Global Sumud Flotilla Mural, South Africa, Johannesburg, September 22 2025

Early on Wednesday, October 1, it was reported that the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) was illegally intercepted by the naval forces of the Israeli genocidal regime 120 nautical miles from Gaza. The Israeli naval manoeuvre to intercept the flotilla failed and the GSF ships ignored the attempt against lead vessels and continued toward Gaza. However, late on Wednesday, while the flotilla was still in international waters around 70 nautical miles from Gaza, Israel pirate forces boarded and hijacked most of the GSF convoy using torture methods with loudspeakers, bright lights, water cannon and dangerously ramming some ships. They kidnapped nearly 500 pro-Palestine activists aboard the fleet sailing in international waters. Yet still the GSF flotilla ships refused to stop and turn off their engines and bravely carried on to deliver their vital aid to Gaza.

IDF Hijacking Oxygono, GSF Tracker site

The GSF organisers said that overnight 21 ships out of 40 were confirmed seized by the Israelis with a further 18 that they had lost communication with and were possibly seized. Yet early on Thursday morning two vessels were still heading towards Gaza in the Global Sumud Flotilla. A tracker showed that the Mikeno had managed to enter Palestinian territorial waters only a few miles off the coast of Gaza with another the Marinette still in contact with GSF organisers and heading towards the enclave. According to reports the Mikeno was then intercepted and seized by the Israelis on Thursday and the Marinette seized on Friday morning, still 70 nautical miles from Gaza in international waters.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), which has sent humanitarian vessels on earlier attempts to reach Gaza with aid, and the new Thousand Madleens mass group of boats - named after one of the FFC vessels attacked and seized by Israel - on Thursday, October 2, said that they will not stop sailing to Gaza, despite Israel's mass, criminal attack on the Gaza Sumud Flotilla's fifty ships and their volunteer crews on Wednesday night.

In a joint statement, the groups said:

Israel has illegally attacked the Global Sumud Flotilla, sailing to challenge Israel's illegal blockade of Gaza. Communications have gone dark, cameras are offline and the flotilla's boats are being boarded by armed and masked commando forces. This is yet another breach of international law - an attempt to silence those who dare confront Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people, while governments shield Israel with diplomatic cover and military aid.

We name this for what it is: impunity, made possible by political cowardice and complicity.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition and Thousand Madleens to Gaza stand firmly in solidarity with the Global Sumud Flotilla and every human rights defender aboard. Their actions are part of a collective refusal to accept the siege of Gaza as normal. Their presence on those boats is a reminder that silence is not an option, and that people across the world are choosing to act.

We will not stop.

We will keep sailing.

We will continue challenging Israel's illegal blockade.

We will keep confronting genocide, apartheid, occupation, and mass starvation- until Gaza is free, and justice is no longer a dream but reality.

Underway since August 22, the Global Sumud Flotilla was urgently carrying some 500 tons of aid, including tents, food, drinking water, medicine, baby formula, and necessities of life for people of all ages. Earlier in the day on Wednesday it was reported [1], that a spokesman for the Maghreb branch of the Global Sumud Flotilla, Waen Naouar, said on Facebook that "the Zionist (Israeli) vessels today intercepted Alma, the lead ship, but the other ships ignored Alma and continued toward Gaza". He added that when the flotilla regrouped around Sirius, the Israeli navy shifted focus there but was met with the same result as "the rest of the flotilla ignored Sirius and continued their journey to Gaza".

Israeli warships then tried to penetrate the flotilla from multiple sides to disperse it, but all ships manoeuvred and stayed on course, he said, describing the interception attempts as a test of the flotilla's resolve: "Even if you stop 47 vessels, the 48th will continue on to Gaza." After this attack by the Israeli regime in international waters an Al-Jazeera correspondent on board the flotilla reported that contact has been restored with the Alma ship after being lost for a short time. According to the correspondent, an Israeli vessel came within just five feet of the Alma, and jammed all of its communication systems, as well as its engine, rendering them inoperative. He added that participants on board the Alma threw their phones into the sea in line with the established security protocols. The correspondent later reported that the Israeli vessel had left the area, allowing the flotilla to resume its course toward the shores of the Gaza Strip.

The flotilla had already endured drone attacks and provocations of various sorts. Wael Nawar, the flotilla's coordinator, informed that in the early hours of September 24, drones attacked several vessels in the flotilla. No injuries or material damage were sustained, he said. "These tactics will not deter us from our mission to deliver aid to Gaza and break the illegal siege," the GSF said in a statement. "Every attempt to intimidate us only strengthens our commitment."

