JUST report for 22/12/25

WITNESS
We held in our hearts the wedding massacre in a former school in Gaza where families had gathered to celebrate. See also here













A Palestinian man carries the body of his baby brother, Ahmed al-Nader, who was killed the previous day along with other family members in an Israeli shelling on a shelter in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City, 20 December 2025 (Omar al-Qattaa/AFP).

6/7 people killed on 19th December.

Gaza Unlocked Since the ceasefire agreement went into effect in Gaza on October 11, 2025, 394 Palestinians have been killed, 1,075 have been injured, and 634 bodies have been uncovered from under the rubble of their homes. Deaths 16-19 December= 17

DatatechforPalestine. Deaths 20-22 Dec = 12.

In occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli forces have demolished a residential building, displacing 13 Palestinian families. Local authorities say Israel has carried out 370 such operations in Jerusalem this year.

LEARN
• Standing Together. The Israeli-Palestinian organisation has been viewed as controversial because BDS will not recognise them – this is partly because they do not ban Zionists. Here is a +972 very thoughtful article about the dilemmas they face, and what they represent for many Israeli Palestinians, and I for one had something of a rethink. See also an interview between the leaders with Mehdi Hassan here. We had a thoughtful and challenging discussion led by Jeffrey, whose reflections (and the discussion points) are in Annex One.

• Prisoners. Terrible accounts of torture in Israeli jails, where a 17 year old Palestinian has recently died – at last carried by the BBC. Please consider emailing the BBC to congratulate them on covering this.

• Hunger strikers – watch video here and update at https://prisonersforpalestine.org/. Karem Ahmed on day 43, condition now “beyond urgent” and Amu Gib admitted to hospital along with Qesser Zuhrah, 20, and Amu Gib, 30, who have been refusing food for 51 days Read Amu Gib’s article for the Guardian here. Quesser has now ended her strike. BBC coverage here.

• Filton 24 trial daily reports here. 6 activists are on trial: Charlotte Head, 29, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31, deny charges of aggravated burglary, criminal damage and violent disorder. All defendants have now given evidence, except Jordan Devlin who declined to do so. Defendants were moved unexpectedly on Thursday after the proceedings finished from Bronzefield to Peterborough, miles from their lawyers and the court, and leaving their personal effects behind. Conditions have been shocking, with no food provided except a sandwich at 1pm although some were woken at 5.30am to attend. The judge directed that one defendant be given a banana but Serco staff subsequently refused to do this again.

• More on Hamas: Tareq Baconi did his doctoral research on the Hamas archives. Watch this excellent interview with Ash Sharkar on Novara Media. The attack on October 7 is insightfully discussed from about 0:49-1:08. His book Hamas Contained: A history of Palestinian resistance is available on Kindle and in paperback

ACTION
• Stop all UK support for the Israeli military in Gaza here

• Action for Hunger Strikers here and here. If you are an educator please sign this petition

• Actions for Christmas
Discussing Palestine and genocide with your nearest and dearest (or casual acquaintances) without coming to blows…see here for a toolkit on tackling fallacies

Light a red candle on Christmas Eve and post your video here at the Red Candle project.

Christmas drinks – Take the opportunity to support Palestine businesses
Taybeh beer – historic brewery
Buy from Brewgooder Sun and Stone collaboration with Taybeh
May be available in local Tescos and Co-op, check the locations on the site

Wine – more difficult. Main Palestinian wines are Taybeh and Cremisan, founded in 1885. Can be bought from Akub restaurant in Uxbridge but currently out of stock.
You can also buy a lot of Palestine drinks from the Danish site Warfair but shipping may take time. Instead treat yourselves to Lebanese wine – Chateau Musar is out of my range (though wonderful) but several more reasonably priced are at Sunday Times Wine Club, Waitrose and Majestic

Gaza cola profits go to Palestine charity
Palestine lemon and lime and Palestine orange are available to wholesalers only through https://www.greencity.coop/sd13743a-palestine-lemon-lime-24x330ml.html

Palestine lime and lemon and Palestine orange fizzy drinks From Greenfields who sell a wide range of Middle Eastern goods (I phoned up to check no goods from settlements or Israel and they confirmed not), Greenfields are not on any boycott list.

