When a friend of ours is going through a hard time, our silent presence is often more helpful in getting them through it than empty platitudes. Silence is golden if nothing you can say will ease their pain. Just listening is often enough.

Silence is not golden if it means complacency with an acknowledged injustice. It’s not good enough to say “But what can I do?” and close your eyes and ears to what’s going on around. Those who refuse to condemn an injustice are as guilty as those who condone it!

My work on social media is based on these aphorisms.

• If I remained silent in the face of injustice I’ld be complicit
• If one person stands up and says “This is wrong!” it encourages others to do likewise
• I’m an old man and wish to sow a seed that might flourish in some distant future. I might not see the results of my work, but if I do nothing there will be no results!

I resigned from both the U.K. Labour Party and Unite Community because I refused to be complicit in their witch-hunt against anyone who supports Palestine, including a number of Jewish members. Those who support the official Labour Party, or refuse to speak against it because they put their careers before their principles, may call themselves socialists but they’re no comrades of mine 😠

To be more specific: those who refuse to condemn the genocide being committed against Palestinians, or excuse it by saying “Yeah but…”, are as guilty as those who are actively engaged in it. Evil can only prevail if good people remain silent (another aphorism). There are ordinary people around the world, including in Israel, who are refusing to remain silent and being condemned by our so-called representatives who are virtually saying “You elected us to speak for you, how dare you speak for yourselves?” I’ve seen unconfirmed reports that Netanyahu has ordered the IDF to shoot Israelis protesting against the genocide.

US and U.K. don’t go that far but are demanding other draconian measures against anyone who dares to defy their dictatorial authority! They go further, using Orwellian language to malign anyone who holds an opposing opinion. So if you don’t support Israel’s war crimes against Palestinians you must support Hamas (just as refusal to support Ukraine makes you a Putin Apologist) “Israel has a right to defend itself” is taken to mean “Israel can do what it likes to rid itself of Hamas” – utter denial of Palestinians’ right to defend themselves. Likewise “Palestine shall be free” is interpreted as a call for the complete destruction of Israel!

Silence may not be golden, but it may be the best when speaking is pointless. There’s no point in trying to debate with someone like Bernie Sanders who recently stated “There can be no debate!”

Those who are most vocal in advocating free speech tend to think it goes one way, they can spout as much bullshit as they like but how dare we tell them it’s bullshit? The biggest hypocrisy is that it’s permissible for an MP to lie in Parliament but if another MP calls them out on it they’re invited to amend their statement to say that “inadvertently mislead the House” – which would in itself be a lie if the accuser thinks the statement was deliberate.

Take a hypothetical case where I’m being questioned in court and I’m asked to answer Yes or No to a question. My answer might be more nuanced if I were allowed to tell the whole truth as I pledged to do, not to say what lawyers want me to say.

Everyone has to draw a line which must not be crossed, and anyone advocating violence is to be utterly condemned. Sadly those who are most vocal in defence of free speech are the ones most likely to cross the line while accusing of others of doing so.

When you censor someone you not only deny them the right to speak but our right to hear what they have to say. We all have a right to speak but not a right to be heard! Refusing someone a platform may be a form of censorship, as it is in the case of a ban on on showing the film Oh Jeremy Corbyn: The Big Lie, it’s just telling them we’re not interested in what they have to say and they should say it elsewhere!

The harder the powers that be make it for us to express our opinions, the more important it is to do so even if that means breaking the law! It’s not just about the Palestine/Israel situation but the excuse it offers to governments to clamp down on freedom of expression generally! There are a few journalists, and fewer politicians, with sufficient integrity to put their careers on the line to stand up and be counted!

The mass movements taking place around the world are forcing them to rethink. Politicians of all parties, in Parliament and Congression, are standing up against their leaders and demanding a ceasefire, but they’re only doing so because of the pressure put on them by We The Public! We need to keep up that pressure until there is peace in the Middle East, which will not be in my lifetime but I have to speak now. Solidarity ✊

This video was uploaded while I was writing this and it’s very much to the point! Noam Chomsky refutes Israel’s claims https://youtu.be/lbWoWSRDCIk?si=xrjLFVGrfz7HH1sg