Never Before Has A Party Won An Election with Less Than 34% of the Vote – Starmer’s Government Lacks All Political Legitimacy

The Question is Whether Or Not We Can Unite to Defeat Britain’s Macron & Learn From the French Left How to Defeat ‘Centrist’ Warmongers

This coming Friday at 6.30 the Socialist Labour Network has invited a range of different speakers to give their views on the election that has just gone by and the prospects, as they see them for the Left during the Starmer government.

Register here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_K7IgyMP5TcKfyPnp-5oYYw

Never before has a government been elected with a huge majority to almost universal public indifference if not hostility. The voting turnout, 59.8%, speaks for itself. The second lowest since the war. This says everything about the decay of bourgeois democracy. Anyone who remembers the 1964 election of Harold Wilson’s government with a nail biting majority of 4, after 13 long years of Tory government, cannot help but notice the difference.

1964 was a time of the Beatles and optimism. Change was in the air. It was no mere slogan. With Starmer Change is a PR slogan signifying nothing more than a change in the Board of Directors of UK Ltd. It is the kind of change that Big Brother would have approved of in 1984.

In 1966 Wilson achieved a majority of 98. The Labour government abolished capital punishment, outlawed racial discrimination, introduced equal pay for women, homosexual law reform as a result of the Wolfenden Report and the 1967 Abortion Act.

Unlike Starmer’s toadying to the USA, Wilson refused the request from US President Lyndon Johnson for British soldiers to fight in Vietnam. In a curious reversal of US policy, which up till then had been to eliminate British influence in the Middle East, the Americans argued against Dennis Healey’s decision to retreat from East of Suez. See The Fall and Rise of Britain’s ‘East of Suez’ Basing Strategy

In 1951, 1955, 1959, 1970, 1979, 1992 and 2017 (under Corbyn!) Labour had a higher % of the vote but didn’t win the election. Under Corbyn in 2017 Labour won 40% compared to Starmer’s 33.8% and yet it won 150 fewer seats.

Starmer Labour went out of its way to dampen expectations. His main selling point was that he would be no different from the Tories. Whatever else you can say about Blair people were excited by his victory. Starmer by way of contrast is a personality free zone. A man entirely devoid of charm or charisma. He is the personification of the Coercive State. He is the face of corporate capital.

Nowhere was this more evident than in his own constituency Holborn and St Pancras. In 2017, under Corbyn, Starmer received 41,343 votes, (70.1%). In 2019 he gained 36,641 votes (64.5%). In 2024 his vote halved to 18,884 (48.9%). Socialist Independent Andrew Feinstein came from nowhere to pick up 7,312 votes (18.9%). Starmer repels even his own constituents.

Putting it another way, in 2024 Labour received 600,000 fewer votes than in the ‘disaster’ of 2019. Whichever way you look at it, Starmer’s Labour Party did not receive a vote of confidence.

Starmer’s support for genocide in Gaza has cost it dearly. Four right-wing Labour MPs lost their seats to candidates opposing Starmer's support for Israel's Nazi behaviour.

Despite predictions from the pollsters, Jeremy Corbyn sailed home winning by over 7,200 votes.  Even the BBC found it hard to find critical voices in his constituency. George Galloway unfortunately lost his seat in Rochdale but by less than 1,500 votes.

If you are wondering who UK's new PM @Keir_Starmer is, wait no further.

This will be an interesting thread. pic.twitter.com/ZmoSEPzp5o

— Esha K (@eshaLegal) July 5, 2024

The Green Party had their best ever general election performance and gained 3 seats compared to their previous one, including a 10,000 vote victory over obnoxious war monger Thangam Debbonaire in Bristol West. However as I have previously warned, the Green Party is not a left-wing party although they make radical noises. They support staying in NATO and want to green capitalism.

The other highlight of the night was the defeat of Jonathan Ashworth, shadow Paymaster General. Ashworth lost his Leicester South seat by nearly 1,000 votes to Shockat Adam, who said: “This is for Gaza.”

Craig Murray - stabbed in the back by Muslim communalists

In Blackburn, the constituency once held by Barbara Castle and Jack Straw, Labour’s Kate Hollern lost by 132 votes to Adnan Hussain. Craig Murray for the Workers Party got over 7,000 votes too.

Ayoub Khan - the new independent MP for Birmingham Perry Barr

In Dewsbury and Batley, Labour’s Heather Iqbal, lost by nearly 7,000 votes to Iqbal Mohamed. In Birmingham Perry Barr the corrupt former Labour MP and Henry Jackson Society member Khalid Mahmood lost to Ayoub Khan causing the Jewish Chronicle’s David  Rose to froth at the mouth over his having questioned Israel’s fictitious rape narrative and stories of beheaded babies.

Really ugly scenes during @jessphillips‘ acceptance speech. Absolutely appalling; men shouting down a woman when she’s legitimately won an election is disgraceful and a bad look for our democracy. pic.twitter.com/2aO7TbPqRG

— Ferhanasṭīn 🍉 (find them @ferhankhan.bsky.social) (@QueerhanKhan) July 5, 2024

In Birmingham Hodge Hill, former cabinet minister Liam Byrne won by 1,566 votes over James Giles, the Worker’s Party candidate. In Birmingham Yardley Jess Phillips won by 693 votes against the Workers’ Party Jody McIntyre.

 In Birmingham Ladywood Labour’s Shabana Mahmood defeated Akhmed Yakoob of the Workers’ Party by 3,421. In 2019 Mahmood won by 28,582 votes. Mahmood was the shadow justice secretary before the election. Birmingham Ladywood is another area with a high proportion of Muslim voters.

