2 Brit Doctors begs ceasefire, but former human right lawyer still enabling genocide even [he's] just opposition in UK

I want to be completely clear here. Any MP who doesn't vote for a ceasefire tomorrow has no place in Parliament, let alone Labour. This isn't a political issue but a human rights one.

London 11.55am

Dr Ghassan Abu Sitta is British Palestinian

When he was running to be Labour leader, human right lawyer Sir Keir Rodney Starmer KCB KC pledged he would make the party "a force for international peace and justice." Today he's going to sack any shadow minister who votes for a call to stop killing kids. Labour has put down this amendment on Gaza and Israel for a vote after today’s King’s Speech debate.

Any MP who doesn't vote for a ceasefire tomorrow has no place in Parliament, let alone Labour. This isn't a political issue but a human rights one. Further civilian deaths must be prevented and Israeli genocide must end. Scottish Labour Party leader has urged Labour MPs to vote for an SNP amendment calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. 'This is no time for abstention or neutrality.'

no mention ceasefire. same ‘no ceasefire’ like in US

It was a meeting designed to mend fences, to stem the tide of Labour councillors resigning over Sir Keir Starmer’s stance on Israel’s action in Gaza.

The party was anxious to show it was, perhaps belatedly, taking their concerns seriously. It had asked top brass, in the form of deputy leader Angela Rayner, to try to reach a rapprochement with local politicians still furious at their leader’s apparent backing for the Israeli siege of Gaza, and his refusal to call for a ceasefire.

Instead, for Councillor Mustafa Desai, the 20-minute Zoom meeting that he and a group of Labour colleagues from Blackburn had pushed for with Ms Rayner was “the straw that broke the camel’s back”.

They asked her “Is Keir Starmer going to change his stance?” he told. “The response was totally inadequate; it was a standard scripted response. I was frustrated and angry.”

So, after 13 years as a Labour councillor, latterly as an executive member for Adult Social Care and Health, he resigned from the party. Six more Blackburn Labour councillors have followed him since. And last week there was another wave of resignations as 11 councillors from nearby Burnley left Labour.

women in tears, Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, British - Palestinian like Dr Ghassan Abu Sitta

They join a growing tally from councils across the country including Oxford, Birmingham, Bradford, Gloucester, Stroud, Manchester, Cambridge, Nottingham and at least four London boroughs – who have decided that Labour’s position on Gaza is so far from their own that they can no longer represent the party.

Added pressure came for Sir Keir last week when Bradford East MP Imran Hussain resigned from his front bench position as shadow Minister for the New Deal for Working People so that he could be free to call for a ceasefire. And the divisions the conflict has caused within Labour were on display on Monday when former leader Jeremy Corbyn – still a party member – condemned the Hamas attack on October 7 but refused 15 times to follow the lead of his successor by describing the group as terrorists.

Sir Keir was warned he would “destroy” his party and see as many as 10 more shadow ministers resign, unless he ordered MPs to abstain on Tuesday on an expected Parliamentary vote over a call for an “immediate” ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Imran Hussain, the MP for Bradford East, who resigned from Labour’s front bench last week

But it is not just politicians. Party insiders, exiles and community activists told that increasing numbers of Muslims who have been habitual Labour voters feel alienated by the failure to call for a ceasefire.

Party leaders, still anxious to ensure Labour is not open to charges of antisemitism, have been attempting to heal the divisions and calling for a humanitarian pause. Last week Ms Rayner told: “I understand colleagues who are saying we need to immediately get this situation under control”.

Other senior figures have been taking a harder line on Israel this week with Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves calling on Monday for it to “show restraint”. But she stopped short of advocating for an immediate ceasefire and until the Labour leadership makes that call the internal unrest seems unlikely to be quelled.

According to one former Labour insider in Tower Hamlets, east London, many Muslims in Britain increasingly feel like “political refugees”, because the main political parties do not represent their views on the need for ceasefire in Gaza. “We have no home,” he says. “We have to make our own home.”

