OPERATION SOLSTICE - The Battle of the Beanfield 1985 (40th Anniversary ) Lest we Forget

 

The Battle of the Beanfield took place over several hours, ago today on the afternoon  Saturday 1 June 1985, when Wiltshire police prevented a vehicle convoy of several hundred New Age Travelers, known as the ' Peace Convoy'  from setting off from Savernake Forest in Wiltshire towards the twelfth Stonehenge Free Festival and setting up a free gathering and celebration of the summer solstice that had been taking place since 1974.

Stonehenge Free Festival   had grown from the ashes of the Windsor Park Free Festival, that used to take place on the Queen’s lawn, but when this was crushed in 1973 (by the then Labour Government – surprise, surprise), those   that had gathered there moved to the Henge  under the right of Common Law. 

However at a meeting of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), in early 1985, it was resolved to obtain a High Court Injunction preventing the annual gathering at Stonehenge. This was the device to be used to justify the attack at the “Battle of the Beanfield” on the 1st June in Hampshire. Well it wasn’t a battle really. It was an ambush.

They were stopped by a  militarised police roadblock, following  which 1,300 police descended upon them and  British and brutally attacked  people that resulted in innocent unarmed people, women and children being violently beaten up in their own homes, after years of gathering  in the same place of celebration, by the combined  forces of the state, who armed with shields and batons ran savagely amok.

The traditional Stonehenge People’s Free Festival,  had taken place at Stonehenge for the summer solstice for a decade. The festival, which lasted for the whole of June, had become a countercultural highlight of the calendar for many people, particularly the growing number of people who had chosen to live on the road in Thatcher’s Britain. In 1984 an estimated 30,000 people had attended. 

It was estimated that at the time of the Beanfield there were some 12,000 travellers living on the road throughout the UK. And the numbers were steadily growing, taking advantage of the thriving free festival circuit throughout the UK at the time.

The  marginalised and dispossessed  of this land  were brutally  targeted by a police forces  under the auspices of  Margaret Thatcher's right wing, repressive  Conservative Government,  as they suppressed a peoples thirst for freedom,  with  quasi military force that systematically carried out serious abuses of their power with such unrelenting  frenzied brutality following similar tactics  used  against striking miners  the one  in Orgreave the year before.,

On their way to a festival in the North the previous year travellers had encountered officers from the Met returning from the pit villages. As they drove passed them police held up signs with ‘YOU’RE NEXT’ emblazoned across them.

The ambush on June 1 resulted in the worst police violence in living memory, and involved 1300 officers from 6 constabularies. The government and  police, deciding to put an end to both the Festival and the travelling lifestyle that growing numbers of people were adopting. Using an increasingly para-militarised police force, as an extension of brute strength tactics employed against the miners the previous year. 

It was also just after the eviction of the Molesworth peace camp, which is where the traveller's Peace Convoy got it's name, at a time when anyone who opposed government policy was considered to be an 'Enemy Within' and investigated, infiltrated, marginalised, and often attacked, both physically and through the law.

A  truly  horrible time, like today, when people who live on societies  edges are attacked simply for being different. Women and their babies were left showered with glass after the police had smashed up their vehicles and homes and  the police cracked skulls (literally), One young mother carrying her baby, was dragged out of her home by her hair. Some of the police, clearly intent on causing serious damage to both people and homes, were masked up to protect their anonymity. Many didn’t wear numbers. 

It would subsequently  leave over 116 travelers  hospitalised and see  537 travellers arrested after their homes were systematically looted, smashed and burnt  with their possessions  being stolen.. At the time this represented one of the largest mass arrests of civilians since at least the Second World War. ( the few that were arrested were never ever prosecuted) 

Innocent people  who were beaten and bloodied because they simply refused to conform or bow down to a rotten system, and had decided to try and live by their own set of alternative values. Who  simply wanted to gather under the stones to celebrate their lives, sing and dance.. The overall cost of this operation was a staggering £5 miillion. The media of the time played their part too, with footage of the most extreme police violence being subsequently lost, and the subsequent demonising of the traveller lifestyle. 

The travellers unexpected saviour at the time was the Earl of Cardigan, who at the times self-described  himself as "card-carrying Conservative" but  became an invaluable witness to the travellers' tales of police brutality, vandalism and unfair arrest. An interesting note - the Telegraph called the Earl of Cardigan a 'class traitor' for testifying about the violence he witnessed.

A dark day for British justice and civil liberties and freedom, marking a turning point after the injustices of  Wapping, and the miners strike in this supression of our civil liberties that we should never forget.the largest mass arrest in British history.

In a spiteful coordination, social services were on hand to take traumatised children into care, and in some cases held for a few days. Seven dogs were put down. the children of the travellers into care. The last child was returned to their family in the early 2000s  It is important  to  remember that  there has never been a proper inquiry into the brutality - physical and systemic - used. and  years later people still  suffering the consequences ,and bearing the scars of this dark passage in history.

The stones remain, but we should continue to mourn  to  remember and mourn  the pain, and values of human decency that was lost on this day.
Footage of this day which you can see in following film should still make us all, shudder - it's the sight of power off the leash, police arrogant enough to know that they can beat up defenceless people in front of TV cameras without having to worry because they know their political masters had given  them them the green light to do what they like, a dark day reminding us  how British justice and civil liberties and freedom is eroded, that we  should never forget. Years later people still  suffering the consequences , and bearing the scars of this dark passage in history. 

In February 1991 a civil court judgement awarded 21 of the travellers £24,000 in damages for false imprisonment, damage to property and wrongful arrest. The award was swallowed by their legal bill as the judge did not award them legal costs.

The Battle of  the  beanfield remains  a  watermark event  and  one of the darkest days in contemporary British history and in the fight for the commons. An indicator of what was to come, with increased surveillance and suppression of all dissenting voices. One of the lasting legacies of the Battle of the Beanfield, and subsequent police operations surrounding travellers and the summer solstice, would be to tighten an increasingly authoritarian police state belt.

 There were two clear results from the battle, the Stonehenge free festivals came to an end, merging into the nearby Glastonbury Festival. And it spurred calls for similar heavy-handed tactics against gypsy, or Roma, camps around Britain. Local councillors saw an opportunity to win votes from residents by demanding Stonehenge-style policing against all travellers.

In 1986, ushered in on a wave of news-managed moral panic, it was the Public Order Act. Supposedly the government aimed it at a minority, but, as with every legal knee jerk since, it bound everyone. In one section, it limits the number of vehicles that could park up together to twelve – because they really didn’t like people meeting up.  

This would soon become  thanks to the Criminal Justice Act 1994, another tightened notch, only this time with two new convenient groups – ravers and road protestors – in the crosshairs. And more recently, we’ve seen anti-protest laws, controlling everybody, not just Just Stop Oil. The battle of the beanfield will never be forgotten and the police  can never be forgiven  for  the  actions they  committed  on this  dreadful  day. At a roundabout  in , Wiltshire, someone has placed on one of the fence posts a commemorative plaque. It says:  

This marks the spot of THE BATTLE OF THE BEANFIELD June 1st 1985.  

An inscription adds:  

You can’t kill the spirit.  

