Dr Kate Webb

"Perhaps his refusal to fall for anything – neither politics’ nor poetry’s intoxications...and his view of the novel as a supremely moral and rational art, leaves Kundera, peculiarly, a novelist disinclined to enchant." My Milan Kundera obituary @guardian theguardian.com/books/2023/jul…

Fascinating economist @meadwaj is now a @TheGreenParty candidate. With luck @faizashaheen will announce she is standing soon. Polanski is doing brilliantly but Greens need more thinkers who are not mired in nostalgia but engage with the world as it is now. youtu.be/3Iyi6Qgap4Q?si…

Fascinating @meadway now standing as @TheGreenParty candidate. With luck @faizashaheen will announce her candidacy soon. Polanski is doing brilliantly, but Greens need more intellectual heavyweights like these who engage with the world as it is, not wonks mired in false nostalgia

In Gaza "Israeli attacks have killed at least 792 teachers & 18,639 students" "The rights group B’Tselem said the shooting in Mughayyir fitted a 'consistent pattern' of deadly attacks by Israeli soldiers & settlers pursuing a campaign of ethnic cleansing" theguardian.com/world/2026/may…

1. Why is an "institutionally racist" organisation engaging with the country's most notorious racist, a convict himself? 2. Does training involve kicking someone in the head repeatedly after tasering? 3. Why is Rowley selectively attacking political leaders before an election?

Absolute bombshell. Respected Jewish Rabbi Herschel Gluck completely shatters the establishment narrative. He confirms more British Jews march for Palestine pro-rata than any other group. He declares banning these protests is an actual antisemitic attack on the Jewish community.

Well, there you have it. British nationals are serving in a foreign army which is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide. Those are illegal acts. The Metropolitan police has decided it won't open an investigation into them.

lol. how perfectly normal.

The BBC has avoided using the term "Israel lobby" over the past two years, new research by Declassified UK shows, even though: - BBC execs regularly meet with the lobby - A quarter of all MPs are funded by the lobby - Half of Starmer's cabinet depend on lobby money - The lobby has taken credit for getting Palestine Action outlawed as a terrorist group. More here: declassifieduk.org/why-dont-uk-me…

A fantastic @Equatormag online event next Weds 6 May: our co-founder @NesrineMalik in conversation with contributor Daniel Trilling about his new book – and how the British media has abetted the rise of the far right: eventbrite.co.uk/e/how-the-brit…

This is a profound act of resistance - and a victory for the human spirit in the face of some of history's darkest forces @OmarHamadD is a hero He's also written a beautiful, wrenching book about living through the genocide. Any publisher who sees this, you should snap it up...

"It doesn't matter what the atrocity is, nothing sticks." @owenjonesjourno discusses how global toleration of Israel's genocide against Palestinians has ended the possibility of belief in human rights and a free press.

BREAKING: Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil has been killed in an Israeli attack, confirms her employer. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Israel “pursued” Khalil by “targeting” the house where she took shelter after an Israeli attack. 🔴 LIVE updates: aje.news/bpt7v6

Paul Weller, Massive Attack, and Kneecap lead calls for Eurovision boycott over Israel’s inclusion dlvr.it/TS8DRt

Poly Styrene backstage after she had performed at the Rock Against Racism concert, Victoria Park, 1978 📷 Photo by Caroline Coon

.@faizashaheen: "I support the Greens.. everyone sees the rot in the political system, typified by Mandelson.. no politician is delivering for people.. lots of people are turning to the Greens.. we want to live in a country where we care for each other, where change does happen"

Hard to believe that it is 17 years since Jim Ballard died. Here's something I wrote about the lovely man and his @Tate memorial. J.G. Ballard: The Bard of Shepperton | NOTHING IS LOST share.google/XBoPCEayDkQ6yQ…

@IsraelMFA Just stop. The surge in hatred for Israel across the world isn't driven by religion, it is driven by your country being genocidal maniacs. Just look at the statements of your government leaders. Nobody cares about your religion. You are a threat to everyone.