Meanwhile, a senior official from the Labour Muslim Network, which represents the views and voices of Muslims in the party, tells that conversations they have had suggest that people from across the UK are “abandoning the idea of voting for Labour in droves”.

And they say that for those who have decided to stay on, Sir Keir’s stance on Gaza is making life difficult for Labour activists in Muslim neighbourhoods. They are scared of the reception they will receive on doorsteps if they try to justify their leader’s position.

“Anyone associated with Labour is being [verbally] attacked,” says the official. “Canvassers are terrified to go door knocking.”

They trace the difficulties back to Sir Keir’s now infamous Labour conference LBC interview last month when he was asked about a siege in Gaza with power and water being withheld and answered: “Israel does have that right”.

Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer during the LBC interview last month where he appeared to endorse Israel’s siege of Gaza (Photo: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)

The Labour Muslim Network official says it has been “firm and strong from the beginning, in telling the party leadership that Muslims were not being represented”. “But there has been a denial from [Sir Keir] him on how serious this would become”

“Where there are areas of high Muslim populations, this could seriously affect local voting.”

Pollsters have suggested that it will not actually leave Labour facing a significant hit at the next election. Chris Hopkins, political research director at polling firm Savanta, has told i that the Gaza controversy is unlikely to “move things much”.

i analysis has found there are more than 50 Labour seats in England where the estimated number of Muslim voters is larger than the party’s 2019 majority in the constituency.

It would be wrong to assume that all Muslims in these constituencies already vote Labour (though many do – all 20 seats with the largest Muslim populations are currently Labour held) or that they will vote as a block and desert Labour en masse. However, in 19 of these seats the number of estimated Muslim voters (based on 2021 census figures) is more than twice the size of Labour’s majority, suggesting a potential vulnerability over Gaza.

In eight seats, the number of estimated Muslim voters is more than three times Labour’s majority: Dagenham and Rainham, Oldham East and Saddleworth, Bradford South, Batley and Spen, Walsall, South Halifax, Leicester East and Ilford North.

A campaign by George Galloway focused on Muslim voters in the 2021 Batley and Spen by-election, when Labour came within 400 votes of losing to the Conservatives, also demonstrates how other parties could be let in. The Workers Party leader came third, but won more than 8,000 votes cutting Labour’s majority from 3,525 to 323.

Workers Party candidate George Galloway at Cathedral House in Huddersfield, for the Batley and Spen by-election in 2021 when Labour came close to losing (Photo: Danny Lawson/PA)

But it is not just the next election where the Gaza controversy could prove an issue. Labour insiders are also concerned about the long-term damage it will have. “I am worried this will turn entire generations from voting for the Labour Party,” the network official said.

“Muslims worry about the same domestic issues as everyone else – housing, employment, education, poverty, but the Gaza crisis has eclipsed domestic policies, because the trust is now gone. Many people will stay home, unmotivated to vote at all.”

The importance of the Gaza crisis to British Muslims was clearly visible at a packed “emergency” public meeting held in Bethnal Green, east London earlier this month. There was anger hanging in the air as more than 600 turned out on a dismal soggy evening to sit in a large hall usually rented out for weddings. It was organised at a few days’ notice as a strictly non-party-political event – solely focused on the plight of people in Gaza.

But as the sombre mood turned into fury at the failure of world leaders to act on a humanitarian disaster, Labour’s position inevitably crept in. One audience member, visibly incensed, asked what the people could do to push those responsible to be accountable for “war crimes”, drawing applause from the audience. She then said: “The Muslim vote has been historically known to always vote Labour. We are not going to do Tories, we cannot do Labour. Who do we vote for?”

Ajmal Masroor, the imam and broadcaster who helped to organise the meeting, predicts an “explosion of independent candidates up and down the country”.

“I’m hearing it everywhere,” he tells. “For many people like me who are confidently Muslim and proudly British, we are not finding a home in British politics today. We have been alienated, marginalised, cancelled. We are being pushed to set up our own.”