SHARE
Carmela asked an urgent question. How can we grow this movement and break down the apathy and passivity of the British public. This has to be through local, concerted creative and co-ordinated actions. We will make this a focus of our work together in 2026. We already know there are active networks locally but Carmela is right. There are people we are not reaching. Some ideas so far:

• Pam became a Zaytoun distributor for Zaytoun Palestine goods and ran coffee mornings selling products – not pushing the issue but providing information, these have been successful in drawing people in. Handicraft workshops, kitemaking, storytelling for children are some other thoughts.

• We have featured many imaginative and creative protests in the past, we’d like to know more about these – reading the names of children who have died in vigils, lining approach roads with placards.

• We could do more with our local churches – last year’s action was to place a prayer tree for Palestine anonymously (guerrilla praying).

• Most if not all London boroughs have campaigns for disinvestment in Israeli companies. Look into this and activate. Background here.

• Finally – wear your keffiyeh everywhere you go. Church, doctors, shopping.

Small wins
Lullaby for Palestine reaches no. 5 in charts and has raised more than £70,000
Ongoing concern amongst many – Glynis reminded us of the crackdown in Australia since the Bondi massacre, information from Michael West, investigative journalist here. A reminder of the resources we recommended last week- watch Antony Loewenstein Read Ha’aretz; Jewish Voice for Liberation; Jonathan Cook

Up and coming
• Christmas Day celebration at Palestine House London.

• January 18th Voices from the Holy Land webinar with Michael Luynk and William Schabas et al speaking on International Law - the Israeli Exception.

• Finally a Christmas message from Reverend Munther Isaac, Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem who was the guest on the American Friends Service Committee Action Hour for Palestine last Friday:
Christians often say they are waiting for God’s kingdom on earth. But God has shown us the way, we do not need to continue waiting. Waiting is not passive - we have to participate. Sometimes we pray for intervention but many times the answer is “why don’t you do the work yourself?”, we are his hands, we are his voice, God has shown us the way. We can make a difference. It may be very small but that is the beauty of the kingdom of God, whether talking to your neighbour, writing letters, visiting Palestine, every simple act makes a difference, that is the calling. Let’s do these small acts of rightfulness.
See Annex 2 for more thoughts from Munther.

Annex 1 Standing Together: Jeffrey Vernon - we should stand in solidarity with Israeli Jews and Arabs resisting genocide, apartheid and pogroms

Standing Together (ST) is a grassroots organisation in Israel, under joint Jewish-Arab leadership, campaigning for an end to Israel’s forever war against the Palestinians. While there are other Israeli groups with similar goals – the “The time has come” coalition (Hagiya ha-Zman) includes more than 60 organisations – ST has emerged since October 7 2023 as arguably the most distinctive and effective. Standing Together organised large protests against the war, publicised Israeli war crimes with photographs of children killed in Gaza, called on soldiers and reservists not to serve, escorted aid convoys to the Strip, and urged military sanctions and the enacting of arrest warrants against Israel’s leaders. The Israeli authorities have attempted to close Standing Together events, fundraisers and university chapters, and its activists have been arrested at demonstrations. Recently, members of Standing Together came under attack along with Palestinians harvesting their olives in the West Bank. An excerpt from the ST website reads:
After heading the struggle against the war of annihilation for two years, our task now is twofold: first, to secure a full ceasefire that gets the military out of Gaza and ends the daily killing of Palestinians; and second, to build a shared struggle against occupation, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid in the West Bank, for full equality and an end to Jewish supremacy. We are fighting for a just Israeli–Palestinian peace agreement that establishes an independent Palestinian state – for true safety, equality, and independence for all. We know we cannot return to the day before October 7th and to the endless cycle of occupation and bloodshed. It is time to choose a new path, one where Palestinians and Jews can live in true freedom, equality, and safety.