And despite their best efforts, after nearly 40 years of the Public Order Act 1986, with hundreds of people now taking up van life in laybys, carparks, and in fields all over the country, they still clearly haven’t. Because no matter how hard they push down with that thumb, the spirit, like water, will always find a way:

                                   Copyright Alan Lodge

Operation Solstice -- The Beanfield 1985 (40th Anniversary 

  

 
Some good links here for more on this  tragic story

http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/henge-85.html

http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/

http://libcom.org/history/1985-battle-beanfield

The Levellers - Battle of the Beanfield

Hawkwind - Ghost Dance

Ian Dury and the Blockheads - Itinerant Child

Inner Terrestials - Free the land

Hope for Palestine

 

Art: 'We shall Return' Abu Ishtayyah

Hope for Palestine, 

We witness children burning, trapped by hellish fire

Bombed to death by terrorist state fuelling ire, 

These flames burn deep inside, cruel and unkind

Grave injustices that engulf heart and mind,

No room for words, the world must act and stand  

Let justice  be delivered, offer it's unyielding hand, 

Amidst all the pain, where hope seems shatterred

There remains a people with spirits undaunted, 

Never surrendering or giving in, hold on to sumud

A unique iteration of resilience and steadfastness,

Do not fall into despair, even in the darkest times

Strong  and fearless, under ash ridden sky,    

Last night, I had a dream, in this land of Palestine

From the rivers to the sea, the chimes of freedom,

Beyond this time of  genocide and annihilation

The pain of hunger replaced with healing balms, 

Instead of living in tents, trembling in fear of bombs 

Homes rebuilt, children wake to play and laughter, 

Eyes see the delight of beauty and goodness 

As flowers bloom again under spreading olive trees,

Hear joyful sounds of liberation, as occupation ends 

Peace and love daily spread, instead of oppression. 

Feeling , Sad and Depressed? You might be suffering from Capitalism.

Today, Capitalism seems to be an unescapable state of things, a system far too big and complex to be even put into question. Yet many of the problems of our modern world, though, from the environmental crisis to social and economic inequalities, mental  health crisis, seem to lead back to our  current  economic system. 

The very heart and soul of the system is the idea that our economy exists to serve the wealthy, to allow them to extract limitless, maximum amounts from the rest of us, and from the planet. Protecting and growing their financial wealth,called “capital”is the aim of the whole system. 

Capital is a world-wide relation between classes, based on the exploitation of wage labour and production for sale in order to realise profit. The constant search for outlets for its commodities calls forth ruthless competition between nation states for domination of the world market. And this competition demands that every national capital must expand or die. A capitalism that no longer seeks to penetrate the last corner of the planet and grow without limit cannot exist.

By the same token, capitalism is utterly incapable of cooperating on a global scale to respond to the ecological crisis, as the abject failure of all the various climate summits and protocols has already proved. The hunt for profit, which has nothing to do with human need, is at the root of the despoliation of nature and  the  gaping   inequaliries  we see  in  society  and this has been true since capitalism began.

The origins of capitalism are complicated, and stretch back to the 16th century, when the British systems of power largely collapsed after the Black Death, a deadly plague that killed off up to 60% of Europe’s entire population. A newly formed class of merchants began to trade with foreign countries, and this newfound demand for exports hurt local economies and began to dictate overall production and pricing of goods. It also led to the spread of colonialism, slavery, and imperialism.  

The death of feudalism ,a hierarchical system often seen as oppressive that kept poor people bonded to their masters’ land, which they farmed in exchange for a place to live and military protection, also left rural British peasants with no homes and no work, which eventually funneled them away from the countryside and into urban centers. These former farm workers then had to sell their labor in a newly competitive work environment in order to survive, while the state worked in concert with the new capitalists to establish a maximum wage and “clamp down on beggars.”  

By the 18th century, England had converted into an industrial nation, and the dawn of the Industrial Revolution saw an explosion of manufacturing overtake the island. It is within those smoky factories and flammable textile mills that our modern idea of capitalism, and the opposition to it, began to fully flourish. 

In 1776, Scottish economist Adam Smith published his treatise, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, which is regarded as the bedrock upon which modern capitalism stands. Though some of his specific ideas about value and labor differ from those of modern economists, Smith is often called “the father of capitalism.”

Capitalism has since  continually pushed the idea of market fundamentalism,  meaning that the market can solve all social, economic, and political problems. According to this idea, the market serves best when left unregulated. It promotes a cut-throat competition driven by self-interest. Believing  that this kind of environment leads to innovation and economic growth, promoting overall welfare.  

But  left to its own devices, raw unmanaged capitalism produces some very unpleasant outcomes. Capitalism takes the position that “greed is good,” which its supporters say is a positive thing, greed drives profits and profits drive innovation and product development, which means there are more choices available for those who can afford them. Yett capitalism is, by  it's very nature, is exploitative, and leads to a brutally divided society that tramples the working classes in favor of fattening the rich’s wallets. 

While Capitalism encourages greed,  let's try  not to  forget that  greed is only good for capitalists qho  are ,typically wealthy people who have a large amount of capital (money or other financial assets) invested in business, and who benefit from the system of capitalism by making increased profits and thereby adding to their wealth. 

Many people believe that greed is the root of all evil,  that it is anti-social and soul destroying, not to mention very bad for our communities, which rely on altruism, compassion and a generalized concern for others. Beleiving that Capitalism  has become such an alienating system that makes people feel powerless, isolated, insecure, afraid,  and demand the destruction of the system that they see as being a Plutocracy that is of the Corporations, by the Corporations, for the Corporations to screw the people over. 

The benefits of capitalism are rarely equitably distributed. Wealth tends to accrue to a small % of the population and the very sick nature of capitalism  causing  inequality to keep increasing, causing  traits like  selfishness and makes people more acquisitive and materialistic. It provides us with an idea of success that rendered us as lonely and stressed creatures filled with self-doubt. 

Norms of capitalist society also help   enforce social isolation. Isolation  which  has become an epidemic.as more and more people  become  isolated from their friends, families, relationships, and even from their work. 

This  leads  me to  the subject  of mental health  which is probably the most ignored aspect of one’s health. Seeing the data of rising mental illness, it will not be suitable for us if we keep ignoring this impending epidemic and how capitalism helps  create  it. A subject  so  impoetant to  address as globally, more than 264 million people suffer from depression. Over 8,00,000 people commit suicide every year, which is roughly one person every 40 seconds.

There is a significant correlation between social conditions and the mental health of persons. Mental illness is not a mere chemical imbalance in mind. We are a reflection of society. If we are healthy, it means the community is healthy and if we are sick, it means society is sick, and its root cause is capitalism. And there's nothing more depressing than capitalism. Multiple studies link capitalism's byproducts; inequality, job insecurity, and social alienation, to mental illness. 

Most of society's mental health problems stem ultimately from financial insecurity and the alienation from one's own human essence having to working under the capitalist mode of production. Capitalism produces a society where wealth is equated with happiness. The more a person can consume, the happier they  can be. In a quest to achieve this happiness, people feel alienated, sad, depressed, and anxious.

A capitalistic society continually asks us to be “productive” and condition us to feel bad and guilty for relaxing, or as they say, wasting time. This has led to the birth of a new problem known as Productivity Anxiety- a state in which a person feels anxious for not being “productive enough.”

We constantly compare ourselves with others and fear being “less productive” than them. Anything other than that, no matter how much it can be useful for oneself, is not productive. Society in Capitalism makes us believe that we are worth nothing more than our productivity.  

Capitalism  also  uses  manipulative  tools like advertising ,marketing, entertainment and even so-called news. to  control  our  minds, Millions around the world are employed to use their creativity to twist our feelings of love, desire, human solidarity and fairness into tools of manipulation,. so that ever more profits can flow into the hands of a tiny minority.  

The market under Capitalism has failed to keep it’s the most significant promise. It was supposed to grant us freedom and emancipation; instead, it has delivered the  opposite The vast majority of us who work for a living are daily asked to uncritically follow orders, to act as if we are machines, and limit our creativity to what profits our bosses.Sociologist Zygmunt Bauman has rightly remarked,” Never have we been so free. Never have we felt so powerless.” 

