Israel/Palestine Thread

Lord Ian Austin, the UK trade envoy to Israel, is an outspoken defender of Israel. While David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, was calling Israel's actions in Gaza "monstrous and extremist" last year, Austin was in Israel promoting projects including in Haifa.

The letter said Austin did not regard Gaza as occupied for the past 18 years, referred to the UN’s Palestinian relief agency Unrwa as terrorists, opposed the UK’s suspension of arms sales to Israel and he had said it was “factually wrong” to claim the West Bank was being concreted over by Israeli settlers.

Powerful article by Geoffrey Robertson KC on the Elbit case and the irregularities in the case.

Judge Johnson had forbade the defence from telling the jury they had a right to acquit. The defence lawyer was held in contempt for doing so. The High Court held that Johnson should not have done so. But still this judge was allowed to sentence his clients as terrorists, even though the jury had only found them guilty of criminal damage. This is allowed by the Sentencing Act 2020, which greatly expands the definition of "terrorism".

Mona Khalil, a turtle conservationist known as the David Attenborough of Lebanon, has been killed in an Israeli airstrike.