In a very recent development, Standing Together at its annual convention on 27/28 November 2025, attended by 1500 Jews and Palestinians, adopted the position of another Israeli organisation in the coaltion of 60, Land for All: Two States, One Homeland, which advocates
a two-state solution that can actually work--one that guarantees self-determination for both peoples while embracing our interdependence and common attachment to the land. … We envision two democratic, sovereign states - Israel and Palestine - linked together in a confederation with gradual steps toward freedom of movement and residence for all Israelis and Palestinians across our shared homeland. Our model offers national self-determination without domination, shared governance without erasing identity, and security without subjugation.

There are several competing visions for the future of Israel-Palestine, including an Arab-led Palestine ‘48. For some of Standing Together’s western opponents, that would be the only outcome consistent with international law. The significance of the Land for All proposal for an eventual federation is that Standing Together has a platform in the Israeli social movement. Here we have a concrete suggestion, a workable vision of the future, in a political scene that deliberately avoids the Palestinian question. The established opposition leaders present themselves as more competent alternatives to Netanyahu without any serious programmatic differences; while Israeli voices identifying themselves as Progressive or Left Zionist merely urge constitutional changes that would make Israel more democratic, as if democracy were even plausible without justice for Palestinians. The Land for All proposal moves away from the zero-sum discourse that sees a win for one side as a defeat for the other.
We had a useful discussion with Jeffrey. Questions included:-

• Are ST pro-right of return for Palestinians? – by implication yes since they call for a federated solution for two peoples in one land with no expulsions
• Do they have links with the International Campaign against House Demolitions – not specifically but they do oppose and draw attention to such actions
• Do they oppose Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions? ST is primarily a movement for Jewish-Pal solidarity, a shared future and a secular democracy. The economic boycott is not one of their demands, BUT they have never opposed it. They're not a political party, and don't have a position on all questions.
They boycott arms and intelligence, but are not in favour of cultural boycotts because they are trying to get as much international solidarity as possible. For example, Professor Shalhoub-Kevorkian was briefly arrested and then suspended from the Hebrew university in March after an interview in which she said Zionism should be abolished and called into question the rapes and other atrocities committed by Hamas – arguably you want her speaking as widely as possible.
• What about the inclusion of Zionists. Jeffrey’s own opinion is that he has met with Israelis who call themselves Zionist using the term in a somewhat sentimentalised way to refer to socialism, or Zionism as a light, whose ideas on Palestine are almost identical to his own, and that ST does not want to alienate people who, whatever they call themselves, agree with the vision. The term can become a barrier. (The +972 article above goes into a lot of detail about what this means for Palestinians).
• What do the terms Palestinian and Arab mean respectively? Israelis may talk about Arabs as a way of delegitimising Palestine and Palestinians. However, in Palestine people refer to themselves as Jews or Arabs as they have always done; interpretation is very context dependent.
• I am a bit unclear about who you are describing as "ultras" on the pro-Palestinian side. You speak of people you have met on the marches who say that all (or most) Jews must leave (in any peace settlement). I haven't met these people but do not doubt some exist. But have you any evidence that the BDS movement, or PSC which supports BDS, holds this ultra view. There was no time for Jeffrey to answer this question.

With regard to the Land for All movement, see the Mondoweiss article above on why Palestinians may prefer a two-state solution – but this must be driven by Palestinians themselves.

Other important movements
Zochrot – focus on right of return and its practicalities
B’tselem Have just produced a report Our Genocide
It’s Time – a coalition of over 60 organisations dedicated to peace


Annex 2. From Munther Isaac talk on Friday 19th December

• What not to do:
Avoid both sides framing: conflating oppressors and oppressed.
Do not have dialogue without justice
Do not accept solutions that are not just
Do not spiritualize or depoliticise the struggle, reducing it to a religious issue
Do not remain silent or passive

• What to do:
Name genocide, apartheid, colonialism
Advocate for internationalism and accountability
Reject and oppose theology that reinforces oppression and Christian Zionism
Engage in costly solidarity public active engagement

Watch his latest sermon to the west here