THE fight for Palestinian justice is critical in the “dangerous and unstable” coming year, the government was warned today as campaigners announced a new wave of mobilisations.

Thousands in Gaza entered 2025 battling to survive as Israel continued its ethnic cleansing campaign, blocking off aid and decimating medical facilities and shelters.

The Labour leadership has remained silent on the destruction of northern Gaza’s last functioning hospital, Kamal Adwan, last Friday.

The government continues to hold 330 active arms licences permitting exports to Israel, including for components for lethal F-35 jets that have dropped 2,000lb bombs on the innocent people of Gaza.

Campaigners from across the peace movement have pledged to intensify their efforts this year, pressing the government for a full arms embargo.

A spokeswoman for the Stop the War Coalition said: “As Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank continues in real time, we will not give up our fight for justice for Palestine and for ending this government’s complicity in genocide. 

“It is clear that this year is going to be dangerous and unstable, which is why we will continue to protest. 

“We must ensure that the first national march for Palestine of 2025, on January 18, sends a huge message to PM Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy that our massive movement for peace will stay on the streets until they stop arming Israel.”

The march will begin outside the London headquarters of the BBC, recently investigated by Drop Site News over its Gaza reporting.

Criticising BBC News online’s Middle East editor Raffi Berg, whose book on Mossad stands on the shelf of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one former journalist at the outlet said the editor’s “entire job is to water down everything that’s too critical of Israel.”

Another said he plays a key role in a wider BBC culture of “systematic Israeli propaganda.” 

Sophie Bolt, general secretary of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, one of the march’s organisers, said: “Every day, the British government’s complicity in this horrific, systematic destruction of the Palestinian people is made more stark.  

“Every shift by this government away from total support of Israel’s genocide — such as agreeing to comply with the International Criminal Court’s  arrest warrant for Netanyahu — has happened because of huge public pressure. 

“The struggle for the Palestinians goes to the very heart of global justice.

“We are part of a huge movement across the world that understands the need for a new world order that respects human life, international law and peaceful co-operation. With Trump in the White House, this has never been more urgent. 

“This is why our continued protest is absolutely critical. Continuing the boycotts and divestments, the direct action to stop the manufacture of weaponry and the huge national protests are all vital to ending Israel’s genocidal military expansion which now threatens Syria and Iran.”

After an intense campaign disrupting arms manufacturers across Britain through 100 actions over the year and shutting down a factory belonging to Israeli arms firm Elbit Systems in Tamworth for good, Palestine Action vowed on X (formerly Twitter) to “chase Israel’s war machine out of Britain permanently.” 

As the Morning Star was going to press, Greater Manchester Friends of Palestine held a vigil last night with Manchester Palestine Action and Youth Front for Palestine at Dr Adnan Al-Bursh Park (formerly Brunswick Park), to honour Palestinians killed last year. Another vigil will take place tonight at 5pm at Brooks Bar Junction.

John Nicholson, a campaigner for GM Friends of Palestine, said: “Whenever those of us who aren’t Palestinian ask our Palestinian comrades what on Earth we can do to make any difference, they say this: keep on demonstrating, marching, taking boycott actions and supporting the crucial direct action to close down the Israeli arms industry and all ancillary production.

“If we don’t do all this ourselves,  nothing will happen — we cannot wait for our governments in the West to do anything.”

Israeli forces have killed at least 45,000 Palestinians since the attack by Hamas on October 7 2023 — though a study in the Lancet journal estimates the true number could be as high as 186,000.