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Spain and Palestine – two years of genocide: A brief chronology of half-truths and lies

Spain’s government profits from arms sales to Israel while posing as a defender of Palestine

Roser Gari Perez
10/10/2025

The Spanish government presents itself as one that fights for peace, and Pedro Sánchez (PSOE) as one of the international leaders working hardest for a ceasefire in Gaza and for recognition of the Palestinian state. Compared with figures such as German chancellors Scholz and Merz, American presidents Biden and Trump, or British leaders Sunak and Starmer, Sánchez may sound supportive of the Palestinian cause—but looking good by comparison with rabid genocidal maniacs is cheating.

In truth, despite all the kind words and promises of solidarity with the Palestinian people, Sánchez and his government have been opportunistic hypocrites. They cannot hold a candle to true leaders who have shown genuine commitment to the Palestinian cause and to human rights—such as Gustavo Petro, president of Colombia, or the South African legal team that brought the genocidal, terrorist state of Israel before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Despite the fact that the peoples making up the Spanish state overwhelmingly declare themselves anti-war, the state itself profits from war and genocide as one of its most lucrative industries. Spain ranks ninth among the world’s top arms exporters, responsible for 3% of global military exports.

Over the past 20 years, Spain has sold more than €84 million worth of military equipment to the Zionist state. Pedro Sánchez’s government has traded the most with Israel. As Nicolás Ardila and Alejandro de Santiago noted in their article of 9 September 2025:

“In total, from 2005 to the first half of 2024, Spain has sold €84,872,875 worth of weapons and dual-use technology to Israel, according to the Subdirectorate General for International Trade in Defence and Dual-Use Material. Of this figure, €49 million corresponds to the sale of dual-use technology, i.e., technology that has both civilian and military applications. This includes items such as machinery, toxins, propulsion systems, information security, avionics and sensors, among other capabilities. With regard to armaments, Spain has sold just over €35 million worth to Israel in the last two decades, notably including bombs, torpedoes, missiles, infrared imaging equipment, sights and targeting equipment, and ammunition.”

For years, Spanish presidents have engaged in pure hypocrisy—such as José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s 2009 claim that “the weapons we sell to Israel have not been used to kill Palestinians.”

Such absurd and demonstrably false statements may reflect the government’s awareness that these trade relations violate the eight criteria of Council Common Position 2008/944/CFSP, including “respect for the international commitments and obligations of Member States”; “respect for human rights in the country of final destination”; the “internal situation in the country of final destination, as a function of the existence of tensions or armed conflicts”; “preservation of regional peace, security and stability”; and the “behaviour of the buyer country with regard to the international community, as regards in particular its attitude to terrorism, the nature of its alliances and respect for international law”.

In 2022, the Sánchez government authorised arms exports to Israel worth €9.3 million, though deliveries totalled only €2.3 million. Yet as analyst Alejandro Pozo points out, even more significant are Israel’s weapons sales to other countries—since “the occupation is very expensive.” Although the figures remain opaque, Spain is known to have purchased more than it sold from Israel, which markets its weapons as “combat-proven”—tested on the bodies of Palestinians and Lebanese. According to the Centre Delàs d’Estudis per la Pau’s report Businesses Proven in Combat, many of these weapons were tested in the Gaza Strip, which Israel has long treated as a laboratory.

Since 2023, the Spanish government has continued doing business with Israel, allowing companies that profit from genocide to operate in Spain and permitting the transit of military shipments through Spanish ports, airports, and NATO bases. This pattern of half-truths and deception reveals the political and media trickery of the Sánchez government.

Between October 2023 and January 2024, the government expressed its “strongest condemnation” of attacks on Gaza’s civilian population and concern for the humanitarian situation—but stopped short of announcing an embargo or suspending arms sales. The response remained purely diplomatic. Meanwhile, on 7 October, both Sumar and Podemos refused to condemn Hamas’s actions and instead called for an end to the occupation.