So next time you feel sad, afraid, or anxious and feel at odds with this mad market-driven world where people with poor mental health are just treated as another market, it’s not because of a chemical imbalance in your mind most of the time, it is Capitalism.

Capitalism breaks our spirit by forcing us to claw our way through life as commodities and it's so logical that a society organized around the commodification of everything would produce a mental health crisis. It pits us against one another. It rips away our humanity. It destroys empathy. It destroys our sense of community. It destroys families. 

The capitalist system not only prioritises profit over human health and wellbeing, it actively thrives on the extraction of corporate revenue from human malaise and torment. Just ask the pharmaceutical industry.  

The formula is simple. Neoliberalism breeds psychological distress by working to obliterate solidarity, the very essence of humanity, while converting the right to physical and mental health care into an exclusive and costly endeavour, an arrangement that only aggravates mental health stressors for those of lesser socioeconomic means. 

 And while depression, anxiety and despair are completely rational reactions to an inhuman environment, and a world that capitalism is rapidly propelling towards ecological annihilation, drug companies have pushed pathologising psychological turmoil as an individual defect rather than a result of societal context. 

 Capitalism is also not a friend to democracy but ultimately its enemy. When pushed, capitalists choose capitalism over democracy. If people use democracy to weaken the power of capitalists the rich and powerful turn to various forms of fascism in order to keep their privileges. Rich people also use their money to dominate the elections that are supposed to give us all one, equal vote. Under capitalism those with the most money are entitled to the most goods and services as well as the most say in directing our governments and our economy. 

As German Communist philosopher and economist Karl Marx, perhaps the most famous opponent of capitalism in history, who ironically enough helped to popularize the term , wrote in his book Capital, Volume 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production, “Just as man is governed, in religion, by the products of his own brain, so, in capitalist production, he is governed by the products of his own hand.”  The essential anti-capitalist argument is that “the hallmark of capitalism is poverty in the midst of plenty.”  forcing  immense suffering and violence upon the laboring classes, the ruthless emphasis on profits over people, the proliferation of wage slavery, in which people have no choice but to sell their labor, which we see in every industry from fast food to corporate office work.

Marx also emphasized the system’s capacity to dehumanize workers, writing that capitalist methods of productivity “mutilate the labourer into a fragment of a man, degrade him to the level of an appendage of a machine, destroy every remnant of charm in his work and turn it into a hated toil.”  Today his words sound eerily current,

As the looming threat of automation and erosion of public health care puts more pressure on the working class, with many of  us worrying that capitalism’s thirst for profit over everything else means that those who sell their labor will be worked to death.

Capitalism proclaims the virtue of naked self-interest, but self-interest without regard for morality, or common sense that leads to environmental degradation, colonialism, war and other forms of mass destruction,  while a  the same time , the arms industry, another pillar of capitalism, perpetuates its own vicious cycle of lucrative catastrophe, devastating communities as it wages war on human empathy.

In conclision capitalism has become so dominant that it is difficult to ever imagine a world in which its injustices and inequalities are not present. but the  pervasive myth that capitalism is unchallengeable like it will outlive the human race and the earth itself,is based on fictions and the propaganda of capitalism itself. We don't have to settle for the status quo or to the direction that society seems to be taking us. 

Remember Capitalism has never been static, never mind stable. It has collapsed into failure countless times, destroying lives, communities and entire nations before being bailed out by the sweat and callouses of the working class.  In this way, it can be seen as a chronic condition, a system of destabilisation, collapse and rebirth that perpetually takes place, with each iteration slightly different, and often less stable than the last. 

The UK is  currently experiencing levels of inflation not seen since the 1980s; declining wages are going hand in hand with soaring fuel and food prices, and a large proportion of the population are unable to meet their basic needs. The popular narrative surrounding this ‘costs of living crisis’ links it with certain isolated ‘shocks’ – the War in Ukraine, the Covid-19 pandemic, Brexit etc – and suggests it can be managed, and overcome, via certain temporary measures, such as wage restraint, reduced public spending, and limited assistance to the most vulnerable.  In fact, of course, this ‘costs of living’ crisis is deeply  rooted in the much more generalised crisis of modern capitalism.

The nature of capitalism, serves a purpose other than to produce misery..We just need to stop bolstering it with meek lies based on flawed economic theory that it is an inherently superior and inviolable system, as there is an abundance of evidence to the contrary.  As long as humanity ties itself to capitalism we are doomed. It’s a parasitic, dysfunctional and abusive  system that has reached a dead end and must be abolished. A new  fairer egalitarian society for the benefit of all in accordance with a set of collectively determined parameters; unlike under capitalism is required. 

There is no easy way to do this, and we are currently a long way from the sort of consciousness and organisation needed to overthrow this system of inequality. However another kinder  world devoid  of  capitalsm is possible,  but  we have to  continually  to fight  for  it.  in  all  areas of our lives,  putting people and the planet before  profit. .

“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.”  Ursula Le Guin.

From old stems to new seedlings

We are all products

Of our mistakes, 

A mosaic of different scars

Haunting the present.

Hope is the lifeline, 

That keeps on calling, 

A silent presence that says,

you’re not alone.

Between the flaws  

We make journeys,

With our healing hearts,

Allow love to stir.

Beyond the storms of life ,

Times of trauma and strife, 

Every day is a new breath  

We inhale letting out a sigh.

Make our amends

Relax with inner grace,

Erase trembling aches

As bitterness floats away.

Let turbulent thoughts go

Settle like depositing sediments,

Wash away deep insecurities

Embrace labyrinths of existence.

 

Broken paths deflected

Reach out for the evening sky, .

Enabling clarity to arrive 

On the wings of dawn.

Carry kindness as a tool

Against tides of injustice, 

Support those holding on 

Surviving against the odds.

Plant seeds of understanding

With gentle hands and minds

Allow words of  joy to grow

Spread peace like a wildflower.

International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia

Today is International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. Observed every year, as a global moment for collective action, awareness, solidarity, and visibility for LGBT+ rights and campaigning for a prejudice-free world. Founded in 2004 by French academic Louis-Georges Tin, this day was chosen to honour May 17, 1990, the date the World Health Organization made the landmark decision to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder. 

It is a day to recognize hard-earned progress, while also addressing the pursuit of equality..Every year, policy makers, opinion leaders, the media and the general public are challenged to address the urgent need to combat violence and discrimination against LGBTI persons and to build inclusive societies, enriched through their diversity. 

IDAHOBIT is now celebrated celebrated in more than 130 countries, including 37 where same-sex is illegal. The UK’s Prime Minister  Keir Sarmer is ignoring it and instead tweeting like Donald Trump, (the most anti-LGBTQ+ president in American history) about immigrants. He’s paving the road for fascists to walk into Downing Street and take over.

65 countries still criminalise LGBTs, 12 have death penalty, 30 are Commonwealth nations  The fight continues until all LGBTs everywhere are free and equal

This year’s theme - “The power of communities” - reflecting the diversity  and richness within LGBTQIA+ communities and celebrating the range of backgrounds, identities, and  experiences they encompass  and is a powerful reminder of the strength that comes from coming together. 

It speaks to the resilience, courage, and care that define LGBTQIA+ communities at every level, from grassroots groups to global advocates. Let us honour the power of communities by listening, learning, and standing up for the right of every person to live and love with dignity, safety, and respect 

Too many LGBTQIA+ people continue to face violence, stigma, and discrimination. Across regions, regressive policies, targeted attacks,anti-rights and so-called “anti-gender” rhetoric is on the rise: criminalisation of identities, bans on gender transition, attacks on inclusive education or parental rights. are on the rise:

As a result the day is more important than ever with a resurgence in homphobic and transphobic laws being passed and transphobic news stories gaining mainstream attention.

