday, is understood to cover components for military aircraft, including fighter aircraft, helicopters and drones.
“Facing a conflict such as this, it is this government’s legal duty to review export licences,“ Lammy told MPs.
The US vetoed a Palestinian request to the United Nations security council for full UN membership, blocking the world body’s recognition of a Palestinian state. US officials had been hoping Washington could avoid use of its veto if other states objected to a draft resolution before the council recommending the ‚State of Palestine be admitted to membership of the United Nations‘
Staunch allies calling themselves friends of Israel are beginning to realise they are also friends of the murderers of western aid workers, friends of genocide and friends of fascism
(January 15, 2024)
The United States must now be held accountable for the crimes it committed,‘ says Van Rensburg, who is leading the 47-lawyers team.
“We intend to bring legal proceedings against the U.S. Government based on overwhelming evidence that the U.S. Government has, and is, aiding, abetting and supporting, encouraging or providing material assistance and means to Israel and the Israeli Defense Forces. This conduct by the U.S. Government has enabled and continues to enable Israel to engage in international crimes against the Palestinian people,” the South African lawyers said in a letter sent to US President Joe Biden on January 2.
The UK government will continue to suspend funding to Palestinian relief works agency UNRWA, the Minister for Development and Africa Andrew Mitchell has said, despite famine gripping Gaza and crippling food shortages.
The US, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Finland, Australia and the Netherlands will also continue their freeze to critical life saving aid to the UN aid agency for Palestinians until an interim report about Israel allegations that UNRWA aid workers were involved in Hamas‘s 7 October attacks is released, the minister said.
Mr. Cameron, speaking to the Conservative Middle East Council, an organization that promotes discussion about the region among the Conservative Party, said on Monday that showing progress toward a two-state solution was essential to negotiating peace, and called Israel’s security policies of the last three decades “a failure.”
The British government has long held the position that it would only recognize a Palestinian state at the “right time” in the peace process with Israel, and Mr. Cameron’s comments, in London, suggested that Britain may be aiming to do that sooner.
As the Israel-Hamas war continues, the U.K. has joined others — not, however, the U.S. — in calling for an immediate pause in the fighting, as well as the release of all hostages being held in Gaza and the provision of humanitarian aid to the war-torn Palestinian territory.
But „most important of all,“ Cameron told the Arab ambassadors, „is to give the Palestinian people a political horizon.“
Cameron, a former U.K. prime minister, said it was essential to demonstrate to Palestinians and the wider region that „there is going to be irreversible progress to a two-state solution and, crucially, the establishment of a Palestinian state.“
The U.K. is considering a push to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations, Foreign Secretary David Cameron said, as he tries to sell a plan aimed at ending the war in Gaza.
The former prime minister — drafted into the foreign affairs brief by his boss Rishi Sunak last year — said the move could bring about “irreversible progress to a two-state solution.”
The airstrikes, carried out on Monday night, marked the eighth round of allied attacks in 12 days. They targeted an underground storage site and locations linked to the Houthis’ “missile and air surveillance capabilities,” the US and UK said in a statement along with partners Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands.
The Democratic Socialists of America demand an immediate and permanent cessation of hostilities by the United States against Yemen and an end to diplomatic and military support of Israel. President Biden widened the existing regional war even further by ordering airstrikes against civilian infrastructure in Yemen in an effort to stop that country’s humanitarian blockade of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Since October 7th, Israel has continuously engaged in provocative military aggression, aimed at expanding its brutal war into Lebanon. Israeli spokespeople continue their propaganda efforts to tie Iran to the events of October 7th and have issued calls for retaliation. A cyberattack believed to be the work of Israeli military intelligence has struck Iranian civilian infrastructure and extrajudicial assassinations have targeted senior leaders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hamas in Syria and Lebanon. The U.S.’s attack on Yemen comes in the context of Yemeni forces having blocked container ships owned by Israelis or headed towards Israeli ports. U.S. airstrikes are taking place while South Africa presents its arguments to the International Court of Justice for provisional measures against Israel for the crime of genocide.
