History Has Been Erased, Genocide Normalised And Language Brutalised. Mainstream journalism insists that its core…
The Shocking, Needless Deaths Of At Least 55 Children.
A record 142,490 children in England, UK are currently living in temporary accommodation.
Homelessness and temporary accommodation have contributed to the deaths of at least 55 children in England since 2019.
The data, compiled by the National Child Mortality Database, shows the majority of those who died were babies under the age of one.
When a child dies in England, a Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP), made up of healthcare professionals, police and children’s social care, review the circumstances of that child’s death to determine how they died, what contributed to their death and whether it was preventable.
The National Child Mortality Database, an NHS-funded programme, then gathers data from those official reviews.
It analysed the deaths of 10,256 children between April 1, 2019 and March 31, 2023 and found temporary accommodation was deemed to be contributing factor in the deaths of 55 children.
Of those 55 children, 42 were less than a year old.
( Daniel Hewitt and Mariah Cooper, 04.03.2024 ) .. itv.com
The UK government is withholding all information about the nine Israeli military jets that have landed in the UK since the bombing of Gaza began, raising suspicions about further British complicity in war crimes.
There are no transparency mechanisms to get information about their activities on British soil.
However, Declassified independently discovered Israeli military aircraft have landed in Glasgow, Birmingham as well as RAF bases in Suffolk and Oxfordshire since October 7, 2023.
( Matt Kennard, 06.03.2024 ) .. declassifieduk.org
The UN Reports Widespread Abuse Of Palestinians In Israeli Detention Centres.
An internal UN report seen by the BBC has described widespread abuse of Palestinians who were captured and interrogated at makeshift Israeli detention centres during the ongoing attack on Gaza.
The draft document compiled by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the main UN agency supporting Palestinians, includes detailed testimony from detainees who describe an extensive range of ill-treatment.
They include being stripped and beaten, being forced into cages and attacked by dogs, forced into stress positions for extended periods, and subjected to “blunt force trauma” including the butts of guns and boots, resulting in some cases in “broken ribs, separated shoulders and lasting injuries”.
It says both men and women reported “threats and incidents of sexual violence and harassment” including inappropriate touching of women and beatings to men’s genitals.
The UN’s accounts tally with other reports of abuse in Israeli detention centres recently published by Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups as well as separate UN investigations.
( Lyse Doucet, 08.03.2024 ) .. bbc.co.uk
The UK Government Try To Finalise A New Trade Deal With Israel Just Seven Days After Israel Killed Three British Aid Workers In Gaza.
The UK government, led by business secretary Kemi Badenoch, has been trying to finalise a new trade agreement with Israel throughout its invasion of Gaza.
The latest – and fifth – round of negotiations between officials of the two countries began on 8 April 2024.
That was just seven days after three British aid workers were killed by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in Gaza.
The talks on a free trade agreement (FTA) continued even as UN agencies reported over 33,000 Palestinians had been killed by Israel and the Israeli government announced a date had been set for invading Rafah.
These negotiations were hosted by the UK, with a delegation of Israeli officials travelling to London for in-person discussions.
( Mark Curtis, 16.05.2024 ) .. declassifieduk.org
Israel Continue To Arrest And Imprison Thousands Of Palestinians Without Charge.
In early November 2023, the Israeli authorities summoned Hashim Matar to the police station in occupied East Jerusalem.
For 10 days, he was interrogated about whether he supported Hamas and was a member of the Palestinian group.
Between questioning, Matar was locked in a small room with other detainees, where they were punched, kicked and beaten with batons.
Since October 7, 2023, the number of Palestinians arrested in the illegally-occupied West Bank exceeds 7,350 people, according to the Addameer monitor in Ramallah.
While some Palestinians have been released, 9,100 remain captive.
That’s a sharp uptick from the 5,200 that were in Israeli prisons before October 7.
These figures do not include the thousands of adults and children the Israeli army has reportedly detained, tortured and interrogated in makeshift prisons across Gaza, outside any legal or civilian oversight.
Israel has also weaponised quasi-judicial measures to arrest thousands of Palestinians without charge.
Of all Palestinians detained since October 7, 2023, about 3,050 are held in “administrative detention”, an emergency measure that Israel inherited from the colonial British Mandate for Palestine.
Under administrative detention, prisoners are held indefinitely and given no information about the charges against them or the ostensible evidence incriminating them.
In many cases, Israeli authorities do not inform Palestinian families of the whereabouts of their detained loved ones – which amounts to an enforced disappearance, a violation of international law.