In the UK, a recent Supreme Court judgment on the legal definition of sex, raises serious concerns for the rights of trans women, in work, education and healthcare. 

In Hungary, the parliament has passed a law banning Pride events and other gatherings that promote LGBTQI+ rights. In Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda conservative alliances, financed by international conservative groups, are fuelling anti-LGBTQI+ and anti-abortion campaigns. These are political strategies of repression and control that threaten fundamental rights. 

In America  the Trump-Vance administration since it took office in January has issued a number of executive orders that have specifically targeted transgender and nonbinary people. They include a declaration that the federal government will recognize “only two genders, male and female” and a directive that bans the State Department from issuing passports with an “X” gender marker.

While the  administration’s decision to suspend most foreign aid has forced several LGBTQ rights groups and HIV/AIDS service organizations in South Africa, Kenya, and other African countries that received U.S. funding to curtail operations or shut down. 

In the face of these attacks, we have a duty to speak out, to defend hard-won rights, and to stand in solidarity with those who are targeted.especially in uncertain and challenging times. The day reminds us that there is still a long way to go until all LGBTQ+ people are free and safe from harm.

Discrimination and violence should never be allowed on any grounds, including sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.The world is full of different wonderful people. Some of these people are made to feel they are different or not normal. Together, we can help build a more inclusive world.Let's  celebrate our  diversity and never  ever take human rights for granted,  while continuing to fight for a world where everyone can live freely, safely, and with dignity, regardless of who they love or how they identify. .

Marking the 77th Anniversary of the Nabka

On May 15th Palestinians  and their allies around the world mark the  anniversary of  their  disposssession,  the Nakba ( literally “disaster” or “catastrophe” in Arabic)  a poignant reminder of the forced displacement in 1948 of more than 750,000 Palestinians, about half of the Arab population  in Palestine at that time,

The 1948 founding of Israel was founded with the Nakba, a series of atrocities that ethnically cleansed Palestinians from their homeland.Israel was established by means of brutal massacres  (Deir Yassin, Kafr Qasim, Tantura, etc.), through ethnic cleansing, and an attempt to erase Palestinians both from their land and global collective memory.. Palestinians were forced out of their homes and lands and saw Palestinian villages wiped off the map in places like Yassin, Lydda and Tantura  by the hands of Zionist para-military groups like Ergun,  the Stern Gang  and Haganah, that later formed the core of the Israeli Defense Force.

Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I and the establishment of the Palestine Mandate, the British colonial power began implementing its plan of creating a Jewish state on Palestinian land. At the same time, the Zionist movement was lobbying Western powers to support the mass migration of Jews to Palestine and recognize a Jewish claim to the land.  In 1917, the Balfour Declaration declared British support for a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, and that's how the Day of Nakba officially began. 

The  notorious declaration was made in a letter written by Britain's then-Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour, to Baron Rothschild, a leader of the British Zionist movement. The letter was endorsed by Britain's then-Prime Minister David Lloyd George..The letter stated the British would "use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object". For Zionists, this was a clear victory.

The vast majority of Palestinian refugees, both those outside the 1949 armistice lines  and those internally displaced, were barred by the newly declared state of Israel from their right to return to their homes or the reclaiming of their property, and in doing so Israel violated international law. It is the defining event that formed and solidified the Palestinian liberation struggle.

To understand the Nakba is to first confront its sheer scale and totality. Before the Nakba there was a large, deeply rooted, and essentially ancient Arab society in most of what, within a few months, became the Jewish state of Israel. In effect, one day it was there, as it had been for living memory, and the next day it was gone. An entire society, with the exception of relatively small groups in a few places, simply vanished.

After World War I, the League of Nations broke the Ottoman Empire up into territories assigned to different colonial powers. The lands that today constitute Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories were placed under British rule, but with two explicit and incompatible purposes: Britain was already committed to supporting the recently established Zionist movement that sought to create “a national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine. 

Then in Britain came the notorious 1917 Balfour Declaration and the Palestine mandate, in which the overwhelming Palestinian majority was simply referred to as “existing non-Jewish communities,” with “civil and religious rights,” but not political ones.

With the Balfour Declaration, the government of the time was seeking Jewish support for its war efforts, and the Zionist push for a homeland for Jews, which was becoming an emerging political force. In 1917, Jews constituted 10% of the population, the rest were  Arabs. Yet Britain recognised the national rights of a tiny minority and denied it to the majority This was a classic colonial document which totally disregarded the rights and aspirations of the indigenous population. In the words of Jewish writer Arthur Koestler: “One nation solemnly promised to a second nation the country of a third.”

It was a shock to the Arab world, which had not been consulted and had received promises of independence of its own in the post-war break up of the defeated Ottoman Empire. The Palestinians have always condemned the declaration, which they refer to as the "Balfour promise" saying Britain was giving away land it did not own.

The Balfour Declaration constituted a  dangerous historical precedent and a blatant breach of all international laws and norms, and this  act of the British Empire to “give” the land of another people  for colonial settlement created the conditions for countless atrocities against the Palestinian people. Balfour, in a 1919 confidential memo, wrote: 

 “Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age old traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far greater import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land”  

The discriminatory language used by Sir Arthur Balfour and seen in the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate reveal the prejudiced rational behind British foreign policy in Palestine. A month after the Balfour Declaration on 2 December 1917, the British army occupied Jerusalem. In 1923, the British Mandate for Palestine came into effect, and included the entire text of the Balfour Declaration. Through the Mandate, Britain would go on to rule Palestine for three decades.

As a result of all of this the Palestinian people were denied the right to independence and statehood, and were treated as refugees in their own land. The Nakba resulted in the destruction of much of Palestinian society and much of the Arab landscape was obliterated by the Zionist state. And in the post 1948 period the Palestinians became second class citizens, subject  to a system of military occupation by a government that confiscated the bulk of their lands.

Even the word 'Nakba' was banned by the Israeli Minister of Education in 2009, and was removed from school textbooks. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayah said at the time that the word was tantamount to spreading propoganda against Israel. But the word Nakba is the term that about a fifth of Israel's population, the Palestinians use to describe this day.

The influx of Zionists to Palestine, supported by the British, was however was met with fierce Palestinian resistance and is very important to note that the Palestinian leadership in Al-Quds at the time insisted on continuing negotiations with the British to resolve the simmering tensions, Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam, a Syrian leader living in Haifa since 1922, began calling for resistance against the British and the Zionists.  In 1935, Al-Qassam was surrounded by British forces and killed along with some of his men. His resistance inspired many Palestinians.

By 1936, an Arab resistance erupted against British imperialism and Zionist settler colonialism and by  1939, the Palestinians found themselves fighting two enemies: British colonial forces and Zionist militia groups.

And although the British had backed mass Jewish immigration to Palestine, the colonial power began to limit the number of Jews arriving in the country in an attempt to quell Arab unrest.This new limit on immigration upset the Zionists and they launched a series of terrorist attacks on British authorities to drive them out, while at the same time the Zionists continued to further advance their dream of creating a Jewish state on Palestinian land. 

After the war, Israel refused to allow them the right to return because it says it would have resulted in a Palestinian majority within its borders. Instead, they became a seemingly permanent refugee community that now numbers some 6 million, with most living in slum-like urban refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. 

The Zionist strategy of expelling Palestinians from their land was a slow and deliberate process. According to Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, Zionist leaders and military commanders met regularly from March 1947 to March 1948, when they finalized plans to ethnically cleanse Palestine.  As Zionist attacks on the British and Arabs escalated, the British decided to hand over their responsibility for Palestine to the newly founded United Nations.