Mr Masroor, who stood as a Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate in Bethnal Green and Bow in 2010, says there is no national co-ordination or concerted plan. But he adds: “There doesn’t need to be one. This is happening organically.

“People are looking for candidates to dislodge Keir Starmer, and they are saying they are ready to fund them. They are calling him a war criminal. Labour is in big trouble.”

Talks about who will challenge Labour and where are at an early stage. “I can tell you that discussions are definitely happening in places like Birmingham, Bradford, Luton, Leicester, Blackburn, and London over putting up candidates for Westminster.”

Mr Masroor believes “the Muslim vote will shake up the political landscape” and thinks it could unseat Labour MPs in at least 25 constituencies.

And the former Labour insider from Tower Hamlets, who has worked closely with Sir Keir and his team, is convinced the leader’s stance on Gaza will cost him electorally.

“There is palpable anger in the Muslim community,” he says. “People hate him… I think the rise of independent candidates will take out Labour strongholds across London and the UK. Muslims could potentially cause a hung parliament.”

He says independent candidates wanting to stand against Labour will need to time to set up the infrastructure they need. But help will be at hand.

“People like me and others, know how party machinery works, and we can bring our expertise into their campaigns,” he says.

Others are reaching less dramatic conclusions about the immediate impact of the Labour leader’s stance on Gaza.

“The Muslim vote isn’t necessarily sufficient to prevent a Labour victory. I don’t believe it is,” says Asif Mahmud, a community activist in Blackburn.

“There are still large sections of the Muslim community who will vote for Labour… Six months is a long time, the general public generally tend to be fickle.”

That doesn’t mean Labour has nothing to worry about. Sir Keir’s party is currently riding high in the polls, with big by-election wins from the Tories under its belt, and looking on course for a majority. But if things tighten, the loss of even a few seats might a big difference.

And as Mr Mahmud concedes things are moving quickly.

“We’re in unchartered waters, it’s unprecedented,” he says. “We are just not clear on where this is going to go. There isn’t any coordination, people are acting on an ad hoc basis, but there is a domino effect.”

He warns that even if Sir Keir’s party wins the next general election it may well be storing up much bigger problems for itself in the future.

“The older generation don’t know anything other than Labour,” he says. “But there is a large young population who won’t follow their elders like we used to. [They follow] social media. Things have changed.”

Everyday I try to monitored at least 7 Gazans people/journo. Until 9 / 10am Gaza, only Mohamed Saifa already posted on Tuesday [local time]. 6 others, like Plestia Alaqad, Belal Khaled [his photo was in The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 50 hours ago about destitude Gazans]. Motaz Azaiza, Hind Khoudary, Bisan Owda, and Hatem Hany Rawagh not yet posted anything. HATEM even already 42 hours without news about him. Hatem is Plestia’s teammate.

Plestia Alaqad | بلستيا العقاد is Journo in Gaza. But currently her instagram activity, 21 hours ago. At least until yesterday, she insists to still posting everything horror - massive bombing by Israel in Gaza every hour.

I know a lot of high-ranking media, such as New York Times, Guardian, Anadolu, BILD, Spiegel, Financial Times, Strait Times, Washington Post etc subscribed my substack. Plestia ‘Bosbos’ Alaqad ready to be your Stringer inside Gaza under bombing by Israel. Plestiaa2011@gmail.com

Toddler with Plestia, before war, living in Northern Gaza and they evacuated to Southern Gaza. Since Friday, Oct 13, when Israel announced to every Gazans from northern move to southern, more than 5,000 killed in southern, not counting barbaric bombing in northern Gaza. Northern Gaza is being depopulated, while even residents in the south are ordered to evacuate as the israelis implement their ethnic cleansing. Refugee literally fulfilled Israel warning, and still killed with barbaric bombing by Israel. Documentation by Plestia Alaqad

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