Emergency demo over genocide architect Isaac Herzog's UK visit

Pro-Palestine protesters will be hosting large and vociferous demonstrations today (Tuesday 9 September) to condemn the visit of Israeli president Isaac Herzog to London. Herzog has been one of the architects of the genocide in Gaza, in which Israel has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, including at least 20,000 children. The violent settler colonial state has maimed and traumatised many hundreds of thousands more. The decision of the Labour Party government to allow an official visit has caused outrage and revulsion amongst supporters of Palestine.

Genocide architect Isaac Herzog is not welcome in the UK

Herzog has been a key member of the Israeli regime throughout the genocide. He has been pictured signing missiles Israel has used in Gaza, and made statements such as:

The entire [Palestinian] nation out there… is responsible. It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved.

The International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) order of 26 January 2024 cited Herzog. It found the right of Palestinians to be protected from genocide was at “imminent risk”. Since then, that “risk” has become reality.

Israel has just issued an expulsion order for the whole of Gaza City where one million Palestinians have been sheltering, with nowhere else to go. It has begun a mass demolition programme of residential buildings with inhabitants. Since March, Israel has blockaded the Gaza Strip, preventing the supply of food and other essential humanitarian supplies. It has pushed the vulnerable population toward famine. As a result of this engineered famine, at least 370 Palestinians have died from starvation in Gaza, including 131 children.

Israel has also recently approved a large set of illegal settlement expansions in the occupied West Bank. These would effectively cut the Palestinian territory in two. It is threatening a full annexation of the West Bank, a flagrant violation of international law. The UK government has condemned Israel’s actions but has yet to take substantive steps to oppose these plans. It continues to supply weapons, provide military cooperation, and other forms of diplomatic and economic support to Israel.

Herzog deserves arrest, not the red carpet

Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) director Ben Jamal said:

For 700 days the UK government has been an ally of Israel while it has carried out a genocide with the aim of ethnically cleansing Gaza. These crimes are ongoing and escalating, with the latest stage being the planned, announced demolition of the whole of Gaza City, where 1 million Palestinians face expulsion, starvation and death.

As a participant in these crimes against humanity in Gaza to which it has provided material support, the UK government now underlines its role by welcoming the Israeli head of state to the UK. It is utterly indefensible and a permanent stain in our political history. It is an insult to the dead and maimed men, women and children of Gaza.

We demand the Home Secretary cancel this visit. The Metropolitan police should also be seeking to arrest Herzog for the crimes he is party to. War criminals should not be welcomed; they should be sent to the Hague for trial.

Demonstrations are set to take place at 6pm outside Downing Street.

Featured image via the Canary