24th National March for Palestine, February 15, 2025

As many as 175,000 people took to the streets of London in the 24th National March for Palestine on Saturday, February 15. It was a powerful display of solidarity with the Palestinian people, exercising the right and the duty to protest against US and Israeli efforts to forcibly displace the people of Gaza. Weekend demonstrations also took place in other countries around the world, including the US, Ireland, Norway, Belgium, Germany, Korea, Canada and Australia.

The demonstration marched from Whitehall to the US Embassy, sending a clear message of defiance against the orchestrated ethnic cleansing campaign that the US is promoting. Speakers at the rally condemned the Trump administration's pressure on Jordan and Egypt to absorb Palestinian refugees, calling it a blatant attempt to facilitate the depopulation of Gaza.

Under the banner "Stop Arming Israel", speakers such as Andrew Murray emphasised that the people are standing with Palestine and against all complicity with the US/Zionist genocide, no matter from which source. They condemned the silence of Keir Starmer and David Lammy over the obscene campaign for ethnic cleansing. A representative of the Muslim Association of Britain underlined that the people rise in the face of occupation and war crimes. She declared, "Gaza is not for sale!" Ben Jamal, Director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) declared, "We are building a community of resistance!"

Call for Global Movement against Displacement of Palestinian People

Residents prevented by Israeli forces from returning to refugee camp in Jenin, February 19, 2025

The Palestinian Resistance had called for people to join in a global movement from February 14-16, against the plans of displacement and forced relocation of the people of Gaza that the US and Zionist occupiers and their supporters are calling for.

The Resistance called on the masses of the Palestinian people, Arab and Islamic peoples and indeed the people of the world "to take part in mass solidarity marches and events in all cities and squares around the world, to reject and denounce the plans to displace our Palestinian people from their land, and to support their inalienable and legitimate rights to defend their land, foremost among which is their right to freedom, independence, self-determination and freedom from occupation.

"We appreciate and commend all the international positions that support, back and stand in solidarity with our people in the Gaza Strip, to stop the aggression against them and end the occupation of their land."

Palestinian Prisoners Liberated

Crowd greets Palestinian prisoners returning to Khan Yunis, February 15, 2025

As The Guardian and other news sources reported, on Saturday, February 15, Israel released 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in its custody, and Hamas has freed three Israeli hostages from Gaza, in the sixth exchange as part of the ceasefire deal, the latest instalment of the first stage of Toufan al-Ahrar, the Flood of the Free, the prisoner exchange agreement. As Samidoun, the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, reported, these Palestinian prisoners included 36 Palestinians serving life sentences in occupation prisons and 333 Palestinians from Gaza abducted by the occupation forces as part of their genocidal assault since October 7, 2023. After the February 15 exchanges, 1135 Palestinians have now been liberated in the exchange as part of the first stage.

Samidoun reported that these liberations come after the Palestinian resistance made clear that it could not tolerate the ongoing violations of the ceasefire agreement by the occupation, particularly the obstruction of heavy construction equipment, tents and caravans/mobile homes from entering Gaza, the obstruction of trucks of aid to northern Gaza, and the ongoing sniping and attacks on Palestinians returning to their homes throughout the Gaza strip, which has led to the martyrdom of over 100 Palestinians since the ceasefire. In addition, the occupation forces have repeatedly abused the Palestinian prisoners being released, with multiple liberated prisoners reporting being beaten until the moment they were turned over to the Red Cross, as well as their families; their families have been targeted for raids, arrests and attacks for celebrating and even welcoming their liberated loved ones.

Samidoun writes: "Once again, as throughout the history of prisoner exchanges, it has been made clear that it is the resistance that brings liberation, to the prisoners, the land and the people of Palestine, a resistance that stretches from the heart of Gaza, throughout Palestine, to Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran, and to the people of the world. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes all of the prisoners, their families and loved ones, and the Resistance and the people of Gaza who have made their liberation possible.

"We urge everyone, around the world, to join with the Palestinian people in Gaza and everywhere, to celebrate the achievements of the Resistance and the humiliation of the occupier, and to celebrate and welcome each liberated prisoner as the heroes of our global movement that they are, in public events, with posters and public education, with actions and events exposing Zionism and imperialism everywhere.

Israel bombs Yaroun in South Lebanon, February 8, 2025, in violation of Ceasefire Agreement

"We urge all supporters of Palestine and Palestinian and Arab communities to receive and honour the prisoners virtually and symbolically - and pledge to continue the movement until all of them are free, and all of Palestine is free, from the river to the sea."

Israel's Continued Violations of Lebanese Ceasefire Agreement

Neither has Israel stopped its aggression against Lebanon despite the ceasefire agreement. Israeli fighter jets launched an airstrike on the Wadi al-Zein area in the outskirts of Bouday, a town in Eastern Lebanon's Baalbek district, the National News Agency (NNA) reported on February 16. Israeli forces executed demolitions in several areas, including Tallet Labouneh, opposite Alma al-Shaab and Naqoura in the Tyre district; Mays al-Jabal, where two detonations were recorded; Kfar Kila, where Israeli forces carried out three demolitions within hours. Additionally, Israeli forces demolished multiple homes in the town of Yaroun in the Bint Jbeil district, with two large-scale demolitions occurring less than an hour apart.

