We warned you what Israel would do from the start

Suddenly, there is a Great Noticing about Gaza. But Israel's genocide was obvious from day one

Suddenly, certain Western media outlets are noticing the catastrophe enveloping Gaza. The phrase “war crimes” is even creeping into BBC headlines.

There is an obvious explanation for this ‘Great Noticing’: the Israeli-manufactured mass starvation will be impossible to hide, and those complicit in this abomination know that their criminal role will be exposed.

Well, we warned you what would happen from the start. Below, I’m posting what I wrote and said in the first days and weeks of the genocide. This isn’t an exercise in “I told you so”.

It was obvious - screamingly, hideously obvious - that a heinous crime of historic proportions would be perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinian people, facilitated by its Western allies. You didn’t need to be a prophet, a scholar, a genius, or a radical. You just had to treat Palestinian life as having equal worth, take literally what Israeli leaders and officials said, and not close your eyes to the crimes committed from the start.

Everything I said and wrote at the time was with this moment in mind: that the complicit would try and revise history, and act as though this wasn’t an outrageous crime from day one.

On this day - 9th October 2023 - I published a video entitled ‘Palestinian Lives Matter’, setting out the scale of the crime already being committed, discussing the context of Palestinian suffering, and discussing the horrors to come.

On 10th October 2023, I appeared on Sky News and discussed Gaza with then-Labour MP Margaret Hodge. You can see what happened here.

On 13th October 2023, I appeared on Channel 5’s Jeremy Vine Show and stated the British government is "supporting a war crime". I also stated that the media was "not treating Palestinians as human beings and that has to stop."

On 13th October 2023, I warned cheerleaders of Israel’s onslaught would start backtracking: “Don’t let them get away with it. What happens next is obvious and they cannot be absolved of their own responsibility.”

On 13th October 2023, I noted Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s comments about collective guilty and warned “This is the mentality which, throughout history, leads to genocide.”

On 14th October 2023, I warned “This is one of the most despicable episodes of our time”, adding: “They must never be forgiven for this, the blood on their hands must never, ever be washed away.”

On 19th October 2023, I said on national TV that Israel was slaughtering children, and that the UK was complicit in Israel's crimes. I was told to "rein it in", that I was getting "hot" about it, and I was "making matters worse".

On 24th October 2023, I wrote a column for The Guardian headlined ‘Israel is clear about its intentions in Gaza – world leaders cannot plead ignorance of what is coming’, with the subheading “The UN is warning of a ‘risk of genocide’ against Palestinians. Future pleas of ‘If I knew then what I know now’ will not cut it”

Again, none of this required any special insight or powers of prediction. Israel’s onslaught against the people of Gaza was obvious from the beginning. The genocidal nature of that onslaught was obvious from day one. The evidence pointed in one direction only.

No crime in history was so confessed to as it happened. No crime in history was so documented as it happened. There has to be a reckoning: don’t let the complicit plead ignorance. They did this, and they must be held accountable for what they have done.