„All American and British interests have become legitimate targets for the Yemeni Armed Forces in response to their direct and announced aggression against the Yemeni Republic,“ the Houthis‘ Supreme Political Committee said in a statement as tens of thousands of Yemenis took to the streets to protest the strikes.
(12.01.2024)
(12.91.2024)
When will we learn from our mistakes and realise that war is not the answer?
US President Joe Biden said he ordered the strikes “in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea.”
(29.12.2023)
The U.K. is banning violent Israeli settlers from entering the country, Foreign Secretary David Cameron announced Thursday, in a bid to “make sure our country cannot be a home for people who commit these intimidating acts.”
In a post on social media, Cameron — the former British prime minister reappointed to the Cabinet last month — said “extremist settlers, by targeting and killing Palestinian civilians, are undermining security and stability for both Israelis and Palestinians.”
In a recorded statement published on X, Netanyahu said he will not let Israel repeat the “mistake” of the Oslo Accords, and that Gaza will neither be “Hamastan nor Fatahstan”.
Earlier, he was quoted on the Israeli public broadcaster as saying that Israel was preparing for a possible war with the PA in the West Bank.
“It can’t be that after the enormous sacrifice of our citizens and fighters, we will let into Gaza those who teach terror, support terror, finance terror,” he said.
Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior PA and Fatah leader, said Netnayhu’s remarks “confirm his war against all Palestinians”.
https://palestinecampaign.eaction.online/ceasefireMPdebate
(10.12.2023)
(November 9, 2023)
(December 7, 2023)
Meanwhile, in New York, Ecuador – which holds the presidency of the Security Council, announced that an emergency meeting to discuss the Palestine-Israel crisis would take place at 10 AM local time in New York on Friday.
UN chief António Guterres called on the 15-member Council on Wednesday – invoking the rare but powerful Chapter 99 tool – to “press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe” and unite in a call for a full humanitarian ceasefire.
“Many of my own NRC staff members now live on the streets. One of them does so with her two-month-old baby.
“Our colleagues in Gaza ask themselves a simple question: how is it that these atrocities are beamed across the world for all to witness, and yet so little is done to stop them?
“Countries supporting Israel with arms must understand that these civilian deaths will be a permanent stain on their reputation.
(18.11.2023)
Some world leaders are already discussing a worldwide refugee resettlement scheme and saying they would welcome Gazans to their countries. This could be supported by many nations around the world, especially those that claim to be friends of the Palestinians.
This is an opportunity for those who say they support the Palestinian people to show these are not just empty words.
(November 9, 2023)
Some speculate the ambitious Braverman’s sole aim was to upset left-wing opinion and so enhance her standing with the grassroots Tory members — a famously right-wing cohort — who will decide a future Tory leadership contest.
If so, she likely succeeded.
(13 hours ago)
Tory MP Paul Bristow, who served as Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan’s parliamentary private secretary, was ousted from that role following a letter he sent to Sunak last week accusing Israel of carrying out “collective punishment” on the people of Gaza.
“Paul Bristow has been asked to leave his post in government following comments that were not consistent with the principles of collective responsibility,” a Downing Street spokesperson says.
(15 Feb 2011)
Since the fall of Baghdad, Curveball‘s identity had been sought throughout Iraq and Europe. He was finally outed in late 2007 as the main source for Powell‘s speech, but has tried to keep a low profile ever since, refusing — under the orders of the BND — the approaches of the few reporters who had tracked him downto Karlsruhe.
The only other time Curveball has agreed to be interviewed was in late 2007, when he told CNN that he had been set up as a fall guy by the BND and had never breathed a word to them about WMD.
(28.8.2011)
Diese bis heute verbreitete Darstellung ist unangenehm für die Bundesrepublik. Deutschland steht da als ein Land, das ein Doppelspiel betrieben hat: nach außen den Pazifisten geben – und hintenherum über seinen Geheimdienst einen entscheidenden Grund für die militärische Intervention liefern. Der Bundesnachrichtendienst nahm die Vorwürfe schweigend hin.
