Last week, while on a speaking tour across the UK to help raise vital funds for Action For Humanity’s work in Gaza, I delivered this speech. What follows is an edited version of those remarks — words spoken in halls filled with people who refused to be silent as bombs fell on Gaza.
The UK has finally announced it will recognize the state of Palestine.
In Arabic, we say: يا فرحة قلبي — oh, the joy of my heart.
But Palestinians are not celebrating.
What does it mean to hand a people a birth certificate while simultaneously signing their death warrant — as Gaza is pulverised into rubble in a genocide?
When the alternative is sanctions that might actually stop the slaughter, the UK government chose symbolism. Why end the killing when you can recognize a people even as they are being killed?
This is not justice.
This is theatre.
It is designed to placate the public, to let ministers say, “Look, we’ve done something” — while in truth they do nothing. Worse: they continue to arm the very military committing mass atrocities.
Never forget: this Labour government approved more weapons for Israel in three months than the Tories did in four years. They even granted special immunity to Israel’s air force chief, Tomer Bar — the man overseeing the aerial bombardment that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, reduced homes to dust, and buried children beneath rubble.
Recognition without consequences is not liberation. It is a trap.
A Phantom Palestine
What, exactly, are they recognizing? Western governments have long recognized Israel as a Jewish-supremacist state. Now they want to recognize a phantom Palestinian state beside it — not to end the occupation, but to shore up the Palestinian Authority as Israel’s subcontractor.
They recognize a Palestine that does not exist, while East Jerusalem is being stolen, the West Bank colonised, and Gaza destroyed.
That is why we cannot be fooled by symbolism.
The only recognition that matters is not of Palestine on paper, but of Palestinian rights in reality. And the only way to enforce that reality is not through empty gestures, but through action: boycotts, divestment, sanctions. The withdrawal of recognition from Israel’s so-called right to exist as a supremacist, apartheid state. Anything less is complicity.
Will we be placated by words? Satisfied with token gestures? Or will we demand real action — and take it ourselves?
The Power of People
Two nights ago, at the Together for Palestine concert at Wembley, thousands packed the OVO Arena. The real power of that night wasn’t on stage — it was in the crowd. Communities came together and raised over $2 million in a single evening for Gaza. That money is already moving: medical kits for doctors who work under bombs, food drops to break a siege designed to starve children.
Wembley proved what governments refuse to show: when they betray us, when they bankroll bombs, people step in to save lives. And that is why we are here in Manchester, to do our part, to keep building a movement louder than their silence.
Yes, money matters — every pound keeps someone alive. But solidarity demands more than charity. What is happening in Gaza asks us for sacrifice: to use our voices, our platforms, our freedoms to confront this injustice.
The most powerful voices are not always famous ones. They are the ones willing to risk something: reputation, career, safety — to speak the truth. Francesca Albanese, who dared to call this what it is — genocide — has been smeared, sanctioned, and silenced. She is proof that integrity has a price. And she is proof that paying that price is worth it.
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