Open Letter to Chris Ward, MP for Brighton Kemptown

You Say You Share My Anger Over Gaza – If That’s True Then You Will Resign as Starmer’s Parliamentary Private Secretary, Bag Carrier & Fixer

UN says it still hasn't been able to distribute any aid in Gaza

Chris Ward is the Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown, which was a Tory seat from 1950 until it went Labour in 1964 when Dennis Hobden won by a margin of 7 votes after 7 recounts.

This was the first time any Sussex seat had been won by Labour and it owed a great deal to the personality of the Labour candidate, Dennis Hobden who was a son of the working class. Hobden was the son of a train driver and worked most of his life in the Post Office.

In 1966 when Harold Wilson won a landslide victory by 98 seats Dennis only held on to Kemptown by 831 votes. In 1970 he was defeated by Andrew Bowden, the self-styled pensioners' champion. Bowden held the seat till 1997 when he disgraced himself after well founded allegations of having received a £5,000 cash bribe from Mohamed al-Fayed.

I knew Dennis when I was in the Labour Party in the 80s when he was considered on the left though it was hard to pigeonhole him. When a row blew up over a statement of the then councillor Richard Stanton who defended the IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel as a legitimate target, it caused a storm amongst the Labour Right. Hobden was staunch in Richard’s support when others on the left, including Militant, were found wanting. Hobden was also a freemason!

In 2010 Simon Kirby won the seat for the Tories by 1,328 votes and in 2015 by 690 votes. In 2017 he was overwhelmed by the Corbyn surge when Lloyd Russell-Moyle overturned a small majority to win by nearly 10,000. The Labour Party in Brighton was the largest in the country.

An Israeli soldier in the world's most moral army looking for a baby to kill

Brighton was at the centre of the Corbyn movement. When the local District Labour Party held its AGM in July 2016, Momentum held a pre-meeting in Brighthelm Community Centre. It was the largest meeting I had ever seen at the Centre. People then moved on to the AGM at City College where the Left won all the officer posts by a margin of 2-1.

Unfortunately Corbyn had done nothing about Labour’s right-wing civil service. John Stolliday, the head of the Compliance Unit and Council leader Warren Morgan immediately moved to have the results cancelled on the basis of fabricated allegations of spitting.

Although Russell-Moyle was elected in 2017 and re-elected by over 8,000 in 2019 he proved a great disappointment, shifting from left to right as the political winds changed direction. As Bob Dylan noted, you don’t need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows and Moyle was nothing if not a political weatherman.  An opportunist who was ultimately defeated by his own opportunism.

Gaza's landscape could be that of Nagasaki

The removal of Moyle in 2024 and the imposition of Chris Ward, the ex-Starmer aide and political lobbyist who worked for Hanbury Strategy, who had no discernible support in the local Labour Party, was an example of the dishonesty of the current Labour leadership. Hanbury Strategy specialised in lobbying for the gambling and fossil fuels industry.

Lewis Aaron on Rejecting Starmer Labour's Request for Social Media Help

As Andy Winter wrote,  ‘can you imagine a less appropriate candidate for a seat in Brighton and Hove?’

Allegations from eight years ago have been made (against Moyle), from before he was an MP. The timing that these allegations have surfaced go well beyond suspicion. While ... they may be serious or they might have no substance whatsoever, it shows control-freakery of the worst kind by Starmer and his henchmen and women.

Ancient allegations against Moyle were cynically resurrected, having originally been rejected, thus enabling the leadership to have a pretext for suspending him. Similar behaviour by Jennie Formby, Corbyn’s General Secretarym in suspending Chris Williamson in 2019 met with Moyle’s approval. Literally Moyle was hoist by his own petard.

Chris Ward experenced a 7% swing against him and the Tory had a 14% swing against her as the Green candidate Elaine Hills came within a whisker of the Tories. As befits a former crony Ward was appointed Starmer’s PPS.

Victoria Derbyshire Demolishes Gilad Erdan, Israel's UN Ambassador

I recently signed a petition to MPs including Chris Ward. Some weeks later I got an email from him telling me ‘how angry’ he was ‘at the frankly intolerable humanitarian situation in Gaza’.

The strange thing about his email is that not once did the word ‘genocide’ cross his lips. So I thought I would send him an email!