( Mat Nashed, 22.03.2024 ) .. aljazeera.com
UK Government’s Independent Adviser Can Hardly Be Considered Independent.
John Woodcock, or Lord Walney, is the UK government’s independent adviser on political violence and disruption.
In 2021, he was tasked with producing a report “into the extreme fringes on both ends of the political spectrum” in Britain, and with making recommendations to the prime minister.
Woodcock has now completed his report, and is urging Britain’s political leaders to take a “zero-tolerance approach” to pro-Palestine and climate protesters.
Woodcock says that Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer should “instruct their MPs and councillors not to engage with anyone” from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign “until they get their house in order and cut the hate from their marches”.
In addition, Woodcock is suggesting that pro-Palestine protesters should be forced to pay towards policing costs and be treated like “sectarian parades in Northern Ireland”.
Yet Woodcock can hardly be considered independent.
He has previously worked with the Israel lobby and has even accepted funding from it amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza
.This raises serious questions about Woodcock’s suitability to advise the government on issues relating to Palestine, or on extremism altogether.
( John McEvoy, 05.03.2024 ) .. declassifieduk.org
Some Warmongering British Politicians And Media Figures Are Openly Calling For Confrontation With Iran.
A range of British political and media figures, some associated with the Israel lobby, are now openly calling for confrontation with Iran.
In five years’ time, UK defence secretary Grant Shapps warned, Britain “could be looking at multiple theatres” of war involving Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran.
Shapps’ speech came four days after the UK government ordered a first round of airstrikes on Houthi positions in Yemen.
The bombing campaign was designed to protect international shipping, and shield Israel from the consequences of its genocide in Gaza.
Yet Britain’s campaign against the Houthis has not only failed to stop the attacks on vessels in the Red Sea – it also risks escalating to a major confrontation with Iran.
( John McEvoy, 13.03.2024 ) .. declassifieduk.org
UK Power Station Is Burning Timber From Rare Forests In Canada.
Draw, a power company that has received £6billion in UK green subsidies has kept burning wood from some of the world’s most precious forests.
Papers obtained by BBC’s Panorama show Drax took timber from rare forests in Canada it had claimed were “no-go areas”.
It comes as the government decides whether to give the firm’s Yorkshire site billions more in environmental subsidies funded by energy bill payers.
The Drax Power Station, near Selby in North Yorkshire, is a converted coal plant which burns wood pellets.
In 2023, it produced about 5% of the UK’s electricity.
The site has become a key part of the government’s drive to meet its climate targets.
Its owner, Drax, receives money from energy bill payers because the electricity produced from burning pellets is classified as renewable and treated as emission-free.
In fact, the power station emits about 12 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, but under international rules the UK doesn’t have to count these emissions.
All of the 6.5 million tonnes of wood pellets burned by Drax each year are produced overseas.
Many come from Drax’s 17 pellet plants in the U.S. and Canada.
( Joe Crowley, 28.02.2024 ) .. bbc.co.uk
The Anti-Syria Lobby Attempted To Bully And Manipulate U.S. Officials Into Accepting Their Policy Of Starving Syria Into Submission.
On the morning of March 7, 2024, as the U.S. Capitol teemed with lobbyists securing earmarks ahead of appropriations week and activists decrying the Gaza genocide, one special interest group on the Hill stood out.
In the corridors of the Rayburn building, a group of roughly 50 people prepared for a busy day of advocating for sanctions to be levied against their homeland.
They were the Anti-Syria lobby, and I had infiltrated their influence campaign.
Throughout the day, I watched as this group pushed U.S. officials to accept their policy of starvation sanctions while cynically ignoring famished Palestinians in Gaza.
Among the lobbyists was Raed Saleh, the head of the Syrian White Helmets, who were to propagandise for regime change from behind humanitarian cover.
I attended a total of seven meetings with policy teams representing Senators Sherrod Brown, Maggie Hassan, Ben Cardin, Mark Kelly, Chris Van Hollen, John Fetterman, and Rick Scott.
Throughout these sessions, I witnessed the Anti-Syria Lobby attempt to bully and manipulate U.S. officials into accepting their policy of starvation while cynically throwing starving Palestinians in Gaza under the bus.
At one moment, Raed Saleh, head of the Syrian White Helmets, which was founded by British intelligence, and funded by NATO states, painted Israeli air strikes against Syria in a positive light.