This produced a backlash by far-right ex-Jewish Chronicle Editor Stephen Pollard who described them as “the rise of sectarian voting”, while Telegraph columnist Sam Ashworth-Hayes condemned their victories as: “Total, utter failures of integration.” It is a bit rich of Pollard to call Muslim voters ‘sectarian’ given the campaign he waged amongst Jewish voters not to vote Labour under Corbyn!

In Bethnal Green and Bow, where many were also angered by Starmer’s talk about deporting Bangladeshi people, Labour’s Rushanara Ali won by less than 1700 votes against independent Ajmal Masroor .

This election saw a determined challenge to Starmer and his most loyal sycophants by two main groups. One was by the Workers Party which fielded 150 candidates and which aimed to build itself through its opposition to genocide in Gaza, aiming at the Muslim vote.

The other was a determined campaign by left and Muslim campaigners that saw Ashworth defeated and Wes Streeting very nearly defeated by Leanne Mohamad in Ilford North. Just 500 votes separated them.  If the Green Party hadn’t stood, Streeting might now be out in the cold.

The example of the French where a united left campaign has squashed the fascist National Renewal’s hopes of winning control of the government, should be a lesson to us. A united left in Britain could also do this but this means burying the tradition of sectarianism which means that one’s differences over who said what in 1917 are more important than today’s struggles.

There is a very useful compilation of all of the left’s candidates that has been compiled by the very public sociologist blog. It includes all the left groups that stood. I have compiled a table of how many candidates each group stood and their average results.

The list is effectively divided into two: on the one hand the socialist and Muslim independents did relatively well.  The Workers Party candidates also did well but not on the scale of the above.

On the other a kaleidoscope of left sects did very badly, making no impression. It is to be hoped that some of the latter might eventually realise that standing candidates who receive only a fraction of 1% achieves nothing other than a lost deposit.

1.           The Socialist Independents

There were 65 candidates and in total they gained just under a quarter of a million votes with an average of 8.9%. This is clearly a promising start.

They included Corbyn. People were primarily campaigning over one issue, Gaza. It included Muslims and the thousands of socialist exiles from the Labour Party that was.

What distinguished many of the campaigns was a wide community involvement. I can only speak from personal experience in Hove where British Palestinian, Tanushka Marah, was elected at an all-Brighton meeting of 150 people. The campaign came primarily out of the wider Palestine solidarity campaign in Brighton & Hove against genocide in Gaza.

Socialists, feminists and environmental campaigners participated in an energetic campaign. We chose Hove because the current Labour MP, Peter ‘Killer’ Kyle, is an ardent supporter of genocide in Gaza and Vice-Chair of Labour Friends of Israel.

Hove is not a naturally left constituency. When I came to Brighton 50 years ago it was one of the safest Tory seats in the country. All three Brighton & Hove seats were Tory. Brighton Pavilion was represented by Monday Club MP Sir Julian ‘gunboats’ Amery. Kemptown’s MP was Andrew Bowden, who finally got caught up in a corruption scandal and was ousted in 1997. Only Kemptown had ever been Labour, during the Wilson era when it was won in 1964 by Dennis Hobden by 7 votes.

Hove was won in the Blair landslide of 1997. Before this year left candidates usually got derisory votes, usually under 500.  So the achievement by Tanuksha of 3,048 votes (5.9%) marked a real triumph. She also saved her deposit.

Overall 27 of the 65 independent candidates got over 5% and thereby saved their deposits. The total vote for the independents was nearly a quarter of a million

2.           Workers’ Party [WP]

The Workers Party is very much the creation of George Galloway whose profile has never been far from the limelight. When George won a by-election in Rochdale in February and slimy Sunak slithered out of 10 Downing Street to condemn the election result (one wonders whether he or Paul Mason had considering making it a criminal offence to vote for George) his reputation was established nationally.

Soon after George announced an intention by the WP to contest 500 seats but that proved too difficult and the final tally was 152. The 152 candidates gained a total of 210, 000 votes with an average of 3.48%. Although some candidates did well, a lot got derisory votes. 26 WP candidates (17.1%) saved their deposit compared to 41.5% of the Independents.

It obviously makes sense for the Independents and the Workers’ Party to join forces in future elections but there are formidable political obstacles to this. The targeting by Galloway of migrants and refugees as a threat to British workers’ standard of living, pay and conditions is unacceptable.

Galloway fails to recognise why it is that the boat people crossing the Channel are scapegoated despite being a fraction of overall migration. Our rulers only rule because they are able to divide and rule, setting one section of the poor against another. Galloway plays into this and thinks he’s being smart by being seen to be tough on law and order and refugees.

‘Patriotic socialism’ has a long and inglorious history. It resulted in social democratic parties supporting their own ruling classes in World War I. It has been tried, not least by Henry Hyndman of the Socialist Federation, who was an anti-Semite and a supporter of imperialism and the Boers. It has always been a disaster. Patriotism is how the ruling class fools the working class into supporting their imperialist ventures and dying in their wars.

3.      People Before Profit

People Before Profit stood 3 candidates in one of Britain’s remaining colonies, Northern Ireland. They gained an average of 2,80l votes and 7.1%, saving two of their deposits.

4.      The Left Sects

One must not forget the 84 candidates that a variety of the left sects stood. Without fail they gained derisory votes and lost their deposits. One wonders what is the point of such an exercise in futility but to some like Arthur Scargill’s Socialist Labour Party what matters is keeping the flag flying. Scargill has spent nearly 40 years since the Miner’s Strike trashing his own political reputation.  It is rather sad.

The main group is the Trade union and Socialist Coalition  [TUSC]. At one time it was sponsored by the RMT under Bob Crowe but since then it has distanced itself from it. TUSC was the creation of the Socialist Party.

