The Israel lobby’s toxic attempt to silence solidarity with Palestine in the NHS

In a new review, notorious pro-Israel agitator John Mann has pushed for measures to silence NHS humanitarianism. The government and NHS have already pledged to implement them, including a crackdown on NHS staff members openly expressing solidarity with Palestinian people during Israel’s ongoing genocide.

This is about Israel, not about ending racism

Israel is a key junior partner to US billionaire–imperialism. The UK is a junior partner too, so giving Israel political and material support is just part of the deal. And for British political elites trying to get away with this shameful behaviour, consistent and widespread public outrage over Israel’s genocide in Gaza has been a big problem.

This is why Keir Starmer’s regime has filled departments with pro-Israel lackeys, cracked down on citizens’ right to protest, and censored pro-Palestinian voices. So Mann’s review, calling for a ban on NHS staff wearing ‘political’ badges or wearing their uniforms at protests (with clear mentions of pro-Palestinian activism), is no surprise.

Meanwhile, years of UK governments backing genocide have helped to normalise far-right talking points. And in this context, racism against NHS workers has increased significantly – primarily targeting Black and Brown staff. There have even been examples of clear anti-Palestinian bias in the country’s main nursing union.

All forms of racism are vile. But Mann and other pro-Israel politicians have long prioritised and weaponised antisemitism allegations to try and smear or silence critics of Israel. The new review seems to be a continuation of that.

As we’ve reported previously, Mann is not Jewish himself. He’s just a person who has received tens of thousands of pounds from pro-Israel lobbyists and lobby groups over the years. He has also made many visits to Israel – one of which the Israeli government paid for itself.

Mann’s wife, meanwhile, is new MP Jo White. She isn’t Jewish either, but is a vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel. Pro-Israel lobbyists and groups have happily donated to her. And one of these is Palace Yard Events Ltd, which the government has given over a million pounds to ‘tackle antisemitism’ in the education system.

Humanity-free zones

Countless genocide scholars, legal experts, and human rights groups call Israel’s actions genocide. Among the 70,000+ people it has murdered since 2023, over 20,000 are children.

You might have thought this would have shamed pro-Israel voices into piping down a bit. But they haven’t. They’ve just denied a genocide is happening and kept going, waging firm institutional efforts to suppress any resistance in public life to our government’s complicity in genocide.

As we’ve regularly reported, the UK government has deep links to the Israel lobby, arrested both Jewish and non-Jewish people for opposing genocide, and antisemitically sought to conflate the state of Israel and its crimes with the religion of Judaism.

In service of its commitment to US billionaire-imperialism and its Israeli allies, the government is increasingly trying to silence public expressions of humanity. This normalises the type of repression that the far right (which could very possibly gain power at the next election) won’t hesitate to weaponise even more intensely.

This is all incredibly dangerous. We need to firmly oppose it, and defend our right to fight for humanity.

Featured image via Getty/Leon Neal