In November 1947, the UN General Assembly proposed a plan to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab one. Jews in Palestine only constituted one-third of the population - most of whom had arrived from Europe a few years earlier - and only retained control of less than 5.5 percent of historic Palestine. Yet under the UN proposal, they were allocated 55 percent of the land. The Palestinians and their Arab allies rejected the proposal. The Zionist message was simple: Leave the land or be killed. The Zionist movement accepted all this on the grounds that it legitimized the idea of a Jewish state on Arab land. But they did not agree to the proposed borders and campaigned to conquer even more of historic Palestine. 

As the date (May 14, 1948) selected by the British for their Palestine Mandate to expire approached, Zionist forces hastened their efforts to seize Palestinian land. In April 1948, the Zionists captured Haifa, one of the biggest Palestinian cities, and subsequently set their eyes on Jaffa. On the same day, British forces formally withdrew, and David Ben-Gurion, then-head of the Zionist Agency, proclaimed the establishment of the state of Israel.  Overnight, the Palestinians became stateless. The world’s two great powers, the United States and the Soviet Union, immediately recognized Israel. 

As the Zionists continued their ethnic cleansing campaign against the Palestinians, war broke out between neighboring Arab countries and the new Zionist state. The UN appointed Swedish diplomat, Folke Bernadotte, as its mediator in Palestine. He recognized the plight of the Palestinians and attempted to address their suffering. His efforts to bring about a peaceful solution and halt to the ongoing ethnic cleansing campaign ended when he was assassinated by the Zionists in September 1948. 

Nevertheless the  UN continued to push for an armistice deal between Israel and those Arab countries.  Bernadotte was replaced by his American deputy, Ralph Bunche. Negotiations led by Bunche between Israel and the Arab states resulted in the latter conceding even more Palestinian land to the newly founded Zionist state. In May 1949, Israel was admitted to the UN, and its grip over 78 percent of historic Palestine was consolidated. The remaining 22 percent became known as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

While the Nakba represented a catastrophic historic event in the collective consciousness of the Palestinian people, it was followed only 19 years later by another horrific war which resulted in the displacement of a quarter to one third of the Palestinian population and the beginning of a new era in which the whole of it got to live under a complex Israeli regime. 

This additional event got to be known as “the Naksa”, which can be translated as a serious quick escalation of an earlier catastrophe. The Naksa happened in and after a war that took only six days between Israel on the one hand, and a number of Arab countries surrounding, resulting in a relatively easy victory of Israel and the occupation of territories that were under the sovereignty or administration of its neighbouring states. 

Although the hostilities of the war itself were quick and not that widespread, the displaced persons from the occupied Palestinian Territory were hundreds of thousands. In other words, the number of Palestinians displaced in that war was out of proportion. This can be understood only by explaining the ideological background that has, since the Nakba, been informing military, legislative and administrative Israeli operations. 

When the war took place in 1967, Zionist leaders saw this as an opportunity to make some demographic changes in the occupied territory as a whole and in certain areas in particular. During and immediately after the war, some quarter a million to 420,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes.in  a  continiation of  Israels policy  of  etnic  cleansing  that  started with the Nabka, 

The Nabka is given almost no attention in  history books or by the mainstream news media but is essential in understanding the ongoing violence in Israel-Palestine and the Middle East in general.  Events like  this  are at the core of the Palestinan peoples  national struggle. But in many ways, that experience pales in comparison to the calamity now unfolding in Gaza. 

The Nakba, is ongoing to this day, as millions of Palestinians continue to be starved in Gaza, while thousands more are massacred and displaced from Gaza to the West Bank in  Israel's ongoing genocide.

Over the past 77 years, the Palestinian people have continued to be oppressed and dispossessed, with  over 7 million Palestinians living  as refugees or exiles, who  are still denied the right to return to the land from which they, or their family, were forcibly expelled. A right which is enshrined in international law. 

The Nakba  continues every day as Palestinians are evicted from their homes in East Jerusalem and the West Bank to be replaced by illegal Jewish-only settlements. It continues as Israel’s occupation obstructs and severely restricts Palestinians’ attainment of rights and fundamental freedoms, including: the right to life, the right to liberty and security of person, and their right to an adequate standard of living.

The crimes that were committed in 1948 draw haunting parallels to the action that Israeli forces have been committing in Palestine in since October 7, 2023. Today we are witnessing Israel engage in ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza on an even larger, more violent scale. The Palestinians are facing what Israeli leaders openly call the “Gaza Nakba”an unprecedented genocide of extermination and forced displacement against Palestinians in Gaza.   

In the aftermath of October 7th, a second Nakba has been unfolding in Gaza  before  our  eyes, with over 35,000 Palestinians killed. Of the 2.2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, 1.9 million people have been forcibly displaced and many of their homes have been destroyed by Israel's brutal attacks.That is well over twice the number that fled before and during the 1948 war. 

The collapse of the truce with Israel’s resumption of attacks on 18 March 2025, which have killed at least 2,325  people, including  820  children, shattered any semblance of hope for Palestinians in Gaza. In addition to blocking entry of all aid, Israel’s decision to cut power to Gaza’s main desalination plant on 9 March 2025 has further crippled access to clean water. The plant was the only facility in Gaza reconnected to Israel’s electricity grid in November 2024, after a full electricity blackout had been imposed since 11 October 2023.  

The fact that members of the Israeli government are calling their assault Gaza 'the new Nabka' tells you all you need to know about their intended endgame. It's genocide.Nakba is not history. Nakba is the  present. Forcibly starving and annihilating 2 millions Palestinian  people is Nakba.. It’s a wound that bleeds every day.

Israel’s 18 months of bombardment on Gaza has killed 18,000 children and damaged and destroyed more than 90 per cent of all homes in the Gaza Strip. Starved and under siege, no food, water, fuel or humanitarian aid has entered Gaza for a third month.   

The Israeli Security Minister has stated that Gaza will soon be “completely destroyed” and emptied of the millions of Palestinians still living there. Israel is not only destroying the lives and livelihoods of Palestinians, but their futures too. 

On May 5, 2025, the Israeli security cabinet approved a plan to escalate military operations in Gaza, seize more territory, and cement long-term control. As images of emaciated children flood the media amid an ever-deepening humanitarian crisis, Israel declared its intent to make its occupation of Gaza permanent. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described a mission to “conquer all of Gaza.”  The plan outlines large-scale forced displacement, funnelling Gaza’s 2.3 million residents into the already devastated southern corridor between Khan Younis and Rafah, regions torn apart by relentless aerial bombardment. Mainstream Israeli society has increasingly embraced decades of far-right rhetoric. “Occupation” is no longer a word many shy away from.  Israel’s decision to permanently occupy Gaza is a brutal continuation of history.  

Today, Israel has demolished homes, destroyed nearly every hospital, and erased universities from the map. Agricultural fields are flattened, while schools and churches are in ruins. Over the last 19 months, the death toll exceeds 55,000 Palestinians. The final count will likely surpass 200,000 once the bodies under the rubble are uncovered.  

The Nakba is not merely history; it is an ongoing system perpetuated through war, siege, and displacement. A colonial blueprint reaffirmed after October 7, 2023, a leaked Israeli intelligence memo exposed the “Sinai option”,a plan to expel Palestinians into Egypt. Though presented as a contingency, it echoes a long-standing objective: to remove Palestinians and prevent their return, continuing the ethnic cleansing that began in 1948.  

The plan gained traction in January 2025, when Donald Trump, newly re-elected, publicly endorsed the forced relocation of Palestinians to Egypt or Jordan and re-authorized shipments of 2,000-pound bombs.  

Israel’s objective to “conquer all of Gaza” is part of a broader displacement strategy, from East Jerusalem to the West Bank and now Gaza,pushed by both far-right settlers and state forces.  