"The lengths to which 'Israel' and its allies will go to prolong the horrors of starvation and genocide in Gaza are sickening. But our resolve is stronger than ever," the Global Sumud Flotilla added. The flotilla later reported that the latest attack had delayed its expected arrival in Gaza by a day, and that an Israeli warplane had circled the convoy. Two drone attacks were previously carried out against the flotilla while it was docked at Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia, on September 9.

Sumud is the Arabic word for steadfastness or resilience, and the flotilla sent a clear message that the peoples of the world stand with Gaza and the Resistance. Everywhere peoples are doing their utmost to intervene and organise for an end to the genocide, including demands for the US, Israel, and the Genocide 7 (G7) to uphold international humanitarian law. Participants include people from all walks of life, including workers from various fields, activists, medical professionals, journalists, lawyers, and members of parliament.

The Global Sumud Flotilla website informs that there were at least 45 country delegations taking part - from Asia, Africa, Europe, South America, and the Caribbean, as well as North America. This includes participation from almost all the Genocide 7 countries, including Britain, whose governments are amongst the most complicit with the genocide.

The size of the flotilla was planned as a major challenge for Israel to try to board all the vessels. This has already proved to be the case in the criminal attempt by the Israeli navy to stop the ships on Wednesday morning and hijack them in the evening. The Israeli navy is said to have between 50 to 70 ships. Previous attempts to bring aid to Gaza by sea have all been met with violent Israeli raids in international waters. However, most prior attempts had only single vessels, or at most six in the 2010 Freedom Flotilla that included the Mavi Marmara. In that instance, the Israeli Occupation Forces killed 10 members of the flotilla, and injured dozens more.

On September 16, foreign ministers from 16 countries issued a joint statement in support of the flotilla, that warned Israel from acting against it. The statement was issued by the governments of Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Ireland, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mexico, Pakistan, Qatar, Oman, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, and Türkiye. The foreign ministers expressed their concern about the flotilla's security, noting its objective of "delivering humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and raising awareness about the urgent humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people and the need to stop the war in Gaza. Both objectives, peace and humanitarian aid delivery, together with the respect of international law, including humanitarian law, are shared by our Governments."

The foreign ministers of these 16 countries called on everyone to refrain from any unlawful or violent acts against the flotilla, to respect international law and international humanitarian law, and that "any violation of international law and human rights of the participants in the Flotilla, including attacks against the vessels in international waters or illegal detention, will lead to accountability."

The Global Sumud Flotilla along with the Freedom Flotilla are important acts of collective defiance by the peoples of the world, in the face of inaction or complicity by many governments, and the paralysis of the UN because of the US block to any attempts to hold Israel to account for a real ceasefire in Gaza and immediate withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza and the West Bank and lifting the blockade. Instead the US and the Genocide 7 sink to lower and lower levels of depravity with Israel in trying to impose Israel's war aims in Gaza as a "peace plan" that continues the imposition of the occupation of Gaza and refuses the right of the Palestinians to self determination in their own lands. Even before Israel stepped up its crimes against the people of Gaza on October 7, 2023, and unleashed its genocide and now its policy of mass starvation, the people of Gaza, with their determined organised resistance, have been defying the current illegal, brutal, and inhuman Israeli blockade since 2007 . The Global Sumud Flotilla and Global Movement to Gaza called for mass demonstrations across the UK on Thursday, October 2.

Press Conferences of the Global Sumud Flotilla on the Israeli interception and attacks: https://www.youtube.com/@GlobalSumudFlotilla/streams
To track the progress of the Global Sumud Flotilla: https://globalsumudflotilla.org/tracker/

Notes
[1] Anadolu Ajansi, Mohammad Sio, 01.10.2025 - Update : 01.10.2025
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/gaza-bound-flotilla-organizer-says-israeli-navy-failed-in-interception-attempt-as-ships-near-gaza/3703874

(Sources: TML Supplement, Al-Jazeera, Middle East Eye, The Canary)

For more information

Tony Blair has been named as a key figure in the Trump-Netanyahu Gaza "peace plan", proposed to serve on a transitional governing body called the "Board of Peace" that allegedly would oversee Gaza's post-war recovery. It is a plan to attempt to eliminate Palestinian sovereignty, installing Blair as a governor of an Israeli-occupied Gaza after the genocidal removal of the Palestinian people.

