Hamas has confirmed that Yahya Sinwar was killed on Thursday in combat with Israeli forces. It is already clear that in the eyes of many Palestinians and many supporters of Palestinian liberation he is an even greater hero in death than he was in life.

As far as British law is concerned he was a terrorist and expressing support for him is a crime. But history has never yet been written by British prosecutors. History has no more reason to label Sinwar a terrorist than to pin that label on any other freedom fighter.

If I were inclined to criticise Sinwar or Hamas I would refrain from doing so, because I would be rolling my opinion down a tilted playing field. Anyone who publicly disagreed with me would risk prosecution. And if I were inclined to say something supportive of Sinwar I would also refrain from doing so, because the tilt of UK law would be against me. I refuse to engage in a political discussion chaired by the police. Continue reading “Yahya Sinwar – Censored Martyrdom” »

The dust has settled now on the SNP’s election rout. The predictable platitudes have been uttered and Parliament is in recess. The genocide in Gaza continues, as does UK support for it. What are we to make of the electoral success of Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, a party that outspokenly supports Israel? And what are we to make of the increase in the number of people who voted for Labour in Scotland compared with the 2019 election, contrary to the trend across the UK as a whole?

There is a lot to be said about the Scottish election results, but no issue trumps genocide. It cannot be balanced against any merits that might be found in other Labour policies. No one complicit in genocidal actions, either through their own statements or through the Cabinet’s collective responsibulity, is fit for public office.

The weight of an issue doesn’t guarantee that it will register at the vote count. That takes organisation, either the explicit kind or the kind that’s built into media priorities and spin. It’s hard work to turn a single issue into a decisive one but it can be done, as the pro-Brexit lobby demonstrated in 2019. But the Brexiteers began by capturing the Tory party and making it unequivocally the party to “get Brexit done.” The struggle against the Gaza genocide is different. From the beginning it has been a struggle by some of the people against almost all of the professional political apparatus. Continue reading “The Genocide Election” »

The January 2024 issue of the quarterly magazine “The Long View” is dedicated to “Palestine and the Shifting Paradigms of Peace” and includes my article How to Make a Genocide and How to Resist It.

The Long View editorial says:

“In our lead essay, Richard Haley looks not at why there is so much tacit and explicit support for a genocidal project in the west, but how this is able to operate. He contends that three issues have been key to opening the door for this next stage of annihilation being unleashed since October 2023 on the Palestinians. There are three pillars to the procedural and discursive framework that has made this genocide possible: the imputation of anti-semitism to critics of Israel, the invention of an Israeli right to self-defence that goes beyond its rights under the UN Charter, and the criminalisation of armed Palestinian resistance. Haley takes no prisoners in detailing how international law and institutions have been disregarded and undermined, and solidarity movements cowed and or socialised. His conclusion is clear: the language of the oppressors cannot be used to liberate the oppressed.”

Continue reading “How to Make a Genocide and How to Resist It” »

Today is the twentieth anniversary of the huge demonstrations in London and Glasgow against the imminent US-UK invasion of Iraq. A few days later David Aaronovitch published a nasty, condescending article in the Guardian that he must have hoped would help break the momentum of the anti-war movement. It was headlined “Dear marcher, please answer a few questions.” I took him at his word and sent the Guardian an article with answers to his questions. Naturally they ignored it. Here it is, written on 28 February 2003.

Continue reading “Dear David, I’m not going to give war a chance” »

For almost two and a half years the British media have been running stories about a dissident republican fixer and supposed MI5 agent called Dennis McFadden. Some of the stories have more than a whiff of MI5 propaganda about them. Reporting fairly on MI5 is difficult, but the media need to try harder.

McFadden was exposed in August 2020 when he was described in court as a state agent by lawyers representing ten people charged with offences related to alleged New IRA terrorism. Committal proceedings against the ten have been under way since 24 October 2022 to determine whether there is sufficient evidence for a trial.

McFadden was central to the events leading to these people being charged, but he has not been named as a suspect in the case or called as a witness and has apparently disappeared. The circumstances surrounding his involvement make it virtually impossible to doubt that he was working for the British state.

Nine of the people charged were at the time of their arrest members of Saoradh, a political party that the media often describe as the “political wing” of the New IRA. The tenth person was Issam Bassalat, a Palestinian doctor from Edinburgh. His limited connection with Saoradh was solely through McFadden, and his lawyers say that his presence at a meeting that is key to the charges against him was the result of pressure and deception by McFadden. They say that in any case Dr Bassalat spoke only about the situation in Palestine and committed no crime.

MI5 is said by police to have been a “partner” in the operation – codenamed “Arbacia” – that led to the arrests, and to have made the covert recordings on which the prosecution relies. But the spy agency has so far refused to confirm or deny that McFadden was working for them.

Continue reading “Spooks and Spin – What was the role of suspected MI5 agent Dennis McFadden?” »