The Nakba was never a single moment,it is a system that still displaces, erases, and confines the Palestninian people. Every demolished home, every village cut off by walls, every child growing up under siege is part of that ongoing catastrophe.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has made it clear that Israel will not return seized land in Gaza. Speaking in the West Bank, he declared that Gaza “will be entirely destroyed” and predicted mass civilian departure to third countries, expressing hope for annexation under the current government. 

 U.S. influence is unmistakable, given President Donald Trump’s expected Middle East visit. Washington and Tel Aviv are pushing for a U.S.-led provisional government to oversee Gaza post-war, excluding both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.  

The U.S. plan mirrors the logic of the British Mandate: denying Palestinian sovereignty while enabling foreign control and displacement. Under the Mandate (1920–1948), Britain administered Palestine, claiming to prepare it for self-rule while facilitating Zionist expansion. This colonial framework armed and protected Zionist militias, which would form the Israeli army and execute Plan Dalet in 1948, forcibly depopulating Palestinian towns.  

The logic remains unchanged: sovereignty denied, displacement renewed, and the Nakba carried forward.  Mass starvation as policy Even as bulldozers reshape Gaza, the blockade tightens around the territory’s throat, a coordinated policy of starvation designed to complete what bombs and bullets began.  

Since March 2, 2025, Israel has barred all supplies, including food, water, and medicine, from entering Gaza. This blockade coincides with ongoing aerial bombardments. Mass starvation looms. Aid trucks sit idle, unable to enter. Survivors of bombings are succumbing to hunger and thirst. Children,already the majority of the dead,are the primary victims of the famine.

The Red Cross has warned of a collapsing humanitarian response, and the World Food Programme has run out of supplies. UN experts stress that Israel is using famine as a weapon of war. “Safe zones” bombed, burned, and abandoned.  

As of May 2025, Israeli forces have repeatedly struck areas in Gaza labeled as “safe zones” for displaced civilians. Despite their designation, places like Al-Mawasi and UN-run schools have been bombed repeatedly. 

Gaza authorities report over 230 attacks on shelters, including a May 6 airstrike on a school in Al Bureij that killed at least 30 people. In Al-Mawasi alone, over 217 Palestinians have died in similar strikes since May 2024. In late 2024, a missile hit a shelter in Rafah, killing over 50 people, primarily women and children. The blast set tents ablaze, trapping victims in fire and smoke. The images, burned shelters, charred bodies, silent screams, left an indelible scar on global consciousness.  

These are not isolated incidents. They reflect a deadly pattern: civilians are told to flee to “safe zones,” only to be carpet-bombed where they run. Residents of Gaza have been repeatedly forced to flee their homes under duress, losing their homes and becoming homeless in tents and schools, trapped between walls of poverty and war. Out of approximately 2.2 million Palestinians who lived in Gaza Strip on the eve of the Israeli occupation aggression, about two million have been displaced from their homes; however, they have not been spared the bombardment.  

Right now, Israel is escalating its genocidal assault against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip - deliberately blocking food, medicine, and aid on the Gaza Strip. More than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza Strip are at risk of starvation, including more than 1 million children of all ages who suffer from daily hunger, about 57 children died to famine and about 65 thousand people have suffered from severe malnutrition and have been transferred to the remaining yet destroyed hospitals and medical centers in Gaza Strip.  

Due to the extensive damage incurred by the water and sanitation sector, water supply rates have declined to an average of 3-5 liters per person per day, varying significantly according to geographic location, water supply, damage to infrastructure, and ongoing displacement. 

More than 70% of the housing units in Gaza Strip are uninhabitable. Since the Israeli occupation aggression against Gaza Strip on October 7th, 2023, the Israeli occupation has destroyed more than 68.9 thousand buildings, more than 110 thousand severely damaged buildings, while data show that the number of housing units that have been completely or partially destroyed is estimated to be more than 330 thousand, constituting more than 70% of the total number of housing units in Gaza Strip, in addition to the destruction of schools, universities, hospitals, mosques, churches, and government headquarters, as well as the destruction of thousands of economic establishments and most of the agricultural areas, making Gaza Strip an uninhabitable place to survive.

The Nakba, while a symbol of loss, remains a beacon for future generations who continue to pursue liberation and the dream of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. While Nakba Day reminds us that 77 years on from their expulsion, human rights violations, oppression, domination and displacement of Palestinians is still ongoing.

The  catastrophe of the Nakba  and its consequences continue to this day. Too many generations have been born into displacement, kept from their land by institutions of apartheid, ideologies of annihilation, military backing from Western powers, corporate complicity, and media distortion.  But none of this has quashed the resistance of Palestinians or the resolve of people of conscience who support them.

From campuses to city councils, from the streets to the largest trade unions, a global wave of solidarity is rising. Millions of justice activists, artists, workers, students, farmers, and human rights defenders are standing up for Palestinian liberation worldwide. The Palestinian-led BDS movement is reshaping how the world relates to Israel: not as a normal state, but as a regime of genocide and apartheid that must be dismantled to achieve freedom, justice and equality.

Today let’s send a strong message of solidarity to Palestine and the Palestinian people suffering! We cannot be silent in the face of an ongoing genocide, or the constant violation of Palestinian human rights and international law. And we must .vehemently reject Israel’s proposal of forced displacement. Any attempt to weaponise humanitarian aid, coerce displacement, or create discriminatory aid zones is a gross violation of international law and must be instantly halted. We must move from mere words to concrete actions. 

The UK Government has repeatedly ignored its legal obligation to prevent and punish genocide, hypocritically claiming to be a champion of the ‘rule of law’ whilst enabling Israel to enforce its apartheid regime and systemically deny the humanity of all Palestinians. It’s beyond disappointing, it's disgusting. 

Lets keep calling  for a  permanent ceasefire,  stand with Palestine struggling for freedom, justice, equality and return  and call  for  an end to the occupation. Pressure  our government to impose immediate unilateral and multilateral lawful sanctions against Israel, starting with a military-security embargo, as called for by the UN Human Rights Council and dozens of UN human rights experts,  and the end to the blockade to ensure the safe access of aid and humanitarian agencies. We must further call for our Government to implement a full arms embargo with Israel until such time as these conditions prevail.

Every day of impunity granted to apartheid Israel brings further devastating consequences to Indigenous Palestinians and to what’s left of international law’s credibility. On the 77th Anniversary of the Nakba we musr reaffirm the  eternal truth Palestine was, and remains, the land of one people, the Palestinian people Despite the pain, displacement,and decades of struggle, Today is a day for justice and liberation.for  us  to  reimagine  a future where Palestinans  live  in  peace and dignity. From  the rivers to  the  sea, Free Palestine!

 

Mental Health Awareness Week 2025: Community, Together for good mental health.

Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW) is a nationwide yearly event, which begins today and was created by the Mental Health Foundation and focuses on achieving good mental health.The event has grown to become one of the biggest awareness weeks across the UK and globally.

Over the years it has become incredibly successful in raising awareness of the scale of mental illness amongst the population and removing the stigma  about talking about mental health and aims to support communities, families and individuals in driving change towards a mentally healthy society for all.

Mental Health Awareness Week is open to everyone. It is all about starting conversations about mental health and the things in our daily lives that can affect it. The event  raises awareness of particular issues by focusing on a different theme each year. From depression, to anxiety, to eating disorders, one in four of us will experience a mental health problem each year.

This year, the theme  from the Mental Health Foundation is community “Together for good mental health”. Being part of a safe, positive community is vital for our mental health and wellbeing. We thrive when we have strong connections with other people and supportive communities that remind us we are not alone. 