Dear Chris Ward,

You wrote (16 May) that

I share your anger and outrage at the frankly intolerable humanitarian situation in Gaza and much of the occupied territories’.

I am pleased to hear that we agree on so much because we didn’t last October when I wrote to you. You say that

Israel's decision to block aid into Gaza - and to effectively starve a civilian population that is already suffering terribly – is both cruel and completely indefensible.

                                    

Aamer Anwar Crushes Sky TV Presenter

I agree. However I note that you avoid using the word ‘genocide’. Perhaps you can tell me what else is starvation other than an intention to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, which is the Geneva Convention definition of Genocide?

Words are cheap. What counts is what you don't say not what you do say.

Israel has been imposing a starvation blockade on Gaza since 2 March. Since 7 October it has waged a war on the Palestinians in Gaza whilst doing its best to prevent aid whilst lying to the contrary.

Moshe Feiglin, an ex-Likud MK's genocidal comments

At the start of Israel’s attack on Gaza Defence Minister Yoav Gallant declared that

‘I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed’ adding that ‘We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.’

It was not as if Israel’s leaders hid what their intentions were. Genocidal statements were made from Netanyahu down. Throughout this whole period you, Lammy and Starmer remained silent.

Law for Palestine has documented over 500 examples of genocidal statements. Israel's Ministers made explicit their desire to ethnically  cleanse and settle Gaza. For example Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said, on 28 January 2024 at a conference calling for the resettlement of Gaza:

We must establish settlements. We need security forces. We need to settle this land because it’s our land.

This despite the decision of the International Court of Justice that Israel’s occupation of Gaza was illegal. Gaza belongs to the Palestinians not Israel. When Russia made far more convincing claims to parts of Ukraine, with the agreement of the people of Crimea and the Donbass, Britain and Europe immediately slapped sanctions on Russia. Why the double standards?

‘Massacre’: Dozens killed by Israeli fire in Gaza while collecting food aid

Even when aid was allowed in Israel did its best to stop it being distributed and we had the flour massacres when starving people, queuing for food, were murdered by Israel in cold blood. Even today, Israel is still blocking aid and the entry of aid lorries.

Bursting Netanyahu's 'Lies'; Point-By-Point Fact Check Of Israeli PM's U.S. Congress Speech

Nothing Israel’s government says can be trusted. They are proven liars. They murdered 5 year old Hind Rajab after falsely assuring Red Crescent paramedics that they would be safe if they rescued her from her parent’s car where the rest of her family lay dead. When the paramedics reached Hind a tank opened fire killing them all.

Israel Deliberately Kills Kids - Hind Rajab's Murder Exposed As DELIBERATE

Sky News investigates slaughter of Palestinian family fleeing fighting

Israel’s lies about the murder of 15 Red Crescent workers are well known. Israel first claimed that the ambulances had approached ‘suspiciously’ without their lights on. When this was disproved by footage from a mobile phone found on one of the dead aid workers they switched to their usual lie -  they were members of Hamas. Yet this government has continued to take the word of Israel’s genocidal leaders and army on trust.

Lammy greeting Israel's No. 1 War Criminal

On Tuesday David Lammy criticised the ‘intolerable’ and ‘extremist’ Israeli blockade and offensive. Indeed he employed almost every adjective except the one that was most appropriate. Israel’s starvation blockade of Gaza is genocidal. Are you prepared to call Israel’s policy, which is the same as the policy of the Nazis in the Polish Jewish ghettos, a Genocide?

New video contradicts Israeli account of Gaza aid convoy attack

I am not interested in how angry you are. I am more interested in what you intend to do. Lammy’s measures were pathetically inadequate – suspension of trade talks not trade. Nothing about halting arms supplies to continue the genocide. Token sanctions on settlers in the West Bank. All mouth and no trousers. Are  you prepared to speak out and demonstrate that your anger is more than a form of words?

