Declassiified UK, June 2024

Posted: 2nd July 2024

June 2024

Hi everyone, this is John McEvoy.

We’ve had another very busy month here, with the UK government continuing to back Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, a general election on the near horizon and, on a rare positive note, Julian Assange finally walking free after over a decade of political imprisonment in London.

Our chief investigator, Matt Kennard, continued with his ground-breaking series on Britain’s logistical support for Israel. He exposed that the UK has sent 80 military transport planes to Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, since 7 October. All of the flights took off from RAF Akrotiri, Britain’s sprawling air base on Cyprus, amid heightened tensions between Hezbollah and the Cypriot government.

Matt also reported on the shocking revelation that a British spy team has been deployed to Israel since October, while Hamza Yusuf, one of our regular contributors, gathered the names and photographs of 15 Britons who have recently fought for Israel. These individuals could be at risk of a Gaza war crimes probe.

Based on the most recent tranche of arms export data, I showed how the UK government has not revoked or cancelled one single arms deal with Israel since 7 October. Des Freedman, another one of our regular contributors, reviewed the mainstream media’s coverage of UK military support to Israel, finding how the press barely noticed these arms deals until Britons were being killed in Gaza.

Israel lobby

We’ve also continued to track the activities of the Israel lobby in Britain.

I went through the register of interests of every MP in the last parliament, revealing that 180 of Britain’s 650 parliamentarians had accepted funding from pro-Israel lobby groups or individuals during their political career. That amounts to over 1 in 4 MPs.

One of those MPs is Wes Streeting, who by Friday is likely to be the UK health secretary. Matt revealed how Streeting has received nearly £30,000 from the Israel lobby, and another £175,000 from companies linked to private healthcare.

It’s not just MPs who have received funding from the pro-Israel lobby. I showed how the Israeli government has paid for at least a dozen UK parliamentary staff to visit the country in the last five years, while a further 18 have accepted funding or hospitality from Israel lobby organisations.

Cashing in on apartheid

We published a further series of articles this month on how Israel exports its architecture of repression abroad, marketing its tools of apartheid against the Palestinians as “battle-tested”.

Our director, Mark Curtis, revealed how Britain is experimenting with new drone technology that the Israeli military has been using in Gaza. The British army recently conducted exercises on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire to test a drone made by Israeli tech firm Xtend.

Journalist Matt Broomfield got into the Counter Terror Expo, which is a gathering of counter-terrorism experts each year in London. He found how officials there were discussing the “legal but harmful protest” following Israel’s war on Gaza, and selling surveillance technology which could be used to suppress it.

The Racket

Matt released his book, The Racket: A Rogue Reporter vs The American Empire, earlier this month. We published the foreword by Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Chris Hedges, in which he wrote: “Those such as Julian Assange who expose the crimes and suicidal folly of empire are ruthlessly persecuted. The truth, a truth Matt uncovers, is bitter and hard”.

Indeed, Assange’s release was achieved in spite of the mainstream media, which collaborated in a brutal campaign of disinformation against the WikiLeaks founder. Journalist Jonathan Cook examined in Declassifiedhow: “It was the media, led by the Guardian, that kept Assange behind bars. Their villainy will soon be erased because they write the script about what’s going on in the world”.

Another target of media-fuelled disinformation is former Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn. Veteran journalist Peter Oborne analysed how “the Guardian, in common with many other British media organisations, apparently feels at liberty to write anything it likes about Jeremy Corbyn”.

The current Labour party leader Keir Starmer and his shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, are participants in what Matt calls “The Racket”, and it’s therefore of little surprise that they’ve found a much more hospitable media climate.

As Mark observed, Lammy has been “reassuring elite audiences that UK foreign policy will not seriously change under a Keir Starmer government – a strategy confirmed in Labour’s election manifesto”.

Another core aspect of the racket relates to nuclear weapons. Richard Norton-Taylor, one of Declassified’s regular contributors, revealed how the UK government is putting 12 per cent of defence expenditure – equivalent to £12,000 every minute – towards the UK’s arsenal of at least 225 nuclear warheads.

Watch us on YouTube

Our editor, Phil Miller, is doing much more video work and interviews than before, and you can find many of the stories above covered on our YouTube channel here.

We’ve also been on the campaign trail with a number of candidates who are running for election on a pro-Palestine ticket, including Jeremy Corbyn, Andrew Feinstein, Jody McIntyre, Craig Murray, Leanne Mohamad, and Jo Bird.

Support Declassified

We rely on the public to keep producing ground-breaking investigative journalism on Britain’s real role in the world.

That means we can’t keep doing what we’re doing without your support. If you’re in a position to join Declassified as a member, please do so by clicking here.

All the best,

John