“If children don't grow up knowing about nature and appreciating it, they will not understand it, and if they don't understand it, they won't protect it, and if they don't protect it, who will?”
- Sir David Attenborough
"By an accident of birth he (William) has acquired the right to pocket the income from 53,000 hectares of land across 20 counties, as well as forests, rivers, quarries and coastline. Last year they paid out Prince William £23.6m. You read that right."
Julian Assange has just celebrated his first birthday in freedom after many years of persecution. The government was forced to admit in court that his only crime was journalism, and that no one had ever come to harm from it.
That's called winning.
Israel is deliberately killing the children of Gaza.
An aid truck filled with medical and nutritional supplies for 10,000 children in Gaza was turned around by Israel for no reason. —James Elder, a spokesperson for UNICEF
This is an act of genocide.
Horrific scenes from Rafah tonight.
Too awful to re post- charred and decapitated bodies of children.
And all while the world watches.
I truly hope that in my lifetime we see those in power held to account - those who could have stopped this and failed to do so
The appalling heartless leaders who could not even find the words to condemn a massacre that has been live-streamed on our phones for months
So many of us have publicly and privately urged our government, the PM, the @FCDOGovUK to act.
This is on their watch - because they armed , supported and failed to condemn Netanyahu and his extreme right wing
We failed to support the ICJ , abstained at the UNSC , undermined the ICC and continued to arm and support a regime that has brutally slaughtered innocents for months.
UK foreign policy on Palestine is morally bankrupt.
I am sorry we failed you.🇵🇸
There is one thing we should all be able to agree with Netanyahu on: Any comparison between Israel's war crimes and those of Hamas is, as the Israeli prime minister put it, "absurd and false" and a "distortion of reality".
Here's why:
* Israeli war crimes have been ongoing for more than seven decades, long predating Hamas' creation.
* Israel has kept the Palestinians of Gaza caged into a concentration camp for the past 17 years, denying them connection to the outside world and the essentials of life. Hamas managed to besiege a small part of Israel for one day, on October 7.
* For every Israeli killed by Hamas on October 7, Israel has slaughtered at least 35 times that number of Palestinians. Similar kill-ratios grossly skewed in Israel's favour have been true for decades.
* Israel has killed more than 15,000 Palestinian children since October – and many tens of thousands more Palestinian children are missing under rubble, maimed or orphaned. By early April, Israel had killed a further 114 children in the West Bank and injured 725 more. Hamas killed a total of 33 Israeli children on October 7.
* Israel has laid waste to Gaza's entire health sector. It has bombed its hospitals, and killed, beaten and kidnapped many hundreds of medical personnel. Hamas has not attacked one Israeli hospital.
* Israel has killed more than 100 journalists in Gaza and more than 250 aid workers. It has also kidnapped a further 40 journalists. Most are presumed to have been taken to a secret detention facility where torture is rife. Hamas is reported to have killed one Israeli journalist on October 7, and no known aid workers.
* Israel is actively starving Gaza's population by denying it food, water and aid. That is a power – a genocidal one – Hamas could only ever dream of.
* Israel has been forcibly removing Palestinians from their lands for more than 76 years to build illegal Jewish settlements in their place. Hamas has not been able to ethnically cleanse a single Israeli, nor build a single Palestinian settlement on Israeli land.
* Some 750,000 Palestinians are reported to have been taken hostage and jailed by Israel since 1967 – an unwelcome rite of passage for Palestinian men and boys and one in which torture is routine and military trials ensure a near-100% conviction rate. Until October 7, Hamas had only ever managed to take hostage a handful of the Israeli soldiers whose job is to oppress Palestinians.
* And, while Hamas is designated a terrorist organisation by western states, those same western states laud Israel, fund and arm it, and provide it with diplomatic cover, even as the World Court rules that a plausible case has been made it is committing a genocide in Gaza.
Yes, Netanyahu is right. There is no comparison.
Teesworks Freeport scandal, Michael Gove has stopped audits by HMRC for Freeports.
Instead each Freeport will audit themselves and report to a government forum.
Freeports need to be banned, and Michael Gove needs to be prosecuted.
Doctors Without Borders say the intensity of the onslaught by Israel 🇮🇱 on Rafah 🇵🇸 has forced it to stop lifesaving care at Rafah Indonesian Field Hospital.
It’s never been about defence.
It’s always been about genocide.
"The reason Israel can contemplate ANOTHER massacre in Gaza, this time in Rafah, is because it never faces any consequences. Ever."
- while Israel commits more war crimes, Irish lawmaker @RBoydBarrett repeats an urgent demand for sanctions against Israel