Communities can provide a sense of belonging, safety, support in hard times, and give us a sense of purpose. Communities connect, support, and give us a sense of belonging and purpose. From local to global, online to in-person, we all need community.Experiencing connection to each other and the world around us increases our wellbeing and sense of belonging. Together, we heal, and together, we thrive.

We all know about the benefits of healthy living. From an early age, we are taught about the importance of exercise, a balanced diet and good hygiene. We know that if we look after our bodies, we reduce the risk of illness and we feel better in ourselves.

People are not threatened by the word “health” and most people are willing to talk about it. However, place the word “mental” in front of it, and people may be much less willing to open up and share their experiences. The word “mental”still has negative connotations. It is still used as an adjective to describe something that was unreasoning, unreasonable, out-of-control or just plain crazy.Those who suffer are often,  ashamed to speak of it. Those who are lucky enough to be free of mental illness are terrified of it. 

Nobody wants to be seen as “mental” and this stigma is perhaps what is making it so difficult to engage in sensible, open discussion about “mental health”.The reality is, mental health affects every single one of us. The word “mental” simply refers to aspects or functions of the mind. Very few people would claim that they don’t have a mind, so why should we feel unable to discuss it?

Mental health charities report that one in four people will be affected by mental health problems at some point in their lives. That’s 25% of the population. One in twelve children and young people  are affected by mental health difficulties that have a negative impact on their relationships, education and general well-being on a day-to-day basis.

Depression and anxiety are now the number one cause of long-term absence from work and mental health issues are estimated to cost Britain £70 billion each year. With so many of us affected and with such a cost to the economy, you would have thought that we would at least be able to talk openly about it.

However when it comes to mental illness, we still don't quite get how it all works. Our treatments, while sometimes effective, often are not. And the symptoms, involving a fundamental breakdown of our perceived reality, are existentially terrifying. There is something almost random about physical illness, in how it comes upon us ,a physical illness can strike anyone, and that in itself is almost comforting.

But mental illness  often brings out a judgmental streak that would be unthinkably grotesque when applied to physical illness. Imagine telling someone with a broken leg to "snap out of it." 

Imagine that a death by cancer was accompanied by the same smug head shaking that so often greets death by suicide. Mental illness is so qualitatively different that we feel it permissible to be judgmental. We might even go so far as to blame the sufferer. Because of the stigma involved  it often leaves us much sicker. 

The fact also remains those of us experiencing mental illness live in an unequal society. There’s no two ways about it. Stigma. Discrimination. Lack of support. Limited access to housing, employment and social security. It doesn’t make good reading.In a better organised world our lives would be less pressured into brokeness, despair and ill health. 

Our minds, like our limbs, break under stress. Our lives within the capitalist system are harmed by the system, often we medicate not to make ourselves well, but in order to continue to function in a broken society, and capitalist system where our only immediate  value is in how they exploit us. 

We are  living  in very tough times at the moment  and successive governments have become aware of the growing need to address the country’s mental health difficulties.Money is often pledged to tackle the problems of underfunding and targets are frequently set to reduce waiting times for patients to access counselling services. 

This is all beneficial when the politicians actually deliver on their promises but evidence points out that they don't. so unless people become more willing to hold them to account and continue to discuss their individual experiences of mental health issues, the stigma and the access to services so much needed will remain.

War and poverty  also  significantly impact mental health, with conflicts  currently being  witnessed in  Gaza often leading to increased rates of psychological distress, depression, and PTSD, while poverty creating a  cycle of stress, combined with financial hardship, and limited access to resources, exacerbating existing mental health conditions. 

Some things though are at least moving in the right direction. We should have a new Mental Health Act soon, after over four decades of waiting. The NHS is working hard on a community model of mental health care. And stigma continues to decrease around mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. 

But put simply, it’s not enough. Those of us living with mental illness continue to be left behind. We have a shorter life expectancy than the rest of the population. Rising numbers of us continue to be detained under an outdated Mental Health Act. 

And amid a cost-of-living crisis, the government is disgustingly considering billions of pounds worth of ill conceived cuts to the social security system. Right now, over 1.5 million people are waiting for mental health support. Suicides are at their highest rate this millennium. Lives are being lost. This simply cannot go on.

Previous generations would have struggled to imagine it: whether on TV, social media or in the pub or the park, mental health is at least increasingly being discussed across society. Though obviously much remains to be done, the once prevalent stigma around the topic is slowly disintegrating.It’s a positive  shift, and one that is much needed.  

Mental health isn’t just about illness, it’s also about what we can do to nurture and sustain our wellbeing; getting the crucial help we need in difficult times and crises, while also finding the insights, tools and communities that can support our resilience and personal growth. 

We have to keep to talking about mental health and not just during Mental Health Awareness Week. Let' us we stand united in breaking the silence, challenging the stigma, and fostering and building communities and a culture of care, compassion, and understanding. 

Communities that care means creating a place where people are seen as whole, not just as patients or problems to fix. It’s about building a network of support that meets people where they are. It helps people live full, meaningful lives.  

A community that cares goes beyond clinical treatment. It recognises that recovery is about more than just medication or therapy. It’s also about stable housing, financial stability, strong relationships, physical wellbeing, and purpose.  

Imagine trying to focus on your mental health when you're worried about rent, dealing with debt collectors, or feeling completely alone. The truth is that these pressures can make a living with a mental illness even worse. 

One of the most heartbreaking side effects of mental illness is isolation. That’s why strong social connections are a cornerstone of a caring community.Communities can support with loneliness, help us to feel connected to others and open us up to new experiences and opportunities.Whether it’s through peer support groups, creative workshops, or simply a shared interest like gardening, these spaces help people rediscover their sense of belonging. 

When we feel connected, valued and accepted, we gain a sense of belonging that reassures us we’re not alone. A supportive community fosters respect, understanding and shared goals, making it easier to navigate life’s challenges.

Communities give us meaningful roles, whether through helping others or working toward a shared goal. Feeling useful and appreciated boosts confidence and mental wellbeing. Knowing you have people who care about you makes challenges feel more manageable, and offers comfort during hard times.  Positive communities encourage open communication and support, reducing loneliness and building lasting relationships Improved self-esteem: When we’re encouraged to grow, learn, and achieve personal goals, our confidence and self-worth naturally increase .A reliable support system makes tough situations feel less overwhelming and ensures that help is always available and feeling connected and a part of others lives can bring fulfilment, satisfaction and joy.

A supportive community nurtures mental wellbeing and ensures everyone feels included and valued.  Safer spaces where people can talk about their mental health foster trust and understanding, and a supportive:and compassionate environment that reduces isolation and creates a sense of belonging.

The sad fact remains that people living with a mental illness are more likely to die young, often from preventable physical health conditions. A caring community takes this seriously, making sure people get annual check-ups, access to inclusive exercise options, and support with medication side effects. 

Mental wellness is a journey, not a destination.Your feelings are valid, whether you’re thriving, tired, overwhelmed, or somewhere in between.Take a moment to check in with yourself today. Remember Mental health is just as important as physical health, yet it’s often overlooked  but is  not something we should  never be ashamed of. 

Mental Health conditions affect people of all ages, backgrounds, and walks of life. It  does  not  discriminate,  so try  not  to  judge. Speaking openly about mental  health  breaks shame .If you’re struggling  yourself reach out .Struggling doesn’t mean weakness, it means you’re human.

In a time when the high cost of living is impacting families across the UK, stress and burnout are affecting many, and millions of young people are seeking mental health support, connection is more important than ever. 

