It's fascism when standing up for humanity becomes extreme

Two poignant protests in Cardiff in the past few days in memory of the tens of thousands of innocent women and children slaughtered by Benjamin Netanyahu’s terrorist regime in Israel have been completely ignored by MediaWales newspapers, although Wales On Sunday did carry a report on Charlotte Church’s presence at the Palestine solidarity march in London on Saturday and her calls for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza.

But the article, written by the Press Association’s Jordan Reynolds, made sure to lead off with the 7 October 2023 false-flag baloney orchestrated and co-ordinated by Israel to justify the six-month campaign of genocide that has followed.

Israel apologists cling to this propaganda nonsense claiming “about 1,200 people were killed and more than 240 kidnapped” on 7 October “before Israel retaliated”… a totally false narrative which has formed Netanyahu’s only excuse for the slaughter of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians and children in the months that have followed.

Without its 7 October fairytale Israel would have had no way of claiming its genocide in Gaza was “self defence” and politicians around the globe would have had no excuse for condoning the ethnic cleansing that has followed. But the holes in the narrative have been clearly exposed over the past six months by media sources in Israel no less, but still the mainstream outlets try to validate the charade through repetition... but research the facts and the disinformation and lies of the false narrative are totally transparent.

Monday’s Western Mail, also published by MediaWales, also carried an article about Church, in which the Welsh singer hit back at “accusations and smears” written about her following her involvement in Saturday’s pro-Palestine march.

In an Instagram post entitled “from a mother on Mother’s Day”, Church said: “I wish I didn’t have to write this – I am an artist, not a politician, and would rather speak through creative action than explanatory text – but I find that for several reasons, I must respond to accusations and smears made against me these last couple of weeks.

“Yesterday I participated in the 10th national march for Palestine in London, in solidarity with our siblings in Palestine, as well as those at home, and for doing so I was called all manner of ungodly things online, often violent, misogynistic and racist. Some of those people had phrases like ‘whites will not be replaced’ on their profiles, and images of iron eagles as banners. And I’m the extremist?!”

And Church expands on her website – charlottechurch.co.uk – that: “Since footage was shared online of a Sing For Palestine event I took part in to raise money for a new ambulance for the Al Awda hospital through the Middle East Children’s Alliance, I’ve been continuously dragged in the press and on social media as an antisemite (which I am not) and need to respond to those accusations fully. My attempts to protest the atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank, and the West’s complicity in them, have been ridiculed by powerful men in the media in conversations that I have not been asked to contribute to, including a discussion as to whether or not I should be arrested for my activism, and so I must respond.

“My safety and the safety of my family has been threatened by some pretty scary people, emboldened by the rhetoric of frontline politicians, as well as cravenly irresponsible coverage by liberal legacy media outlets, including BBC news, and so I must respond.

“But perhaps most urgently I have to take the opportunity to speak out because since the start of the genocide very little of the campaign that calls for an end to Israeli aggression in Palestine has been covered by the press, except when it is being denounced as ‘hateful’ or ‘Islamist’ by some of the most notorious racists in the western world.”

At the march in London on Saturday Church said: “I am here today to call for an immediate ceasefire, to ask our government and governments all over the world to send as strong a message as we possibly can. But a strong, a peaceful, a loving message, that’s what every single march that I’ve been on for Palestine has been about. There’s been singing, there’s been drumming, yes, there’s been emotion, but in the majority that emotion has been compassion.

“We’re all here because we cannot bear what we’re witnessing. We cannot bear to see civilians, children, women slaughtered. And so we are here because our hearts are so full of love for the Palestinian people.”

And, Church added: “We’re also showing that we are not going to tolerate our government being a part of propping up an apartheid regime.”

But neither Wales On Sunday nor the Western Mail saw fit to report that, while Church was speaking in London on Saturday, there had also been a large Cardiff humanitarian crusade in solidarity with the women and children slaughtered by Israel in Palestine, which began at Central Station, stopped off outside the castle and culminated at Robert Thomas’ statue of a “Mother And Son” on Queen Street, between Gregg's and Tim Horton's.