Under the 20-point "peace proposal" unveiled by President Trump and endorsed by Prime Minister Netanyahu, Tony Blair is the only named member of an international "Board of Peace" that would temporarily govern Gaza. This board would be chaired by Trump, with Blair as its co-ordinator. The cruelly-named "Board of Peace" would ensure that the Palestinian-free Gaza creates "real financial returns" for individual and corporate investors in Gaza's reconstruction. Blair's involvement is framed as part of a technocratic transitional authority, with only one Palestinian representative slated to be on the board. The plan also calls for Gaza to become a "deradicalised terror-free zone", with no role for Hamas in future governance. The plan for the so-called "Gaza International Transitional Authority" (GITA) was initially drafted by Blair's think-tank, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and subsequently tweaked by Trump's advisers and others. It envisages a 'hierarchical structure led by an international board' that "exercises supreme strategic and political authority" under a chair leading the occupation as "senior political executive", alongside a group directing investment projects and "housing schemes".

Blair founded the "Tony Blair Institute for Global Change" in 2016 after resigning from his role as special envoy for the "Quartet" of the UN, EU, US and Russia. According to recent reports, TBI staff participated in discussions around a postwar vision for Gaza which included a "Gaza Economic Blueprint" circulated internally, proposing infrastructure development, trade corridors, and artificial islands modelled on Dubai's coastline; and engagement with Israeli businessmen and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), who drafted a slide deck titled The Great Trust, outlining a redevelopment plan that assumed 25% of Palestinians would "voluntarily" leave Gaza, a proposal widely condemned as ethnic cleansing. This whole vision, dubbed the "Trump Riviera", is totally repugnant, acceptable only to the billionaires and narrow private interests whom Trump and Blair represent, not to the world's people who desire justice and peace.

In Britain, Health Secretary Wes Streeting acknowledged Blair's role would "raise eyebrows", while PM Keir Starmer straightforwardly expressed strong support for the proposal, saying that the initiative was "profoundly welcome". Starmer stated that he was "comfortable with Sir Tony Blair being part of a temporary authority running Gaza". Saying that the focus should be on outcomes, not individuals, he stated: "I'm less concerned with the particularities of who does which bit... If there's a chance of a deal... then I say it is our responsibility to lean into that and try to get it to work." The contradiction with the UK supposedly recognising the state of Palestine could not be more stark. Furthermore, Starmer's sense of judgement of political figures has also come under question, to say the least, with the appointment and then resignation of Peter Mandelson as US Ambassador. Starmer avoided naming Blair directly in his keynote speech to the Labour Party Conference, but gave "strong support" to what he referred to as "efforts to end the fighting", adding, "All sides must now come together to bring this initiative into reality. Because we must restart the hope of a two-state solution..." Starmer linked this solution with what he called the "British values" of "the freedom to live and let live". He reiterated that Britain is working with the US and Arab states to advance the plan. So elimination of Palestinian statehood and even the Palestinian people is called the pathway to peace, reminding us of the Roman historian Tacitus's famous line: "To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace."

So, with the appointment of Tony Blair, and his inescapable crimes in the war against Iraq, the man whose policies and warmongering set the Middle East alight under the pretext of "spreading democracy", the Anglo-American powers imagine they are set to eliminate the resistance of the Palestinian people. But the answer is the determination of the Palestinian people to assert their right to be.

Rejection of the Trump-Blair-Starmer-Netanyahu Plan

General Strike for Palestine, Bologna, Italy, September 22 2025

In a recent interview with British journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Palestinian ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot, himself emphasised that peace cannot be achieved without justice. He critiqued the current international discourse, which, he emphasised, often frames the conflict as a symmetrical struggle between two equal sides. Instead, Husam Zomlot insists that the root cause is Israel's occupation and the denial of Palestinian rights must be addressed. He called for the right of return for refugees, and an end to the blockade on Gaza. The ambassador also challenges Western governments, particularly the UK, to move beyond rhetoric and take concrete steps. He underlined that they must hold Israel accountable for violations of international law, and that Palestinians must be empowered to decide their own future.

The website Declassified carried this report of a Palestinian in his seventies, Abdel Fattah Al Amssi, surviving in his displacement tent in Kahn Younis, which epitomises the stand of the Palestinian people: "When we asked him about Tony Blair, he erupted angrily: 'Blair? Isn't he the one who stood with Bush in the Iraq war? What did he do there except bring destruction? And now they want to send him to rule Gaza? This is an insult to the people of Gaza who have made sacrifices, and an insult to the entire Palestinian people.'