On 23 January 2024, weeks after the International Court of Justice case brought by South Africa, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares claimed on Cadena Ser radio that “since 7 October 2023, there have been no arms sales to Israel.” Sánchez repeated the same claim in Congress in April 2024: “Since 7 October, Spain has not carried out any arms sales to Israel, none whatsoever.”

In reality, Spain not only purchased €1.027 billion worth of weapons from Israel but also sent ammunition there. As journalist Olga Rodríguez reported on 8 July 2024, “Since the beginning of the massacre in Gaza, Spain has not suspended imports of military equipment from Israel. Furthermore, it has continued to award contracts to Israeli military companies, including Elbit Systems and Rafael, the first and third largest in Israel’s defence sector.” Rafael is a public Israeli company; Elbit is private but maintains deep strategic ties with the Israeli Armed Forces.

In April 2024, public pressure and Sumar’s efforts forced the cancellation of a contract to purchase ammunition from IMI Systems worth €6.6 million. Yet Rodríguez reported that the government had already signed 31 contracts for Israeli weapons since October 2023, totalling over €1.041 billion. On 19 August 2024, the Ministry of Defence formalised another contract with PAP Tecnos, a Rafael subsidiary, worth €289,256 for maintaining remote-controlled weapon systems.

Unsurprisingly, further investigations continue to uncover additional contracts and deals.

In September 2025, the government triumphantly announced it was “consolidating” a total arms embargo on Israel—supposedly banning imports of defence equipment, dual-use technology, and products from illegal settlements. It also pledged to deny requests for transit of fuel that could be used militarily. But this “embargo” contains a glaring loophole: the Council of Ministers can grant exceptions “when the application of the prohibition would undermine the national interest.” The policy also says nothing about banning contracts with Israeli subsidiaries abroad or halting financial support from banks like Santander and BBVA, which together fund Israel’s war machine to the tune of nearly $4 billion, according to the Centre Delàs report Armed Banking and Its Complicity in the Genocide in Gaza (October 2024). Conveniently, arms purchases spiked just before the embargo took effect.

Ships and aircraft involved in the genocide

On 16 May 2024, the Spanish government announced that it would prohibit ships carrying weapons bound for Israel from docking in Spanish ports. In practice, these routes have continued. Only public pressure has prevented some ships from being serviced. Researchers from Progressive International and the Palestinian Youth Movement documented 1,185 military shipments—over 13,000 metric tonnes—between May and September 2024. This complicity of Spanish ports does not seem to have changed since then, with monthly reports of such shipments.

Spanish airports have also facilitated the genocide, with more than 60,000 pieces of weaponry departing from Zaragoza since 2023. In September 2025, the government again reiterated that it would prohibit ships and aircraft carrying weapons to Israel, but violations were quickly reported. Days later, Podemos denounced the refuelling of a military ship in Valencia, and in October 2025, Barcelona’s port workers’ union condemned the arrival of the Zim Virginia, carrying weapons from the US to the genocidal Israeli army.

The Spanish government and the flotilla

Public outrage has intensified, culminating in the suspension of the Vuelta a España cycling race in September 2025 due to Israel’s participation.

Under pressure, the government dispatched a warship to escort the Gaza aid flotilla in October 2025. Yet hours before the flotilla was intercepted by Israeli forces, the Spanish vessel withdrew, citing “security risks” and claiming that “the mission of the flotilla is commendable and legitimate, but the lives of its members must come first.” The government even urged the activists to abandon their attempt to break the blockade.

This gesture—combined with the government’s failure to respond to Israeli attacks on Spanish-flagged vessels—has fuelled widespread discontent. Sánchez’s administration has limited itself to vague threats of “legal action” against Israel.

All these half-truths and contradictions have popularised the term PSOED—a shorthand for the PSOE’s repeated deceptions, false solidarity, and empty gestures.

German repression of Palestine solidarity protests did not start on October 7th

The current bans and police violence have their roots in a sinister pattern of repression that has been happening for much longer

Phil Butland
08/10/2025

We are all aware of the level of repression against the Palestine movement in Germany since 2023. While the police crackdown has clearly increased in the last 2 years, it is not new. Systematic repression of Palestinians and their supporters was part of German Staatsräson long before October 7th.

