BOMBSHELL Dropped On Starmer Over Israel War Crimes!

Right, so Keir Starmer is in for it now! He is in a major spot of bother legally speaking on two fronts and frankly he deserves every bit of it. On one hand you have demands that he be investigated for his own complicity in the war crimes that have been committed by Israel in Gaza and on the other, his ongoing persecution of journalists and his abuse of terror legislation to try and silence them and their reporting when it comes to Israel. Israel is the common denominator here and Starmer’s slavish and craven loyalty to that state, which has seen persecution of people here in the state is supposed to be the Prime Minister of, makes you wonder who is really in charge here and who he really works for. The human rights lawyer being pulled up on charges of human rights abuse going forwards though will be a delicious dose of karma for a man who acts like he’s untouchable in everything he does and frankly nothing could rubber stamp the mans absolute dishonesty in all things like being prosecuted on a matter he stakes his reputation and his career track record on seemingly every single day.
Right, so Keir Starmer’s card is very much marked it seems, eyes have turned on him at last in relation not just to the genocide he has made the UK complicit in with his arms sales and his support for Israel as ardent and unapologetic as it ever is, even down to cheering the release of Hamas held hostages, but never a word for the Palestinian hostages released in turn, lest the narrative of them prisoners, and therefore having been convicted of something be burst. They are held without charge, mistreated and emerge as shadows of their former selves, but where is the human rights lawyer asking questions about that? He’s been bought and paid for, again I reiterate my belief that Starmer’s relationship with human rights only went as far as his paycheck for it.
Let’s start with the call that Keir Starmer must be investigated in relation to his part in the genocide in Gaza, because this has come from UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine and the Middle East Francesca Albanese, also a human rights lawyer, but one that legitimately believes in them. She has been interviewed by Declassified UK’s Co-founder Mark Curtis in an excellent YouTube video I highly recommend watching, called ‘Francesca Albanese: Keir Starmer must be investigated over Gaza genocide’ and right from the get go Albanese doesn’t mince her words. She said:
‘I believe the UK has violated its obligations under international law. I have concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Israel has committed acts of genocide already one year ago and my assessment has become stronger, more supported by evidence, more endorsed by many other reputable actors, including Israeli stories themselves and internationally others.
I do not expect necessarily the UK government to embrace my findings, however because last year in January, the ICJ concluded that there was a plausible risk that the rights of the Palestinians under the Genocide Convention were being violated, then this triggered an obligation of the UK to make sure that they took all the necessary measures to prevent genocide from happening…
The UK has also continued to provide political support, military support. Thanks to you [Declassified UK] we also know there has been military co-operation…between the UK army and the Israeli army. This is in violation of the UK’s obligations.’
Albanese was also asked whether she felt, with all the aid the UK has offered to Israel as to whether she felt this made the UK complicit in the genocide of Gaza, she dropped the proverbial bombshell:
‘Surely, the UK has done nothing to prevent the destruction of Gaza. Militarily it has continued to supply Israel in violation of its obligations. The UK has incredible lawyers and I cannot believe that the government was not advised on what it was doing. It was clear that Israel was violating – and lets decide the genocide assessment, that Israel was committing war crimes and crimes against humanity – I’ve heard UK politicians denying that and to an extent even justifying that. For this, they should be investigated.’
There is criminal liability here for complicity in international crimes she also went on to say, UK authorities should investigate. She wouldn’t be drawn on individual culpability, merely that it rested on the government, but ultimately responsibility falls on Keir Starmer, though you’ll never hear him admit to any wrongdoing, he’s perfect in his own head, any blame is someone else’s fault and you’ll never, ever hear him say sorry, but equally it extends beyond that across his government.
It's difficult, given the heavy handedness of the state especially through the legal system, the police especially, to believe any such investigation would ever get off the ground. Too often we’ve seen the police crack down on protesters more than actual criminals, our free speech and freedom of expression and indeed freedom of the press constantly under attack and it is to several other UN Special Rapporteurs that I’ll now come onto and this is especially pertinent given the arrest of Richard Medhurst in Austria this week, highly suspected he thinks to have been put up to it by Starmer’s government.
