Welcome to Andy Worthington

As the death toll in Gaza, over the last 32 days, reaches 10,569 people, including 4,324 children and babies and 2,823 women, I assess whether this constitutes a genocide, with reference to the Genocide Convention of 1948. I also look back on Israel’s 75-year history, and its constant conflict with, and suppression of the Palestinians, to establish a context for the increasing savagery of its attacks, especially since Gaza was sealed off and turned into an “open air prison” 17 years ago, and particularly, over the last 32 days, since the deadly attacks by Hamas militants on October 7. I also castigate western leaders for their failure to recognize the severity of Israel’s assault, and the possibility that they might be held complicit, and also examine the peril to humanity of having so many armchair genocide supporters amongst us.

Photos from, and my report about the ten coordinated global vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place on November 1, 2023 in London, Washington, D.C., New York City, San Francisco, Mexico City, Copenhagen, Detroit, Minneapolis, Cobleskill, NY and Los Angeles. The ongoing vigils take place on the first Wednesday of every month, and, as well as calling for the closure of the prison, also highlight the plight of the 16 men (out of the 30 still imprisoned) who have been approved for release but are still held — as of November 1, between 404 and 5,031 days since the US authorities first decided that they no longer wanted to hold them.

An update on the Gaza crisis, as the number of Palestinian civilians killed in Israeli bombing raids since October 7 surpasses the number of Muslims murdered in the Srebrenica Massacre in 1995, which was later judged to have been a genocide. And yet, as I note, western leaders still almost entirely defend Israel’s actions, and refuse to call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, leading me to wonder if they are not aware that one day they will be judged as having been complicit in a genocide. I also examine whether Israel has a plan beyond all this indiscriminate slaughter, and note recent suggestions that what they are hoping to achieve — even though it seems impossible — is the expulsion of all of Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants to the Sinai Peninsula, which, even if feasible, would constitute the most monstrous act of forced displacement (another war crime) since the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948, when 750,000 Palestinians were displaced.

Remembering the long campaign to free Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in Guantánamo, who was finally released eight years ago, on October 30, 2015, and the We Stand With Shaker campaign, involving photos of MPs and celebrities standing with an inflatable figure of Shaker, which I ran with the activist Joanne MacInnes in the last year of Shaker’s imprisonment.

On the 5th anniversary of the violent eviction of the Old Tidemill Wildlife Garden in Deptford, occupied for two months by campaigners (myself included) to try to prevent its destruction, and that of a block of council flats next door, for a housing development, I bring the story up to date, looking at how Peabody still hasn’t finished building its development — known as Frankham Walk — and wondering whether, after all this time, expense and physical and environmental violence, it has all been regarded as worthwhile by Lewisham Council and Peabody.

The video of my speech at the inspiring “Close Guantánamo!” event at the European Parliament on September 28, 2023, hosted by the Irish MEPs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace, at which I stressed how the men still held at Guantánamo are as fundamentally without rights as they were when the prison first opened nearly 22 years ago, and called on EU countries to help resettle the men approved for release but who cannot be repatriated.

Two weeks into Israel’s relentless bombing of Gaza, as the death toll reaches 5,926, including 2,450 children, I discuss ongoing western complicity, focusing on President Biden’s visit to Israel last week, his hypocrisy, his rambling and often contradictory speech, and his absurd claim that Hamas’s attacks on October 17 were not only Israel’s equivalent of the 9/11 attacks, but, “for a nation the size of Israel, it was like 15 9/11s.” Making a comparable assessment, I explain how, for the people of Gaza, their deaths to date are equivalent to 285 9/11s. I also discuss “administrative detention” in Israel, comparable to indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial at Guantánamo, and also reflect on how a Guantánamo analogy can be made regarding the 2.3 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, which is an open air prison, and where those held are all regarded as guilty of Hamas’s crimes, according to Israel’s President, Isaac Herzog. Finally, I look at the growing body of evidence that Israel’s attacks on Gaza constitute genocide, with particular reference to a UN report last week, in which nine Special Rapporteurs stated “There is an ongoing campaign by Israel resulting in crimes against humanity in Gaza”, and adding that “there is also a risk of genocide against the Palestinian People.”

As the number of Palestinian children killed in Israeli bombing raids on the Gaza Strip surpasses 1,000, I look at the Israeli government’s lack of concern for children’s deaths as part of its wholesale abdication of its responsibilities under international humanitarian law, and urge Western leaders to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and the lifting of the siege that has cut off supplies of water, food and medical supplies, pointing out that, otherwise, they may well find themselves complicit in the Israeli war crimes they themselves have endorsed though their uncritical support of Israel’s actions over the last ten days.

As Israel’s most-far right government in its 75-year history bombs the Gaza Strip relentlessly in retaliation for Hamas’s deadly attacks on Saturday, I can’t stay silent as the leaders of the countries of the West queue up to offer uncritical support for Israel’s “right to defend itself.” While Hamas may well be guilty of war crimes, so too is Israel, persistently and to an alarming degree, and the West’s current stance not only encourages Israel to illegally undertake collective punishment on the civilians of the Gaza Strip; it may also, under the current circumstances, end up endorsing genocide.

Photos from, and my report about the eleven coordinated global vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place on October 4, 2023 in Washington, D.C., New York City, San Francisco, Raleigh, NC, Mexico City, Los Angeles, Cobleskill, NY, Detroit, Brussels, Copenhagen and Minneapolis, with photos from London’s belated vigil on October 11 added a week later. The ongoing vigils take place on the first Wednesday of every month, and, as well as calling for the closure of the prison, also highlight the plight of the 16 men (out of the 30 still imprisoned) who have been approved for release but are still held — as of October 4, between 376 and 5,003 days since the US authorities first decided that they no longer wanted to hold them.