Declassified UK January update

Posted: 3rd February 2024

January 2024

Hello all,

Hamza Ali Shah here with an update on another month of crucial work at a deeply depressing time. 

The first month of the year has started in a familiarly horrific and devastating manner. Gaza continues to be mercilessly pummelled, with the death toll now exceeding 25,000. Hospitals continue to be bombed and besieged, and we continue to see traumatising instances of innocent Palestinians murdered even as they clearly brandish white flags.

Over 350 Palestinians were murdered in the last weekend of January. The continued siege, bombings, and killings are in blatant disregard of the provisional ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which called upon Israel to take measures to protect civilians and to allow significantly increased humanitarian aid to enter into Gaza to alleviate the dire humanitarian crisis.

The unforgiving consistency that has defined Israel’s campaign of mass murder is mirrored with the consistency that has defined the British political class’ cowardice in the face of it.

The Labour Party’s attitude exemplifies this. Last week a Palestinian from Gaza whose family were killed by Israeli forces confronted Labour MP Angela Rayner at a Stockport fundraiser to question how the party could fail to demand a ceasefire. He was subsequently escorted out the building.

Court of Justice

Begin the year as you mean to carry on appears to be the Labour Party memo on Gaza. It was deafeningly silent on the International Court of Justice’s ruling, it followed the United States’ outrageous decision to withhold funding from UNRWA and has suspended an MP for suggesting Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to a genocide.

But thanks to some of journalist John McEvoy’s work this month, the factors behind the Labour Party’s timidity when it comes to Israel were crystallised. He wrote two indispensable articles. The first was on the Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) group – a significant arm of the extensive Israel Lobby in the UK.

It found 37% of Labour politicians are associated with LFI. The current and all seven recent shadow foreign secretaries have been members of LFI or financially supported by the pro-Israel lobby. And an LFI delegation recently met the Israeli politician named in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel.

They are clearly a major lobbying force, and yet as the article suggests, their sources of funding are not disclosed. Several pressing questions therefore emerge; what are they hiding? Why is this not a bigger story in the mainstream media? Why is the interference and influence of lobby groups for a foreign power being ignored?

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Labour and Conservative

And that influence playing out can be seen in another of John McEvoy’s articles. He reported that David Lammy – the shadow foreign secretary who has failed to criticise Israel’s crimes in Gaza and could not condemn its collective punishment live on air – is a recipient of significant funds from the pro-Israel lobby. Cause and effect, perhaps.

It’s unfortunately an issue that plagues both major political parties. Declassified also revealed how Conservative Party politicians have accepted as much as £20,000 in funds from the Israel lobby, including for ‘solidarity’ missions to the country, while Israel flattens Gaza.

And as we’ve consistently shed light on, the UK’s complicity and support of Israel extends far beyond just the diplomatic realm. Chief investigator Matt Kennard revealed how almost an average of one surveillance mission a day from November onwards was being flown from Britain to assist Israel.

Yemen and Ukraine

Where Britain was not directly assisting Israel, it was ensuring those daring to adopt an approach that was not unconditional backing for Israel were punished. As Britain shamelessly bombed Yemen, editor Mark Curtis highlighted that the airstrikes came on the 60th anniversary of another merciless bombing campaign in Yemen in 1964. An illustration that British foreign policy has always been destructive.

Chief reporter Phil Miller’s article captured precisely that; tracing how Rishi Sunak joins a long, damning list of prime ministers who have overseen aerial attacks on Yemen since the Royal Air Force was created in 1918.

But it also isn’t exclusively the Middle East that Britain was spending January concerning itself with. Mark Curtis unpacked the details of a new security arrangement between the UK and Ukraine. Signed by Rishi Sunak and Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky on 12 January, it provides UK ‘security commitments’ to Ukraine in the event of ‘new aggression’ by Russia.

Media and Gaza

The British media’s characteristically imbalanced coverage was also scrutinised this month. Richard Norton Taylor’s article examined the deafening silence of the British mainstream media that met Declassified’sRAF were using a Cyprus base near Gaza to help Israel with its murderous operation in Gaza.

Meanwhile, I zeroed in on the British media’s reporting of the ‘beheaded babies’ story from October 7. All basic journalistic principles were ditched as Israel’s claims were treated as fact with no verification as the story was plastered all over the press and broadcast realm, even in the face of flimsy evidence.

This was in stark contrast to the sudden disinterest in the same story when those claims were walked back on. When it comes to Israel, as we’ve learned by now, there is no such thing as impartial journalism.

Adding to the open contempt with which Britain views the Palestinians and their struggle for liberation, Phil Miller also disclosed that two of Israel’s largest weapons manufacturers that make the missiles raining down on Gaza – Elbit systems and Rafael – had staff that attended an arms fair in London in January alongside Britain’s most senior military officers.

A colonel who has approved illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank was also initially put forward as a guest from Rafael.

On Trial

This crystallises why standing up to these arms manufacturers remains a salient priority. Palestine Action co-founder, activist and diligent organiser Huda Ammouri wrote a poignant article about her participation in shutting an Elbit Factory down, and why direct action and disruption remains a fundamental tool.

She was taken to court and put on trial, along with several other activists, but later acquitted. But she emphasised how the court case itself represented an arena for direct action because it presented an opportunity to expose Elbit’s crimes in the courtroom. As she states, the UK has been a safe haven for arms manufacturers for far too long.

Ending on a sombre tone, the legendary and indefatigable correspondent John Pilger sadly passed away in late December aged 84. And we revealed how the UK government covertly monitored the journalist and sought to discredit him by encouraging parts of the media to attack him.

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With all best wishes,

Hamza