First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

Martin Niemöller (1946)

How many of you learned the history of WWII in history at school and wondered how the people of Germany could be fooled into voting for a genocidal maniac like Hitler and then stand by as the biggest genocide in history was perpetrated under their noses?

I know I did, and it probably explains why I have always taken an interest in what our politicians are up to and why I am prepared to take to the streets when they do things I cannot support. But we are living in very dark times again and most of us are simply not doing enough. Most of us are simply doing what most of the German people did in the 1930s and are just getting on with our very comfortable lives while bleating about the ‘cost of living’ and saying nothing about the cost of other people dying and truly suffering.

Evil is a subjective thing, but if we open our eyes and truly witness what is going on around us, all too often in our names, then we will be forced to do something, even if that is a conscious and deliberate choice to do nothing and thereby condone what is going on.

Many people excuse themselves by saying they have ‘democratically’ elected representatives that they are happy to deal with these issues on their behalf. That’s what the German people in the 1930s did.  Things have changed very little. We still allow ourselves to tolerate our politicians’ blatant propaganda, lies, corruption and hypocrisy.

Take our duly elected PM Sir Keir Starmer, for example.

Starmer was knighted in 2014 ostensibly for his work as a human rights lawyer.

In the Fairford Five case, in 2003, his client had intended greater damage than Palestine Action did at RAF Brize Norton: Josh Richards was apparently planning to burn the wheels of American bombers slated to fly from an RAF base to Iraq. Keir argued while his client’s acts were illegal, they were morally justified, and the jury rightly – in my view, and presumably his – refused to convict.

The day that Starmer decided to proscribe Palestine Action was the day I first thought to join them. It’s counterproductive as well as disgraceful! But in theory at least, this would make me a terrorist and could get me 14 years in prison. As it happens, their website appears disabled. I would defy our democratically elected PM in order to support a group of people trying their damnedest to stop a genocide, a genocide being acted out in front of our eyes and with the support of that same democratically elected PM, i.e., in your name!

Thankfully, we have decent people, including lawyers with more moral fibre than Starmer, doing their best to hold government and power to account. This is why I am a supporter of Amnesty International and the Good Law Project. If and when I’m arrested, I’ll be contacting them both! (Please join them both if you haven’t already, before it is too late for you too!)

A recent newsletter from the Good Law Project contained these words from civil rights lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith (who worked on behalf of Guantanamo Bay detainees, many of whom had been sold to the US for bounties by a corrupt – but ‘democratically-elected’ Pakistani government):

“Hypocrisy is sometimes spelled with a capital H. Hypocrisy breeds hatred, as it did when the US set up a law-free prison in Guantánamo Bay, purportedly established to protect Democracy and the rule of law. If you are a Labour government, committed to the Human Rights Act, you cannot expect to win votes away from Reform UK or even Suella Braverman by playing the hate card yourself. The Act is designed to protect people – including the children of Palestine – from vilification and even murder. I’d like my colleagues to remember why they became politicians and judges in the first place. As human rights advocates, we should be proud to stand up for those who most need us. It’s our job.”

As humans, we all need to be human rights advocates. They are our rights. But I suspect many of us don’t actually value them enough until ours are tangibly threatened. But we can sit back and watch while others have theirs stripped away, and worse.

And so, to that “must watch” video I promised you. I guess that if you have read this far, there is a chance that you might just watch it. But I am also guessing some of you won’t or will give up on it quickly as it makes you uncomfortable.

It’s a DDN presentation by Chris Gunness, the former chief spokesperson for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). He is a reliable witness. Watch and listen, please.

One last quote for the benefit of those still ‘uncomfortable’ with criticising Israel for fear of being accused of being antisemitic (as has been done to lifelong campaigners against any form of of discrimination, like Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott). This comes from the son of holocaust survivors, Norman Finkelstein:

“The biggest insult to the memory of the Holocaust is not denying it, but using it as an excuse to justify the genocide of the Palestinian people.”

I’ll leave you with these links (click on the logos). I hope to see some of you on the streets some time soon, but supporting those fighting on our behalf is the least we can do, isn’t it?