France is on the eve of voting one of the most shameful laws in its history: it would effectively outlaw criticism of Israel and criminalize any speech seen as even remotely sympathetic to whoever the French government chooses to designate a "terrorist group." In effect this law would turn France's foreign policy into unchallengeable dogma backed by prison time. You could literally be sent for 5 years in prison if you, for instance, call what France says are "terrorists" a "resistance group." Think for instance Nelson Mandela during the apartheid (the ANC was on every Western terrorist list) or, heck, France's own Résistance against Nazi Germany - designated as "terrorists" by the Vichy regime and the Nazi occupation. It's frankly absolutely insane. The new law is called "loi Yadan" after its author Caroline Yadan, a MP who represents French expatriates living in Israel. The U.S. has congressmen paid by AIPAC: France has cut out the middleman entirely, we have MPs whose constituency is literally in Israel. The law has already passed committee and heads to a full parliamentary vote on April 16th - 3 days from now - under a very unusual fast-track procedure. Seven of eleven parliamentary groups have said they'll vote yes and the law is expected to pass. What does the law say? Let me quote from it directly (full text here: assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/17/textes/…): 1) Article 1 introduces the concept of "implicit" provocation to terrorism and punishes it with five years imprisonment and a fine of €75,000 That's the one I was speaking about. Under this provision, describing anyone France designates as terrorist as a "resistance movement" - the way France describes its own Résistance against Nazi occupation - could effectively become a crime. The key concept is what does "implicit provocation to terrorism" mean? Nobody knows. And that's the point. It means whatever a prosecutor wants it to mean: a perfectly good case could be made that, for instance, quoting international law on the right of occupied peoples to resist with respect to Hamas is, in fact, "implicit provocation to terrorism." France's most famous anti-terrorism judge, Marc Trévidic, says he has never seen anything like it in his entire career (x.com/CharliesIngall…): "Implicit provocation to terrorism: do you realize what that means? Becoming a censor of other people's thoughts, trying to guess what a person really meant." 2) The same article also expands the terrorism apology offense to include "minimizing or trivializing acts of terrorism in an outrageous manner." This is even crazier: until now, "apology of terrorism" meant actually expressing a favorable judgment of "terrorist acts" (which is already insane because, as we all know, one person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter). Well, under this new provision, a judge could decide that providing context, explaining root causes, or insufficiently condemning an act amounts to "trivializing" terrorism - and that would now be punishable with 5 years in prison. So, for instance, a history teacher explaining the origins of Hamas or Hezbollah is providing context - but a prosecutor could argue that contextualization is trivialization. The same reasoning could apply to a journalist, a researcher, or anyone on social media who says "yes, it was terrible, but here's why it happened." The "but" becomes a crime, as it is trivialization. 3) Article 4 expands Holocaust denial law Under current French law, denying the Holocaust is already a crime. This provision extends that crime by specifying that contestation of crimes against humanity now includes, "whatever its formulation, a negation, minimization, or outrageous trivialization" of those crimes. Again with "outrageous trivialization"! In this instance the very authors of the text - Caroline Yadan and her colleagues - explain their reasoning explicitly in the law's preamble (assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/17/textes/…): "Comparing the State of Israel to the Nazi regime would thereby be punishable as an outrageous trivialization of the Shoah." So while the provision is written in general terms, its architects are openly saying what it's for: making it a crime to draw any parallel between Israel's actions and those of the Nazis. 4) Article 2 creates a brand new crime: calling for the destruction of a state. The law adds to an existing 1881 press law a provision punishing anyone who "publicly, in disregard of the right of peoples to self-determination and the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, calls for the destruction of a state recognized by the French Republic." Five years imprisonment, €75,000 fine. The qualifiers about self-determination and the UN Charter are meant to sound reassuring. But what does "destruction" mean? In practice, if you advocate for a one-state solution where Israelis and Palestinians live as equals, you are de-facto calling for the "destruction" of the state of Israel. Well, that would now be punishable by 5 years in prison 🤷 There you go. Absolutely insane: if this new law passes, and it unfortunately very much looks like it will, France - the country that gave the world the Declaration of the Rights of Man, the country whose national identity is built on the Résistance - will have made it illegal to use the word 'resistance' about anyone the government doesn't like. Jean Moulin would be prosecuted. De Gaulle would be prosecuted. The only people who wouldn't be prosecuted are those who stay silent. Which, of course, is the whole point.