A landmark on Queen Street since its erection in 1963, on Saturday the statue served as the site for an International Women’s Day tribute to all the mothers who have been brutally murdered by Israel since 7 October... and during the 75 years that preceded it.

Nothing about this humanitarian crusade in Cardiff, that coincided with International Women’s Day and Mother’s Day, was covered by Wales On Sunday but the PA report that it ran did go to great pains to mention that “the cost of policing Gaza-related protests in London has reached over £32m and has required 35,464 officer shifts and more than 5,200 officer rest days to be cancelled”, according to the Metropolitan Police.

But no mention of the billions spent by the UK’s Conservative government on military support to facilitate Israel's carpet bombing of Gaza and the slaughter of children and civilians. And no mention either that much of the £32m spent on policing peaceful protests could have been avoided had our politicians stood up for humanity and demanded the genocide stops by calling for a ceasefire when it was first debated in Westminster in November last year.

The PA report continued: “It comes as the government’s counter-extremism tsar warned that London’s streets have become a no-go zone for Jews during pro-Palestine protests. Robin Simcox said a ‘permissive environment for radicalisation’ was developing as he welcomed the government’s forthcoming new definition of extremism.”

A new definition of extremism? I wonder whether that will outlaw the condoning of genocidal ethnic cleansing by Netanyahu’s Zionist thugs? But, sadly, I think not. Participating in humanitarian crusades to prevent the slaughter of innocent children and civilians is the extremism the government wishes to stamp out… a clear indication the UK is heading down the road towards becoming a fascist state.

Personally I’m not surprised that, when Israel is brazenly carrying out a campaign of genocide in Gaza, London’s Jewish residents are embarrassed and ashamed to show their faces during pro-Palestinian protests. It can’t be very pleasant to be reminded of the fact the nation you thought stood up for your culture and values is actually a barbaric terrorist nation. Who’d want to be reminded of that?

But that’s what the state of Israel is… and it’s responsible for the slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent children and civilians... 20,000 of whose names were remembered on banners displayed outside the Senedd in Cardiff Bay yesterday (13 March).

Organised by Palestine solidarity groups in South Wales, the “Naming The Dead” vigil saw four huge banners raised in front of the Senedd that listed 20,000 victims of Israel’s campaign of genocide in Gaza, focusing attention on the fact those lives barbarically taken by Israel are not just statistics… they are children, mothers, fathers and loved ones who had dreams and aspirations that did not fit in with Israel’s desire to wipe out the indigenous people of Palestine and settle the land it has ruthlessly occupied since 1948.

And, just as many Jews in London are ashamed to show their faces during pro-Palestinian solidarity marches because of the campaign of genocide being carried out by Israel in their names in Gaza, I am ashamed the majority of UK’s elected representatives are condoning that genocide in the name of the people of Britain.

Many thousands of Jews worldwide have been protesting and speaking out against Israel’s campaign of genocide... a fact that makes me wonder whether they are deemed to be antisemitic in Netanyahu's eyes too? But, clearly, it's not antisemitism, is it? It's simply a humanitarian response to the ethnic cleansing being carried out by Israel in Gaza and the West Bank.

Humanitarians cannot simply sit back and condone the genocidal policy of the Israeli government, no more than they can condone the UK and United States governments' complicity in it. And, while corrupt and oppressive regimes may be able to pass laws to dictate their definitions of extremism, it does not alter the fact that, as Mahatma Gandhi famously decreed, “an unjust law is itself a species of violence”.

So remember, as Martin Luther King wrote to fellow clergymen from Birmingham City Jail on 16 April 1963, “one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws"... meaning that if the UK government rules that expressing humanity is extremism then it becomes virtually impossible for anyone with a moral compass to not fall foul of that mandate and – many would argue – for disobedience to become a moral obligation.