"Al Amssi then gestures with his hand toward the endless stretch of tents, saying: 'No one here needs a foreign ruler. We have our own men and women capable of managing their country. Blair will not come to show us mercy, but to serve the interests of those who want Gaza disarmed, without resistance or dignity. ... Those who have endured displacement and death will not surrender their fate to a man whose hands are stained with the blood of Arabs. We completely reject that, because after this genocide, we trust no one but ourselves.'"

According to reports, Hamas has also voiced strong reservations, calling the plan "unjust and biased toward Israel". Hamas rejected the involvement of Tony Blair, citing his lack of neutrality and controversial legacy. Hamas is also reported to have demanded clarity on governance, weapons, and reconstruction oversight, and is seeking amendments through regional mediators. In a press statement, Abdul Rahman Shadid, a senior Hamas official, said that US President Donald Trump's plan is not aimed solely at Hamas as a faction, but rather targets the entire Palestinian people, their factions, rights, core principles, political identity, and the future of their national cause.

Tony Blair was Britain's Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007. He has always put himself forward to be a key figure in intervening in Middle East diplomacy, strongly aligning with US imperialist policy. His involvement now spans nearly three decades. As Prime Minister he backed Israeli Zionism. Subsequently he took up the role as a "peace envoy" and developed US-Zionist policy to support Israel and quell the Palestinian struggle. Blair's actions have aligned with preserving the status quo of Israeli dominance, under a pragmatic philosophy of formulating "peace solutions".

Blair's role while in office (1997-2007) showed him as a close ally of US President George W Bush, particularly during the war against and invasion of Iraq. In line with this, the Blair government frequently spoke of "Israel's right to self-defence", especially during the Second Intifada of 2000-2005. Blair played the role of an influencer for US imperialist policy within the European Union, in line with defending Israel's "right to self-defence", his government standing out in ignoring calls for exerting pressure on Israel regarding the expansion of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land or military actions in Gaza and the West Bank. In 2001, he stated: "Israel has a right to protect its citizens. Terrorism must be condemned unequivocally." In fact, following 9/11, the Blair government framed the struggle of the Palestinian people in terms of the so-called "War on Terror", thus attempting to legitimise Israeli military action against the Palestinian resistance. In a 2004 speech, he said: "The struggle in the Middle East is part of the same battle against extremism."

Blair has repeatedly affirmed his belief in a "two-state solution" as the only viable path to peace. In 2002, he backed the Roadmap for Peace of the Quartet (UN, EU, US and Russia), which explicitly called for a "sovereign, viable, and contiguous Palestinian state alongside Israel".

Following his period as Prime Minister, Blair served as the special envoy for the Quartet from 2007 to 2015, tasked with promoting peace and Palestinian economic development. This period was marked by the outlook that there must be a "two state solution". As envoy for the Quartet, Blair emphasised economic development in the West Bank, promoting business zones and infrastructure projects. He argued: "Economic progress is not a substitute for political negotiation, but it can support it." His tenure as special envoy was marked by what were referred to as the "security concerns" of the Israeli entity, and collaborating with their occupation of Palestinian land. Blair exhibited little concern with Gaza, especially after the election of Hamas in 2007. The humanitarian crises facing Palestinians in Gaza were ignored. A leaked 2012 memo from a Palestinian negotiator stated: "Blair has become an apologist for Israeli policy." This reflects how Blair has been viewed as complicit in the Ang lo-US programme that has entrenched Israeli control.

In recent developments, the Tony Blair Institute has proposed a Gaza International Transitional Authority (GITA) backed by the UN and Arab states. In a 2024 interview, Blair said: "We need a credible plan for Gaza's future - one that restores order and opens the path to peace." It has been remarked how this GITA proposal is a modern form of international trusteeship, after historical colonial governance methods. As a senior PA official told Al Arabiya: "We cannot accept a model that bypasses Palestinian sovereignty."

Donald Trump has endorsed Blair's plan, pitching it to Arab leaders and suggesting Blair could oversee Gaza's reconstruction and governance. This is being rejected, not least because of Blair's criminal role in the Iraq War, but also because it is based on entrenching Israel as an apartheid state. The world's people will not accept it, and are outraged at the thought that war criminal Blair, in league with the Zionist criminals themselves, could end up as a "governor" of Palestine.

