The Guardian newspaper published an article by its columnist, Aoun Jones, entitled “Welcome to troubled Britain, where opponents of Israel’s war are extremist ‘mobs’,” in which he asserted that “there is a new trend that has emerged in the corridors of British politics, which is that peaceful protesters against massacres of Gazans are dangerous and hateful extremists, while the defenders of the mass slaughter of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians are respectable moderates from mainstream society. Meanwhile, the destruction of Gaza continues.”

Jones referred to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s statement in which he stated that there is a “growing consensus” that “mob rule is replacing the democratic system,” and the writer considered that this position “made the world turn upside down, and one has the right to ask why.”

He pointed out that while the Scottish National Party called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the British Labor Party was in a critical situation as it continued to suffer under pressure from voters opposed to the brutal war waged by Israel on the Palestinian Strip. Signs of a massive rebellion appeared within Parliament and expressed Ministers in the party's shadow cabinet are preparing to resign.

But opposition Labor Party leader Keir Starmer did not accept the Scottish National Party's draft parliamentary resolution. The writer asked: Why? He answered: Because the text of the draft referred to the “collective punishment” carried out by Israel on the residents of Gaza. The wording of the resolution recognizes the commission of a war crime - collective punishment - which logically requires action on the part of the British state, such as an arms embargo and the imposition of sanctions on Israel. Such pressure is the only realistic means that Israel's allies have to change their behavior at this stage, but it is clear that the Labor Party is not prepared to go that far. He can offer only tentative condemnations, which Benjamin Netanyahu knows are designed for domestic public consumption and can be safely ignored.

He stressed that the difference in political positions in Britain is evident in the position of the Labor Party and the Scottish National Party. While the former called for an “immediate ceasefire for humanitarian reasons,” the latter demanded an “immediate cessation of all combat operations,” but his demand did not include a reference to collective punishment.

The writer pointed to the discussions that took place in the House of Commons (the lower chamber of the British Parliament) regarding dealing with the Gaza war, and the attempts that included it to influence the positions of representatives, which some may see as “morally repugnant politicization, Because it boils down to the Labor Party’s refusal to pin the clearly visible crime of collective punishment on Israel.”

Jones emphasized that Gaza was eventually subjected to such comprehensive destruction that its character and appearance changed, to the point that this could be seen from space, adding that reports indicate that hungry dogs eat decomposing corpses.

Jones returned to the question: Who are the protesters who pose a threat? He considered that in a society ravaged by Islamophobia, a wide sector of Muslim demonstrators had become vulnerable to being targeted.

He stressed, with what appeared to be sarcasm and denunciation, that if these people pose such a danger, why do they not face a mass arrest campaign?

In this context, the writer pointed out that the dismissed former Interior Minister Suella Braverman had claimed “that Islamists are the ones who are actually running the country’s affairs.”

He pointed to her colleague in Parliament and the Conservative Party, Lee Anderson, former Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party, who narrowed the scope of the conspiracy to London when he implicitly claimed that the city’s mayor was considered one of “Islamic sleeper cells.”

Jones wondered about the Conservative Party’s failure to acknowledge the spread of racist tendencies within its circles, and considered that this stemmed “from a deliberate attempt to imprint those opposed to the bombing, shooting, and starving of tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza, that they are the real dangerous extremists.”

Jones concluded his article by emphasizing that British political and media institutions know that proper accountability would strip them of moral legitimacy. And these institutions cannot claim ignorance, because Israeli leaders and officials have loudly told the world exactly what they are going to do – starve “human animals,” release “all restrictions” imposed on their soldiers, treat civilians as collectively responsible and “Nazis,” and erase everything and wipe the Gaza Strip off the face of the earth.”

He concluded sarcastically and at the same time denouncing, “But do not forget: the real extremists are the people who opposed this.”

Source: Sama News