Ukraine should negotiate an end to its war with Russia, and be prepared to trade ‘peace for land’.
That’s the view of one of Britain’s most senior retired military leaders, a former chief of the defence staff, general David Richards (lord Richards), expressed in a surprising interview with the BBC on 20 February. The full transcript of his interview is below. We should point out that we have not found any reporting of this interview, or of Richards’s call for negotiations, in any…
In mid-February, longtime British peace activist Rosy Bremer spraypainted an anti-war message on the walls of Portsmouth naval base, which also houses an arm of the giant arms company BAE Systems.
As you can see in the video shot by Linda Spence, Rosy spraypainted: '♥ Gaza ♥ Rafah ♥ peace'.
Rosy told the Portsmouth News:
'I'm a normal person and I believe we…
Two Christian protesters were arrested at Downing Street today [29 Dec '23] after pouring fake blood and putting bloody handprints on the gates.
Virginia Moffat (58) and Chris Cole (60) from Dorset said that the government had 'blood on its hands' after refusing to demand Israel end its bombing of Gaza, calling it 'a massacre of biblical proportions'.
In a statement distributed at the protest the married couple said:
"Britain's and Israel's justification for this…
What’s the current situation in Yemen, and what are the prospects of the conflict being resolved in the near future?
First, it’s crucial to note that the conflict in Yemen goes beyond a mere civil war, as it spans three distinct dimensions: local, regional and international. It started in 2014 when the Ansar Allah (Houthi) armed group seized control of Sana’a, the capital, and escalated with the intervention of a Saudi-led coalition in 2015. The ongoing conflict has…
On 26 November, CND and Extinction Rebellion (XR) activists gathered in York as part of a global day of action to call for an end to nuclear weapons and to bring attention to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The event took place at the start of the second Meeting of States Parties (MSPs), a gathering of countries who have ratified…
Many of you will have encountered Bill Hetherington during your peace movement campaigning; I'm sorry to have to tell you that he died on Sunday night (5 November '23), having been ill for some time.
Those of you who've had a long involvement with British peace organisations will have known him for a long while - his activism goes back around 60 years.
He was a direct actionist in Britain in the 1960s, and has been involved in pacifist activism ever since. Internationally, he…
Erella, on behalf of The Villages Group writes:
Greetings to our friends all,
Yesterday (Monday, 30.10.23) afternoon, coming back home from another day in the South Hebron Hills, I could not find the strength to write. Now, morning, so much has happened since yesterday, so many things in the same places I had visited yesterday afternoon, that writing seems pale in comparison and cannot keep up. We need a kind…
The UK public overwhelmingly supports an immediate ceasefire in Israel-Palestine.
Indeed, in a 19 October 2023 YouGov poll 58% said that there should 'definitely' be an immediate ceasefire in Israel and Palestine, with a further 18% saying that there 'probably should' be such a ceasefire.
Though the UK government continues to offer…
Yair, on behalf of The Villages Group writes:
We began our morning shopping at Hura (Israeli Bedouin town). The supermarket owner, a learned, nice man who already knows us, refused to let us pay for the food we bought for D and her family. We also bought diapers, a gas stove, and Sim cards and chargers for the three phones we received as a donation and passed on to friends whose devices were stolen or vandalized. …
Erella, on behalf of the The Villages Group writes (27 Oct '23):
Every day on our way to south Mt. Hebron, we call our friends there to find out what awaits us on the road. Whether there are soldiers and / or settlers at the junctions and / or in the villages we wish to visit. On weekends we pay even more attention. "The religious settlers are very careful not to do any work on the holy Sabbath, but I guess destroying…
Yair, on behalf of The Villages Group, writes:
On Wednesday [25 Oct '23], D. recorded some WhatsApp messages for Erella. Soldiers came, entered the cave. Taftish - that's the magic word – a search.
D. lives in a cave somewhat distant from the houses of Tuba village, just she and her widowed mother and another younger brother. This distance from the village makes it easy for settlers and soldiers to…
Felicity Laurence writes: The Villages Group is a small but totally dedicated Israeli-Palestinian peace group who have worked year in and year out to show friendship and support to people under occupation in Palestine. I visited many times, to sing and do music with children in the villages, including in the very places right now being destroyed. Things are desperate as never before. I am receiving their letters every day. Here are some…
With the UK government offering “unequivocal” support for Israel - and Labour's leadership not far behind it – nonviolent protest could play a critical role in protecting Gaza's civilians.
By taking to the streets in our hundreds of thousands, flooding MPs' inboxes with letters and emails and staging savvy nonviolent direct actions, there's the possibility of setting limits on or even terminating British support for Israeli war crimes and apartheid.
But many people are…
On her Tuesday 10 October show Breakfast, Sky presenter Kay Burley repeatedly misrepresented comments by UK Palestinian Ambassador Husam Zomlot concerning recent atrocities in Israel-Palestine.
Specifically, in interviews with three separate guests she asserted that Zomlot:
On a scraggy patch of land we stake our claim -
this country's ours, not terrain of the owners -
and string up banners, raise placards that name
a wrong so grievous it has shown us
that the courts of justice are courts of disgrace
with judges so corrupt they take their cue
from whispered briefings designed to erase
all sense of fairness - take a bow, yes you,
Emma Arbuthnot, Vanessa Baraitser,
bewigged and wooden, reeling off…