I want to ask you a few questions, bearing in mind you are in a unique position to make a difference being the PPS to Starmer.

i.              Will you call for the immediate halt of all RAF flights overflying Gaza which provide intelligence to Israel’s killers? Will you call for the end of any military co-operation with the IDF?

ii.           Will you support and call for the prosecution of any British citizen who is found to have fought in Israel’s genocidal army?

iii.        Will you call for a complete end to the arms trade with Israel?

iv.        Will you make it a criminal offence to trade with the settlements? You say that ‘There also needs to be an end to Israeli settlement building.’ Good. Let’s impose sanctions on trade with them.

v.           Will you demand that the UK enforce the arrest warrants of the International Criminal Court  against Netanyahu and Gallant

          The MORONS who control Youtube removed this video because they said it breached their 'hate' policy.   It seems a video exposing the racism of Israeli school children's singing songs about how they hate and want to kill Arabs is the same as encouraging it.

vi.        Will you call for an end to the attacks on the Palestine solidarity movement and the libel that opposition to Zionism equals anti-Semitism?

vii.     Will you call for the Government to jettison the IHRA which equates opposition to genocide with anti-Semitism?

viii.  Will you call for sanctions on Israel as and until it becomes a state of its own citizens rather than an apartheid, Jewish Supremacist state where Arabs are subjects not citizens?

ix.        Will you also call for the removal of Hamas from the list of proscribed ‘terrorist’ organisations? It is clear that it is Israel not Hamas who are the terrorists. 

What is happening in Gaza is a continuation of the Nakba in 1948 when 750,000 Palestinian  refugees were driven from their homes to create a ‘Jewish’ state. Israel has recently invaded Syria and Lebanon in order to capture more territory without justification following the fall of Assad.

What is happening in Gaza is not a consequence of October 7 but a continuation of the Zionist project of ethnic cleansing and genocide that began in 1948. October 7 was no different from the slave rebellions and anti-colonial resistance of the past. As Omar Bartov, the Israeli holocaust scholar wrote in Infinite License:

'On January 12, 1904, the Herero people of German Southwest Africa—today’s Namibia—launched a series of attacks on scattered German farms in the territory... the German settlers who had begun to arrive in the late nineteenth century increasingly encroached on their grazing lands.

The rebels destroyed many of the farms and killed more than a hundred settlers, mostly sparing women and children. For the settlers the rebellion served as a final proof of the need to eradicate the Herero, whom they described as “baboons.” ...  the German governor appealed to Berlin, which sent some 10,000 soldiers. By August they had crushed the Herero fighters. In October the German commander, Lieutenant General Lothar von Trotha, issued what has come to be known as his Vernichtungsbefehl (extermination order) to those who remained:

.... Any Herero found inside the German frontier,... will be executed. I shall spare neither women nor children. Most of the Herero were shot or died of thirst and hunger in the desert to which they had been expelled. Several thousand were taken to forced labor camps....

Germany’s famous Vergangenheitsbewältigung  (coming to terms with or overcoming the past) was about the Holocaust, not long-forgotten colonial crimes. Only in 2021 did the German government officially apologize....

That remote genocide at the dawn of the twentieth century shares some remarkable similarities with the campaign of ethnic cleansing and annihilation prosecuted by Israel in Gaza. Israel saw the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, in much the same way that the Germans saw the Herero attack 119 years earlier: as confirmation that the militant group was utterly savage and barbaric, that resistance to Israeli occupation would always incline toward murder, and that Gaza’s Palestinian population as a whole should be removed from the moral universe of civilization.'

“GAS CHAMBERS” In Gaza: Prominent Israeli Demands “HOLOCAUST”

Those who define Israel’s genocide, as Lammy did, in terms of fighting terrorism or Israel’s ‘right of self-defence’ are justifying what Israel has done. It is futile to ask Israel not to complete the Endlosung (Final Solution) of the Palestinians. Lammy and Starmer, by making October 7, rather than the Nakba, the reference point are justifying Netanyahu’s extermination of the Palestinians in exactly the same way as those who supported the genocide of the Herero.

There is no difference, apart from 120 years, between the German genocide of 1904 and the Zionist genocide of 2024. When Nissim Vaturi, the Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, says that there are ‘no innocents' and that Gaza should be ‘burned now’ or when MK Galit Distel Atbaryan calls for ‘Erasing all of Gaza from the face of the earth.’ they are following in the footsteps of Von Trotha and Himmler.

When Israeli Channel 14 producer, Elad Barashi, posted on X:

‘Good morning, let there be a Shoa (Holocaust) in Gaza.’ and writes ‘I can't understand the people here in the State of Israel who don't want to fill Gaza with gas showers... or train cars... and finish this story! Let there be a Holocaust in Gaza.’

he is not an outlier. He is reflecting majority opinion among Israeli Jews.