TUSC stood 40 candidates and without exception they did abysmally. Not one of them saved their deposit or gained over 1000 votes. The highest vote was by Dave Nellist, the former Coventry MP, who secured 2.2% in Coventry East. They secured an average of 0.79%.

Given the success of the socialist independents it’s time that TUSC called it a day and threw its lot in with other socialists. It is clear that their project has failed.

The Communist Party of Britain, which prints the Morning Star, stood 14 candidates. They did even worse than TUSC.  They secured an average of 0.46% which is less than 1 in 200. My advice to them is to join with other socialists, ditch your resident Zionist Mary Davis and stop plugging the two-state apartheid solution for Palestine.

Scargill’s  Socialist Labour Party was formed after Labour ditched Clause 4. It stood 12 candidates who got an average of 0.7%. Scargill once turned up at a party AGM with more votes in his back pocket than the rest of the delegates put together, representing the previously unknown Lancashire Miners Welfare Organisation! The SLP today is the living dead and is unlikely to survive Arthur’s passing.

The grandly titled Workers Revolutionary Party stood 5 candidates obtaining an average of 0.52%. The WRP has been around a long time and it was led by Gerry Healey before he was expelled for raping women comrades. This did not stop Corin Redgrave extolling his ‘achievements’ and proclaiming that “If this is the work of a rapist, let’s recruit more rapists.”

Other left fragment which stood candidates included the Alliance for Green Socialism (in 2005 I was a candidate for them!) which stood 2 candidates who gained an average of 0.3%.

There is Communist Future, of which I know nothing, which stood one candidate who obtained 0.3%.

Communist League stood 2 candidates who obtained an average of 0.4%. It is one of the splinters of the old International Marxist Group and supports the American Socialist Workers Party, which is no longer on the left, supporting as it does Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Socialist Equality Party is another Trotskyist sect, an offspring of the WRP, led by David North. It publishes the World Socialist Web Site which often has well informed articles. It also stood 2 candidates, obtaining an average of 0.3%, one of whom stood against Starmer, thus splitting the socialist opposition, or rather they would have done if Tom Scripps had obtained more than 0.2%!

The Socialist Party of Great Britain was founded in 1904. They are the Jehovah Witnesses of the left. They stood 2 candidates obtaining an average of 0.25%.

The newly inaugurated Transform also stood 2 candidates obtaining an average of 0.75%. Clearly they haven’t transformed anything.

One would hope that all these groups would either disappear or join with other socialists but I suspect life would have no meaning for them if they were to make an acquaintance with reality.

Tony Greenstein

RIP Mike Howard – A Jewish Socialist Whose Family Fled from the Pogroms in Poland and Lithuania

Being Jewish Mike was a natural target for suspension from Starmer's Labour Party

Mike Howard was one of eight people who took the Labour Party to court over its disciplinary process for investigating complaints of anti-Semitism. Below I reprint, without permission!, the tribute that Jewish Voices for Labour, of which Mike was a member, paid to him.

Mike was a Jewish Socialist all his life and fought racism and anti-Semitism consistently. He was also an active trade unionist and a councillor till recently on Hastings Borough Council. His suspension from the Labour Party for ‘anti-Semitism’ says everything you need to know about the bogus nature of the ‘anti-Semitism’ accusations which are being levelled at Jews today in Labour today.

The fact that if you are Jewish you are 5 times more likely to be suspended from Labour under Starmer than if you are not says everything you need to know about how genuine was Starmer’s pledge to ‘root out’ anti-Semitism.

Unfortunately this did not start with Starmer.  It was under Jeremy Corbyn that the anti-Semitism witchhunt took off when people like myself were expelled or suspended. Unfortunately Corbyn went along with this bogus narrative until it got him too.  The fast track procedures now being used to expel and suspend hundreds of members were patented by Corbyn and Jennie Formby.

 It is shameful that Corbyn says nothing about the legacy he has left. Instead of lapping up cheap applause and playing the martyr, he should come out publicly and criticise what is happening. Corbyn’s inability to make even one word of direct criticism of Starmer demonstrates that even if he had won the election in 2017 and even if the Labour Right had agreed to vote him in as Prime Minister, that he would have wilted at the first sign of opposition.

Undoubtedly for someone like Mike, as with all of us, to be accused of anti-Semitism when you have spent your life opposing it, is hurtful. That is why the Labour Right, which doesn’t give a tinker’s cuss about anti-Semitism or any other form of racism, make the allegations.  These accusations are deliberately made to cause hurt and distress.

We should contrast this with the readmission to the Labour Party in recent weeks of one of the vilest racists on the Labour Right – Luke Stanger, a friend of Hove MP Peter Kyle, who worked in the office of Joan Ryan, former Chair of Labour Friends of Israel. Apart from multiple complaints of harassment from women in the Labour Party Stanger is on record as saying that Travellers are ‘a nasty blight on society.’

Under Starmer genuine racists are always welcome in the Labour Party whereas anti-racists are expelled.  It is unfortunate that some on the Left such as Jon Lansman, Owen Jones and David Renton, are unable to see through this Zionist campaign of vilification which defames good Jewish socialists like Mike.

We should pay tribute to someone who was a Jewish hero. Those who suspended Mike for 'antisemitism' weren't fit to lick his boots.

Tony Greenstein

Mike Howard – “a true mensch”

Sat 13 Nov 2021

It is with deep regret that we announce that JVL member and long-term fighter for socialism, Mike  Howard died after a short illness, with his close family at his side, in the early hours of Thursday 11th November 2021.

 Many readers of our website will recognise and remember Mike as one of the Labour Activists for Justice (LA4J) who had been treated so abysmally by the Party to which he dedicated more than 45 years of his life. He died a committed socialist and still angry with the Labour Party that had suspended him, a Jewish anti-racist, for antisemitism.

