UK Friends of Standing Together

In the West Bank, Israeli forces arrested 80 international and Israeli volunteers non-violently resisting settler terrorism, including two British citizens. The arrests further demonstrate the settlers’ impunity and influence on the state in displacing Palestinians and blocking a two-state solution.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry is lying. No coordination was required, and we were never told that it was. We were not in a restricted security area. We did not pass any checkpoints.

Happening now: Barbara Gaffin, a Friend of Standing Together from Boston, was detained by Israeli police after joining around 80 other activists near Nahalin, west of Bethlehem, to provide a peaceful protective presence for Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest.

On Sunday, London Friends of Standing Together held a vigil to commemorate the third anniversary of the 7 October massacres and the war of annihilation and revenge that followed. We publish here speeches by Talia, Abdalrahman and Yaniv.

We’re grateful for support from the British labour movement for our work with allies to protect the Palestinian harvest from settler terror. If you’d like to help, you can submit the model motion linked at the bottom of this post in your local branch or party constituency branch.

Green members of UK Friends of Standing Together have written to the party’s Conference Committee in response to their banning Standing Together, published below.

If you’re at the Green conference, we’d be delighted to answer your questions about our support for Standing Together’s Palestinian–Jewish co-resistance against war and the occupation at this fringe event. 6 pm, Saturday 3 October. Details and link to register below.

G’mar chativa tova from UK Friends of Standing Together.

Interested in Standing Together’s work to protect the harvest and nonviolently resist settler terrorism in the West Bank? We’re organising public meetings in Nottingham, Leeds, Newcastle and Liverpool. But if you can’t make any of those dates, you can join this online webinar with Standing Together.

Our friends at Yachad are right. We would add that external pressure is not only important on the diplomatic front. It can also strengthen those fighting to put the occupation on the agenda in the political and media mainstream, including our friends in Standing Together.

Standing Together joins dozens of Israeli civil society organisations in denouncing attempts to silence and punish Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor for documenting war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza, which should be investigated, not covered up.

1/ Alon-Lee Green, one of the founders of Standing Together and co-chair of the political party A Place for Us All, was arrested by the police yesterday. He spent the night in detention and police are now seeking to extend his detention.

London: Over fifty people filled the room for our Solidarity in Action event in support of Protect the Harvest last week. It was a very engaged and emotional evening. Big thanks to our wonderful speakers, FoST activists Beau Sebastian, Marcia Gamsu, and David Bier and our special guest Finn Joughin.

Two Parliamentary Friends of Standing Together, @elliechowns.bsky.social and @adrianramsay.bsky.social, are now subject to Israeli entry bans. Their crime? Support for a just peace and the safety of Israelis and Palestinians alike. To suggest such solidarity is ‘anti-Israeli’ is ludicrous and false.

Wishing Jewish communities in Nottingham and beyond a happy Rosh Hashanah! L'shana tovah u'metukah 🍎🍯

To everyone in our community celebrating Rosh Hashanah, I wish you a happy and healthy New Year. May it be a year of peace, hope, and happiness for you and your family. Shanah Tovah. ✨

UK Friends of Standing Together wishes everybody shana tova. We shall remain steadfast in our determination to help our friends, Standing Together, build a land of peace, equality and social justice.

Wonderful to see Alex Sobel, a parliamentary friend of Standing Together, elected Chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights.

Standing Together and UKFoST will be in the West Bank this autumn protecting the harvest against unprecedented settler terrorism. Tomorrow (Thu10 Sep) we’re holding a public meeting in London with past protective presence volunteers including Finn Joughin, who was kidnapped by settlers and deported.

We welcome newly announced sanctions on settlements. The Israeli mainstream isn’t prioritising ending the occupation, hence the need for grassroots activism by groups like Standing Together. These sanctions help them argue the occupation isn’t just morally abhorrent but economically irrational.

UKFoST supports sanctions on West Bank settlements (see our statement on the previous round of sanctions announced on 9 June under the Starmer government, linked). We will publish a statement on the Foreign Secretary’s announcement in the Commons shortly.

Thanks to everyone who who attended the vigil in Cambridge. We call for peace and equality for all the peoples of Palestine and Israel. An end to the Occupation; full aid to Gaza; an end to the annihilation; free the hostages and Palestinians in administrative detention. Peace and justice for all.

Our national co director Alon-Lee Green on @aljazeeraenglish.bsky.social

Today, we are striking and disturbing routine across the country. We’re blocking roads and highways and businesses have shut down.  We cannot continue our daily lives while Gaza is being annihilated and the hostages are abandoned!