During a separate meeting, Wa’el Alzayat of the pro-Zionist Muslim outreach Emgage even demanded Senator Chris Van Hollen’s office support the approval of aid for Al Qaeda-linked militias in Syria.
( Hekmat Aboukhater, 20.03.2024 ) .. thegrayzone.com
Intentionally Depriving People Of Food Is Clearly A War Crime.
Israel is intentionally starving Palestinians and should be held accountable for war crimes and genocide, according to the UN’s leading expert on the right to food.
Hunger and severe malnutrition are widespread in the Gaza Strip, where about 2.2 million Palestinians are facing severe shortages resulting from Israel destroying food supplies and severely restricting the flow of food, medicines and other humanitarian supplies.
Aid trucks and Palestinians waiting for humanitarian relief have come under Israeli fire.
Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, said: “There is no reason to intentionally block the passage of humanitarian aid or intentionally obliterate small-scale fishing vessels, greenhouses and orchards in Gaza – other than to deny people access to food. Intentionally depriving people of food is clearly a war crime. Israel has announced its intention to destroy the Palestinian people, in whole or in part, simply for being Palestinian. In my view as a UN human rights expert, this is now a situation of genocide. This means the state of Israel in its entirety is culpable and should be held accountable – not just individuals or this government or that person.”
( Nina Lakhani, 27.02.2024 ) .. theguardian.com
New York Times Sexual Violence Report Is Discredited And Debunked.
A New York Times story claiming a pattern of gender-based violence on October 7, 2023, hinged on the story of Gal Abdush.
But the Abdush family says there is no proof she was raped, and that Times reporters interviewed them under false pretences.
On December 28, 2023, the New York Times published an “investigative” report on gender-based violence allegedly committed by Palestinians during the October 7, 2023 attack.
The story concludes that Hamas fighters engaged in systematic rape and sexual violence against Israeli women.
The story itself repeats October 7 testimonies that have been previously published and already debunked and discredited, but the Times investigation hinges predominantly on one central story, the story of the rape of “Gal Abdush,” who is described by the Times as “The Woman in the Black Dress.”
Although claiming its story proves that “the attacks against women were not isolated events but part of a broader pattern of gender-based violence on Oct. 7”, the veracity of the New York Times story was undermined almost as soon as it was published, including from the Abdush family itself who says there is no proof Gal Abdush was raped and that the New York Times interviewed them under false pretences.
( The Short String, 03.01.2024 ) .. mondoweiss.net
Britain’s Nuclear Missile Launch Has Failed Two Tests In A Row.
Three years ago, Boris Johnson’s government announced a significant gear shift in nuclear weapons policy.
Trashing David Cameron’s decision to reduce the nuclear arsenal to 180 warheads, he instead unveiled an increase to 260.
At odds with the UK, and global, trend of gradual reductions for over three decades, the decision received widespread international condemnation.
Why must we still pay for these extortionate weapons of mass destruction?
Repeated references to the UK’s ‘credible nuclear deterrent’, seem particularly delusional.
Last month, the Royal Navy failed to test fire a Trident missile, which is the only delivery system for Britain’s nuclear warheads.
It was the second such failure in a row.
The previous test took place in 2016.
Launched from the submarine HMS Victorious, a malfunction in the system caused the missile to spin out of control.
Instead of flying over the Atlantic, the missile flew over the U.S. and later self-destructed.
This time, the missile was supposed to travel 6,000 kilometres before landing in the Atlantic between Africa and Brazil, but it failed to launch properly from the submarine HMS Vanguard and actually crashed into the sea just yards away.
( Kate Hudson, 26.02.2024 ) .. declassifieduk.org
A New report Casts Doubt On Israel’s Account Of The October 7 Attacks.
A new report by Palestinian researcher Dr Ibrahim Hamami casts doubt on Israel’s account of the October 7, 2023 attacks.
Hamami’s report — What really happened on October the 7th? — critically examines the Israeli narrative that was presented by the Hebrew media, which alleged that Hamas intentionally planned to target civilians during its operation on Gaza’s border areas and settlements.
Specifically, the report challenges the figures released by the Israeli occupation forces and addresses the question of who bears responsibility for civilian casualties on that day.
Further doubts emerged about the positive portrayal of Zaka, an Israeli volunteer group that recovers dead bodies and body parts for burial.
A later Haaretz investigation accused Zaka personnel of negligence and spreading misinformation in their testimonies about October 7.
Hamami’s report provides new context to many of the fabrications, including the allegations of rape and the beheading of babies.
