Shared thoughts, arising from deep concerns over the UK Government response to Israel’s ongoing genocide of Gaza.
As a young adult I read Kafka’s novel, ‘The Castle’. In trying to get himself heard, the protagonist is repeatedly blocked by layers of impotent clerks and ministers, as he attempts the impossible task, of trying to communicate with a regime that has elevated itself beyond reach of the ordinary person. This scenario appears to have been replicated within our current experience of dealing with government and corporations. The government and the people have grown so far apart that communication between them has all but ceased.
When government leaders isolate themselves in an ivory tower, where the only voices are those of ‘stake holder capitalists’ or ‘special interest lobbyists’, it becomes self-evident that the government, in abandoning its pledge to serve the people, has turned its face away and looks only toward those with power and influence.
This distance between the values of people and the moral bankruptcy of the government has never been more apparent. When we examine the behaviour of Cabinet Ministers, who openly declare their ongoing support of Israel, there is a complete disconnect between them and the people. A captive, mainstream media under report the outrage of ordinary, decent people in the UK and around the world, who are marching in large numbers in an attempt to get government leaders to insist that Israel halts its crime of genocide of the Gazan population. Although the UK Government gives lip service by expressing concern for Palestinian lives, on closer examination their words and actions paint a starkly different picture.
(The UK stands firmly with Israel – Israel is the victim and has a right to defend itself – Hamas is a terrorist organisation. The attack by Hamas on October 7th was Israel’s 9/11. Hamas murdered babies and raped women. We have to cut our funding to UNWRA because some UNWRA employees were Hamas and involved in 7th October atrocities. Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation controlled by Iran.)
These allegations, regularly made by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and other high level ministers, would appear to be based on Israeli and US, ‘say so’, without any credible evidence – stories fabricated in order to justify the level of genocidal violence.
As millions of people around the world cry out for justice and for an end to this slaughter, the ‘Ansar Allah – Party of God’, Yemeni Resistance Movement, took a proactive stance in their support for the Gazan people. They have blocked shipping to and from Israel through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and will not allow the ships through until food and medical supplies are allowed into Gaza. Most people would conclude that this is not an unreasonable request given that the Gazans are, not only dealing with the relentless bombing by Israel, but are facing cold harsh conditions and starvation.
‘Hansard parliamentary debate 23rd January 2024: It was reported that in response to the actions of the Yemeni resistance movement Rishi Sunak said; (‘there is no link between our actions of self defence in the Red Sea and the situation in Israel/Gaza. Those who make that link do the Houthis’ work for them and I want to be clear that those here at home who glorify the Houthis’ attacks are glorifying terrorism plain and simple. They will be met with a zero tolerance approach.’)
No link? That is a blatant lie to justify the government’s actions of bombing, yet another civilian population.
Was this threat of zero tolerance for speaking the truth directed at us – the people, or was the threat primarily spoken as a warning to those MP’s participating in the debate? While some brave MP’s have listened and attempted to raise constituents’ concerns over the slaughter of Palestinians, Rishi Sunak, and other cabinet ministers, are deaf to the outrage many people are expressing. It was only a few months ago when Suella Braverman was Home Secretary, she threatened the British people by stating if anyone carried a Palestinian flag they would be arrested.The threat went unheeded and thousands have since protested the genocide in Gaza by marching through London and other British cities with Palestinian flags flying freely.
I am shocked therefore, when our government leaders not only deliberately fail to understand why the Yemeni people have taken this stand, but, having accused them of terrorism, think bombing Yemen is a legitimate and legal action.
While the Yemeni resistance movement has deliberately avoided killing anyone, Zionist Israel, despite repeated claims to the contrary, targets civilians. Who are the terrorists here? In international law genocide is not only considered to be the most serious crime a state can commit, it is also a serious crime to militarily and politically support those who are carrying out genocide. In international law an occupying power does not have a right to self-defence, while those who are subjected to a brutal occupation do have the right to defend themselves and to resist the occupying force by both peaceful and military means. All parties aware of genocide are required by international law to do everything in their power to bring an immediate halt to such activities. What the many resistance groups, whether Palestinian, Lebanese, Iraqi or Yemeni, are doing is within the legitimate framework of trying to halt the genocide in Gaza.
On the contrary by blocking efforts to lift the aid embargo and by cutting the external relief as provided by UNWRA, Western powers are defying all decent boundaries and moral law by accelerating genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
Speaking in Parliament, Kenny MacAskill, linked the behaviour of the Houthis with the lifting of aid into Gaza. He also suggested that it would be better for government to address the root causes of the injustice in Gaza, rather than to just consider the manifestation of events on 7th October. His remarks elicited a sharp response from Sunak who made it plain that not only did he disagree with both of the statements made by MacAskill but that by bringing the ‘plausible case of genocide’ to the International Court of Justice, what South Africa had done was not helpful.