Now in Tel Aviv! We’re disturbing routine everywhere today because there is nothing normal about our government starving children, bombing civilians, and letting the hostages be killed. We refuse to let them steal our future on this land. We have to end these horrors NOW.

Hundreds of thousands march in Tel Aviv demanding a hostage deal and end to the war on Gaza. (1/2)

We are very pleased to announce that @johnmcdonnellmp.bsky.social is now a Friend of Standing Together. 💜 As the genocidal onslaught and starvation on Gaza continues, we call on all MPs to put further pressure on the UK Govt and Israel, and to support the vital work of Standing Together.

FANTASTIC!! With your help, we reached 💯 of our target! £20,000 for the brilliant, creative, humane, and powerful work of Standing Together's Tel Aviv-Yaffa circle, day in day out for peace, equality and freedom for all Israelis and Palestinians. www.causematch.com/standing_tog...

Well done to all those who joined our vigil for peace in Sheffield! For peace, equality, and social justice. Stop the genocidal siege on Gaza, release Palestinian detainees, release the hostages, end the occupation!

Watch: We disrupted the live broadcast of Big Brother Israel last night to call for an end to the annihilation in Gaza and abandonment of the hostages because we can’t continue with routine right now! There can’t be business as usual! (1/2)

"’It's about trying to break routine,’ [activist Eliah Levine] said. ‘It's a statement, both to the TV corporations and to the viewers, saying that we cannot allow ourselves to numb our pain and not think about what we're doing as a country to Palestinians. We have to wake up.’"

Please join our Notts FoST vigil tomorrow in support of stopping the genocide, for a full hostage release, and a recognition of Palestine. ⬇️

Today Beeston, Notts held a vigil for all the child victims since the beginning of October 7. Thank you everyone for coming out and showing your support. 💜

Today, UK Friends of Standing Together marched as a purple bloc at the National March for Palestine. 💜 We continue to call for an immediate ceasefire, a full hostage release deal, and an end to Netanyahu’s horrific starvation and killing of civilians. #StandingTogether

We are completely horrified and sickened by the cynical videos of hostages Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David, who are starving and emaciated, that were published this weekend. (1/5)

Hundreds of people joined @ukfost.bsky.social today to say stop starving Gaza, end the war of annihilation& bring the hostages home. Magen Inon & Mira Awad spoke powerfully. We all feel so broken & helpless, but we must keep going. I spoke about Awdah: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Last week saw a large crowd join Notts FoST to commemorate the continued annihilation and plight of the hostages, as well as support from a local Muslim festival. Join us again this week to commemorate the 60,000 people killed and support Standing Together’s Jewish-Palestinian co-resistance.

Vigil for Peace Bristol FoST - Saturday 2nd August, 3pm, College Green: Join us to support and amplify the voices of Jewish-Arab co-resistance in Israel-Palestine. We will be reading out statements opposing the current siege and starvation of Gaza.

Our crowdfunding campaign just got to 50 percent! You’re helping drive our fight for a different future in Israel-Palestine – thank you. Donate: omdi.me/thefight4life (1/2)

NOW: Thousands of Jews and Palestinians are protesting the starvation, killing, and destruction in Gaza and for the return of the hostages. End the annihilation!

We’re crying out for an end to this madness — an end to the catastrophe that has already killed 20,000 Palestinian children, the man-made famine, the brutal bombardment, and the abandonment of 50 Israeli hostages. Stop the annihilation NOW.

Great turnout from NottS FoST last Sunday. As forced starvation grips Gaza, the urgency for a ceasefire has never been greater. Aid must get into Gaza immediately, with the hostage released and an end to settler attacks in the West Bank.

Brilliant first event of the #Brighton Friends of #StandingTogether 💜 with young ST leaders, Aya Khatib & Maya Darnell on live-stream. @standing-together.bsky.social @ukfost.bsky.social 💜

A packed inaugural public meeting of the Brighton branch of UK Friends of Standing Together on 13 July, hosted by @sianberry.bsky.social. We heard directly from Palestinian & Israeli activists on the ground fighting against war and occupation. If in or near Brighton, get involved & get in touch!

Thank you to Leon Duveen for your powerful speech at last Sunday’s Notts FoST vigil. We must continue to shed light on the ongoing atrocities against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and promote peace, equality and social justice. 🟣

A ceasefire deal – which we urgently need – is just the beginning. It must be the start of a new path that ends the occupation and bloodshed on this land. Listen to Sondos Saleh, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and Standing Together leader, at an anti-war protest on Saturday.

Inside this bag is a human being. Gaza has become a graveyard. A slaughterhouse where massacres of children, mothers, the elderly, and disabled people happen daily. Our government treats existence in Gaza as a crime punishable by death. (1/4)