In May 2019, the German government passed a non-binding resolution criminalising BDS. The resolution, which was supported by all mainstream parties, has no legal status, but had two direct effects. Firstly, it increased the uncertainty of venue owners, local councils, and academic institutions, which made them less likely to allow “controversial” (ie pro-Palestine) events. Secondly, it emboldened the forces of repression and censorship, who felt more confident to go onto the offensive.

In an article in die Zeit, Stefanie Schüler-Springorum argued that the Bundestag resolution created “a climate of legal insecurity, which leads to institutions racking their brains, not about the quality of a project, but about the political stance of those involved vis-a-vis the Middle East conflict”, resulting in a “form of advanced self-censorship.”

In 2021, 15,000 people demonstrated on Nakba Day in a united action which was not just confined to Palestinians. It was also the largest demonstration for Palestine in Germany for a generation. This made the German State see the growing Palestine movement as not just a distraction, but a formidable threat, resulting in harsher crack downs.

In the period between the BDS Bundestag Resolution and October 7th, theleftberlin.com was relaunched as a website, concentrating more on news and campaigning, particularly around Palestine solidarity. We’ve put together some of our coverage from that time in this article to provide a far from exhaustive overview of anti-Palestine repression in Germany before October 7. These examples show that the repression did not start in 2019 any more than it did in 2021 or 2023, but that with each year past it has only intensified.

“Cancel Culture” comes to Germany

The month after the BDS resolution was passed, Peter Schäfer, then director of Berlin’s Jewish Museum, was forced to quit over a pro-BDS re-tweet.

A few months later, Palestinian-German academic Dr Anna-Esther Younes had been invited to present her report on Islamophobia in Europe at a conference “Strategies against the Right” organised by Die LINKE Berlin. The day before the event, she was uninvited because she was “probably close to BDS” and was compared to the right wing murderer who had recently attacked a synagogue in Halle. It was later discovered that the Antisemitism Research and Information Centre and Mobile Advice Against Right Wing Extremism had compiled a secret dossier on Younes and sent it to Die LINKE.

In Spring 2020, Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe was disinvited from speaking at the Ruhrtriennale festival, for comparing South African apartheid to the oppression of Palestinians. The disinvitation was ordered by Germany’s unelected antisemitism commissioner Felix Klein. Academics conducting research on the memory culture in Germany, Irit Dekel and Esra Özyürek reacted to Mbembe’s exclusion saying it was “not an isolated event but part of a long series of other high-profile cases in which Arab, Turkish, African, and Jewish background Germans and non-Germans, a significant number of them women, have been accused of antisemitism or of promoting antisemitic sentiments.”

In October 2022, the German teaching union GEW, invited Israeli anti-Zionist academic Dr. Shir Hever to talk to them about Child Labour in Palestine. Before the lecture took place, it was cancelled by the GEW, who claimed that Hever was an antisemite. They based this judgement on a secret letter from Dr. Michael Blume, the antisemitism commissioner of the state of Baden-Württemberg.

Restricted Spaces

One of the most obvious effects of the resolution was the generation of a feeling of uncertainty among venues. With a few honourable exceptions, it is now almost impossible to book a room in Berlin for a meeting on Palestine. This is not because most venues are pro-Israel – rather that they fear being tarred with accusations of antisemitism and possibly losing financial support.

The war on venues is particularly strong in places which depend on state funding for their existence. This is particularly strong in the academic world. For example, in October 2020, the Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee withdrew funding for The School for Unlearning Zionism, a series of online events and an exhibition, both organised by Jewish students.

The repression reached its height post October 7th, when in December 2023 the multicultural centre Oyoun was closed down for hosting an event organised by the Jüdische Stimme (Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East) – sister organisation of the Jewish Voice for Peace. The Berliner Senat justified closing down Oyoun, by accusing the centre of “hidden antisemitism.”

