Starmer, Lammy silent on Madleen; BBC, Sky regurgitate Israeli propaganda, ignore violence

Video: UK establishment collusion in Israel’s crimes continues

UK PM Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy remain silent today, hours after Israel launched a chemical and ramming attack in international waters on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla’s humanitarian vessel Madleen, which was en route to Gaza with vital medical supplies to break Israel’s starvation blockade that has put hundreds of thousands of civilians, including more than 300,000 children, in immediate danger of death from malnutrition. Starmer has found time to post on X about UK planning applications and AI.

Israel attacked and stormed the UK-registered ship last night, kidnapping its crew. Despite the terrorist attack on a UK vessel, the UK government is completely ignoring the abduction – and the UK media are misrepresenting it in their coverage. The BBC’s bulletin on it this morning mentioned nothing about the violence and chemical attack, instead claiming Israel is simply ‘towing the ship to port’:

Sky’s brief, flippant coverage did not even mention that the ship was in international waters, making the attack a war crime. Both Sky and the BBC focused on Israel’s smear of the Madleen as a ‘selfie yacht of celebrities’:

In contrast, award-winning Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda described the importance of the vessel and its voyage in raising awareness and breaking the pattern of inaction that has lasted for more than twenty months:

Ms Owda has not, of course, been quoted by the UK ‘mainstream’ media, despite being an Emmy-winner for her journalism.

Egyptian actress Nicole Jenes, part of the Flotilla coalition, described last night’s events, including the irritant chemical attack:

Footage captured by crew journalist Omar Faiad shows the moments before the Israeli pirates boarded the Madleen and gives an idea of the violence of the assault:

Israel has said it is going to force the crew, now illegally-detained hostages, to watch its 43-minute atrocity propaganda video about 7 October 2023, which has been thoroughly discredited. The film repeats Israel’s completely-debunked lies about ‘beheaded babies‘ and ‘mass rapes‘, while completely ignoring the mass slaughter of Israeli citizens by their own military, which the IDF has admitted to Israeli media was ‘immense’. This fact is still ignored almost two years later by the UK government and ‘mainstream’ media.

When Israel first released the film – only to select audiences – it used it to compare Palestinian resistance groups with terrorist group ISIS. At the time, Israel was treating ISIS fighters in the occupied Golan Heights to send them back to fight against the Assad regime in Syria. It is now funding and arming ISIS-linked groups in Gaza.

While Israel’s lies about rapes and beheaded babies have been disproven, Israeli forces and prisons routinely rape the Palestinian civilians they take hostage and have beheaded many Palestinian children with bombs and bullets.

Lara Avila, the wife of Flotilla organiser Thiago Avila put out a video as the Israeli attack began, supporting the vessel’s purpose and calling on others to do so:

As the attackers approached the Madleen, Thiago Avila sent out this message, reminding the world that Israel slaughtered Flotilla volunteers on a previous voyage in 2010:

We are about to be attacked by the most cruel and hateful army in the world. The unit S13 that has been deployed to attack us is the same that 15 years ago executed 10 of our participants of the @gazafreedomflotilla. We are now attempting to break the siege and to create a people’s humanitarian sea corridor to stop the starvation of children in Gaza.

We have international law on our side, we have the hearts and minds of the social majority of this 8 billion people planet that know in their hearts that starving children to death is wrong, that cannot stand anymore seeing hospitals being bombed, schools, shelters, residential areas … we have courage, solidarity, love, hope and all they have is weapons, bombs, hate and violence.

They cannot win. They will not win. That’s why we are not afraid of them and the Madleen continues pushing forward to Gaza.

If they indeed commit this war crime, we need all of you to riseup. Riseup everywhere but not for us, but for the Palestinian people who have been suffering 8 decades of genocide and ethnic cleansing, 18 years of a horrific blockade, 611 days of the escalation of the genocide and more than 3 months with a total blockade where no food or water comes in except those to disguise their military checkpoints that they pretend are food distribution centers.

… It has been the greatest honor of our lives being part of this rise-up with you. Whatever comes now we will face with all the dignity that we learned from the Palestinians. We will learn from the Sumud. And we will always be with you, one way or another.

We who believe in freedom cannot rest.”

Israel is a terror state. The UK government and ‘mainstream’ media are its eager accomplices.

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