In our different  communities we should try be kind to one another, share our vulnerabilities, our different struggles, and continue to keep  building a better society, a new system that gives us a healthy context in which individuals  thrive and our mental health can flourish, where we are free from economic and social fear, and we can develop into our own best selves. Behind every dark cloud is an ever-shining sun. There is power  in community,  there is power in  solidarity. Mental Health Matters. 

 

If you’re experiencing mental health problems or need urgent support, there are lots of places you can go to for help.You might feel better contacting these people because they are trained experts who can get you the help you need straight away. For details of organisations such as the Samaritans and Mind, visit this list of support services

'Be patient and tough, some day this pain, will be useful to you " - Ovid  

 ' Not until we are lost, do we begin to understand ourselves .; - Henry David Thoreau 

Sir Keir Starmer is a War Criminal

During Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, Independent MP Shockat Adam, said: “This week, the Israeli government approved a plan to officially conquer Gaza.”  He added that Minister Smotrich declared yesterday that Gaza would be destroyed and Palestinians will have to leave for third countries.  Adam said: “This comes at the end of the extermination of over 50,000 Palestinian men, women and children and at the same time simultaneous expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank.”  

He then asked if the Prime Minister would acknowledge ethnic cleansing Israel is carrying out and end UK military cooperation with Israel, including providing F-35 fighter jet parts.  

“Or will he make Britain complicit in war crimes and be the Prime Minister to answer at The Hague?,” he said.  

In response, Sir Keir Starmer said: “Mr Speaker, most of what he says is simply not right”, before giving a brief statement on the situation in Gaza and the West Bank. 

On the PoliticsJOE podcast, presenters fact-checked Adam’s claims and found they were accurate. They also challenged Starmer’s dismissal as disingenuous.

PoliticsJOE presenter Ed Campbell said: “What parts there are incorrect? Like it’s so disingenuous to just lie about this.”

A groundbreaking new report reveals for the first time the extraordinary scale of UK arms exports to Israel using new data from the Israel Tax Authority, and concludes that “it appears that Foreign Secretary David Lammy has misled Parliament and the public about arms shipments to Israel”.  

Former Labour Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP and Zarah Sultana MP are calling on Keir Starmer to launch an investigation into evidence in the report that Ministers have misled Parliament and the public, saying that, if the Ministerial Code has been breached by David Lammy or any other Minister, this is a “resigning matter”. 

The joint report by the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Progressive International and Workers for a Free Palestine reveals a total of over 160,000 military goods exported from the UK to Israel since the war on Gaza began in October 2023. This new evidence of thousands of shipments of military goods, munitions of war, arms, and aircraft parts which have played a pivotal role in Israel’s destruction of Gaza.   comes as Israel’s Cabinet approves Netanyahu’s plans to annex Gaza, which threatens to ethnically cleanse the land, with Minister Smotrich vowing “Gaza will be entirely destroyed”.https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/may/07/uk-sent-israel-thousands-of-military-items-despite-export-ban-study-finds

Human Rights Watch warns: Countries supplying arms could be complicit in war crimes.Yet British  weapons are still flowing to Israel, violating their own export “ban” and British-maintained jets keep bombing. And Britain is keeping them airborne:

Keir Starmer  time and time again  has refused to see- the connection between Western politicians giving Israel carte blanche after 7 October and the destruction, death and starvation resulting from nearly six months of a genocidal campaign. 

A truly shameful man who is complicit in genocide. Not only did Starmer say in an infamous interview on LBC radio, that Israel ‘has the right’ to withhold power and water from Gaza,  Starmer’s appalling statements,  amounted to endorsing the collective punishment of 2.2 million civilians, a war crime under Article 33 of the Geneva Convention. No government, no army, and no country can ever be above international law..

Starmer has continued to dismiss any criticism of the indiscriminate and disproportionate killing of Palestinians by repeatedly asserting that ‘Israel has a right to defend itself’.and has not only refused to condemn any Israeli actions in Gaza, but has actively supported them by facilitating arms sales and providing logistical backing for the killing of Palestinians thus violated international and criminal law, and became a willing participant in genocide. 

Starmer and Labour under his direction gave Netanyahu cover for genocide  and gave Israel the greenlight to commit one of the greatest crimes of our age. He is a vile committed zionist who has supported Israel massacring hundreds of thousands of people who provided his support diplomatically, logistically and militarily. Starmer is a proven liar and a fraud. As are the corrupt sycophants that surround him.

Human rights experts have said Israel’s actions amount to collective punishment, a war crime under international law. It matters little since Israeli officials have not attempted to hide their intentions. 

After committing genocide with impunity in Gaza, Israel now says it will occupy and besiege the entire Strip. as it pushes for Trump's plan to force 2million Palestinians to leave.  

By refusing to impose sanctions, governments worldwide , including our own  have enabled this. It was never about self defence.  It was always ethnic cleansing. It was always genocide. It was always a land grab.

The situation in Gaza is beyond tragic. For 66 days the Netanyahu government  has blocked all food and  aid from going into Gaza.Thousands upon thousands of children are dead. Entire bloodlines erased. with UK made weapons sold with Keir Starmer and David Lammy's approval. 

At least 52,760 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's genocidal war since October 2023, the the Ministry of Health in Gaza, said today.A ministry statement said that 106 people were killed in Israeli attacks in the enclave in the last 24 hours, while 367 others were injured, taking the number of injuries to 119,264 in the Israeli onslaught. .  “Many victims are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added. 

The Israeli army resumed its deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip on March 18 and has since killed over 2,650 people and injured over 7,200 others despite a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that took hold in January. 66 thousand  children suffering severe malnutrition , and  the highest number of child amputees per capita in the world and  2 million displaced, Shame on humanity for allowing this to  happen. The world must not look away.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.  Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.full approval.Netanyahu is not a defender. He’s a butcher. A fascist running from jail who’s building his legacy on mass graves.

The genocide is livestreamed but governments with some degree of influence keep tip toeing around the reality, failing to name the genocide and failing to use their power  to prevent and respond effectively. 

Starmers justifying Israel's collective punishment of two million Palestinians, and Labour's refusals to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, will haunt the party for a long time to come. 

Starmer will go down in history as the British PM a former Human Rights Barristeri ironically who has supported and enabled Israel's Palestine holocaust. We should never ever forgive, him.A shameful stain that will reverberate in the decades to come. Just as they invaded Iraq illegally, Keir Starmer will be known as a genocide  supporter that let little children starve.Shame on this disgusting Labour Government too.I never ever imagined a scenario where a Labour government could be aiding and abetting a genocide It  really is a failure on all sides.

Both Starmer and David Lammy are war criminals with blood on  their hands like Tony Blair before them, helping to kill aid workers, medics, and defenceless civilians, all for a rogue terrorist state thousands of miles away where his wife’s parents live  They both deserve to be standing  in the dock in the Hague, along with Trump and Netanyahu who are undeniably all complicit in the ongoing genocide being conducted in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem by Israel.

Only a full arms embargo will ensure that British made arms are not used to enact Netanyahu’s new plans to annex and “destroy” the Gaza Strip and ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their  homeland. We must  demand that our government Stop Arming Israel and keep pressuring Israel to end the Genocide of Palestinians  and  to  never stop protesting, never stop boycotting and never stop campaigning until Palestine is free.

Please take two minutes to email the Foreign Secretary to demand Britain ends all military cooperation and arms trade with Israel, as well as any other trade that aids the illegal occupation of Palestine.

https://palestinecampaign.eaction.online/sanctionIsrael?fbclid=IwY2xjawKJ1AlleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETBhMFJyMXpabFIzeUlHbTE0AR5jiNp4fYI7Y0GbGsklDz85caVtAklvfSLfJ4KShNpi2sDx48IOrLRx7XAKmA_aem_MQj5sGd6719nEY_HFutvKg