Massive London demonstration condemning the genocide and arming of Israel, July 19

On Friday July 25 and Saturday 26, more than 40 organised emergency actions took part in the Stop Starving Gaza pots and pans protests from Abergavenny to Worthing, Carlisle to Penzance, to condemn the deliberate and criminal starvation of Palestinians by the Israeli genocide regime and their Anglo-US backers. On Friday evening, over 1,000 people banged pots and pans outside the Prime Minister's residence in Downing Street leaving the pots and pans behind them in a symbolic gesture to honour the lives of the 1,000 Palestinians killed attempting to get aid in Gaza. One of the organisers of the protests - the Stop the War Coalition - pointed out: "A tipping point has been reached in Gaza. Images of people starving to death are flooding the airways, with even the Daily Express calling out Israel's aid blockades and deliberate starvation policy." This tipping point proves that no-one can justify genocide.

Pots and pans protest, Whitehall, London, July 25

On Monday July 29, the protests continued with hundreds protesting outside Downing Street during an "emergency cabinet meeting" called by Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, in the face of this growing and massive opposition. Opposition not just to Israel's criminal refusal to allow food, water and medical aid to a starving population in Gaza, but also to Britain's refusal to demand Israel bring about an immediate ceasefire and Britain's refusal to immediately recognise Palestine.

Outside at the protest, a Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) spokesperson [1] said: "The government has found itself politically isolated in its support for the genocidal regime in Israel and has been forced to change track by the constant stream of protest and condemnation around the UK." PSC has demanded an immediate comprehensive military embargo to end all arms trade and military collaboration with Israel and imposing travel bans and asset freezes against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and all of his government's ministers. PSC also called for an end to all trade negotiations with Israel and for introducing a total ban on all trade which aids or assists Israel's violations of international law, including but not limited to trade with Israel's illegal settlements.

A Stop the War Coalition spokesperson said: "There's been a state of emergency in Gaza for nearly 21 months now and it's beyond disgraceful that the PM has only now recognised it and called this Cabinet meeting. The time for talking passed long ago - action must immediately replace words and that must mean an absolute and immediate end to the supply of all weapons and intelligence to Israel. There must also be an end to the British state's continued targeting and criminalisation of peaceful pro-Palestine protesters, which is why we will be back outside Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday morning demanding the charges against our chair Alex Kenny and Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament general secretary (CND) Sophie Bolt be dropped." This goes along with the call for the release of hundreds that are being arrested every day for protesting against Israeli genocide and standing with the Palestinian people. Many are incarcerated awaiting trial. For example, it may be 21 months before the Filton 18 even come to trial.

Members of the Welsh Senedd against the genocide, July 15

Starmer, forced to address this tipping point with his change of tack, has not changed direction and acknowledged the genocidal crime that he and his government and previous governments have been involved in as participants. They have been supporting and enabling the Israeli Zionist regime in all its actions. So for now, Starmer dispatches his Foreign Secretary David Lammy to the United Nations and both he and Lammy start their speeches by blaming Hamas and the Palestinian resistance for the war crimes that Israel is committing and for the starving of the Palestinians [2]. Israel's deliberate blockade and the use of starvation as a weapon of war against the population of Gaza in Starmer's eyes becomes "a catastrophic failure of aid". He tries to hide behind the coat-tails of Trump saying that "yesterday I discussed this with President Trump. And we are mounting a major effort to get humanitarian supplies back in." This turns out to be no more than a pathetic photo gesture that "UK aid has been air dropped into Gaza today". This - a move condemned by humanitarian relief organisations as a useless symbolic act - deserves nothing but contempt. In fact, Britain has daily delivered military support to Israel via its base in Cyprus, flying British aircraft over Gaza to provide intelligence to the Israeli war machine to bomb Gaza.

Newcastle Central Station Pots and Pans protest, July 25

Starmer in Britain and Lammy at the UN try and deceive the British and world's people that they are to support an immediate ceasefire by Israel, to support an immediate end to the starvation of Palestinians, and to support immediate recognition of Palestine. Instead, as Starmer declared: "So today - as part of this process towards peace I can confirm the UK will recognise the state of Palestine by the United Nations General Assembly in September unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, agree to a ceasefire and commit to a long-term, sustainable peace, reviving the prospect of a Two State Solution." [3] In other words, Starmer does not recognise that such actions by the Israeli regime against the Palestinians, the mass bombing and shooting of men women and children and starving them, are war crimes that must be opposed with immediate effect even though that is long overdue and impossible to forgive their crimes. Starmer tries to justify a mealy-mouthed and weak deal that he knows lets Israeli Zionists off the hook. A deal where Britain "threatens" the Israeli regime that if it doesn't "agree" to a ceasefire over the next two months and "commit" to peace, and "reviving the prospect" of a Two State Solution, then Britain will "recognise the state of Palestine". Britain's cruel posturing that it could "recognise the state of Palestine" and a "two state solution", is hardly worth a fig when it has waited and backed Israel in committing ongoing atrocities in plain sight of the entire world now and for 60 years, when now Gaza and the West Bank have been destroyed and people are living in tents. It is a cruel cover up by the British government for their complicity and involvement.

Massive London demonstration, Whitehall, July 19

The recognition of the Palestinian state is an inalienable right of the Palestinians. It is the recognition of the Palestinians right to be. It is not a question determined by the pro-Israeli Zionist will of Starmer, Lammy or anybody else. It is a life and death question for the Palestinians and for all humanity. Recognition by Britain and other major powers who have so far refused to recognise Palestinian national rights must be done immediately alongside demanding that Israel stops its genocide against the Palestinians. They must affirm Palestine's right to self-determination and sovereignty and challenge their own narratives that delegitimise Palestinian governance or portray Palestinian resistance as terrorism. They must support recognition that strengthens Palestine's standing in international forums like the UN, enabling full membership and voting rights. They must oppose Israel's settlement expansion, and call for its dismantlement in the occupied territories and oppose any Israeli military actions in occupied territories. They must further isolate the Israeli genocidal regime, encourage negotiations between the peoples in Israel and Palestine, and enable the Palestinians to decide their own future in a free Palestine with the right of Palestinians to return and move freely in their own lands.

Across England, Scotland and Wales the Stop Starving Gaza Pots and Pans protests and demonstrations are continuing as part of a summer of action by the people of Britain alongside the people of the world to stop Britain's support for the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the West Bank.

Notes
[1] Hundreds hold 'pots and pans' protest against Gaza genocide outside Downing Street, Morning Star, July 29 2025
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/hundreds-hold-pots-and-pans-protest-against-gaza-genocide-outside-downing-street
[2] Firstly, in his Speech on Monday Keir Starmer tried to justify these Israeli genocidal crimes when he started by claiming that on "7th of October 2023 Hamas perpetrated the worst massacre in Israel's history", a claim that cannot justify Israeli crimes against the Palestinians before October 7 or since. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics released a report in 2024 on the 76th anniversary of the Nakba (Great Catastrophe) indicating that since 1948, Israel was at least responsible for the deaths of approximately 134,000 Palestinians and Arabs who had been killed both inside and outside Palestine. Since 2000 alone, at least 71,915 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers, including over 20,000 children, with 2,916 Israeli dead from Palestinian resistance prior to October 7, 2023. Israel's bombing of Gaza in 2014 killed 2,285 Palestinians.
"Israel-Palestine Timeline The Human Cost of the Conflict"
https://israelpalestinetimeline.org/charts/
[3] Speech: PM words on Gaza: 29 July 2025
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-words-on-gaza-29-july-2025