But Oyoun, which has played a stalwart role in defending Palestinian rights, had been subject to state repression for many years. In June 2021, The Left Berlin and others tried to organise a workshop “Is it possible to talk about Israel/Palestine in Germany?” at the anti-racist Offenes Neukölln festival. Speakers included Wieland Hoban, board member of the Jüdische Stimme.

We were uninvited from the festival because “it might be possible that antisemitic statements would be made”. We were able to carry out the meeting online, but Oyoun, which had originally agreed to host the event, were told in no uncertain terms that hosting the event would lead to them losing their funding.

Job losses

In September 2021, German broadcaster WDR announced that prize-winning German-Palestinian journalist Nemi El-Hassan would not be presenting a science show as planned, because she had liked tweets by the Jewish Voice for Peace, a Jewish, pro-Palestinian organisation. As an Open Letter in support of El-Hassan reported, Bild Zeitung regularly, and without foundation, branded her an “Islamist”.

In July 2022, Deutsche Welle fired 7 Palestinian journalists using dubious claims of antisemitism which were later disproved in court. One of the 7, Farah Maraqa, told Novosti Hoboctn: “my experience at Deutsche Welle wasn’t an isolated case. It’s part of a much larger pattern of repression that Palestinian journalists in Germany and across Europe face.”

I have already mentioned Palestinian academic Dr. Anne-Esther Younes being uninvited by die Linke. Anna was also deprived of many job opportunities. As Hebh Jamal reported for The Left Berlin in 2022, “Since completing her Ph.D, Younes had issues with applications, so she stopped applying for jobs in Germany or engaging with academia. One academic employer told Younes that if they hired her they would ‘lose funding, be torn apart in the media for hiring me, and their institutions would be destroyed.’”

Censorship of the Arts

Between June and September 2022, the documenta15 Art exhibition in Kassel, the first to be curated by an Asian artist or collective, ended in chaos, as the curators Ruangrupa were accused of antisemitism, following an intervention from the German Chancellor. Exhibitors Taring Padi were forced to remove a 100m² mural.

Another participant at documenta15, Hamja Ahsan reported being ”stalked, abused, and called a terrorist by members of the SPD” and described as an extremist by Beatrix Storch from the AfD because of her support of BDS.

In 2022 and 2023, Jewish South African artist Adam Broomberg was repeatedly attacked in the mainstream press by Stefan Hensel, Hamburg’s commissioner for combating antisemitism. Hensel claimed that Broomberg was a “hateful antisemitic person who supports terrorism against Jews”. The false claims were not challenged by other journalists, and led to Broomberg losing grants and his teaching job.

Artists were particularly punished by their support for BDS. In October 2019, Lebanese-American artist Walid Raad was denied a cash prize from the German city of Aachen after refusing to condemn BDS. In September 2019, the city of Dortmund withdrew its decision to award the British-Pakistani novelist Kamila Shamsie a literature prize, citing her support for BDS.

Following October 7th, the cancellations and repression intensified. In November 2023, Christine Streichert-Clivot, Saarland’s Minister of Culture and Education, cancelled an exhibition by Jewish South African artist Candice Breitz. As Candice acidly remarked at the time: Streichert-Clivot “is likely to go down in history as the first Minister of Culture to preside over the cancellation of a major exhibition by a Jewish artist at a German museum since the Nazi era”.

Police violence

One of the aspects of state repression with which we are most familiar is heavy-handed policing of demos. This, too, did not start in 2023. In May 2021, police violently attacked a rally commemorating the victims of Israel’s attack on Sheikh Jarrah. The following April, Berlin police banned all demonstrations for Palestine until the 1st May.

From 13th-15th May 2022, all demonstrations commemorating the Nakba received a similar ban. According to the European Legal Support Centre: “the police disrupted a Palestinian cultural event on 13 May in Neukölln, banning any political public speech, attempting to stop the distribution of books on Palestine on a discretionary basis, and preventing attendees from dancing the traditional Dabke, claiming that it was a form of ‘political expression’.”