You can get a taste of his anger, his willingness to challenge and a little of his background on this video from a Labour Grassroots show dedicated to those involved in LA4J .

 Mike was born in Hackney in 1952 to socialist parents whose families had fled from the threat of pogroms in Lithuania and Poland.  He always said he learned about internationalism as a child and this informed his philosophy and his activism throughout his life.

He left school fairly early, in part because of antisemitic bullying and was later educated at Newcastle University (where he was active in the National Organisation of Labour Students) and became a librarian.  He was active in the Labour Party Young Socialists in the 1970s – at a time when political education was a major focus – and it was there that he met his wife Dee. In time Mike became (step)father to Dee’s daughter Jenny and they had a son, Robin together.

After graduating he spent some years in the North East then moved to London continuing his work as a librarian.  In Lambeth he was a shop steward and also a Convenor for NALGO (and the Unison) and supported many workers, not least representing the Union in many tribunals.

He was also a committed supporter of Wimbledon Football Club and was involved in turning it into a supporter-owned club remaining in Wimbledon, rather than moving to help the owners to profit.

In Hastings he was well known as an activist, committed to justice for Palestinians and, from 2012-2018 he was an elected councillor in what had mainly been a Tory ward.  He is remembered as an effective councillor, supporting local residents in a number of campaigns as well as doing individual case work and, of course, serving on committees.  He stood down at the 2018 elections to care for his wife.

You can see him talking about his role in Labour Activists for Justice, trying to hold the Labour Party to account and to democratic principles in the video below:

Very many tributes have been received in the first 36 hours after he died which show what sort of a person he was and why he will be so badly missed. Many refer to his appalling treatment by the Labour Party.

Many have commented on how friendly he was and for many younger people and others who joined when Jeremy Corbyn was elected, it was Mike who welcomed them, made sure they were invited to the pub after meetings.  Several have said that they learned so much from him, about the history of the Party and of the wider movement.

Here are some extracts:

Peter Chowney, who was Deputy Leader in Hastings most of the time that Mike was a councillor:

He was a good comrade, and a very good local councillor – the only Labour councillor to successfully defend West St Leonards ward. And a fellow former Hackney Labour Party member! Such a pity he had to spend his last days defending himself against this awful witchhunt. I shall miss him.

Peter Doyle, Jen Pickard and John Pickard – some friends in the North East:

“We are saddened to hear of the sudden and untimely death of Mike Howard, a member of Hastings and Rye Labour Party, in the early hours of November 11. Mike was one of those left-wing members facing suspension by the Party on the spurious grounds of ‘anti-Semitism’, a deeply ironic charge considering his Jewish background. We knew Mike from his time in the Labour Party Young Socialists in Gateshead where we were members and where he was also an active member of the local government union, NALGO.

Mike, who came from a family tradition of socialist ideas, was a Marxist and a supporter of Militant in his days in the North East. He was always a friendly, comradely and cheerful person to know. Mike wrote an excellent article for Left Horizons late last year, on how unfit for purpose Labour’s disciplinary process is, in his own and in other cases… Mike will be a great loss, not only to his family, but to the whole labour movement and those who knew him…”

Simon Hester (local Unite Community Branch member):

I only got to know Mike over the past year but, it’s strange, it feels like I knew him a lot longer. He was such a friendly and welcoming comrade. For socialists of a certain age we have been through so many struggles together it seems to have created an unspoken bond, a shared tradition. I have absolutely no doubt which side Mike was on in the great campaigns against racism, during the miners’ strike, the poll tax campaign, the antiwar movement. Over the past few months I kept bumping into him and Dee at protests over Palestine, NHS pay, refugee rights and the Police Bill. And I won’t forget his outrage and eloquence in challenging the witchhunt of socialists and anti-Zionists in the Labour Party. The movement has lost a principled socialist, an internationalist and anti-racist, and above all, an anti-Zionist Jew. His hope for a socialist future will live on in the growing movements of young people …
solidarity, Simon

Carel Buxton, Chair West Ham CLP (suspended 21 March):

I met him only once and that was at LP conference in 2019 as I recall. Mike made a lasting impression on me because of his warmth, his humour and his clear dedication to socialist ideas. Both of us have roots in the east end and we talked about our great fighting tradition. I still live in West Ham but was born in Hastings, Mike’s life journey was from Hackney to Hastings or rather Mugsborough as we called it. He was a hero of our class and I send you my deepest condolences.

Sarah Gomes-Harris:

Such sad news for the local Labour Party. Such a lovely man, so rooted in the human dignity and decency of socialism and so unfairly targeted and isolated by the party he cherished his whole life…. I wish more people were like Mike Howard… So heartbreaking. Rest with peace, love and power x

Marie Lynam: 

Those who disciplined Mike did a terrible wrong not just to him, but to the justice and bravery contained in his political positions. It is a cruel thing that Mike had to go with this insult done to him, and to everything good he stood for.

Through you, and with my thanks, I send my solidarity to his family and comrades. 

Rica Bird (JVL member; Wirral South CLP):

This is indeed a sad blow, and even more cruel considering his mistreatment at the hands of the Labour Party. Although I didn’t know him, I gather his life has been a gift to all combating oppression and leaves a great legacy for the rest of us to follow.

I keep thinking for those who have been summarily expelled, those suspended, or ‘under investigation’ and those who have simply left, that it is not we who have left the Party, it truly IS the Party has left us!!