When Israeli Jews were asked whether they supported or opposed the idea that Israel should allow the transfer of humanitarian aid, food and medicines, to Gaza residents, 68% of them said they were opposed to allowing in aid, even if Hamas and UNWRA were excluded from its distribution. 

The exterminationist mentality of Israel’s Jewish citizens is crystal clear. Israel is now echoing Nazi Germany’s treatment of the Jews. Israel is a settler colonial state with the facade of democracy. It is an ethnocracy and far from supporting its ‘right to exist’ we should be calling for its dismantlement in order that the Palestinians can live.

If your anger is genuine Chris Ward, given that Starmer is a ‘Zionist without qualification’ you have no choice but to resign as his PPS. It may be the one good thing you have done in your political life.

Yours sincerely,

Tony Greenstein 

The Zionist Plan for ‘Cleansing’ Gaza of its Palestinians is Not New – Like Many Such Ideas It Originated with their Nazi friends

 There is a German word for what is being proposed – Judenrein or today Arabrein

There is nothing new in Donald Trump and Netanyahu’s plans for the ‘evacuation’ of the Palestinians from Gaza. The Nazis’ devoted much time and energy to a similar ‘problem’.

From 1939 onwards hundreds of thousands  of Jews, Poles and Gypsies, were preventing the Warthegau, that part of Poland which was conquered and incorporated into Greater Germany, being settled with German colonists. Most of them were expelled to the Generalgouvernment, that part of Poland into which they intended to pour all the racial ‘mush’ (Himmler).

Volksdeutsche of Łódź greeting German cavalry in 1939

The Nazis managed, with difficulty, to resettle half a million Volksdeutsche in their place just as Israel hopes to settle Jews in Gaza. 

Hans Frank

Many were the conflicts within the Nazi bureaucracy between the Gauleiter Arthur Greiser and the Governor-General of the Generalgouvernment, Hans Frank. For those who are interested in Nazi resettlement policies you can read Christopher Browning’s article on Nazi resettlement policies.

Arthur Greiser

It was only when the Nazi plans for the resettlement of the Jews to the East were thwarted that they turned to extermination. So it is with Gaza, except that the Zionists reversed the process, first they began the extermination process and only then turned to expulsion.

Palestinian journalists demonstrate outside the Palestinian Authority against the banning of media

Yet despite this that pathetic poodle of US imperialism, Keir Starmer and his contemptible fool of a Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, could not bring themselves to criticise Trump. As the Guardian’s Peter Walker put it, ‘Prime minister and colleagues use political code to push back at proposal without directly criticising US president.’

Even Ed Davey of the Lib Dems criticised the loathsome Trump whilst pushing for the resurrection of that old lame duck, the two-state solution. Starmer has built his career on slavish loyalty to the American Empire and Trump is not going to stop him.

Starmer told us  how he was ‘moved’ by the image of Emily Damari, the Israeli hostage who was reunited with her family. The images of Palestinian hostages, who had been starved, beaten and tortured, did not make any impression on this apology for a human being. However it is doubtful that anything could move Starmer apart from a subsidy from one of his millionaire friends towards his wardrobe.

When Israel was established as a ‘Jewish’ State it fabricated a narrative that the Palestinian refugees had run away, on orders from the Arab regimes, despite pleas from the Zionists to stay. This was comprehensively debunked, first by Erskine Childers and Rashid Khalidi and then Israeli historians Benny Morris and Ilan Pappe.

I was brought up to believe this nonsense.  Israel had closed its archives and even reclassified documents that had been released in order to hide the truth. [see Burying the Nakba: How Israel Systematically Hides Evidence of 1948 Expulsion of Arabs].

Benny Morris explained that ‘Defense Ministry officials apparently hope their actions will raise doubts about the conclusions and credibility of various scholars.’ This enabled people like Israel’s vile Ambassador, Tzipi Hotoveli, to proclaim that stories of the Nakba were an ‘Arab lie’.