(Workers' Daily Internet Edition, June 28, 2007)

Tony Blair, prior to his departure as Prime Minister, set out on his long goodbye. His peregrinations, taken together with his eight lectures given over a period of a number of months entitled "Our Nation's Future", had the character of an attempt to define the legacy of his ten years in office. But they also were intended to set the tone for the future of British imperialism, an empire on which, in one sense, the sun has now set, but which under the stewardship of Tony Blair especially has taken on the character of a new imperialism, a component part of the push for world domination by Anglo-US imperialism.

Indeed, the mooted position of Blair as the envoy to the Middle East of the Quartet of the US, the UN, the EU and Russia, demonstrates that for the imperialists of England, the dream of empire is not over, that they still have delusions of grandeur, of "making Britain great again". Where there cannot be the British empire, then there will be a British mandate seems to be their watchword. All the indications are that Gordon Brown will pursue that course unchanged. He has gone out of his way to emphasise and bolster the union of Scotland with England in this year of its 300th anniversary, and in his own world tours, especially to Africa, has been at pains to extol the "achievements" of the British empire, a very notable sentiment in this year of the 200th anniversary of the Act to abolish the Atlantic slave trade.

On May 31, at the conclusion of his much criticised tour of Africa, Tony Blair gave a keynote speech at the University of South Africa, which he used as yet another opportunity to defend Britain's interventionist foreign policy.

It has now become generally accepted that Blair uses his alleged humanitarian concern for Africa not just as a mask to hide the plunder and impoverishment of that continent by the big multinationals and financial institutions, but also as a means to justify Britain's interference throughout the world, which he makes every effort to present as being based on the defence and promotion of so-called universal values, and therefore allegedly in the interest of humanity.

Therefore it is not surprising that in his speech in South Africa Blair began by claiming that his foreign policy in Africa was "not based on rich and poor or donor and recipient but based on common values of justice, democracy and human rights; a partnership of trust and equality". He then went on to claim that in the era of neo-liberal globalisation, national self-interest "is in substantial part defined by the well-being of others", and that therefore "our best chance of security and prosperity lies in advancing freedom, opportunity and justice for all".

Behind such sanctimonious phrases the Labour government has launched military invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and other countries. It has lied, ignored the United Nations and its charter and broken international law repeatedly, not least in Sierra Leone, where the government broke the UN embargo on arms and which Blair visited before arriving in South Africa. It has created instability and mayhem in many of parts of the world, continued to attack the rights of the Palestinian and other peoples, while all the time claiming that it is concerned about the "well-being of others" and "advancing freedom, opportunity and justice for all".

In Africa, it is clear that Britain sees a continent rich in resources, with potentially untapped markets, as well as an area of contention with the other big powers and China in particular. At that same time, as Tony Blair kept stressing, it is a region where the Anglo-American alliance wants to make sure that its values "take root". It is always noticeable that when shedding crocodile tears about Africa's misfortunes, this man never mentions the fact that Britain was the colonial power in Sierra Leone, Sudan, Zimbabwe and other countries, nor the de-stabilising role that Britain, through its army, police, banks, multinationals and Eurocentric values, has continued to play since these countries gained formal independence.

In his speech, Blair extolled the virtues of the private sector in Africa and announced that the British government would fund and encourage even further penetration of its economies by foreign capital. At the same time, Tony Blair kept referring to the need for more "aid" as if this were something entirely different, although also connected with the "well-being of others". But the facts show that both so-called "aid" and the hegemony of the private sector are means to exploit the people of Africa. For example, in 1999 the Labour government, together with the World Bank, created the Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF) which, amongst other things, promotes the privatisation of water and other utilities throughout Africa and in many of the other poorest regions of the world. The British government is the world's largest donor to PPIAF, contributing over £53m of taxpayer's money, 54% of the total funding since 1999. At other times "aid" may be linked to large contracts such as the controversial deals Blair brokered with the South African and Tanzanian governments in the interests of BAE Systems, the details of which have reappeared in the media recently.

One of the key features of Blair's speech is the arrogance with which it is delivered. Although there may be talk of "partnership", nevertheless Blair speaks of "helping Africa take the right path", as if the British empire were still in existence. The impression is given that not just the countries of Africa but even the G8 countries should follow the British government's policies, adhere to its values and do what it dictates. The only conclusion that can be drawn is that Britain aims to step up its interference and intervention, not just in individual African countries but also in the African Union.

What is key for the British government in its ideological aggression is the issue of values. The demand is that African countries should accept that there is no alternative to neo-liberal globalisation, to representative democracy, the domination of the monopolies, privatisation, etc. As long as the economies and political systems of Africa are fully integrated into the Eurocentric framework and can be totally dominated in the interests of the big monopolies and financial institutions this is allegedly for the "well-being of others". If "aid" is used in the interests of the big armaments manufacturers, or to facilitate greater privatisation in the interests of the monopolies, then this is "advancing freedom, opportunity and justice for all".