In solidarity

Jewish members and others file court claim against Labour for breach of EHRC principles after party tells them: ‘EHRC does not apply to you’

Mike Howard (68) Member of Hastings & Rye CLP. Active Labour Party member for over thirty-five years, holding office in six CLP’s during this time. Twice elected Hastings Borough Councillor. Retired (former office-holding) Unison life member. Unite Community, JVL and PSC. He is a Jewish, lifelong anti-racist whose family escaped the murderous pogroms in pre-war Russia/Poland and fought the fascists in their East London neighbourhood. Mike has suffered real anti-semitism, and finds it completely unacceptable that Labour Party HQ, knowing that he is Jewish, has not responded to his solicitors’ request to drop an anonymous complainant’s accusations of anti-semitism against him which is based on the process the EHRC found was unfair and based on a code the Party will not publish.

Jewish members say Starmer’s pursuit of them ‘makes a mockery’ of claim to be making Labour safe for Jews

We are appalled by the large and growing number of Jewish members of the Labour Party – including ourselves – who have recently been subject to disciplinary proceedings related to alleged antisemitism. This fact alone – over and above the trumped up and politicised nature of the charges – makes a mockery of Keir Starmer’s commitment to ensuring Labour is a safe space for Jews.

It is now abundantly clear that this commitment does not cover discrimination against Jewish socialists. On the contrary, Starmer’s abuse of our Jewish identity and his willingness to exploit antisemitism as a political football is shameful and harmful not only to freedom of expression, but also to the fight against real antisemitism and racism of all forms, both in and outside of the Labour Party.

Graham Bash
Jo Bird
Mike Cushman
Michael Ellman
Michael Howard
Moshe Machover
Diana Neslen
Jonathan Rosenhead
Glyn Secker
Stephen Solley
George Wilmers
Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi

In Israel the Torture and Abuse of Palestinian Children is Lawful, Relentless and Routine - but if you mention it you will be accused of 'antisemitism'

Let us remember Keir Stürmer and those Labour MPs who supported the Overseas Operations Bill granting Immunity to Torture by British Agents

There is no doubt about it. If you criticise Israel’s use of torture, Israel being the only country in the world to have legalised torture, then you are an anti-Semite.

Don’t take my word for it. The IHRA misdefinition of anti-Semitism makes this quite clear stating that:

criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.

In other words if you criticise Israel for something that other countries don’t do then you must be anti-Semitic. Since most countries don’t torture children criticism of Israeli torture is therefore automatically anti-Semitic.

When I was expelled from Labour in February 2018, at the behest of Corbyn and Laura Murray, the second of my 3 charges concerned Louise Ellman, the vile racist MP for Liverpool Riverside and Tel Aviv South, Thomas Ogg, Labour’s barrister waxed furiously in his skeleton argument:

" Mr Greenstein has authored and posted articles on a blog which include comments that are offensive and derisory including but not limited to: accusing Louise Ellman MP of being a "supporter of Israeli child abuse"....

Para 56 asserted that

‘the use of the phrase "child abuse" is deliberately provocative. The phrase evokes sexual abuse, and therefore suggests that Louise Ellman MP, a prominent Jewish Labour MP, supports the same. Greenstein's summary of the conduct as "child abuse" is an attempt to shame Ms Ellman by the use of emotive language, which is contrary to the Labour Party's Social Media Policy.’

In vain did I protest that because Ellman was shameless, it was not possible to shame her!

Two parliamentary debates were held on Palestinian child prisoners in the West Bank in the past 4 years. The first Child Prisoners and Detainees: Occupied Palestinian Territories was held on 6 January 2016. The debate concerned a UNICEF Report which concluded that

“the ill-treatment of children who come in contact with the military detention system appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized throughout the process, from the moment of arrest until the child’s prosecution and eventual conviction and sentencing”.

Ellman intervened 3 times during the debate to defend the Israeli military’s treatment of children. The late Jo Cox MP also intervened:

‘evidence from Military Court Watch suggests that 65% of children continue to report being arrested at night in what are described as terrifying raids by the military.’

Ellman intervened again to defend the Israeli military putting all the blame for violence on the children. Ellman was an officer of the Jewish Labour Movement and Chair of Labour Friends of Israel, the main organisations behind the false accusations of anti-Semitism.

The JLM has always protested that accusations of anti-Semitism have nothing to do with Zionism and Israel. Their defence of Ellman when members of her CLP sought to deselect her shows them to be liars.

Two years later, on 7^th February 2018, there was another debate Palestinian Children and Israeli Military Detention in which Ellman spoke supporting the Israeli military. Asa Winstanley, the excellent Electronic Intifada journalist, has covered this in his recent article for Middle East Monitor Torturing children is normal for Israel.  

Asa noted that:

Ironically, Greenstein's condemnation of Ellman's defence of Israeli child abuse was considered to be "abusive language" by Labour's desiccated bureaucrats. There was plenty of evidence, even then, that Israeli practice towards Palestinian children constitutes child abuse.

So let us consider the evidence. In December 2020 Defence for Children International brought out a comprehensive 82 page report Isolated & Alone with 108 different case studies. They make grim reading. You would not expect the JLM, the overseas wing of the Israeli Labor Party to condemn the torture of children since it was the ILP which introduced the practices. 

Out of the 108 cases, 71 (66%) involved children as young as 12 being arrested between midnight and 5.00 a.m. They are dragged out of bed, often not allowed to get dressed, 94% of the children were blindfolded and bound with particularly painful plastic handcuffs. In 77 out of 108 cases (71%), children endured some form of physical violence following arrest. They are forced to crouch on the floor of a military jeep and taken to a military base or interrogation centre. There they will be left for hours, without food or water, before being thrown in a stinking cell. 

The children are held in Israel (which is illegal under international law) in solitary confinement with no access to parents or lawyers. Section 4.3 deals with interrogations.

Unlike the children of Jewish settlers, Palestinian children have no right during interrogation to the presence of either lawyers or members of their families. There are no ‘responsible adults’ present.