Medhurst as we know is one of several journalists targeted by the authorities on trumped up complaints of complicity with Hamas for example, a complaint is all that is needed to trigger arrest, we saw this all last year and actually these rapporteurs wrote to Starmer last year too to demand an explanation for his actions.
All UN Special Rapporteurs are human rights experts looking after various aspects or areas of concern with relation human rights and the four who wrote to Starmer last December, were Ben Saul, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Irene Khan, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Gina Romero, the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association and Ana Brian Nougrères, the Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy. So these are huge remits, Rapporteurs who have responsibility for literal human rights definitions here as laid out in the Human Rights Act.
The reason we now talk about this, is because the letter, sent to Starmer on the 4th December, by these 4, on behalf of the UN Commissioner of Human Rights at that, gave him 60 days to reply to it and essentially explain himself, but having not bothered to reply to fellow human rights lawyers and the UNCHR, the UN letter has now been made public, an excerpt of it reading:
‘Powers under counter-terrorism legislation have been used on multiple occasions to examine, detain, and arrest journalists and activists, particularly at the UK border. It is alleged that journalists and activists who are critical of Western foreign policy in the context of the conflict in the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine war are especially affected by the reported misuse of these powers.
In particular, schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, and schedule 3 of the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019, have been used to examine and obtain data from journalists and activists, including Johanna Ross (Ganyukova), John Laughland, Kit Klarenberg, Craig Murray and Richard Medhurst in circumstances where they appear to have no credible connection to “terrorist” or “hostile” activity.
Furthermore, section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000 has been used to charge journalists and activists, including Richard Barnard and Richard Medhurst, for allegedly expressing support
for a “proscribed organisation” in the course of activism and media reporting…
…we raise concern about an alleged pattern of over use, or other misuse, of counter-terrorism legislation to target legitimate freedom of expression and opinion, including public interest media reporting, and related freedoms of peaceful assembly and association, and political dissent or activism.’
Not only did Starmer ignore the letter though, he has gone on to target the activist Tony Greenstein and charge activist Natalie Strecker under the same terror legislation, carrying on regardless as if nothing had been said and much of this is due to the vagueness of the Terrorism Act of 2000, which the Rapporteurs shredded:
‘We are concerned at the vagueness and overbreadth of the offence in section 12(1A) of the Terrorism Act 2000, which criminalizes expressing an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organisation and being reckless as to whether it encouraged support for that organisation. We reiterate the many concerns about this offence identified by the UK Joint Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights in its report on the bill that introduced the offence.
… The term “support” is undefined in the Act and in our view is vague and overbroad and may unjustifiably criminalize legitimate expression.
… The Court of Appeal further indicated that it could include “encouragement, emotional help, mental comfort and the act of writing or speaking in favour of something”. The Court reasoned that “[the] organisation as a body, and the individual members or adherents of it, will derive encouragement from the fact that they have the support of others, even if it may not in every instance be active or tangible support”.’
Fundamentally, taking the case to appeal, any cases based on this legislation especially arrests under Section 12 of it likely won’t stand up to scrutiny, the cases far too weak, but who can afford to take matters that far? Such is the weaponisation of legislation by this government, all, seemingly, on the basis of protecting Israel all the way, from accusations of genocide complicity committed by this government, to seeking to use terror legislation to gag those calling out Israel’s atrocities. This government does need investigation, but I have no faith in the UK legislature to see it happen.
For more on Richard Medhurst’s most recent arrest in Austria, along with support options for him to help him get back on his feet, do check out this video recommendation here as your suggested next watch. Please do also hit like, share and subscribe before you do so though, so as to ensure you don’t miss out on new daily content and help support the channel as well which is massively appreciated and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.