Two days later, police violently attacked people mourning the murdered US-Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. Some people arrested that day were later found non-guilty in court. Others received fines for taking part in an illegal assembly.

In April 2023, all demonstrations related to the 75^th anniversary of the Nakba were once more banned by the Berlin government. In May 2023, after the Jüdische Stimme was finally allowed to organise a rally, the rally was shut down by police after some attendees shouted: “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Conclusion

The censorship and repression reported here are just the tip of the iceberg, and is mainly limited to incidents which we directly covered on our small website. Many events are not included, not least the self-censorship of venues, academics, and artists who decided not to speak out on Palestine either because it made their lives easier, or because the dominant German narrative that Palestine is “too complicated” made them feel too uncertain to put their heads above the parapets.

I would hope that one of the side-effects of the mass demonstration for Gaza on 27th September 2025 will help initiate a shift in this narrative, that it will become easier for isolated individuals to speak out for Palestine, and more difficult for the German State to repress them.

Censorship on Palestine – in Germany and elsewhere – depends to a large extent on how much our side is willing to accept, and how much their side is able to impose. As said, the BDS resolution, which helped initiate the new wave of repression, had no legal status, but served to embolden the forces of repression. I hope, and believe, that the new round of resistance will strengthen our ability to resist.

It didn’t start on October 7th, but it didn’t end there either. We can learn from repression, and resistance in the past, in order to strengthen resistance in the future–and the present.

Leyton and Wanstead Labour Party Resignations

21 members of Leyton and Wanstead CLP are announcing their defection from the Labour Party

Ray Goodspeed

On 30 September, 21 ex-officers and active members of Leyton and Wanstead Constituency Labour Party (CLP), in East London, issued a press statement announcing their defection from the Labour Party in order to:

“Help to build an alternative socialist party that we can be proud to be members of – one that can act in the interests of working class people and provide a real alternative to the “populist” authoritarian far right.”

Leyton and Wanstead had always been a traditionally left CLP. It was one of the first in the country to nominate Jeremy Corbyn in 2015.

It had a proud record of work with trade unions, supporting picket lines of teachers, rail and post workers, NHS staff and others and inviting strikers to its meetings. In October 2022, it played the main role in setting up a local Cost of Living campaign springing from a public meeting of over 200. Over the following year, it collected over £4,000 for striking workers and local food banks at tube stations and outside Leyton Orient football ground.

From right back in October 2023, it took a principled stand against the Israeli attacks on Gaza. Its members attended the regular demonstrations in support of Palestine, including local protests against their own MPs!

The CLP was a little socialist fortress in a hostile party and inspired a lot of loyalty from members who would otherwise have walked away. It was locked in a constant battle with the national, regional and borough right-wingers and their allies in the party bureaucracy.

But as the situation went from bad to worse, many increasingly felt that they could no longer actively work for the party in any capacity. This was felt particularly keenly in this part of London, as the constituency borders Ilford North, where the pro-Gaza independent candidate, Leanne Mohammed, came within just 500 votes of removing the senior, right-wing Labour figure, Wes Streeting.

Streeting is now Health Secretary in Starmer’s government and very close to private health care companies to whom he offers lucrative NHS contracts. He has also made permanent a temporary ban on “puberty blocking” medication for trans adolescents and wants to keep trans women out of women’s wards on hospitals. And this from a gay man!

Leyton and Wanstead also borders Chingford and Woodford Green constituency, where the popular left candidate, Faiza Shaheen, who had been working to establish a strong local support base for years, was scandalously dumped by Labour just days before the general election, and mounted her own vibrant, independent but sadly unsuccessful campaign against the official stooge Labour candidate imposed by the party bureaucracy.

And of course just a few train stops away in Islington North, Corbyn himself managed to stand independently and thrash the official Labour candidate, drawing in hundreds of enthusiastic volunteers from far and wide.

At the same time, the sitting MP in Leyton and Wanstead suddenly resigned days before the last nomination date for election candidates, so that a completely unknown, right-wing candidate, could be imposed by the Starmer clique, to the fury of local members.