Only 3% Of Jewish Israelis Think Trump's Ethnic Cleansing Plan For Gaza Is Immoral

Today there is no pretence. Israelis in their overwhelming majority want the Palestinians of Gaza (and the West Bank) either expelled or  exterminated. Some 82% of Israeli Jews support Trump’s plan and just 3% consider the proposals immoral. The rest think it impractical. This is what memory of the Holocaust has become in Zionist hands.

It is worth bearing in mind that Israelis are far more racist towards the Palestinians than Germans were to Jews. Anti-Semitism in Germany was never respectable. The Nazis had to work hard to persuade Germans and they never succeeded. Anti-Semitism was confined to the core of the Nazi party itself. Between 1930 and 1933 Hitler downplayed anti-Semitism to the point of non-existence.

Of course people will find this difficult to accept given the way the media portrays the reasons why Hitler came to power. However all serious historians agree. For example Ian Kershaw wrote in Popular Opinion and Dissent in the Third Reich that the more than five million extra votes that the Nazis obtained in the 1930 elections ‘were in no sense anti-Semites’. David Cesarani suggested in The Final Solution  that  Hitler’s attacks on Jews ‘diminished to vanishing point’. Even Zionist historian Yehuda Bauer accepted this. 

In 1939 Hitler began to fulfil his desire to create ‘living space’ lebensraum for the German people by conquering first Poland, then Western Europe and finally Russia. That is precisely what Israel is doing. Achieving its Arab-free living space.

For 15 months they carpet bombed Gaza under the pretence that they were seeking to destroy Hamas when it was obvious to anyone, bar Jews for Genocide and that inveterate liar Starmer, that Hamas was the one thing they hadn’t destroyed.

Hospitals, schools, clinics, universities, journalists, residential homes and agricultural land – all were subject to the an intensity of bombing that made the destruction of Nuremberg, Dresden and Hamburg seem like a picnic.

All the while Butcher Biden supplied the 2,000 lb bombs that enabled the devastation. Now Trump comes along and says that of course Palestinians can’t live in the rubble whilst still continuing to supply the 2000 lb bombs. The hypocrisy and mendacity of our rulers knows no bounds.

We have a weak and shaky ceasefire, which hasn’t stopped Israel killing Palestinians in Gaza although the bombing has (temporarily) stopped. There isn’t an agreement that Israel has made that hasn’t been broken and they are still killing people in Lebanon. Netanyahu and much of his coalition would like to restart the slaughter because to the Zionists not enough Palestinians have yet died.

Yet whatever Israel does, as far as Starmer, Trump and our own Jews for Genocide in the form of the Board of Deputies, are concerned it is acting in self-defence. It is an interesting legal concept as to whether an occupying power has the right of self-defence. Perhaps Russia has such a right in Ukraine! Maybe we should consult our favourite ‘human rights lawyer’ Sir Kid Starver.

I fear that Israel will find a pretext to restart the war against Gaza. What Trump has done is to provide Israel with a pretext to break the ceasefire, as Netanyahu has promised, after the first phase, in which case we will see a continuation of the genocide. This is a very real danger. Of course it will be difficult politically to restart the slaughter but that will depend on the American administration. One thing is for certain. The Arab regimes could stop it in a day if they stopped the oil.  And the Arab masses could stop it if they overthrew those regimes.

Israeli military operation in Jenin: Palestinian homes attacked with simultaneous blasts

Instead Israel’s war on the Palestinians has spread to the West Bank. For the past 5 years I have raised funds for the Al Tafawk Children’s Centre in Jenin refugee camp. Three times the Israeli military has deliberately wrecked the interior of the Centre.

Today I have no idea if Al Tafawk is even standing because much of Jenin’s refugee camp has been blown up and numerous people, including children have been killed. Yet still Western leaders have the audacity to about Israel’s ‘self-defence’. If only Goebbels had had such good propagandists as the BBC provide he could have achieved far more without the opprobrium.

Israeli Soldiers Celebrate Destruction in Jenin

Israel’s attack on Jenin we should not forget was preceded by 25 days of violence by the Quisling Palestine Authority. Yet even now organisations like Britain’s Palestine Solidarity Campaign are afraid of calling these Quislings by their name. First Israel banned Al Jazeera and then the PA banned it.

