Dave E 🍉 @brewmook

The reality of the "independent" review telling every school in England to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism: its author, Sir David Bell, was being paid by a government agency while he wrote it, and a pro-Israel charity has listed him on its council for ten years. The government told the public he was "independent of Government" and had "no conflict of interest". Neither is true. What we found: - Bell was paid £20,000 a year as vice-chair of Skills England, a government agency, in a seat the Department for Education gave him. He held it until August, through most of the review. - The Academic Study Group on Israel and the Middle East has listed him on its council since at least 2016. Its website says its one firm policy is opposing boycotts of Israel. It gives talks on Israel in schools, which is exactly what his review was asked to judge. - In 2005, as chief inspector of schools, he singled out Muslim schools as a challenge to "our coherence as a nation". The chairman of the Association of Muslim Schools called it Islamophobia, and his own inspectors said he had presented a personal view as inspection evidence. Then we followed the money: - The department's £1.3 million antisemitism training contract had one bidder, according to the tender record. It went to Palace Yard, a company set up in 2022 by the former Labour MP Natascha Engel. - That contract says all its training must use the IHRA definition "as a foundation". It was signed eight months before Bell was appointed. His review then recommended IHRA. - Two of the people who advised Bell, from Partnerships for Jewish Schools and the Antisemitism Policy Trust, now sit on the group putting his recommendations into practice. - The Union of Jewish Students, also on that group, holds a contract worth almost £1 million to train universities. Its own policies include "UJS to advocate for Israel within UK Policy and International Law". - UK Lawyers for Israel* (UKLFI) and the Campaign Against Antisemitism* (CAA) both say the review adopted their recommendations. *For context, UKLFI once justified the starvation of Palestinians in Gaza by the Israeli occupation as "good for obesity". Both these groups have staunchly defended Israel throughout its perpetration of a genocide in Gaza, and regularly conflate Jewish people with the apartheid state. This matters because the review decides how every school treats what pupils and teachers say about Israel, and the IHRA definition it recommends treats some criticism of Israel as antisemitic. A review with that power should come from someone with no pay from government and no tie to a pro-Israel charity. Bell had both. The government put one in a footnote and left the other out. We mapped every link, each with its source, explaining just how far this review is from "independent": newscord.org/editorials/dav…

The "five Israelis" were on-duty IDF soldiers, by the way. Seems like an important detail to include.

BBC News (UK) @BBCNews

3 days ago

Five Israelis wounded and two suspected Palestinian attackers killed in West Bank shooting bbc.in/3Ud0szZ

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The ICC strongly rejects US sanctions against the institution: 🎥 Video Statement by the President of the #ICC, Tomoko Akane Learn more ➡️ icc-cpi.pulse.ly/kyrbe2l43a

"All of us must make a choice now: between a world where might is right, or a future based on the rule of law where victims can continue to access justice." - #ICC President Judge Tomoko Akane 🎥 youtube.pulse.ly/w1tqao43uv 📖 icc-cpi.pulse.ly/sxqetsptyi

Some things the British media and political class have reacted hysterically to during Israel's genocide: - The Maccabi Tel Aviv fan ban - Bob Vylan - Gary Lineker - The Green Party motion Something they have not reacted hysterically to: - The genocide

Google Maps has been updated to show Zionist-holocausted Gaza. This is part of Rafah.

5 British nationals have been in prison on remand for 14 months for allegedly throwing paint on planes at RAF Brize Norton in June 2025. Another was arrested and imprisoned in May this year Brize Norton was secretly hosting Israeli military planes involved in bombing Gaza at the height of the genocide - even after Netanyahu's indictment by ICC on war crimes charges Those who authorised British participation in genocide are free - and serving in government. Activists who allegedly tried to raise the alarm sit rotting in cells Remember their names: Umer Khalid, Amu Gib, Dan Norie, Jony Cink, Lewie C, Lara Downes @AndyBurnham said Labour "got it wrong" on Gaza. Now he must free all those who got it right - and tried to stop their government's participation in one of history's most heinous crimes

If European countries & other signatories to the International Criminal Court have any self-respect, they'd sanction Rubio & Trump for obstructing investigations of Netanyahu's war crimes. wsj.com/politics/polic…

Robert Kraft EXPOSED: The Epstein-Linked Billionaire Who Forced Ed Sheeran To Cancel Macklemore For Israel @Lowkey0nline

We had one of the greatest Climate Chat conversations to date, with Adam McKay about 'The Gargantuan Climate Lie'. It will air this Sunday. Subscribe and hit the bell button to get a notification when it goes live. Link below.