In at least 102 out of the 108 cases (94 percent), the children had no access to a legal consultation prior to interrogations. 62 children (57 percent) reported that interrogators did not properly inform them of their rights before interrogation, including the right to silence.

The interrogation techniques constitute torture. Bear in mind that the children are as young as 12. The Report describes the interrogations as

‘often mentally and physically coercive, frequently incorporating a combination of intimidation, threats, verbal abuse and physical violence with a clear purpose of obtaining a confession.’

In 86 of 108 cases (80 percent), the children reported being subject to stress positions during interrogation. All their limbs were tied to a metal chair just inches above the floor for prolonged periods; a position they described as acutely painful.

During their confinement attempts are made to recruit the children as informants and when they were transferred to detention centres they were held alongside adult Palestinian informants. This too is contrary to international law.

The DCIP Report said that the isolation of Palestinian children is practiced 

solely to obtain a confession for a specific offense or to gather intelligence under interrogation. DCIP has found no evidence demonstrating a legally justifiable use of isolation of Palestinian child detainees, such as for disciplinary, protective, or medical reasons.’

 DCIP makes a number of recommendations which UNICEF and others have repeatedly made but the Israeli government refuses to adopt:

•        Detention must only be used as a last resort, and only for the shortest appropriate time;

•      Children must not be subjected to physical or psychological violence

•       Children must have access to legal consultation and parents prior to and during interrogations

•       Children must only be arrested during daylight hours

•      Children must be properly informed of their right to silence

•       Children must not be blindfolded or painfully restrained

•       Children must not be subjected to coercive force or threats

•      All interrogations must be audio-visually recorded

•      Any incriminating evidence obtained during interrogation where a child was not properly and effectively informed of his or her right to silence must be excluded by the military courts

•     Any statement made as a result of torture or ill-treatment must be excluded as evidence in any proceeding

•      The practice of using solitary confinement on children in Israeli military detention, must be stopped immediately

•      The practice of using administrative detention orders against Palestinian children must stop immediately

•     All credible allegations of torture and ill-treatment must be thoroughly and impartially investigated in accordance with international standards, and perpetrators brought promptly to justice and

•    Children must not be transferred out of the occupied West Bank in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.2.

The Report also states that the Quisling Palestinian Authority should

•    Reissue a declaration accepting the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction over crimes committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

•    Take efforts that enhance the capacity of former child prisoners to cope with the trauma and negative impact of incarceration after the children’s release from Israeli military detention; and

DCIP recommends that The international community should:

•     Demand that Israeli authorities end the military detention and prosecution of Palestinian children;

•     Demand that Israeli authorities implement effective accountability measures to ensure all credible reports of torture and ill-treatment are properly investigated

•     Ensure that no foreign military aid or assistance is provided to Israeli military and police units where credible information exists that the unit has committed a gross violation of human rights, including involvement in the arrest and detention of Palestinian children;

The DCIP Report compiled 108 case reports. I have randomly selected just 3 Reports.

Case No. 4

Name: Obada H.

Age: 15

Date of arrest: February 16, 2016

Location: Jenin

Days in isolation: 12

Around 3:30 a.m. Obada was awakened by an Israeli soldier pointing his rifle at him and telling him to get up. Israeli soldiers searched Obada and pushed him against the wall. Soldiers then tied Obada’s hands behind his back using a single plastic cord and blindfolded him. A soldier hit him twice with the barrel of his rifle while forcing Obada onto the metal floor of the jeep, beside a dog. At an unknown location, Obada was detained outside standing up and physically assaulted by soldiers. He was asked about his health and detained with another person on a bench. Around 5 p.m., Obada was transferred to another unknown location where he was photographed, before arriving at Al-Jalame interrogation and detention center. After undergoing a strip search, Obada asked to use the bathroom.

Israeli soldiers point their guns at Palestinian children as they go past

A soldier proceeded to lock Obada in a small bathroom overnight. When Obada knocked on the door to be let out, an Israeli soldier assaulted him with a taser. Obada refused to eat the meals brought to him in the bathroom so soldiers moved him into a solitary confinement cell. He refused to eat for another day, falling unconscious on the third day. When he regained consciousness, Obada found himself at a clinic where soldiers were trying to feed him through a tube, but Obada refused, demanding to know why he had been arrested. Jailers returned him to his cell for an hour or so, then took him into an interrogation room. The interrogator tied his hands and feet to the legs of a metal chair. The interrogator slapped him and shouted at him. Obada was interrogated seven times while in solitary confinement, for one or two hours each time. Failing to confess, guards transferred him to Megiddo prison for two days. There, he appeared to be exposed to informants. When he was transferred back into an isolation cell in Al-Jalame, Obada pretended to have strangled himself with a thread from the mattress. Jailers entered the cell and kicked him. They then moved him into another room where his hands and feet were tied to the bed for two days. Obada never confessed to any of the accusation

Case No. 6

Name: Khaled A.

Age: 16

Date of arrest: February 25, 2016

Location: Ramallah

Days in isolation: 21

Israeli soldiers woke Khaled from his bed at 3 a.m. and ordered him to get up. He was blindfolded and his hands were bound with a single plastic cord. A group of soldiers physically assaulted him outside, punching and kicking him, and hitting him with their rifle stocks. He was transported on the floor of a military vehicle to Al-Mascobiyya interrogation and detention center, where he was photographed, strip searched and asked general questions about his health. Khaled was then placed in a small cell which had only a mattress, blanket and toilet. Cold air flowed into the cell from the manually controlled ventilation gaps and there were no windows. While in isolation, Khaled was interrogated multiple times with severe techniques, including threats, physical violence, and being restrained in a painful stress position for five consecutive days, amounting to torture. He was also transferred to another location, Eshel prison, where he was exposed to informants. All interrogations took place without the presence of a lawyer or family member. Khaled stated that he was never informed of his rights nor shown any documents explaining them. He also was not provided the opportunity to consult with a lawyer prior to interrogation. Khaled confessed to throwing Molotov cocktails.