In the face of all this, some Labour members helped one or other of these independent candidates in the 2024 election, constantly expecting “automatic expulsion” letters from Labour. Many good socialists left the party in ones and twos. The CLP membership has halved since Starmer first took over, and is becoming hollowed out and inactive except for existing councillors and wannabe councillors.

The Labour vote in Leyton and Wanstead fell from a record 70% in the general election of 2017, to just 47% in 2024. Current opinion polls predict that it will fall to less than 40%. The national party is already down to just 20% in opinion polls and has experienced truly disastrous local government election results. The huge trade union, UNITE, is openly talking seriously about disaffiliation.

Finally, once the Corbyn/Sultana, provisionally named “Your Party” project looked to provide the possibility of a serious mass alternative left party, many of the remaining socialists in the party decided, rather than drift away from the party as individuals, to leave as an organised block and to send a statement to the local press and to national left media outlets.

Most of those who signed the statement and resigned are now campaigning with many others to establish a “Your Party” branch in the constituency, where a public meeting was held on 16 September, attended by over 150 people, which was imbued with enormous enthusiasm. It provided a real basis for future progress and united action until the new national party is formally founded.

However, some of that optimism has had to be tempered by the legendary ability of the left to inflict damage on itself. The press statement was originally scheduled to be released on 18 September but was delayed by extraordinary developments on that very day at the top of the proposed new party based on what appears to be an acrimonious split.

On one side is Jeremy Corbyn himself, and a group around him, many of them from his team when he was Labour leader. He has also allied himself with four so-called “Gaza independent” MPs, all from the Muslim community who had shocked Labour by taking previously safe seats from them. They are not all socialists; they have never even claimed to be. Yet Corbyn seems to be favouring them in the process of developing the new party, placing some of them in key roles.

On the other side is Zarah Sultana, a much younger firebrand socialist who resigned as a Labour MP to “lead the process” jointly with Corbyn, of establishing a new party. She has much more socially liberal and secular views than the independent MPs on issues such as abortion, sexuality and trans people’s rights. She has become a figurehead for those who want a more democratic socialist party, free from the domination of the coterie around Corbyn.

She feels shut out by Corbyn’s allies and has responded by taking two reckless unilateral actions. Firstly, she publicly announced the formation of the party back in July, seemingly without even consulting or warning the “co-leader” Corbyn! Then on 18 September she announced that an internet membership portal for the new party was open and live, only for Corbyn to post on social media that this was completely unauthorised and that anyone who joined (over 20,000 in a matter of hours) should cancel their direct debit instructions! He also reported Sultana for an alleged illegal data breach. She in turn has spoken of a “sexist boys club” and threatened him or his allies with a defamation lawsuit, though this has been withdrawn.

All of this was a body blow to the new party and to the hundreds of thousands up and down the country who had invested their hopes and dreams in it. Frankly, it was a self-indulgent, incompetent disgrace—on all sides.

The membership portal is now open again but it is clear that the enthusiasm and trust has dissipated and many people are reticent about joining unless these disputes are properly resolved. They have not announced how many have joined, leading to the suspicion that the numbers are underwhelming. And over the last few months, 20,000 people have joined the Green Party under its new, charismatic, and more explicitly socialist leader, Zack Polanski, many of them since the Your Party debacle. The Green Party’s membership now stands at 83,000.

In Leyton and Wanstead, work enthusiastically continues to build a left alternative, drawing in those who have left the Labour Party, Palestine activists, sections of the revolutionary left, new people from no party and wide layers of people campaigning on private landlord rent levels, the climate crisis, and many other single issues.

The “Your Party” national conference has been arranged for the end of November, with delegates chosen at random by “sortition”, rather than being elected at a local level via active branches—another source of disagreement and suspicion. The decisions regarding the final name of the party, the leaders and the main policy platform will then be put to an online ballot of all members.

But whether or not the national party is formed or how large it is, it is likely that strongly supported left candidates will stand in Leyton and Wanstead as in many other areas, or that deals are made with the Green Party.