Dan Miller @danmiller999

2 months ago

Sunday 9/6 at 10am on Climate Chat: The Gargantuan Climate Lie with Adam McKay. A no-holds-barred discussion on the lie almost everyone tells & the impact it will have on all our lives. #ClimateCrisis #DontLookUp @LeonSimons8 @drivingmzstacey @radsci youtu.be/PFU7LqchidY

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Sunday 9/6 at 10am on Climate Chat: The Gargantuan Climate Lie with Adam McKay. A no-holds-barred discussion on the lie almost everyone tells & the impact it will have on all our lives. #ClimateCrisis #DontLookUp @LeonSimons8 @drivingmzstacey @radsci youtu.be/PFU7LqchidY

Five members of Just Stop Oil are currently serving 4+ years in prison for discussing, in a Zoom call, blocking roads.

Simon Jones @SimonJonesNews

2 months ago

Kent Police say there were no arrests at this morning’s Dover anti-Immigration protest that caused chaos in the town.

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‘Germany expanding presence in Poland, officials say’

BBC News (UK) @BBCNews

2 months ago

Israel expanding presence in Lebanon, officials say, as BBC visits occupied areas bbc.in/4iHGB5O

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After our trip to the Gaza-Egypt border last year, @SenJeffMerkley & I released a report entitled, "The Netanyahu Government is Implementing a Plan to Ethnically Cleanse Gaza of Palestinians."   Now the Israeli Min of Defense confirmed that's the goal.   We must end our complicity. france24.com/en/middle-east…

RIP 1.5

UN Environment Programme @UNEP

2 months ago

The planet will keep getting hotter, even with ongoing efforts to slow the temperature rise. But choices exist.   Every fraction of a degree prevented, and every year by which the overshoot period is shortened, will save lives, protect ecosystems, and reduce economic losses.

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Horrific statements from Hasan Piker today in the New York Times comparing Israeli actions to Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, and the Holocaust that’ll surely be covered by CNN and condemned by every Democratic leader Oh wait they’re from Israeli generals and officials

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⭕️ “The Board of Peace Is Failing” Athena Rayburn, executive director of the Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA), an umbrella organization representing more than 100 humanitarian and development NGOs working in the occupied Palestinian territory, told the UN Security Council today that Israel had designed Gaza’s scarcity and was using control over aid to silence NGOs. “Stay silent, or your delivery will not be enabled at all,” Rayburn said, describing Israeli rules used to deregister more than 30 international aid organizations. Rayburn said Israel rejects scissors, crutches, wheelchairs, and prosthetic limbs as “dual-use,” restricts engine oil so severely that it costs 45 times its normal price, bars specialized medical staff, and rejects watermelon and onions under an unpublished “humanitarian policy.” Israel also daily moves the supposedly fixed Yellow Line, cutting access to at least 85 water points, schools and health clinics. “By these basic measures, the Board of Peace is failing,” she said, saying that it has “functioned to further entrench Israel’s unlawful presence.” Since the ceasefire, nearly 1,300 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military. “What remains unclear,” Rayburn said, “is the legal basis on which the State of Israel continues to obstruct the provision of impartial humanitarian assistance in direct contravention of its unconditional obligations under Article 59 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.” She also questioned why the mandate granted to the Board of Peace by the Security Council was being used “to obfuscate Israel’s continued actions” that blatantly violate Palestinian rights and “the most basic rules of international humanitarian law.” She argued that rather than challenging Israel’s continued control over Gaza, restrictions on aid, and killings, the Board was helping obscure those violations and “further entrench Israel’s unlawful presence.” “This cannot be the new status quo.” Rayburn urged the Security Council to exercise its “powers of inquiry” and undertake an urgent mission to Gaza: “Come and see for yourselves.” (Full remarks in QT’d post)

Robert Malley @Rob_Malley

2 months ago

An implacable, clinical takedown of the Board of Peace’s record in Gaza:

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An implacable, clinical takedown of the Board of Peace’s record in Gaza:

🚨PETITION Instead of taking decisive action to end its support for Israel’s genocide, the government has tried to repress people protesting it. Sign our petition today to demand Andy Burnham sanctions Israel and stops attacking our right to protest: palestinecampaign.eaction.org.uk/tell-andy-burn…