Politicians, the police and the media want millions of us to imagine we are alone in grieving the slaughter of Gaza’s children — and that our grief is shameful. They need us to succumb to their lies.
A Palestinian man mourns his family members who were killed in the Israeli bombing of the Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Aug. 10, 2024. (UNRWA /Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0)
By Jonathan Cook
Jonathan-Cook.net
Members of the Jewish community have been grieving for three days now over the killing of two innocent people in last week’s attack on a Manchester synagogue. Politicians and the media keep telling us how important it is to respect their grief.
I and millions of other Britons, some of them Jews, have been grieving for much longer — over the killing of tens of children in Gaza not on one day last week but on every single day, without break, for two years. And yet no politicians or media seem to think it important to respect my grief.
I grieve over much more than a death toll that now runs into many tens of thousands of children.
I grieve over my government’s active complicity in providing the weapons and intelligence that made possible the mass slaughter in Gaza.
I grieve over my government’s refusal to oppose the abduction of British citizens trying to reach Gaza and bring food to the population Israel is starving. And I grieve at my government’s refusal to mount an official flotilla of its own, a naval one, to break Israel’s illegal siege of the enclave and end the famine it has engineered there.
I grieve over the relentless erosion of the public’s right to protest the slaughter and starvation in Gaza.
I grieve over the designation of any practical effort to stop the slaughter as “terrorism.”
I grieve over the condemnation by politicians and the media of my grief as “anti-Semitism.”
I grieve for the death of my last illusions. The illusion that a civilised society treats all life as precious. The illusion that a civilised society learns from history, so that it stops recycling history’s worst atrocities. The illusion that our society is civilised.
I grieve knowing that no one in power is coming to console me in my grief. Not the police. Not the politicians. Not the media.
I grieve knowing that, in truth, they will vilify me, they will legislate against me, and one day they will arrest me.
They want me and millions of other Britons to imagine we are alone in our grief, and that our grief is shameful. They need us to succumb to their lies.
But we must never forget. We are many. And it is they, not us, who are the monsters.
Jonathan Cook is an award-winning British journalist. He was based in Nazareth, Israel, for 20 years. He returned to the U.K. in 2021. He is the author of three books on the Israel-Palestine conflict: Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish State (2006), Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East(2008) and Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair (2008). If you appreciate his articles, please consider offering your financial support.
This article is from the author’s blog, Jonathan Cook.net.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
Wednesday I replied directly on X to Netanyahu’s comment with this;
Benjamin Netanyahu,
You speak of the “horrific slaughter” of October 7 and invoke God’s help. Yet you create a permanent, man-made hell for 2 million image-bearers of that same God in Gaza.
As Jews observe Sukkot—a holy feast commemorating God’s temporary shelter and protection of His people in the wilderness—you, a Genocidal psychopathic TERRORIST, are imposing a PERMANENT SUKKOT on the people of Gaza.
You have turned their lives into a perpetual state of exposure, terror, and desperation, utterly desecrating the memory of the divine shelter you claim to honour. This is not strength. This is a spiritual blindness so profound it echoes the very powers Christ indicted. You have eyes that WILL NOT see the stranger you are commanded to love (Leviticus 19:34). You have a heart that WILL NOT show the mercy your own scriptures demand (Micah 6:8).
You quote scripture while violating its core: “Love your neighbor as yourself” is the foundation. Gaza is your neighbour. The “unprecedented crushing strikes” you boast of are not a sign of God’s favour.
They are the actions of a king trusting in chariots and horses, not in the Lord—a king who has forgotten that the land belongs to God, and all who live upon it are but sojourners (Leviticus 25:23).
You are not securing Israel’s perpetuity. You are writing its indictment. Cease this madness.
The original post is here: hxxps://x.com/RayJC_Com/status/1976041325645697402
Sorry, don’t know how that link got posted instead of this one that really works:
hxxps://x.com/RayJC_Com/status/1976041325645697402;
Dear Jonathan
Your steadfast weekly bearing witness, over the past years, to the terrible UK and US betrayal of the Palestinian people is a truly remarkable testament to the power of truth.
Thank you
Thank you Jonathan Cook ….Registering the full dimensions of the terrible betrayals by the world’s so called “leadership” of humanity and just plain sanity and decency leaves one numb at times. But not for long.
Last night I took in this video -of the superb talk by Finkelstein given on September 24, 2025, on youtube.com. Superb in so very many ways, not the least of which was a detailed history of the Zionist project – the video produced by the the Media Education Foundation. I thought I already knew most of this history. But discovered I had not. Perhaps one of the most racking events he shared was the targeting of Palestinians children, of toddlers by Israeli Zionists snipers that began BEFORE this recent genocide. I whole heartedly recommend this talk, truly one of Finkelstein’s best.
FULL TALK | Norman Finkelstein at UMass: Gaza, Truth & the Battle for Free Speech – youtube.com
Thank you for posting the link to this talk. I was fortunate enough to be there in a packed auditorium. Dr. Finkelstein spoke sincerely to the students in the audience about how fragile their right to free speech is at the moment. SJP is still very active at UMASS. Bless all who continue to speak up for justice in Palestine and everywhere.
Dear Jonathan, do you think we have ‘state capture’ of the UK government?
Very well said. The infantilisation of every argument these days is infuriating. Because I disagree with Israel’s actions I hate the Jews? An anti semite? There are many Jews within Israel, some prominent journalists, who also disagree. Are they also anti semites? I despise the last few UK governments for ruining our country, does that mean I hate Britain and the British? Quite the contrary it would seem. Vax/anti vax, racist for wanting less illegal immigration, every argument deliberately reduced to a childish playground taunt, and by who? The government of course.