MC Hammed

Lawyer | Semi-retired rapper

[Owen Jones @owenjonesjourno]

I just want to say 'happy new year' and give a very special thanks to everyone who has watched and engaged with my content.

For the past 12 weeks, my focus has been on the Israeli assault on Gaza.

This is, I firmly believe, one of the great crimes of our time.

Tens of thousands are being slaughtered, many of them children, a quarter of the population is projected to die from disease, 70% of buildings have been damaged or destroyed, the vast majority have been driven from their homes, food and fresh water is being denied, the medical system has all but collapsed. The horrors are endless - the apocalypse has come to Gaza.

While foreign journalists have been prevented from entering, the witnesses to this bloodbath have been the lions of the world's press pack - the Palestinian journalists of Gaza, without whom the world would have little real idea of the crimes committed by the Israeli state. Yet almost every day, these eyes and ears are snuffed out: the greatest massacre of journalists ever recorded, and in such a short space of time.

Every day, we read of reports of entire bloodlines being wiped from the face of the earth. An aid worker, a journalist, a medic, a lecturer has been killed by an Israeli air strike, along with several members of their family. Announcements such as this are to be read every day on Twitter. History may well ask how that could be so and yet there was no overwhelming pressure for this entirely manufactured human catastrophe to end. The best answer is that the Palestinian people have been completely dehumanised, and there hasn't even been a pretence that Palestinian life has any meaningful value at all.

The Israeli state, meanwhile, makes no effort to disguise its intentions, employing genocidal rhetoric on a daily basis, while Israeli society is in the grip of what can only be described as genocidal mania.

Yet this crime of historic proportions has been aided and abetted by Western powers. This is an understatement. Israel would not have been able to unleash this unimaginable horror without the weapons and diplomatic and political cover provided by the US, cheered on by states such as Britain.

Meanwhile, most of the Western media has either cheered on this atrocity, or refused to describe what are clear, unapologetic war crimes which the Israeli state isn't even making an effort to cover up, instead - at best - leaving the question of whether this is a 'proportionate' response to a matter of debate, where we can all agree to disagree.

This has nothing to do with a 'proportionate' response. It is one of the great massacres of our age, inflicted by a state which has made it clear it wishes to rid Gaza of its Palestinian population.

At the same time, dissenting voices have been vilified, harassed and silenced. There has been a deliberate campaign to portray the real hateful dangerous extremists as not those who cheer on this slaughter, but those who oppose it.

That's why my focus has been on this moral obscenity, and that's where it will stay for the foreseeable future.

I'm delighted to say that this content has been reaching an audience of many millions each month. I'm particularly proud of work to elevate the voices we need to hear - Palestinian voices above all else, of course, as well as Israeli peace activists and scholars of war and genocide. It's important that those of us using our platforms to speak the truth aren't acting as 'white knights' - it's the Palestinian people who need the biggest loudspeakers.

There will be much more of that to come. We all have a responsibility to speak out, however big or small our platform, or we become complicit. And while that may mean being harassed, intimidated and vilified, we have to remember that this is nothing compared to the horrors suffered by the Palestinian journalists of Gaza - and if they still have the courage and determination to speak the truth, then the least we can all do under infinitely less horrendous circumstances is to do the same.

Happy New Year and thanks again.

xxxx

[MC Hammed @hammed_mc]

@raycivkit Free 🇵🇸.
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” - Tutu

[Humza Yousaf @HumzaYousaf]

Gaza is under intense bombing.

Telecommunications have been cut.

We can't get through to our family who have been trapped in this war zone for almost 3 weeks.

We can only pray they survive the night.

How many more children have to die before the world says enough?

[Humza Yousaf @HumzaYousaf]

How can this be justified?

What crime have these babies committed?

This is why collective punishment must be called out and condemned.

Let aid in, including fuel. Otherwise, these images should haunt us for the rest of our lives.

A ceasefire is needed and needed now.

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

For years, the right fulminated against ‘cancel culture’ and ‘snowflakes’ and in favor of ‘free speech’ no matter how ‘offensive’ and now…

[Humza Yousaf @HumzaYousaf]

There can be no justification for this. None whatsoever.

If people can not be safe in a hospital, where can they?

This attack must be unequivocally condemned in the strongest possible manner

Ceasefire is needed now. Innocent men, women & children must be allowed to leave Gaza

[MC Hammed @hammed_mc]

@jeremybrier Sorry didn’t you post unverified info the other day which you represented as “truth”.
Grossly irresponsible from a KC as well.

[Lowkey @Lowkey0nline]

The BBC admits that it misled the public about pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the UK.

[MC Hammed @hammed_mc]

@DerbyChrisW Why are we still calling him sir? 🤡he doesn’t deserve any respect.

[Sayeeda Warsi @SayeedaWarsi]

Did Keir really say Israel has the right to withhold power& water from a civilian population in occupied territory that they cannot escape from ?
If so this is dangerous rhetoric from a lawyer & potential PM.
Trashing Int &Humanitarian laws trashes our standing in the world😔

[Lowkey @Lowkey0nline]

Israel has killed 260 children in Gaza since October 7th.

[MC Hammed @hammed_mc]

@jeremybrier You confidently refer to this as truth.
Not even Sky has been able to verify it (and have decided not to report it until verified)
If true it’s horrific - there’s no doubt whatsoever.
But if not true - how do you think sharing unverified false information achieves anything?

[Lowkey @Lowkey0nline]

"We have not seen the evidence of that...we have asked the IDF 3 times to confirm it...they have not yet.."

SKY News explains why it is not covering the "beheaded babies" claim.

[MC Hammed @hammed_mc]

@Keir_Starmer @RuthAnderson @margarethodge @LouiseEllman @lisanandy @JohnHealey_MP @_LFI @RachelReevesMP You don’t speak for Britain.
I can understand standing with innocents wherever they are.
Not with an occupying power itself responsible for the deaths of hundreds of women and children in the last few days.

[MC Hammed @hammed_mc]

@adamscochran No - your gross oversimplification is bs.
Failure to consider the relevance of occupation; how densely populated Gaza is (nowhere to run to); the multiple times this has happened the other way.
Also calling me before you kill me doesn’t make me any less dead? 🤷🏽‍♂️

[MC Hammed @hammed_mc]

@itswillmack Haha we should start a poll for the different guesses! 😂

[MC Hammed @hammed_mc]

Judge in yesterday's COPA v Wright judgment:

"Dr Wright responded: In early May 2016, [he] destroyed the hard drive which contained the private keys.

One notable absence from [Wright's] witness statement is any explanation as to why Dr Wright destroyed this hard drive."

👀

[MC Hammed @hammed_mc]

@Arthur_van_Pelt @prosestylist Yes exactly! The irony of the defendant making such a fuss is that they draw the judge’s attention to the very thing they are trying to exclude.

[MC Hammed @hammed_mc]

@baclfoo Ha! Typo in judgment which I have inadvertently carried over into Tweet…

[MC Hammed @hammed_mc]

Latest COPA v Wright judgment just out.
https://t.co/zh2ArNi62G

On the autism application:
- Permission given to adduce the expert report of Professor Fazel
- COPA has until 13 November 2021 to prepare a report in response

Revised trial timetable: