British Journalists Concerns Of Anti-Palestinian Prejudice In Their Newsrooms

Is Mitcham The Oldest Surviving Station In London And Perhaps The World?
The epic viaduct route between London Bridge and Greenwich is usually deemed to be the city’s first true rail route.
It opened in incomplete form on February 8, 1836, when trains first ran between Spa Road in Bermondsey and the temporary terminus in Deptford.
In many ways, those are indeed London’s first stations.
But there is another contender.
The Surrey Iron Railway was in use 34 years before this.
Its freight carriages were pulled by horses rather than steam locomotives, but it was a public railway in all other respects, and one of the world’s oldest.
This all-but-forgotten ‘plateway’, as it was called, ran more than 13 km from Reeves Corner in Croydon to the mouth of the industrial River Wandle in Wandsworth.

It was used by numerous companies to transport goods, including coal, building materials, corn and even manure.
Anyone could run suitably gauged wagons along it, for the payment of a toll.
It did not support passenger services, though doubtless a few hauliers would have jumped on board for the ride.
The railway operated from 1802 to 1846, by which time more efficient railways and the Surrey Canal had sapped its trade.
A few traces survive today, and part of the route is used by the modern Tramlink.
But the most tantalising survivor is an adjacent building that might, just might, be the world’s oldest surviving railway station.

Station Court was, for many decades, the entrance to Mitcham railway station.
This closed in 1997 to make way for the Tramlink.
But the building’s history predates the conventional railways.
Station Court was constructed around 1800, just as the tracks of the Surrey Iron Railway were being laid right alongside.
It stood so close to the tracks, in both space and time, that it is often assumed to have been part of the infrastructure, perhaps an administrative building or even a freight station.
If so, that would make it the oldest surviving station in London, and perhaps the world.
There is nothing beyond circumstantial evidence to support these claims.
The building seems to have been a merchant’s house in the days of the Iron Railway, only later being converted into a station for the opening of the Wimbledon and Croydon Railway in 1855.
If it served any railway purpose before that time, then no evidence has yet been found.
( Londonist, 07.06.2023 )  ..  londonist.com

British Journalists Concerns Of Anti-Palestinian Prejudice In Their Newsrooms.
Journalists working at Britain’s most prestigious newspapers and TV channels have expressed concern at pro-Israel bias inside their organisations.
Speaking exclusively to ‘Declassified’, half a dozen current and former staff at the BBC, Sky, ITN, the Guardian and the Times have disclosed the extent of anti-Palestinian prejudice in their newsrooms.
All of the journalists requested anonymity for fear of professional reprisals.
( Hamza Yusuf, 20.02.2025 )  ..  declassifieduk.org

Yemenite Parents Believe Their Babies Were Abducted By The Israeli Authorities.
The immigration to Israel of most of the Yemenite Jewry during 1948–1950 was a historical and geographical leap from faraway Yemen to modern Israel.
However, it also triggered a clash between these Jews’ utopian expectations and the trauma that awaited them in the transit camps in Israel: the abduction of thousands of their babies in the “Yemenite Children Affair”.
There are over 1,000 official reported cases of missing babies and toddlers, while estimates from advocates are as high as 4500.

Their families believe the babies were abducted by the Israeli authorities and were illegally put up for adoption to childless Ashkenazi families (Jews of European descent).
For a long time, the official explanation maintained that the adoptive families kept the babies because their biological parents did not look for them or were unable to care for them in the havoc of the transit camps.
According to an alternative explanation, the babies were deliberately taken to clinics or hospitals, whether they needed medical care or not, and were handed over to Israeli families intentionally.

This criticism began to be publicly voiced as part of a sociopolitical campaign in the 1960s led by Yemenite-Jewish immigrants and, later, by their second and third generations.
Only in 2021 did the Israeli government (led by Benjamin Netanyahu) approve a cabinet decision for the state to recognise “The Yemenite, Mizrachi and Balkan Children Affair” and for the transfer of financial compensation to the families that were hurt in the early years of the State, but without clearly admitting to any systematic abductions.
( Tova Gamliel and Haim Hazan, 01.01.2023 )  ..  anthrosource.onlinelibrary

The UK Assisted The U.S. In Attacking Yemen, One Of The Poorest Nations On The Planet.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer quietly involved Britain’s armed forces in Donald Trump’s bombardment of Yemen, one of the poorest nations in the world.
A Royal Air Force (RAF) Voyager aerial refuelling tanker carried out two flights from Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus into the northern Red Sea to support the USS Harry S. Truman.
The U.S. aircraft carrier launched multiple waves of air raids across Yemen in Trump’s largest military operation since returning to office.
At least 27 civilians were reported killed and 22 injured in the first night of American airstrikes.
Yemen TV showed footage of distressed and severely burnt children receiving medical care.
After the second night of American airstrikes, the death toll increased to 53, including five children and two women.
Since January 2024, the U.S. and UK have carried out more than 300 strikes.
Britain has not officially admitted to bombing Yemen since May 2024, the deadliest month of bombing under the two previous U.S. and UK governments.
Sixteen civilians were reportedly killed and 35 injured that month.
( Iona Craig, 18.03.2025 )  ..  declassifieduk.org

Israel’s systemic attacks on women’s healthcare in Gaza amount to “genocidal acts”, and Israeli security forces have used sexual violence as a weapon of war to “dominate and destroy the Palestinian people”, a UN report states.
The 49-page report on sexual and gender-based violence was drawn up by the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Illegally-Occupied Palestinian Territory, Including East Jerusalem, and presented to the UN human rights council.
It details attacks on maternity wards and other healthcare facilities for women, the destruction of an IVF clinic and controls on the entry of food and medical supplies into Gaza that together “destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of Palestinians in Gaza as a group”.
The report found that Israel’s security forces had made certain forms of sexual and gender-based violence part of “standard operating procedures”, including forced public stripping and nudity, sexual harassment including threats of rape, and sexual assault.
( Emma Graham-Harrison, 13.03.2025 )  ..  theguardian.com

The former head of Britain’s armed forces is providing advice to Israeli arms firms, sparking questions over his role in a country whose prime minister is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
General Sir Nick Carter was chief of the defence staff, Britain’s most senior military position, from 2018-2021.
Months before stepping down, he signed a military cooperation agreement with Israel.
That pact has never been published, despite freedom of information requests and questions in parliament, but it was hailed as a landmark moment in relations between the two militaries.
( Phil Miller and Alex Morris, 20.03.2025 )  ..  declassifieduk.org

Ukrainian Woman Detained In Poland For Trading In Human Organs.
Polish border guards detained a Ukrainian woman who was sentenced in Kazakhstan to 12 years in prison for participating in an organised criminal group trading in human organs and selling 56 kidneys.
The 35-year-old woman was detained at a railway crossing between Poland and Ukraine under an Interpol red notice.
She has been wanted by Interpol since November 2020.
An Interpol red notice is a request to global law enforcement to provisionally arrest a person pending extradition or similar legal action.
The woman was convicted for participation in an international organised criminal group that illegally collected tissues and organs from people from 2017 to 2019 and sold them on the black market.
She was also convicted of illegally obtaining kidneys from 56 injured parties in Kazakhstan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Thailand for financial benefit and of making the crimes committed a permanent source of income.
( Reuters, 11.03.2025 )  ..  reuters.com

The Self-Serving Nature Of The UK’s Foreign Policy.
The United Kingdom prides itself on being a champion of democracy and human rights, frequently condemning political repression and imprisonment in authoritarian states such as China, Iran, Russia and North Korea.
Yet, its response to the arbitrary imprisonment of Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan, an elected leader with extensive ties to Britain, has been muted at best and complicit at worst over the last two years.
This glaring inconsistency reveals the self-serving nature of the UK’s foreign policy, which prioritises strategic defence and intelligence-sharing interests over democratic principles when dealing with countries like Pakistan.
( Shahzad Akbar, 25.03.2025 )  ..  declassifieduk.org

Palestinian Paramedics And Rescue Workers Murdered And Buried In A Mass Grave By Israeli Forces.
Some of the bodies of 15 Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers, killed by Israeli forces and buried in a mass grave in Gaza, were found with their hands or legs tied and had gunshot wounds to the head and chest.
The witness accounts add to an accumulating body of evidence pointing to a potentially serious war crime on March 23, 2025, when Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance crews and civil defence rescue workers were sent to the scene of an airstrike in the early hours of the morning in the al-Hashashin district of Rafah, Gaza’s southern-most city.
( The Guardian, 01.04.2025 )  ..  theguardian.com

Israel’s UK-Based Weapons Company Puts Pressure On British Authorities To Curtail Pro-Palestine Activism.
Keir Starmer’s Labour government held a private meeting with Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons company.
The meeting occurred in December 2024 and was attended by three representatives from Elbit Systems and three officials from Yvette Cooper’s Home Office.
It took place months after Israeli forces used an Elbit drone to kill three British military veterans in Gaza who were protecting a humanitarian aid convoy.
The revelation comes in documents obtained by Declassified through a Freedom of Information request to the Home Office, who refused to detail which officials were present or what was discussed.
It said that a recording of the meeting was made “but by mutual agreement with Elbit this was agreed not to be released” through Freedom of Information.
Under the previous Conservative government, the Home Office also met with Elbit Systems and attempted to encourage the UK police to crack down on pro-Palestine activism.
Elbit’s efforts to counter Palestine Action in Britain seem to have gone even further – the company has its own “intelligence cell” and shares “information with the UK police across the country on a two weekly basis”.
( John McEvoy, 12.03.2025 )  ..  declassifieduk.org