The Palestinian researcher shows how, in an attempt to garner support for their military operation, the Israeli authorities employed specific phrases in the media, such as describing the Hamas attack as the “worst atrocity ever witnessed in the region” and an “unprecedented massacre.”
After explaining that the October 7 attack must be situated within the broader context of Israel’s decades-long illegal occupation, Hamami proceeds to refute the assertions put forth by the apartheid state across the five chapters of the report.
( Middle East Monitor, 28.02.2024 ) .. middleeastmonitor.com.
Turkey’s president tried to destroy me for publishing the truth.
Joe Biden is doing the same to Julian Assange.
While watching Julian Assange’s appeal against extradition in London, I experienced complete déjà vu.
I worked as a journalist in Turkey for 37 years and have been living in exile in Berlin for seven years.
The reason I had to leave my country was a news report I wrote in 2015.
After that report was published, my life changed completely.
I became a target of President Erdoğan and his intelligence agency.
Pro-government media labelled me as a “Turkish Assange”.
( Can Dündar, 29.02.2024 ) .. Full Story: declassifieduk.org
Orders Were Given To Bomb Their Own Civilians.
Initially, Israel alleged 1,400 Israelis were killed on October 7, 2023, including 863 civilians.
The figure is currently placed at 1,139 killed, including 695 civilians.
Although the narrative pushed by the mainstream media and Western politicians generally claims that “1,200 Israelis were killed by Hamas” on October 7, there is now no room for doubt that Israeli forces indiscriminately fired upon their own citizens, resulting in an unknown number of casualties.
Dr Ibrahim Hamami cites Israeli military sources showing that orders were given to bomb civilians amidst the chaos.
Israeli witness testimonies confirm the military’s targeting of civilians at the Nova Music Festival and kibbutz, where casualties were highest.
Images are provided of destruction resembling tank and helicopter shell craters inconsistent with any possible damage caused by relatively lightly-armed Palestinians.
Dr Hamami also points out that Israel refuses point blank to investigate events transparently while attacking and actually criminalising any dissenting narratives.
( Middle East Monitor, 28.02.2024 ) .. middleeastmonitor.com
The Systematic Bias Of The UK Mainstream Media In Favour Of Israel.
The media’s role in the face of Israel’s aggression in Gaza, and plausible genocide, should be to responsibly report the news, validate facts, hold all powers to equal account and paint an accurate picture of events.
But whether this is actually so is the focus of a new, exhaustive report by the Muslim Council of Britain’s Centre for Media Monitoring.
It reveals Britain’s worst kept secret: the systematic bias of the mainstream media in favour of Israel when it comes to reporting on its onslaught in Gaza.
The report analyses 176,627 television clips from over 13 broadcasters including the BBC, ITV, Sky and Channel 4.
It also scrutinises 25,515 news articles from over 28 UK online media websites including the Guardian, Times, Express and Telegraph, between 7 October 2023 and 7 November 2023.
It finds that 76% of online articles frame Israel’s aggression as the “Israel-Hamas war”, rather than a war on Gaza, and that over 70% of the terms atrocities, slaughter and massacre in broadcast media were used exclusively in reference to attacks against Israelis.
A notable absence of Palestinian voices is also detected: In TV reporting, Israeli perspectives have been referenced almost three times more (4,311) than Palestinian ones (1,598).
Also identified is the willingness of many broadcasters to emphasise Israel’s supposed right to defend itself in Gaza.
But as Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, has said, Israel cannot claim the right of “self-defence” under international law because Gaza is a territory that it occupies.
( Hamza Ali Shah, 07.03.2024 ) .. declassifieduk.org
UK PM Flown To Leeds By £10Million Tory Donor.
UK PM Rishi Sunak was flown to Leeds by Frank Hester for a private tour of the businessman’s offices on the day after the autumn statement last year (2023), raising questions about the access afforded to the £10million donor bankrolling the Tories’ election campaign.
Sunak’s relationship with Hester is under the spotlight after a Guardian investigation revealed that the mega-donor made comments about Diane Abbott which have been widely condemned for being racist and misogynistic.
Sunak initially declined to comment on Hester’s 2019 remarks that looking at Diane Abbott makes you “want to hate all black women” and that the MP “should be shot”.
But after an outcry, the prime minister’s spokesperson said the comments were “racist and wrong”.
( Rowena Mason and Toby Helm, 16.03.2024 ) .. theguardian.com
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