Kenny 🎗️

@dianamahon @Gabriel_Pogrund @hzeffman Presumably you are referring to the innocent Israeli and Nepalese hostages still trapped in Gaza - another hate crime which must not be forgotten indeed.

@Gabriel_Pogrund @hzeffman No excuses for hate crimes anywhere in the world , especially directed at minority groups who live in fear of their lives day to day. But that applies everywhere …..including those trapped in Gaza . You cannot in any way , condemn one and not the other.

Just left synagogue briefly and read the news in detail. Sickening, surreal. For as long as I recall a fact of Jewish life has been security duty: ordinary lay members standing outside shul to create a physical and psychological deterrent against events like this. One always wonders - as I did recently, standing in a high-vis vest after agreeing to a far-too-irregular shift on a Shabbat morning, and as my wife has done far more often - how necessary that presence is. I was in Pittsburgh shortly after a white nationalist assassinated worshippers at a progressive synagogue, I've gone through what feels like military security to get into a shul in Sweden, I was in Paris days after a jihadist sought to murder shoppers at a kosher supermarket. And of course I've been in bomb shelters in the Holy Land. Britain has always felt different - a place where people, mercifully, do not have to die for being born Jewish. It is, by most objective measures, one of the best, possibly the best, places in the world to be Jewish, now or at any time in history. Yet who could say the last few years have not challenged that? Who today could say it is not necessary for us to stand outside our synagogues, waiting for an event like this befall us, hoping but not quite knowing this day will pass like all the others. I always find it remarkable that on the two occasions I've been to JW3 (London's Jewish community center) since  October 7, on every occasion, people driving down Finchley Road have hooted or screamed abuse at the queue of elderly folk shuffling in - I posted about both incidents out of some tiny sense of obligation, knowing they formed part of a bigger story, even if my Britishness, and Jewishness, both made me want to do the opposite, to ignore and suppress it. Until recently, our High Holy Days machzor - or prayer book for Yom Kippur - had remained the same since the 70s - written largely by Germanic Jewish scholars in the immediate shadow of the Holocaust, full of words and poems trying to make sense of that event. Seeing footage of a body soaked in blood outside a shul in Manchester, it feels like the penumbra of that period hover over us a little more today. On Yom Kippur the customary greeting is "Gamar Chatima Tova" - in short, may you be inscribed in the book of life for the following year. Which is why this attack, on our holiest day, is such an unimaginable affront to Jewish life in our country.

Don’t look away.

@Keir_Starmer If you want to help everyone then push the Palestinian groups to release the hostages immediately. Everything else you say is party political.

The Israeli Government’s decision to further escalate its offensive in Gaza is wrong, and we urge it to reconsider immediately. Every day the humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens and hostages taken by Hamas are being held in appalling and inhuman conditions. We need a ceasefire now.

DON’T LOOK AWAY. This is Evyatar David, before and during his captivity by Hamas. He has been starved for over a year and a half. He’s been deprived of proper food, sunlight, and hygiene for months. The only time he was taken out of the tunnels was to watch other hostages being freed, before being dragged back into Hamas’ hell. Hamas is abusing him. Starving him. Breaking him. Every second counts. The hostages are running out of time, physically and mentally. We must bring them home. NOW.

@lukeakehurst @DPJHodges Well said. However it's terrible that UK govt changed its policies to now incentive Hamas to keep the hostages and starve people in Gaza for PR as they will be rewarded with recognition & political kudos

I've just been sent a video Hamas have released of Israeli hostage Evyatar David. What Hamas has done to Evyatar is unforgivable. Just a few weeks ago, I sat in Portcullis House with Galia, Evyatar’s mother, and his cousin Naama. They shared stories of a vibrant, kind 25-year-old man—abducted from the Nova music festival nearly two years ago. Today, in the video Hamas released of Evyatar, he looks like a walking skeleton. Starved. Tortured. Dehumanised. This is not just heartbreaking. It is a war crime. There are over 50 hostages still in Gaza. Their families live every day in agony. I will not look away. I will not be quiet. I stand with Galia. I stand with Naama. I stand with every family torn apart. It's right that there is public outcry about the horrific suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the heartbreaking pictures of starving children, and there is no acceptable excuse, aid must reach them, but we also mustn't forget the hostages. Bring them home. Now.