Case No. 9

Name: Fadel T.

Age: 17

Date of arrest: March 7, 2016

Location: Jenin

Days in isolation: 10

Around 5 a.m., Fadel woke to the sounds of Israeli soldiers breaking down the door to his family’s apartment. Masked soldiers stormed the place. Fadel was blindfolded and his hands were bound behind his back with two plastic cords. Soldiers did not provide a reason for the arrest or a warrant. Soldiers insulted and physically assaulted the boy outside, punching, slapping, and kicking him. He was transported in a military jeep to Dotan settlement, where soldiers asked Fadel questions about his health and detained him outside, still in his pajamas and blindfolded. He was not provided food or water and soldiers refused to let Fadel use the bathroom. Around 11 a.m., Israel Prison Service guards handcuffed and shackled the boy, then transported him in a closed metal cage to Al-Jalame interrogation and detention center. At Al-Jalame, a jailer strip searched Fadel and placed him in isolation. The cell conditions were poor, including 24-hour lighting which hurt the boy’s eyes and gray walls that had coarse surfaces. While in isolation, Fadel was interrogated for hours at a time in a stress position. The interrogator tied his hands and feet to a metal chair three or four inches above the floor. The interrogator informed Fadel of his rights, such as his right to remain silent. Interrogations took place without the presence of a lawyer or family member. Fadel was transferred to Megiddo prison for two days, where he was detained with informants, then returned to Al-Jalame. He confessed to throwing stones and Molotov cocktails

The treatment of Palestinian children in detention is just part of the overall picture of Israeli disdain for the lives of Palestinian childen

Ha'aretz reporter Amira Hass [Palestinian Teenagers Bashar and Yousef Join a Grim Statistic: Shot by Israeli Forces] describes how 787 West Bank Palestinians, including 155 minors, were wounded last year by either sponge-tipped or live bullets. Bashar lost an eye, Yousef has skull fractures. Both will require long convalescences

632 were wounded by sponge or rubber-tipped metal bullets, including 127 minors, while 155 were wounded by live fire, including 28 minors. That’s in addition to the 1,513 who were suffocated by tear gas and needed treatment, 195 minors.

The soldiers’ bullets hit the teenagers in the head. Bashar lost his right eye and was given a temporary prosthetic eye covered by a bandage; he’s now waiting to get his permanent prosthetic eye – maybe in Jordan, maybe in Israel. Yousef suffers from skull fractures, incessant headaches and a loss of balance.

Shackling children (not Jewish children) is a regular procedure

Each was a hairsbreadth from joining the statistics of those killed by Israeli fire in 2020 – 25.

He and his older brother attend the Al-Umma high school in the nearby town of A-Ram. They were returning from school at about 1:45 P.M. on November 17. They got off the minibus at the Qalandiyah checkpoint, which divides the road out of Ramallah into two. One branch curves to the east, while the other passes through the checkpoint and is open only to cars with Israeli license plates.

Someone in the Israel Police saw fit to send a large team from the Border Police to this spot at that specific hour. The Border Police are known for their thuggish behaviour.

A police spokesman told Haaretz that

“during enforcement operations at Kafr Aqab, Border Police forces and Jerusalem municipality inspectors seized 40 boxes of firecrackers and 250 boxes of illegally owned cigarettes, confiscated two cars with the wrong license plates and issued eight traffic tickets.”

Bashar and his brother entered the refugee camp. Bashar noticed that several policemen had entered some of the buildings at the entrance to the camp, including an UNRWA clinic, the office of the Popular Committee and a children’s-activity center. He also saw a tear gas grenade launcher mounted on one of the two police patrol cars. The Police version was that

“During the operation, disturbances of the peace broke out involving about 100 rioters, who threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the security forces .... Border Police fighters responded to the rioters, who endangered their lives, by firing riot dispersal weapons, in accordance with the regulations. There was no use of live fire.”

Moreover, they said, one member of the Border Police was “wounded in the head and taken to the hospital with severe abrasions on his face.”

‘As if my eye had left its socket’

Bashar remembers the stun grenades and tear gas fired by the Border Police as he entered the camp. “People began running away, and shop owners closed up,” he told Haddad of B’Tselem.

Then, he said, teens and young men from the camp began confronting the police. They piled up tin and other scrap metal on the road to block access to the camp and threw stones. He didn’t mention any Molotov cocktails in his detailed account to B’Tselem.

He estimated that about 30 members of the Border Police faced off with around 100 Palestinians, most of them between 15 and 17.

Bashar and his brother were caught between two groups of Border Police who had deployed at different locations. The stun grenades, tear gas, sponge-tipped bullets and rubber-coated metal bullets prevented the boys from continuing on their way home.

At around 2:30 P.M., Bashar’s brother ran toward a nearby school, while Bashar hid on the street corner next to the big mosque. Suddenly, he saw some kind of ammunition flying at him. A steel bullet? One tipped with rubber or sponge? Maybe a tear gas canister? He doesn’t know.

All he remembers is that this hard object hit the ground; then he felt something hit his eye and something explode inside it. He believes the shooter was one of the policemen deployed on rooftops at the entrance to the camp.

“I immediately felt as if my eye had left its socket. I put my hand on my wounded eye and felt how the blood was flowing. I began screaming, ‘I’ve been hit, I’ve been hit.’ I wanted to get away, but after walking a few steps, I couldn’t see anymore. I lost my balance and fell down.”

