Aideen Hughes 🇺🇦

[Led By Donkeys @ByDonkeys]

“My name is Amos Goldberg. I am an Israeli Professor of Holocaust Studies. For nearly 30 years I have researched and taught the Holocaust, genocide and state violence.

And I want to tell whoever is willing to listen that what’s happening now in Gaza is a genocide.

A year ago when October 7th happened, like all Israelis I was in shock. It was a war crime and a crime against humanity. 1200 people - more than 800 of them civilians - were killed in one day. Children and the elderly were among those taken hostage. Communities were destroyed. It was outrageous, traumatizing, personal. Like most Israelis, I know people who were killed, who lost loved ones or whose loved ones were taken hostage.

But immediately afterwards came Israel’s response and within weeks thousands of civilians were killed in Gaza. It took me some time to digest what was unfolding before my eyes. It was agonizing to confront that reality. I was reluctant to call it a genocide.

But if you read Raphael Lemkin – the Jewish-Polish legal scholar who coined the term ‘genocide’ and was the major driving force behind the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention – what is happening in Gaza now is exactly what he had in mind when he spoke about genocide.

It does not need to look like the Holocaust to be a genocide. Each genocide looks different and not all involve killing of millions or the entire group. The United Nations Genocide Convention explicitly asserts that genocide is the act of deliberately destroying a group in whole or in part. Those are the words.

But there does need to be a clear intent.

And indeed, there are clear indications of intent to destroy Gaza: Israel’s leaders - including the prime minister and the minister of defence - and many high-ranking military officers, media personalities, rabbis, as well as ordinary soldiers were very open about what they wanted to achieve. There were countless documented incitements to turn the whole of Gaza into rubble and claims that there are no innocent people living there.

A radical atmosphere of dehumanization of the Palestinians prevails in Israeli society to an extent that I can’t remember in my 58 years of living here.

Now that vision has been enacted. Tens of thousands of innocent children, women and men have been killed. Over a hundred thousand were wounded. There is a near total destruction of infrastructure, intentional starvation and blocking of humanitarian aid. There are mass graves and reliable testimony of summary executions. Children that were shot by snipers. All the universities and almost all hospitals are gone. Almost all the population is displaced. There have been numerous bombings of civilians in so-called ‘safe zones’. Gaza does not exist anymore. It is completely destroyed. Thus, the outcome fits perfectly with the stated intentions of Israel’s leadership.

Lemkin - that scholar who coined the term ‘genocide’ - described two phases of a genocide. The first is the destruction of the annihilated group and the second is what he called ‘imposition of the national pattern’ of the perpetrator. We are now witnessing the second phase as Israel prepares ethnically cleansed areas for Israeli settlements.

And therefore, I have come to the conclusion that this is exactly what a genocide looks like. We don’t teach about genocides in order to realize it retrospectively. We teach about it in order to prevent it and to stop it.

But like in every other case of genocide in history right now we have mass denial. Both here in Israel and around the world.

But reality cannot be denied.

So yes, it is a genocide.

And once you come to this conclusion you cannot remain silent.”

- Statement to Led By Donkeys, December 2024
- Photo: Parliament Square, London, 8.40am, 4th December 2024

[Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn]

There is a very simple reason why the UK government refuses to acknowledge the genocide in Gaza.

If they did, they would be admitting their own complicity in one of the greatest crimes of our time.

End all arms sales to Israel, now.

[Led By Donkeys @ByDonkeys]

King Charles charges this RNLI lifeboat station to launch its boat because he owns the beach. And they’re not the only charity he’s rinsing

(Location: Sennen Cove, Cornwall)

[Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn]

We’re told there is unlimited money for weapons and warfare, so can’t we find the money to end poverty, build social housing or save the future of our planet?

[Belfast Telegraph @BelTel]

EXCLUSIVE

Former First Minister Arlene Foster has been advertising herself as a renewable energy expert at a cost of more than £10,000 a day, it can be revealed.

✍️ @SJAMcBride

➡️https://t.co/LpGgSHvJu1
https://t.co/LpGgSHvJu1

[Ryanair @Ryanair]

don't worry @RishiSunak we've got a seat for you

[Aideen Hughes 🇺🇦 @AMaryHughes]

@drgrahamgault @Ed_Authority @INTO_NI

[Aideen Hughes 🇺🇦 @AMaryHughes]

@paulgivan @duponline @nasuwt #GE24

[Peter Donaghy @peterdonaghy]

Huge disparity in spending across the UK on education for under fives. For every £ spent per child in Scotland, Northern Ireland only spends 12p.

[Aideen Hughes 🇺🇦 @AMaryHughes]

@tescobankhelp I DID NOT GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO DO THIS.

[Aideen Hughes 🇺🇦 @AMaryHughes]

@tescobankhelp YOUR TRAVEL INSURANCE HAS AUTO RENEWED WITHOUT MY PERMISSION. YOU HAVE DEDUCTED £180.00 FROM MY ACCOUNT. HOW DO I GET IT BACK???

[Patrick Kielty @PatricKielty]

That moment when you actually end up shoulder to shoulder. The brilliant Stevie bringing it home…

[Derry 🕊 @Derry_Derry1]

#BDS #Palestine_Genocide #IsraelTerorriststate
https://t.co/Wj2pM1A90p

[Joe Brolly @JoeBrolly1993]

I initially thought/hoped this pic was doctored. It is disgusting that the tanaiste has debased himself and his country by acting as a prop in an Israeli propaganda photo shoot.

[Richard Burgon MP @RichardBurgon]

NEW PARLIAMENTARY MOTION FOR A CEASEFIRE

I have put down the first backbench motion of the new parliamentary session.

It calls for a ceasefire to help save lives.

It already has the support of 93 MPs from 8 separate parties.

You can read EDM 1 below.

[Aideen Hughes 🇺🇦 @AMaryHughes]

@HMRCgovuk Thank you for that. I will try again. It is known as the GTCNI which is not found on the list.

[Aideen Hughes 🇺🇦 @AMaryHughes]

@HMRCgovuk It is compulsory for all teachers to pay a fee to the GTCNI. Are they not recognised?

[United Nations @UN]

“The intensifying conflict is shaking the world, rattling the region and, most tragically, destroying so many innocent lives.”

— @antonioguterres says we must act now to find a way out of the brutal, awful, agonizing dead end of destruction in the Middle East.

[Joe Brolly @JoeBrolly1993]

A very clear analysis of Israel’s actions in Gaza from an expert in international law.