@Frances_Coppola @DPJHodges This statement is simply detached from reality (however we may wish it to be). It's currently a polity at best, not a sovereign/nation state.

@Khenny @DPJHodges The State of Palestine not only exists but has a functioning government.

Can I just check. Conditions are being placed on Israel. Are any conditions being placed on Hamas.

@Frances_Coppola @DPJHodges Hamas won last elections held under Palestinian authority. According to regular polling it still has substantial support. The State of Palestine does not exist (atm at least). Palestinian authority - representing the would be state- is a dictatorship with little public support

@DPJHodges Yes. Listen to the whole speech. I remind you that Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people and has no role in the State of Palestine.

@NME Gentle reminder Gazans are still torturing and refusing to release some 50 Israeli and other nationals, many of whom abducted from a music festival.

Bob Geldof calls Benjamin Netanyahu a “liar”, accuses Israel of lying about starvation crisis in Gaza "The IDF are lying. They're dangling food in front of starving, panicked, exhausted mothers" nme.com/news/music/bob…

SHOCKING NEW PHOTO FROM OCTOBER 7: Surrounded by terrorists, wearing only in his underwear, this harrowing image was taken moments after the abduction of Yagil Yaakov from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Yagil was just 13 years old at the time. He was kidnapped along with his father, Yair (“Yaya”) Yaakov, who was later murdered by Hamas in captivity. His body was recently returned to Israel for burial. Never forget that this war began with Hamas kidnapping children, raping women and burning entire families alive.

@InayaFolarin @davidmdraiman He may soon get a call from @emilyeavis for @glastonbury 2027

Yarden Bibas shared a new video commemorating Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir. Never forget the Bibas 🧡🎗️

This is Karen Diamond. She’s a Jewish woman who just wanted the innocent hostages in Gaza home. A pro-Palestinian man set fire to her in Boulder. She has now died of her injuries. This hateful movement is killing Jews.

@HelpMusicians Most musicians just wanted to play, but unfortunately this year's Glastonbury was a festival of Hate. Music, sadly, played a secondary role to nefarious political and racist objectives. Whipping up division and calling for the death of people have no place in music.

Glastonbury wrapped up yesterday, and once again it showed just how powerful music can be. Whether you were onstage or backstage, deep in the crowd or watching from the sofa, we hope you felt part of something bigger this Glastonbury.

@TheRockRevival_ Ignorant woke antisemites destroying the UK, destroying music, sowing nothing but hate and division

The BBC really thought they had it all covered by not live streaming Kneecaps set 😂 Then comes along Bob Vylan 🎤 #Glastonbury2025

@LHSummers @jeremycorbyn @ZohranKMamdani They clearly share the same disgusting views

I’m very worried about the growing acceptability of anti Semitism. Disgusted to see @jeremycorbyn, who led British Labour Party towards anti Semitism and defeat, strongly endorse @ZohranKMamdani with 55,000 likes.  I hope Mandani has the moral fiber to disavow the support.

@ThreshedThought What's worrying is the UK is so out of the loop that your "intelligence" comes from hearsay and your "analysis" is pure guesswork. Most experts say it takes weeks if not months to assess these things. You're trying to justify a narrative rather than understanding reality.

Leaked US reports are now showing this to be true: Iranian nuclear programme only set back by a couple of months

@NME A divisive festival that features supporters of violent proscribed terrorist orgs that raped and murdered people... at a music festival. They drop prices because not enough people want to buy into this shitshow.

Wide Awake drop ticket prices due to rising legal costs: “It’s squeaky bum time” The festival kicks off today (May 23) with a headline performance from Kneecap nme.com/news/music/wid…

@BMWavesBlog They should go bankrupt for featuring a group whose members have promoted support for violent & dangerous terror organisations, and are being prosecuted by counter terrorism police. Hate and division is a bad way to grow a music festival.

Looks like Wide Awake festival is struggling. See below. Besides the reasons given re the Kneecap controversy and the Court Case over Brockwell Park, my opinion is that it was a very very bad decision to move the one day festival to a Friday from a Saturday.

Finland and Spain broadcasted anti-Israel messages before Yuval’s performance. Why don’t they broadcast Yuval’s phone call to her dad during the Nova massacre, where she hid under dead bodies with a leg injury while Hamas threw grenades inside her shelter to murder her friends?

How do they let Lineker who posts antisemitic racist content host FA cup final? They are complicit. #bbcshame #sacklineker