It is still just about possible that the Labour Party, under a new leader, could swing leftwards, to gain more votes and members. But is also very likely that Labour will continue to offer nothing to working people, and make more concessions on asylum and immigration to the far-right, leading to an electoral catastrophe. This will simply open the door to the nightmare of a future Reform UK government.

**********

Full Text of statement

We the undersigned are active members of Leyton and Wanstead Constituency Labour Party (CLP). We have all been in the party for many years and some of us for decades. Many of us have been CLP and local branch officers, including CLP chairs and secretaries, and a general election agent.

We have watched with anger, frustration and astonishment as the current dishonest leadership has abandoned the principles the Labour Party should stand on. It has tried to solve the economic crisis at the expense of ordinary people who did nothing to cause it, while doing next to nothing to address unprecedented levels of inequality and poverty, including child poverty. This has had disastrous electoral results.

The Government’s shameful inaction and active complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza is intolerable. In the face of hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries, the total destruction of infrastructure, the deliberate starvation in Gaza and the state-sponsored settler violence in the West Bank, the Labour Government has limited itself to minimal, mainly symbolic, actions, taken far too late, while continuing with weapon sales and military co-operation with the Israeli regime. This will be a permanent stain on its reputation.

The proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist group is a terrifying extension of authoritarian state power and has led to the shocking and absurd arrests of hundreds of entirely peaceful demonstrators, many of whom are our friends and family members.

The Government is pandering to the fake patriotism and poisonous anti-migrant rhetoric of Reform UK in a doomed attempt to win their voters on that basis. It has savagely cut international aid and completely betrayed the interests of trans people. All this has led to intensified community conflict and is opening the door to a future Reform UK government.

This is not a complete list! And even many of the reforms that we would welcome have been weakened and watered down.

The leadership of the party at regional and national level, with their local supporters and their allies in the party apparatus have used shameless anti-democratic manoeuvres – tearing up the rule book – to prevent properly democratic selections of candidates for Parliament and local councils and have increasingly closed down any method by which party members can try to determine or influence local or national policy. They have created a climate of fear in the party to shut down opposition.

We have remained members of the Labour Party, despite being told to leave by Keir Starmer, and in spite of many good socialists being expelled or leaving in disgust. We have done this out of party loyalty; to ensure the removal of the Tory government; for the sake of unity with the main organisations of the Labour movement; and because no viable alternative presented itself.

But enough is enough. We now feel that we have no choice but to resign from the Labour Party and to help to build an alternative socialist party that we can be proud to be members of – one that can act in the interests of working class people and provide a real alternative to the “populist” authoritarian far right.

October 14th 1943 – Escape from Sobibor

This week in working class history

Phil Butland
07/10/2025

In Autumn 1941, Nazi Germany implemented Operation Reinhard—the systematic extermination of all Polish Jews. This directive required the building of three additional death camps: Bełżec, Sobibór, and Treblinka. Between 1942 and 1943, 1.7 million Jews were murdered under this operation, along with countless Roma and Sinti people, Poles, and Soviet prisoners of war.

From its opening in May 1942 until its closure in October 1943, an estimated 180,000 people were murdered in Sobibór—nearly 100,000 in the camp’s first 90 days. Most deportees were murdered immediately upon arrival, but a small number were selected for forced labour. These prisoners were forced to carry out tasks such as disposing of corpses or working as skilled labourers—goldsmiths, tailors, and others. Female prisoners were often raped by SS officers.

On 14 October 1943, an armed uprising broke out inside the camp. The revolt was inspired by news of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising earlier that year. Around 4 p.m., Johann Niemann—the acting camp commandant—was killed, along with nine other SS officers and two guards. Soon after, prisoners cut the camp’s telephone and telegraph lines. During a roll call later that afternoon, a firefight broke out, triggering a mass escape attempt.

