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Labour’s latest hypocrisy is truly flabbergasting

On Wednesday 2 July, Labour voted to proscribe the protest group Palestine Action – a group which has campaigned to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza (a genocide which the UK supports with weapons and money). This move to completely redefine what constitutes a terror organisation was already causing problems for Labour. Now, the party’s hypocrisy is off the charts, with David Lammy once again showing that he will shake hands with anyone as long as they’re willing to align themselves with US interests:

Palestine Action

Steve Topple reported on Labour’s proscription of Palestine Action for the Canary, writing:

The Home Secretary’s proscription of Palestine Action is due to come into effect at midnight tonight (12am Saturday 5 July), which the group say will lead to a “dystopian nightmare” where thousands of its supporters wake tomorrow to find they have been “criminalised overnight”. United Nations Special Rapporteurs and experts say this would have a “chilling” effect on free speech, assembly, and participation in political life.

He also noted that the pro-Palestinian movement lives on:

Britain’s pro-Israel government is cracking down on non-violent direct action, in order to protect its genocidal ally. But despite complicit MPs overwhelmingly voting to ban Palestine Action, another similar group has already sprung up, using the name ‘Yvette Cooper’ to continue efforts to shut down Israel’s economy of genocide. MPs have overwhelmingly voted to proscribe anti-genocide group Palestine Action. The group shares its name with home secretary Yvette Cooper, whose cosy links with pro-Israel lobbyists may well have informed her decision to crack down on anti-genocide actionists.

The proscription has proven controversial, as has the resulting crack down on protest:

 

As predicted, the heavy-handed decision to proscribe Palestine Action is already resulting in even-more-heavy-handed actions from the UK authorities:

Speaking on the proscription, Labour’s baron Peter Hain of the House of Lords said:

Palestine Action members spraying paint on military aircraft is moderate by comparison to what the suffragettes did.

Treating young people as terrorists because they feel frustrated about the failure to stop mass killings and bombings of civilians in Gaza.

I’ve never supported their activity, but there’s a great difference between what they did and terrorism.

And if you start labelling people willy nilly terrorists right across the board, you’re going down a very dangerous route.

Al Qaeda’s attack on New Yorks twin towers killing 2,753 people – real terrorism.

ISIS – real terrorism.

This Labour government is treating Palestine Action as equivalent to ISIS or Al Qaeda, which is intellectually bankrupt, politically unprincipled, and morally wrong.

Frankly I’m deeply ashamed.

Ahmad al-Sharaa

Ahmad al-Sharaa is the president of Syria, having ousted Bashar al-Assad in 2024. While there are conflicting reports as to how high al-Sharaa rose in al-Qaeda, there is no doubt that he was a member of the group which was responsible for the 9/11 terror attacks. Al Jazeera reported the following on him in 2024:

He was born Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa in 1982 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where his father worked as a petroleum engineer

The family returned to Syria in 1989, settling near Damascus.

Little is known of his time in Damascus before his move in 2003 to Iraq, where he joined al-Qaeda in Iraq as part of the resistance to the United States invasion that same year.

Arrested by US forces in Iraq in 2006 and held for five years, [al-Sharaa] was later tasked with establishing al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, al-Nusra Front, which grew its influence in opposition-held areas, especially Idlib.

[al-Sharaa] coordinated in those early years with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, head of al-Qaeda’s “Islamic State in Iraq”, which later became ISIL (ISIS).

In April 2013, al-Baghdadi suddenly announced that his group was cutting ties with al-Qaeda and would expand into Syria, effectively swallowing al-Nusra Front into a new group called ISIL.

[al-Sharaa] rejected this change, maintaining his allegiance to al-Qaeda.

Understandably, people have criticised Labour for its warped understanding of what does and does not constitute terrorism:

 

Journalist Richard Sanders pointed out an additional hypocrisy:

And the hypocrisy doesn’t stop there:

To be fair, though, the hypocrisy isn’t without reason:

International politics, hey Labour?

We’re of the opinion that it’s better for countries around the world to work together peacefully, and that conflict is rarely justified. At the same time, Labour aren’t working with al-Sharaa because they see a path towards long-term prosperity in the Middle East; they’re doing it because it supports America’s goal of maintaining perpetual instability in the region. Labour is branding UK protest groups ‘terrorists’ for the same reason, and it’s deeply shameful that British politicians are promoting Donald Trump’s America First regime over our own interests.

Featured image via the Canary

By The Canary

This post was originally published on Canary.