PN staff
Despite claims to the contrary, there is no evidence that Hamas used rape as a weapon of war on 7 October.
That is the conclusion of months of investigation by Electronic Intifada, the Grayzone, Mondoweiss, YES! and other independent investigators, who have carefully assembled evidence undermining the credibility of key witnesses. They’ve also shown the ‘evidence’ supplied to be very weak.
An article that persuaded many people that there…
Every poll since the beginning of the massacre in Gaza has found that a majority of people in Britain want in an immediate end to Israel’s assault.
Even if we subtract those who only support a ‘pause’ in the war, we still find that a majority of British people who have an opinion back an immediate, unconditional, permanent ceasefire, as called for by UN agencies and humanitarian NGOs.
The latest poll, conducted on 12 and 13 February, found that two-thirds of British people (66…
Israel’s brutal war and starvation campaign in Gaza has continued to spark protest across the UK, with large marches and blockades and property damage at arms companies.
In the last two months, the major Gaza-related protests in the UK have been the national ‘Stop the Genocide – Ceasefire Now’ demonstrations in London, involving tens of thousands. The march went to Downing Street on 3 February, to the Israeli embassy in West London on 17 February, and to the US embassy in South London…
On 13 March, Dr Ray Towey of Catholic Peace Action once again used blessed charcoal to mark the ministry of defence (MoD) in Central London.
He wrote: ‘Trident is Genocide’ and ‘Choose Life Not Terror’ and also drew a cross. Ray was arrested and then de-arrested. ‘Go away and come back to write another day,’ said one of the police officers.
Catholic Peace Action has carried out this ‘Lenten witness’ almost every year since 7 March 1984.
A month earlier, on Ash Wednesday…
The fragile peace process in Yemen, which has reduced violence in the country enormously over the last two years, is under pressure. The UN secretary-general’s special envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, told the UN security council on 14 February: ‘Rising regional tensions linked to the war in Gaza, and in particular the military escalation in the Red Sea, are slowing down the pace of the peace efforts in Yemen.’
The US is risking a major plank of the peace process by listing the…
On 5 and 6 March, Bristol PSC and Bristol Stop the War blockaded the Future Indirect Fires arms fair at the Ashton Gate stadium.
In May, we will be taking orders for a new four-page A5 PN briefing setting out the facts about Churchill’s belief in 1944 and early 1945 that a Japanese surrender could be gained without an atomic bomb being dropped and without the Allies having to invade Japan (PN 2667).
Churchill believed by July 1945 that there were two diplomatic tools with a very good chance of ending the Pacific War, especially if combined.
In September 1944, Churchill had pleaded with the…
On 25 March, the UN security council finally adopted a ceasefire resolution – because the United States finally stood aside and did not use its veto.
Resolution 2728 called for a two-week ceasefire in Israel's war on Gaza, the release of hostages being held in Gaza and an 'expansion' in the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza – none of these items was made conditional on any other (see below for the full text of the resolution).
The resolution called for a ceasefire lasting 'for…
If elections were held today, Hamas would likely win the presidency and definitely be the biggest party in Palestine’s parliament, according to an independent poll carried out in early March in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The poll was conducted by a respected independent think tank, the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research (PSR).
The PSR…
Pope Francis caught the headlines in March, calling for negotiations to end the Ukraine War. The pope has made dozens of calls for peace talks in this war, but this is the only time that he’s gained significant attention. This was because the language that he used was distorted into an anti-negotiations weapon, with the claim that the pope asked Ukraine to ‘raise the white flag’ of surrender.
The pope didn’t talk about ‘raising the white flag’ in his recorded interview with Swiss…
US peace activist and author Joseph Gerson did a talk for PN on 22 February based on his book: ‘Empire and the Bomb: How the US Uses Nuclear Weapons to Dominate the World’ (see p15): www.tinyurl.com/peacenews4166
Shadow World Investigations, Demilitarise Education, Forces Watch, Declassified UK and CAAT launched their ‘Arms Out Tour’, which offers workshops and films to local groups around the UK:…
The high court in London saw two simultaneous unrelated protests in February.
Outside (20 – 21 February), people gathered in solidarity with Julian Assange as lawyers tried to get a further appeal for him.
Inside (21 February), Defend Our Juries organised a 100-person sit-down in the lobby or central hall of the court. There were three separate Citizens’ Juries, considering different questions, including: ‘Why not trust juries to hear the full story?’
Climate activists…
We only have room for some court reports this issue but there has been quite a bit of climate action in the last two months.
We will just mention the ‘Insure Our Future’ Global Week of Action against insurance companies, which saw more than 57 events in 31 countries from 26 February – 3 March, including a classical dance protest outside Lloyds of London on 26 February (see above).
The most high-profile case was Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg (21) being acquitted by…
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…