In another cowardly assassination ordered by the criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, on February 17, the Zionists martyred Hamas leader Mohammed Ibrahim Shaheen in an air strike on his vehicle in Sidon, southern Lebanon.

Opposition to NATO in Paris, October 2022 - Photo: Tehran Times

On Monday, February 17, Prime Minister Kier Starmer met with French President Macron and other EU leaders in Paris in what was called an "informal summit". Reports say that the hastily-called gathering following the Munich Security Conference "was part of a flurry of diplomacy expected to centre on Ukraine this week as Trump officials prepare to start talks with Russia on their own" [1]. These US-Russia talks started in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on the same day as the "informal summit", and left the European leaders complaining that Trump's envoys had prepared "talks with Russia over ending the war in Ukraine without them".

However, the gathering in Paris excluded many EU countries. The Paris talks included only leaders from France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark, as well as the president of the European Council, the president of the European Commission and the secretary general of NATO. The claim that these talks were actually an "informal summit" is spurious. This meeting was another vain attempt by Britain and some other European powers, who have been straining at the US leash to escalate the war in Ukraine to "defeat Russia", to try and ensure that Ukraine at least remains NATO's proxy against Russia for the future in any peace deal.

Starmer had an article published in The Telegraph on the same day [2] saying that the UK is "ready to play a leading role in accelerating work on security guarantees for Ukraine. This includes further support for Ukraine's military, where the UK has already committed £3 billion a year until at least 2030. But it also means being ready and willing to contribute to security guarantees to Ukraine by putting our own troops on the ground if necessary." Macron also stated that France was prepared to send troops to Ukraine.

However, the "informal summit" also produced more disagreements with the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz saying that any debate now on sending peacekeepers to Ukraine was "completely premature" and "highly inappropriate" while the war is ongoing. He said he was "a little irritated" about the peacekeeping debate "at the wrong time". Which indicates he is not happy to discuss sending troops before the German elections this Sunday because of the wide-scale opposition to any war escalation involving Germany and German troops. According to the same reports "his views are shared by Poland and Spain, among other nations, especially given the vagueness about what any security guarantee would mean".

Starmer for his part has been called to a meeting with US President Donald Trump next week in Washington as has Macron. On this, reports say that Starmer is seeking to present his "peace-keeping plan" to Trump and to foster ties with Trump in a "delicate balancing act of maintaining good relations with both the new US administration and the European Union". Despite Brexit "he is also hoping the UK can act as a bridge between Europe and the United States over the war in Ukraine, stressing that Britain could have 'a unique role' in helping to secure a ceasefire in Ukraine" [3]. In other words, Britain and the powers of Old Europe are trying to continue their desperate attempts to stop the collapse of their ambitions to continue to control Ukraine and continue to use it as a proxy against Russia. As Starmer says in his article: "While Nato membership may take time, we should continue to support Ukraine's irreversible path to joining the alliance." However, Trump himself has been force d to admit that this was one of the principal reasons that the US and NATO allies provoked the war in Ukraine under Biden. Starmer is so shameless. In his visit to Ukraine last month he had signed Britain's own "Landmark 100 Year Partnership Agreement" with Zelenskyy [4] for a "strategic dialogue" that only sees the war on hold for the "foreseeable future", which is also in the service of Britain's imperialist ambitions, its monopolies and war industries in Britain and those it wants in Ukraine.

The working class and people are not going to be behind prolonging the war and having British or NATO troops in Ukraine. Everybody knows that it is a proxy war of the US and NATO with Russia using Ukrainian lives to fight Russia and must be ended in a permanent peace. The British and the old European powers are not seeking a permanent peace but are being forced to make concessions whilst further attempting to influence any peace deal that is made with Ukraine and Russia. Their aim is to continue to embed themselves in Ukraine and retain Ukraine as their proxy. This is why they desperately trying to send NATO troops as "peacekeepers" and build new military and naval bases occupying Ukraine and the Black Sea themselves in any agreement.

Britain's nefarious role in escalating the Ukraine war and being the first to supply modern battle tanks and Storm Shadow missiles and oppose peace has to be condemned by the British people. The British government, their military and armament industries cannot be a part of the solution to the war in Ukraine which they helped provoke and continue to arm and escalate as we write. Sending British or NATO troops to Ukraine must be opposed as a further escalation of the conflict and a lasting peace between Ukraine and Russia supported. The anti-war movement is taking a vital stand on this issue, as is evident in the meetings that the Stop the War Coalition are organising around the country. Britain's dangerous warmongering must be blocked. The anti-war movement must prevail!

Notes
1. European Leaders Meet in Paris as US Pushes Ahead With Ukraine Plan
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/world/europe/europe-paris-ukraine-talks.html
2. Prime Minister Keir Starmer's article in The Telegraph: 17 February 2025
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/prime-minister-keir-starmers-article-in-the-telegraph-17-february-2025
3. Gulf News
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/starmer-to-meet-trump-next-week-uk-government/ar-AA1zdoTE
4. UK and Ukraine sign "Landmark 100 Year Partnership Agreement": Starmer's Vain Attempt to Ensure Ukraine Remains NATO's Proxy against Russia, Workers' Weekly January 25 2025
https://www.rcpbml.org.uk/wwie-25/ww25-01/ww25-01-01.htm