See Two Days after Speaking to the Palestine Chronicle – Jenin Journalist Killed by Palestinian Authority

See The PA and Israel are allies in silencing the truth

Trump’s plan though is unlikely to be carried out. The last thing the Egyptian and Jordanian states want is hundreds of thousands of Palestinians determined to seek their revenge. Despite their role as collaborators, neither regime has a death wish.

If the Zionists cannot achieve an empty Gaza by ethnic cleansing then mass murder and genocide is the alternative and the only thing standing in the way are Hamas and the Palestinian resistance.

This of course is where Britain’s political police come in. They will do their utmost to arrest and persecute anyone who supports resistance to Israel’s genocide. All in the name of ‘the fight against terrorism’. This is the state of British ‘democracy’ today and we can rely on Britain’s compliant judiciary to do their best to help.

There has been one of those absurd ‘debates’ about whether Israel is committing genocide. As if not using the word changes the reality. I suggest people read Yuval Abraham’s article in +972 Magazine, Bomb the area, gas the tunnels: Israel’s unbridled war on Gaza’s underground as to what Israel’s tactics were. Abraham writes that:

The Israeli army intensively bombarded residential areas in Gaza when it lacked intelligence on the exact location of Hamas commanders hiding underground, and intentionally weaponized toxic byproducts of bombs to suffocate militants in their tunnels…

The investigation, based on conversations with 15 Israeli Military Intelligence and Shin Bet officers who have been involved in tunnel-targeting operations since October 7, exposes how this strategy aimed to compensate for the army’s inability to pinpoint targets in Hamas’ subterranean tunnel network. When targeting senior commanders in the group, the Israeli military authorized the killing of “triple-digit numbers” of Palestinian civilians as “collateral damage,” and maintained close real-time coordination with U.S. officials regarding the expected casualty figures.

 So there we have it. Israel was prepared to kill hundreds of Palestinian civilians on the off chance that they might kill a member of Hamas.  And then creatures like Lammy & Starmer dare to call Hamas ‘terrorist’.

In the process three Israeli hostages — Nik Beizer, Ron Sherman, and Elia Toledano — were killed by asphyxiation as a result of a Nov. 10, 2023, bombing that targeted Ahmed Ghandour, a Hamas brigade commander in northern Gaza. Even if the bombs didn’t kill them then the carbon monoxide they produced did.

Israel soldiers were not willing to fight in the tunnels but thought that carpet bombing would do the trick. Fortunately it didn’t and at the end of the war Hamas and the Resistance was killing more of Israel’s war criminal military than it was at the beginning.

Imagine if Hamas exploded a bomb in the middle of Tel Aviv because they believed a senior officer of the Israeli army was passing by?  Or Russia bombed a market place because it believed a Ukrainian general was doing his shopping there. The pages of the tabloids would be filled with blood curdling rhetoric.

Israel’s figures of Hamas fighters killed were always phony. Every male civilian they killed was a Hamas ‘terrorist’ but at the end of the day the Zionists ended up fooling themselves, which was why, when the ceasefire came into effect, Israelis were stunned to see hundreds of Hamas fighters in their distinctive olive green uniforms handing over the healthy and well-fed Israeli captives, unlike the emaciated and tortured bodies of the Palestinian captives that Israel had seized.

Israel’s 2,000 lb bombs were supplied by the United States despite knowing how they would be used but ‘bloody’ Blinken stymied any declaration that human rights violations were being carried out. Why?

Because under the Leahy law if the US State Department declared that Israel was committing war crimes then the U.S. Government would have been barred from using funds to assist in those crimes. Instead investigations into Israel’s war crimes never progressed beyond an initial stage.

"אז יאמרו בגויים הגדיל ה' לעשות עם אלה, הגדיל ה' לעשות עמנו היינו שמחים"

ועוד יותר טוב ועוד יותר טוב.

תודה לך הנשיא טראמפ.

Together, we will make the world great again 🇮🇱🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/3Wjx0VZRTK

— בצלאל סמוטריץ' (@bezalelsm) February 4, 2025

Netanyahu and his far-right partner Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s Finance Minister,  ‘proud homophobe’ and fascist are itching to get back into the bombing on the grounds that if you haven’t succeeded yet try, try and try again. But what is clear is that Hamas and the Palestinian Resistance has not been defeated and is unlikely to be defeated. 

At the moment Israel’s genocidal lust and desire for more living space is now translating into war on the people of the West Bank.