A Meta spokesperson said: „The overwhelming majority of Brits already rely on apps that use encryption to keep them safe from hackers, fraudsters and criminals.
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„We don‘t think people want us reading their private messages so have spent the last five years developing robust safety measures to prevent, detect and combat abuse while maintaining online security.“
Although friction from policymakers has clearly made the “pivot to privacy” which founder Mark Zuckerberg announced all the way back in 2019, when he said the company would universally apply E2EE on its services, slow going.
Finally, though, this August, Meta announced it would enable E2EE by default for Messenger by the end of the year.
(15.05.2023)
WIRED contacted nine of the UK’s internet service providers and telecom companies asking about their abilities to create and store people’s internet connection records. Eight did not respond to the request for comment. TalkTalk, the only one that did, said it will “meet its obligations” under UK law but couldn’t “confirm or deny” whether ICRs existed.
(23 December 2013)
Through secretive negotiations with ISPs, the coalition has divided the internet into ‚acceptable‘ and ‚unacceptable‘ categories and cut people off from huge swathes of it at the stroke of a key.
(Mar 4, 2014)
Britain has come under fire for its Internet filtering program, which can inadvertently block sensitive culture topics that overlap with common porn terms. The program accidentally “led to the creation of filters that not only cover hardcore pornography, but hate speech, self-harm, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, dating, nudity, violence, gambling, social networking, file-sharing, games and more,” explained Wired UK.
Despite the embarrassing arrest, there is no announced plan to revise the Internet filtering program.
The US intelligence community concluded Saudi Arabia‘s crown prince had approved the killing of the well-known and respected journalist, while a UN expert who investigated the murder also said there was „credible evidence“ that MBS was responsible for the murder.
Any visit to the UK will be interpreted as the latest sign of Western countries softening their stance towards the controversial leader and follows a similar move by the US to integrate the crown prince back into the diplomatic fold.
(17.08.2023)
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the crown prince spoke earlier on Thursday to discuss trade, investment, defence and security cooperation, according to a readout of the call issued by Downing Street.
(12 May 2023)
Manufacturer MBDA says the Storm Shadow has a range of more than 150 miles, giving Kyiv the ability to strike behind the Russian front line.
Britain is understood to have received assurances that the missiles will only be used defensively against targets in Ukrainian territory being occupied by Vladimir Putin’s forces.
The Government has not provided detail on the number of missiles to be provided to Kyiv.
(May 11, 2023)
Wallace told lawmakers in the House of Commons that Britain is donating Storm Shadow missiles, which have a range of more than 155 miles. He didn‘t say how many are being sent. (…)
The missiles give Ukraine capacity to strike well behind the front lines, including in Russia-occupied Crimea. U.K. media reported that Ukraine has pledged not to use the missiles to attack Russia itself. (…)
He said U.K. officials would not comment publicly on whether Britain had placed any limitations on the missiles‘ use.
(Aug 8, 2023)
Analysts have been suggesting ATACMS would soon appear in U.S. Defense Department military aid packages, after the U.K. announced in May it was sending its long-range Storm Shadow, or SCALP, missiles.
ATACMS have a slightly longer range than the Storm Shadow, althoug there is some debate among experts about the true range of the air-launched cruise missiles.
It was Sadiq Khan’s extension of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) to outer London that won it for the Tories. This diabolical scheme to penalise drivers of older cars and van-owning tradesmen in the outer suburbs has aroused a level of rage which must now be a lesson to all serious contenders in the general election. The ramifications go far beyond this single, apparently anomalous, success for the Conservatives.
Rishi Sunak has been urged to scrap the ban on new petrol and diesel cars scheduled for 2030 after a surprise Tory by-election win was driven by a green scheme revolt.