Naturally the Border Police did nothing to help him. After a long delay, caused by the road being blocked because drivers and passengers had fled their cars swathed in clouds of tear gas, fearing they would be hurt by the stun grenades, tear gas or bullets.

Israeli soldiers hold their weapons during a Palestinian protest against Jewish settlements, in Kafr Qaddum, the West Bank, November 13, 2020.Credit: Mohamad Torokman/Reuters

A man Bashar didn’t know volunteered to take him in his car. Bashar sat beside him, his eye bleeding, trying to mop up the blood with the tissues that were in the car.

“I was confused and frightened,” he told Haddad. “The guy who drove me kept trying to calm me down, telling me, ‘Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid; we’ll soon be at the hospital.’”

The main hospital in Ramallah didn’t have a unit specializing in eye injuries, so it sent Bashar and his father to an eye clinic in downtown El Bireh nearby which in turn sent him to a private hospital north of Ramallah, which also turned out not to have an ophthalmology ward.

“Only at 10 P.M. did we finally get to a place that could treat him – the hospital at An-Najah University in Nablus. He went into surgery at about 10:30.

Unfortunately the doctors were unable to save Bashar’s eye. His father described him as “one of those quiet children who study,” “He’d play a bit of soccer and then come home. I was released from prison in the mid-’90s, during a kinder time, and I hoped my children would also be able to live in such a time.

“I’ve never seen Saris, but I’m a Sarisian,” he added. “They expelled us from there. Now, in Qalandiyah as well, they don’t let us live in peace, with all their raids.”

‘I still don’t remember’

Yousef Taha of Kafr Qaddum was hit in the back on November 27, apparently by a rubber-coated steel bullet. The force of the impact made him fall on his face. Fractures were later found both around his eye and in the back of his skull.

A neighbor saw him leaving an unfinished building. As Yousef reached the stairwell, the neighbor heard a shot and saw him fall. He looked up the hill and saw seven soldiers around 15 meters from the building.

He ran toward Yousef and called an ambulance. Once Yousef was inside it, he also called the boy’s father, Abd al-Fatah, who rushed to the Rafidia Hospital in Nablus in another car.

The Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Unit said a group of rioters had been burning tires and throwing stones there.

The force at the scene used crowd control weapons to disperse the rioters and ensure the safety of residents of the area,” it added. “We are aware of the claims about a wounded Palestinian.”

Because Kafr Qaddum’s direct road to Nablus is blocked, the ambulance, instead of driving due east, took the wounded boy west along a road that winds through the orchards. It then turned south to the village of Hajjah, went from there to the village of Al-Funduq and finally turned east toward Nablus. So instead of taking around 15 minutes, the trip to Nablus took about 40.

When Yousef’s father arrived at Rafidia Hospital, he found his son oscillating between consciousness and unconsciousness.

“One day I woke up and found myself in the hospital,” Yousef said in a faint voice. “I didn’t remember anything about what happened, and I still don’t remember.”

When he reads, he closes his right eye, which was injured in the fall. Yes, it hurts, a lot, he admitted. He takes pain relievers “moderately, so as not to get addicted,” his father said. He preferred that his son not be photographed in this condition.

Altogether, 214 residents of Kafr Qaddum have been wounded by IDF fire this year, including 36 minors. Of these, 139 suffered damage from tear gas and needed medical treatment on the spot or at a clinic, 65 were hit by rubber-coated metal bullets and five by live fire. Another was hurt by a tear gas canister that hit him directly. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which collects data about all the wounded, said its statistics don’t include the number of people traumatized by the violence they experienced.

Abd al-Fatah Taha went to Amman to finish high school immediately after Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967. He then trained to become a pilot in Morocco and joined the PLO. Later, he became a civilian pilot, and he returned with Arafat in 1994, serving as one of the eight airmen who piloted Arafat’s helicopter until the second intifada erupted in 2000.

“My children ask me why I came back, saying it would surely be better abroad,” he said. “And I tell them I always dreamed of returning, and I even was willing to live in a cave on our own plot of land, which we leased to shepherds.”

Generator Terrorism

In an editorial Ha'aretz reported how Harun Abu Aram, 24, of the West Bank village of al-Rakiz, in the South Hebron Hills, was shot in the neck at close range Friday after confronting soldiers who had seized a generator from a neighbor’s home that had been razed. He was admitted in critical condition to the hospital in Yatta before being transferred to Hebron’s Ahli Hospital.

The IDF said soldiers had been sent to the scene to stop illegal construction and that

“a violent disturbance developed involving about 150 Palestinians that included stone-throwing on a massive scale,” to which soldiers responded by “using crowd-dispersal methods and firing into the air.”

As is normally the case when video evidence is available, the Israeli army version of events is a tissue of lies. It shows Abu Aram trying to wrest the generator – the size of a medium carton – from the soldiers’ hands. In the course of the struggle Abu Aram was shot suddenly – a direct shot at his head – from point-blank range.

The  editorial states that:

If culprits are found, they are nearly certain to get off cheaply, since in Israel nothing is cheaper than Palestinian lives. But the details of this incident are particularly disturbing: How does a home demolition end with the point-blank shooting of a Palestinian man, who remains in critical condition?

The construction was ‘illegal’ because in the vast majority of cases Palestinians do not and never will receive building permits. Unlike settlers who nearly always do receive such permits. As Ha’aretz concludes:

These demolitions are not the way that local zoning law is enforced in a properly run state. This is a bloody war for control of land whose purpose is to preclude the establishment of a Palestinian state. Israel is willing to go to great lengths to prevent Palestinians from living on this land, as per settlers’ demands – as far as to shoot a man who tried to prevent the confiscation of a generator in the neck.

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