Even Trump cannot simply declare that he wants Palestinians to leave Gaza because he wants the gas fields in the sea off Gaza. Instead he dresses it up as concern for the Palestinians. He wrote that the Palestinians in Gaza would have "far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region."

There is nothing new in this duplicity. As Abdaljawad Omar wrote:

the same language has been used before. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson justified the Indian Removal Act as a necessary measure for the “happiness” of Native Americans, ethnically cleansing them under the guise of protecting their way of life....

The logic remains unchanged — displacement framed as pragmatism, ethnic cleansing cloaked in the language of order and progress, and for Trump: Palestinians as an obstacle to a beautiful beachfront where everyone could live, including “some Palestinians.”  

In Trump’s impossible Gaza plan can still do a great deal of harm Michelle Plitnick wrote that ‘in one of the cruelest, most repulsive twists of the Trump argument, he actually argued that his plan for ethnic cleansing was intended to benefit the Palestinians.’

This could be so magnificent. But more importantly than that is the people that have been absolutely destroyed that live there now can live in peace in a much better situation because they are living in hell. And those people will now be able to live in peace. We’ll make sure that it’s done world class.

It is noticeable that German leaders have said next to nothing. But why should Germany’s leaders say anything? The worse it gets for Palestinians the more they can come to terms with their own holocausts. After all, if even the Jews perpetrate a holocaust then it can’t be that bad.

Today Gaza is unliveable in because Israel deliberately made it so. For the Palestinians to be removed would be to reward the war criminals. That Trump can suggest it and the media can actually debate it seriously demonstrates how low moral standards have sunk in the western world.

One wonders what Western leaders would say if Putin had carpet bombed Ukraine and then said he was removing the population to save them further trauma and he expected Britain, Germany and France to take them in and foot the bill! All in order that they could have ‘beautiful’ lives free from Russian bombs! Yet this is what Trump is saying and our leaders cannot even spell out the implications for fear of offending his fragile ego.

We are entering a period of great uncertainty. The Palestine solidarity movement has a responsibility to step up its protests and begin to make life uncomfortable for those in power. Instead of allowing the Metropolitan Police to disrupt our protests we should be disrupting the rhythms of London. The first thing we should be doing is to hold the demonstration which was initially planned for the BBC – with or without the agreement of Britain’s political police.

Tony Greenstein

See also 

The Gaza 'war' was a lie, as is the ceasefire. Trump just told you

Jonathan Cook

The PA and Israel are allies in silencing the truth

The PA and Israel are allies in silencing the truth

I witnessed firsthand the PA’s brutality against journalists in Gaza. Its possible return does not bode well for us.

Published On 1 Feb 2025 

A group of Palestinian journalists protest in front of the Palestinian Legislative Council headquarters against the decision of the Palestinian Authority to close Bethlehem-based private TV channel, Al-Roah, in Gaza City on October 17 1999 [File: Mohammad Saber/AFP]

On December 28, 21-year-old journalism student Shatha Al-Sabbagh was assassinated near her home in Jenin. Her family accused snipers from the Palestinian Authority (PA) deployed in the camp of shooting her in the head. Al-Sabbagh had been active on social media, documenting the suffering of Jenin residents during the raids by Israel and the PA.

Just a few days after Al-Sabbagh’s assassination, the authorities in Ramallah banned Al Jazeera from reporting from the occupied West Bank. Three weeks later, PA forces arrested Al Jazeera correspondent Mohamad Atrash.

These developments come as the Israeli occupation has killed more than 200 media workers in Gaza and arrested dozens across the occupied Palestinian territories. It has also banned Al Jazeera and refused to allow foreign journalists to enter Gaza. The fact that the PA’s actions mirror Israel’s reveals a shared agenda to suppress independent journalism and control public opinion.

To Palestinian journalists, that is hardly news. The PA has never been our protector. It has always been a complicit partner in our brutalisation. That is true in the West Bank and it was true in Gaza when the PA was in power there. I witnessed it myself.

Growing up in Gaza, I watched how my people were oppressed by Israeli forces and by the PA. In 1994, the Israeli occupation formally handed over the Strip to the PA to administer under the provisions of the Oslo Accords. The PA remained in power until 2007. During these 13 years, we saw more collaboration with the Israeli occupation than any meaningful attempt at liberation. For journalists, the PA’s presence was not just oppressive, it was life-threatening, as its forces actively stifled voices to maintain its fragile grip on power.