While the Tories fell to substantial defeats in the Selby and Ainsty and Somerton and Frome polls, their victory in Boris Johnson’s former constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip came after a campaign centred on opposing the expansion of Sadiq Khan’s ultra-low emissions zone (Ulez).
Rishi Sunak has held on to Boris Johnson’s former seat in Uxbridge – a win widely seen as a result of Ulez – despite suffering two painful by-election blows.
The Tories lost two seats with around 20,000 majorities in by-elections on Thursday in Selby and Ainsty, to Labour, and Somerton and Frome, to the Lib Dems, while narrowly holding on to Boris Johnson’s old Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat amid a challenge from Labour.
Tory Party chairman Greg Hands claimed the 495-vote victory in Uxbridge was the “standout result” while Mr Sunak insisted the next general election was not a “done deal” despite the loss of two safe seats.
The Conservatives lost to the resurgent Labour Party in Selby and Ainsty, a region in the north of England where the Sunak’s party had enjoyed a commanding majority.
A second seat, Somerton and Frome, was won by the Liberal Democrats, a centrist party.
The Conservatives just managed to hold on to a third seat, Uxbridge and South Ruislip, the constituency held by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson until his resignation from parliament last month, although Labour significantly grew its share of the vote.
(14.07.2023)
News of the UK visit, first reported by the Financial Times, comes as Saudi Arabia tries to end the war in Yemen, and has opened up diplomatic relations with Iran. The US is seeking to persuade Saudi Arabia also to normalise diplomatic relations with Israel, but Riyadh, unlike its Gulf Arab allies the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, is resisting until there is progress on the Palestinian issue.
(12 July 2023)
A coalition of 11 nations decided during the recent NATO summit in Lithuania to start training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets in August in Denmark. A training center will also be set up in Romania for the same purpose.
NATO members Denmark and the Netherlands have been leading international efforts to train pilots as well as support staff, maintain aircraft and ultimately enable the supply of F-16s to Ukraine in its war with Russia, according to Reuters.
(11.07.2023)
The Ministry of Defence of Denmark reported that Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and the UK agreed to start the training of Ukrainians on the F-16 fighters.
The training is expected to start at the end of the summer and will be conducted in Denmark.
Not all politicians are the same, I know that, but enough of the current crop are to make many turn away from politics forever. The Johnson debacle, like Trump’s manoeuvrings, is a profoundly anti-democratic moment as both leaders seek to undermine any institution that stops their ambition. That ambition has nothing to do with improving the lives of anyone but themselves. “Power,” says O’Brien as he tortures Winston in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, “is not a means, it is an end.” Indeed.
Mr Sunak joined many Conservatives in swerving the debate, instead attending a Jewish Care event.
The settlers’ patience has paid off. After 27 years, they have managed to bring about a change in the way the system operates. (…)
In other words, the settlers will decide for themselves and the state will fall in line. Next week, the Supreme Planning Council will discuss plans for building thousands of homes in the settlements.
At least 24 guests were reportedly at the gathering which was held just a few days before Mr Johnson’s 19 December announcement that Tier 4 Covid curbs would be implemented. This put London and the southeast of England under severe restrictions which meant many could not see their families on Christmas Day.
“It is with a very heavy heart that I must tell you we cannot continue with Christmas as planned,” he said just five days after the party.
When one man sees he is being recorded, he says: “Oh Christ.” Then another asks: “Are you filming this?” Someone else responds: “It’s for party, erm, party use.”
A man then laughs after declaring: “As long as we are not streaming that we’re, like, bending the rules.”
It was just days after the party that Mr Johnson announced even tighter restrictions which meant people in the areas worst hit by Covid could not see their loved ones over Christmas.
The former prime minister also warned Mr Johnson’s critics they should “never, ever, ever” write him off amid questions over whether he could seek a return to the political frontline.
The committee recommended Mr Johnson “should not be entitled to a former Member’s pass” after it concluded he had deliberately misled MPs over partygate.