Blair's speech and the government's continued policies in Africa do not show its alleged humanitarian concern but rather that it is the multinationals and big financial institutions that dominate. Prime ministers and governments may come and go, but it is the interests of the rich that determine Britain's foreign policy, just as they determine the attacks on the NHS, education and other social programmes in Britain. It is vital that there are no illusions and the recognition that the times cry out for working people to empower themselves and become the decision makers.

The statement issued on September 21 by the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer on Palestinian statehood [1] must be condemned as duplicitous with the aim of rescuing the apartheid and genocidal state of Israel. Alongside the US and the other Genocide 7 countries (G7), Britain is a foremost supporter of the Zionist state of Israel and arms supplier to this genocidal regime. This was the case even before Israel stepped up its crimes against the people of Gaza and the West Bank on October 7, 2023, and since.

In this statement Starmer says: “In the face of the growing horror in the Middle East...We are acting to keep alive the possibility of peace and a Two State Solution. That means a safe and secure Israel…Alongside a viable Palestinian State.” This reveals the morally repellent and duplicitous nature of this statement of a “viable Palestinian state”, in other words a “safe and secure Israel” and a Palestinian state “viable” to Britain and Israel and not the Palestinian people. It is the conception of “state” as it exists now. It is the imposed small and diminishing apartheid Palestinian enclaves in Gaza and the West Banks still under the jackboots of the Israeli terrorist regime and their settlers. That is not any recognition of the self-determination for the Palestinian people and the right to choose their own government in their own lands, in their own territory and organise their own security and affairs including the right of Palestinians to return to their land.

Starmer’s statement makes it clear that he sees the “horror in the Middle East” as the Palestinian resistance. The statement is deliberately and callously aimed against the right of the Palestinians to resist. It ignores the unbelievable crimes of the Israeli state and the “war” waged by the IDF against the men, women and children in Gaza and the West Bank. His statement condemns Hamas for its actions but not Israel for its genocide. He says: “Let’s be frank – Hamas is a brutal terror organisation. Our call for a genuine Two State Solution…Is the exact opposite of their hateful vision.” The statement imposes Britain’s solution of Palestinian statehood on the Palestinians that “Hamas can have no future. No role in government. No role in security.” On Israeli crimes he admits that: “Tens of thousands have been killed – Including thousands as they tried to collect food and water…still, nowhere near enough aid is getting through.” Yet, there is no condemnation of Israeli state terrorism and genocide. No mentions that Britain has supported this for two years this October, but only his feeble call now for Israel to “stop these cruel tactics”. That is what he means by “a safe and secure Israel…Alongside a viable Palestinian State.” The murderous onslaught against the Palestinian people, the destruction of their homes and cities, their hospitals and schools - for Starmer this is just a “cruel tactic”. Now he claims after two years that he and the other Genocide 7 will build a “Framework for Peace”!

Also, in his statement Starmer cynically uses it as an opportunity to attack the British people's overwhelming opposition to Israel genocide and support for the Palestinians in Britain. He claims that: “I know the strength of feeling that this conflict provokes. We have seen it on our streets…In our schools…In conversations with friends and family.” But then he says: “It has created division. Some have used it to stoke hatred and fear.” This when the British state and his government have tried desperately to crush the resistance of the people to Britain’s ongoing support for and arming of Israel. Starmer’s government has banned peaceful demonstrations and proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. It should be mentioned that the 2025 TUC voted unanimously against this proscribing. It is Starmer and his government that has criminalised dissent to try and create hatred and division. It is they that have arrested hundreds under the Terrorism Acts for peacefully demonstrating their opposition to this.

At the end of his statement, Starmer claims to “revive the hope of peace and a Two State Solution” by formally recognising “the State of Palestine”. Try as he may, Starmer’s definition of a "two-state solution" will not prevail. The Palestinian people are deciding and will decide how they exercise their right to self-determination. Attempts to call the Resistance "terrorism" do not make it so. This is a problem the government of Britain has never been able to overcome, and why Starmer has been forced to make this duplicitous statement. However, the peoples know better as to what will bring about peace and justice.

Note
1. PM statement on the recognition of Palestine: 21 September 2025
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-statement-on-the-recognition-of-palestine-21-september-2025