As a journalism student in Gaza, I experienced this suppression firsthand. I walked the streets, witnessing PA security officers looting shops, their arrogance apparent in the brazen act of theft. One day, when I attempted to document this, a Palestinian officer violently grabbed me, ripped my camera from my hands, and smashed it to the ground. This wasn’t just an assault, it was an attack on my right to bear witness. The officer’s aggression only ceased when a group of women intervened, forcing him to retreat in a rare moment of restraint.

I knew the risks of being a journalist in Gaza and like other media workers, I learned to navigate them. But the fear I felt near the PA forces’ ambush points was unlike anything else. That was because there was never logic to their aggressive actions and no way to anticipate when they might turn on you.

Walking near the PA forces felt like stepping into a minefield. One moment, there was the illusion of safety, and the next, you faced the brutality of those who were supposedly there to protect you. This uncertainty and tension made their presence more terrifying than being on a battlefield.

Years later, I would cover the training sessions of Qassam Brigades under the constant hum of Israeli drones and the ever-looming threat of air strikes. It was dangerous but predictable – much more so than the actions of the PA.

Under the PA, we learned to speak in code. Journalists self-censored out of fear of retribution. The PA was often referred to as “cousins of Israeli occupation” – a grim acknowledgement of its complicity.

As the PA was fighting to stay in power in Gaza after losing the 2006 elections to Hamas, its brutality escalated. In May 2007, gunmen in presidential guard uniforms killed journalist Suleiman Abdul-Rahim al-Ashi and media worker Mohammad Matar Abdo. It was an execution meant to send a clear message to those who witnessed it.

When Hamas took over, its government also imposed restrictions on press freedoms, but its censorship was inconsistent. Once, while documenting the new policewomen’s division, I was ordered to show my photos to a Hamas officer so he could censor any image he deemed immodest. I often managed to bypass these restrictions by swapping my memory cards preemptively.

The officers weren’t fond of anyone overriding their orders, but instead of outright punishment, they resorted to petty power plays—investigations, revoked access, or unnecessary provocations. Unlike the PA, Hamas did not operate within a system of coordination with Israeli forces to suppress journalism, but the restrictions journalists faced still created an environment of uncertainty and self-censorship. Any violation on their part, however, was met with swift international condemnation—something the PA rarely faced, despite its far more systematic repression.

After losing control of Gaza, the PA shifted its focus to the West Bank, intensifying its campaign of media suppression. Detentions, violent crackdowns, and the silencing of critical voices became commonplace. Their collaboration with Israel was not passive; it was active. From surveillance to campaigns of violence, they play a crucial role in maintaining the status quo, stifling any dissent that challenges their power and the occupation.

In 2016, the PA’s collusion became even more apparent when they coordinated with Israeli authorities in the arrest of prominent journalist and press freedom advocate Omar Nazzal, who had criticised Ramallah for how it handled the suspected murder of Palestinian citizen Omar al-Naif at its embassy in Bulgaria.

In 2017, the PA launched a campaign of intimidation, arresting five journalists from different outlets.

In 2019, the Palestinian Authority blocked the website of Quds News Network, a youth-led media outlet that has gained immense popularity. This was part of a wider ban imposed by the Ramallah Magistrate’s Court that blocked access to 24 other news websites and social media pages.

In 2021, after the violent death of activist Nizar Banat in the PA’s custody sparked protests, its forces sought to crack down on journalists and media outlets covering them.

In this context, the prospect of the PA returning to Gaza following the ceasefire agreement raises serious concerns for journalists who have already endured the horrors of genocide. For those who survived, this could mean a new chapter of repression that reflects the PA’s history of censorship, arrests and stifling of press freedoms.

Despite the grave threats that Palestinian journalists face from Israel and from those who pretend to represent the Palestinian people, they persevere. Their work transcends borders, reflecting a shared struggle against tyranny. Their resilience speaks not only to the Palestinian cause but to the broader fight for liberation, justice and dignity.

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Eman Mohammed is an award-winning Palestinian-American photojournalist and Senior TED fellow currently based in Washington, DC.