Around 300 prisoners managed to escape—nearly half the people still imprisoned at Sobibór. Many were killed in the surrounding minefields or captured and executed. In the end, just 58 escapees survived the war. Alexander Pechersky, a Jewish Red Army officer and one of the revolt’s leaders told its participants: “Those of you who may survive, bear witness. Let the world know what has happened here.” The next day, 15 October 1943, all remaining prisoners in Sobibór were murdered, and the Nazis shut down the camp—effectively ending the killing at Sobibór’s gas chambers.

Sobibór was one of three armed revolts in Nazi death camps in occupied Poland. The others—Treblinka in August 1943 and Auschwitz-Birkenau in October 1944—were ultimately unsuccessful in achieving escape. But Sobibór proved that resistance was possible, even under the most brutal and dehumanising conditions. In the words of survivor Gershon WIllinge: “It is so important for us to remember the Sobibór revolt, to remember that Jews did resist. Jews weren’t just led like sheep to the slaughter. We did resist and we wanted to live!”

Gaza genocide: “I wonder what lessons we’ll learn from this.”

Berlin activist convicted because of pro-Palestine protest sign files appeal. Interview with Martina Winkler.

Carmela Negrete

Martina Winkler (name changed for anonymity) was convicted for carrying a sign which read “Have we learned nothing from the Holocaust?” at a protest against the Gaza genocide in Berlin’s government district.

In June you were sentenced to pay a €1,500 fine because you walked around the governmental district holding a sign on which you’d written “Have we learned nothing from the Holocaust?”. What do you expect the appeal process to look like?

The verdict is unjust. I knew from the beginning that I would take action against it. For me, it’s less about obtaining a desired outcome, and more about setting a precedent. I don’t consider myself to be guilty and would like that confirmed for myself and for others.

What does your lawyer have to say about the decision?

From the beginning she was convinced that the verdict would have to be in my favour, and other lawyers I spoke to thought the same.

What makes you think that the outcome could be different this time?

Particularly in cases related to Palestine, different judges have made very different decisions. To me, this means that it’s important to repeat the process with another judge.

Were you surprised at the time that charges could even be brought against you?

I definitely didn’t expect it—I was convinced that I was protected by freedom of expression and freedom of speech. I never thought that what I was doing could be even remotely criminal.

Do you get the impression that more people from the international community are active in the Palestine Solidarity Movement here?

Yes, I also get the impression that there are more people with Arab origins.

Could the proceedings be influenced by the international recognition of the situation in Gaza as a genocide by the UN Human Rights Commission?

At this point, many people living here understand that it’s a genocide, because it’s been confirmed by international authorities. But many feel that it isn’t their responsibility, and put it on a level with other wars, for example the one Ukraine.

Do you think this can be explained by the fact that the government, and businesses with headquarters in Germany, are both responsible for the damage Israeli soldiers are wreaking in Gaza?

Definitely. People who criticise Israel’s military actions in Palestine or simply express their solidarity with Palestinians face severe repression or lose their jobs—because of this, many are wary. And then there’s the role of the media, which spreads certain narratives, shaping public opinion.

For those who aren’t aware of your case, what motivated you to make the signs and carry them with you?

I moved to Berlin about a year and a half ago—so now I live in a city that is also the seat of government. I work in the social sector and have grown fond of the city. My motivation for carrying the signs came from following coverage of Israel’s military action in Gaza every day since October 7, 2023. Then, in no time at all, so many people were killed by the Israeli army, even hospitals were attacked, and I couldn’t bear it. The world had watched this all live. It was traumatising. I was distraught and overwhelmed and it was clear to me that I couldn’t sit at home and do nothing. All that remained was for me to go out into the streets, hold up the signs and confront the public with them.

My grandparents witnessed the Holocaust. The most important lesson for me is that we, as Germans, must never allow crimes against humanity to happen again—against anyone. It’s important to me that no one thinks that I’m relativising the Holocaust. It’s the opposite: I’m asking myself what lessons we can learn from it. It’s dangerous for Germans to think that this issue doesn’t concern them. We certainly bear that responsibility.

This interview originally appeared in German in junge Welt. Translation: Ciara Bowen. Reproduced with permission. You can order a free trial subscription to junge Welt here.