Photos taken at the National March for Palestine held in London on 30th November 2024. In supporting this demonstration against genocide on Gaza, it should not be inferred that publication of these photos necessarily implies endorsement of all of the statements appearing on all the placards.
it was a delight to attend an amazing brunch at Palestine House in High Holborn in Central London, opposite Holborn tube station recently. I shared a table with friends from Croydon PSC.
Offered every Sunday 11:00-13:00, the cafe and restaurant also serves Lebanese and Palestinian food every day. Palestine House is available as a venue for events as well as a place to chill.
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The best of the photos taken at the Gaza Rally in London on Saturday 3rd August. It was heartening to see so many young activists.
Chris Nineham of Stop the War said this evening that 100,000 attended the protest in London today. It was the 17th demonstration since October last year and as large as the first. This is no longer a protest against Israeli genocide in Gaza, it is a protest against Israel’s agenda to lead the West into a war against Iran and Lebanon. We are now in uncharted waters.
The new edition of The Link, AMEU’s flagship publication, contains one of my articles on the complicity of the Church of England in the Gaza genocide.
This edition includes excellent contributions from Gary Burge, Bruce Fisk, David Krump, Allan Aubrey Boesak and several others.
Read the latest edition here:
My open air preach today in Guildhall Square, Southampton at the PSC Southampton vigil for Gaza.
“If Jesus was born today, he would be born under the rubble of Gaza” My colleague, Revd Munther Isaac, is pastor of the Lutheran Church in Bethlehem. His sermon last Christmas “Christ Under the Rubble” went viral as did images of the Nativity scene in his Church – of a crib with baby Jesus placed amid a pile of rubble. Today there are 17,500 pregnant mothers fleeing Rafah alone. Christ is indeed under the rubble of Gaza. In Munther’s sermon, he strongly criticised Western political, but especially religious leaders, for their silence in the face of clear and indisputable evidence of genocide in Gaza. Silence is complicity.
Munther went on to say “Gaza is the moral compass of the world”. Lets think about that.
“Gaza today has become the moral compass of the world”, insisted the Reverend Dr. Munther Isaac in his 2023 Christmas sermon, entitled, “Christ in the Rubble.” After his sermon went viral, his words were subsequently quoted by UN Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed.
Lamentably, many Christian leaders in the USA and Europe have stood by, silent and complicit, unwilling to criticise Israel for what is increasingly recognised as a genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people.
This article will analyse the Church of England official statements about Gaza since 7th October 2023, together with criticisms, and provide an assessment of the Church’s moral integrity in its stance on Gaza.
Download the complete article (and also in booklet form for printing) – or continue to read the summary conclusions:
Continue readingThe Lambeth Witness Group of Campain, have produced a leaflet to protest the continued complicity of the Church of England with the pro-Israel lobby regarding the Gaza genocide.
As leader of the Church of England, your job involves standing up for human rights, peace, and justice.
But, when it comes to Israel, you never go to the heart of the matter.
We are glad you have called out the killing and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza, but you never denounce the root cause, which is Israel’s long-term ethnic cleansing programme. Nor do you call out our government’s enduring diplomatic and military support for Israel.
As Israel starves, burns and bombs the civilian population of Gaza and the West Bank, you treat it as if it were acting out self-defence, on a higher moral plane from Hamas.
We see no rationale for this. Some of Hamas’s actions on October 7 were war crimes, and need to be investigated. However, it is Israel’s ethnic cleansing project that drives the whole cycle of violence.
As far back as 1937 the father of the Israeli nation David Ben Gurion wrote: “We must expel the Arabs and take their places”. And since 1948, Israel has killed, maimed, dispossessed and exiled Palestinians, occupying their land, destroying their homes and infrastructure, and stealing their natural resources. These are war crimes.
Too often, you have denounced British people who stand up for the Palestinians as anti-Semitic, fanning the flames of culture wars. And you have not backed up your assertions with hard evidence.
And when Iran attacked Israel, you tweeted a prayer for Israel – but you didn’t denounce Israel’s provocative attack on an Iranian consulate, which is a war crime.
As head of the established Church, and with 26 bishops in the House of Lords, you can and should do better. It is time to hold Government to account. So please show moral leadership and demand that the British government immediately:
• Insist on a permanent ceasefire
• End all diplomatic, military and logistical support for Israel’s war
• End all arms supply to Israel, a move that polls show would have overwhelming public support, and
• Renew funding for UNRWA, Gaza’s crucial provider of food and humanitarian aid that Israel has dishonestly sought to discredit.
The 24th International Beth Al-Maqdis Academic Symposium was held at Mardin Atuklu University, Turkey, 18-20 April 2024. The conference theme was “Zionism and Academia: Pressures, Fears and Challenges”. Besides giving a presentation entitled, “A Biblical Refutation of Christian Zionism”, during the conference, I was also honoured to receive the Mardin Artuklu University Courage Award.