Does Rishi Sunak not know that in 1917 the British Government betrayed the Palestinian people by promising their country to another people? That from the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Palestinians, beginning with the Nakba (catastrophe), have experienced an ongoing terror campaign where their land and freedom has been systematically stolen from them. How is it possible that the UK Government, not only continues to support these crimes by supplying moral and military support to Israel, but have also stated they will cut all funding to UNWRA. The people of Gaza are not only being bombed, herded from their homes and then bombed again, they are facing an urgent lack of medical supplies/help, shelter, food and potable water. Very soon disease and starvation will make survivability in Gaza impossible. Already over 100,000 people have either been murdered or seriously injured.
Over 800 serving officials in US and Europe have signed a statement warning that their government policies on Israel-Gaza could amount to ‘grave violations’ of international law. If we are to remain human this blatant sadistic cruelty by our government and other Western leaders should urgently be brought before the International Court of Justice for the crime of supporting genocide.
As if supporting the bombing of Gaza and bombing Yemen were not enough the government are preparing us for a war against Russia. They monitor us online for ‘hate speech’ claiming that legitimate criticism of Israeli crimes incites violence, yet at every opportunity they demonise Putin and the Iranian leadership. We all recall how the demonisation of the Taliban, Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi, Assad, Soleimani and others led to assassinations and/or bombs being dropped on the civilian population of several countries. It isn’t the people who incite violence or who share a hatred of the other, it is governments.
People en-mass are rejecting the false narratives pumped out by the captive corporate mainstream press, where ‘truth and morality’ have been blatantly discarded in place of glaring, shameless propaganda. The UK Government, along with other Western Government leaders have not only lost contact with what people think, they have lost all moral and legal legitimacy to govern.
It is as a way of trying to make sense of this ever widening divide between the government and the people, that has led me to examine historical examples of fascism in greater detail.
(Definition of Fascism- ‘the merger of state and corporate power’ . Benito Mussolini……
……One of the main tenets of fascism is propaganda where everything is inverted. The oppressor who in carrying out acts of terror against the oppressed becomes the victim, while the victim of oppression is labelled as the terrorist.The brutal acts of the oppressor are subscribed to the oppressed. In order for persecution of the oppressed to take place the persecuted have to be dehumanised- animal, savage, cockroach, (Amalek). The dominant group is described as morally superior while at the same time this dominant group that are also seen to be the greatest victims. Claiming the cloak of victim hood provides a protective cover for tyranny.
The information, propagated by a captured mainstream corporate press is fake news whereas information/articles analysing or description of actual events, is labelled as conspiracy theory or fake news. Propaganda is especially directed at capturing the minds of children, whom the state tries to claim authority over, along with other vulnerable adults.
Asking questions and putting forth an alternative view to that put out by government or mainstream press, while initially ridiculed, history informs us that as a country is taken further down the road of fascism, expressing an alternative view becomes criminalised and punishable. Threatening individuals with punishment if they fail to think as directed is aimed at creating widespread fear, distrust, self censorship. At the same time virtue signalling is encouraged with the ultimate goal of persuading others to inform on those who fail to comply.
Communities have to be divided – the young against the old, women against men, white against black, black against white, Christian against Muslim, (traditional orthodox Jew against Zionist ideologists), and on it goes with the labelled groupings becoming ever smaller and more nuanced to the point where brother is pitted against brother, child against mother.
Fear porn propaganda proliferates. The rallying call becomes louder and the demonisation and isolation of the other becomes an effective tool as the controlling measures tighten. Add to that intrusive surveillance, de-banking of dissident voices, control of speech, movement – checkpoints/barriers, and it is easy to understand how easily and quickly fascist ideology can flourish…)
What is different today is that fascism is no longer constrained by the borders of individual nation states. Banking, pharmaceuticals/chemicals and military are globalised. As we witness nation states, (particularly in the west), losing their cultural identity, their natural food self-sufficiency and their ultimate sovereignty over body, self and country, we see it being replaced by authoritarian globalised agendas, (zero tolerance, zero private ownership, geo engineering, fake food). These are policies that nobody has a voice in determining or has/or would ever vote for. Ultimately we are all Palestinians. What we allow to happen to our fellow humans today will eventually arrive at our own back door.
Governments are not elected to enslave and abuse the sovereign rights of the people. Government needs to be open, transparent and above all accessible to the people so that Cabinet Ministers do not lose touch with those they are mandated to serve.
For a free and independent people to flourish the wall surrounding Kafka’s Castle need to be identified, penetrated and consciously dismantled stone by stone.
Heather Stroud is an activist
