Murray, Hedges and Medhurst: The Campaign for Blackburn

Free Palestine (and Julian Assange)

Jun 18, 2024

Published: 2024-06-18

Updated 2024-06-19: added the Medhurst interview with Murray to sources.

Craig Murray for Blackburn

Craig Murray's campaign for Blackburn is bringing with it celebrities of principle.

Constituents had the opportunity last week to hear the powerful delivery by Chris Hedges of his masterfully written speech, Nero's Guests (see Sources for videos of the presentations and a discussion). The award winning foreign correspondent, author and ordained minister was followed by a younger journalist. Murray introduced Richard Medhurst as taking a path which perhaps recently deceased Australian journalist and documentarian John Pilger would have been forced to take. The small space in media which Pilger found was far larger than the vanishingly small one with which Medhurst has had to contend.

The topic was Palestine and the genocide of Palestinians being murderously continued by the Israel Occupation Force despite two interim measures demanding that they stop from the International Court of Justice (ICJ). International law is unequivocal on the right of an occupied people to armed resistance. Yet, for uttering this accepted right under international law, Murray was detained and is still being investigated for "terrorism" by British authorities.

The audience which was entranced by Hedges' insightful orration had opportunity to laugh and applaud when Murray described the endorsement he has received from Palestine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The laughter came when Murray related embarrassingly that had to turn down an additional offer of endorsement. He's not ready to be arrested by the British police yet, he said, after noting that the refused endorsement was offered by Hamas.

Medhurst's presentation began by reminding the constituents that the Zionist forces which were involved in the creation of Israel were terrorists. He mentioned the Stern Gang and Irgun. He cited the bombing of the King David Hotel, the anniversary of which is next month. The pattern of terrorist behaviour has not changed, he assured the audience, citing the current genocide and also, for any listening US audience, the recent anniversary of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty during the 1967 6-Day War. Medhurst also informed the audience that Israel’s lawlessness goes way back. It still fails to comply with resolution 242.

Murray included in his closing remarks that when the Republic of South Africa agreed to be the nation to take Israel to the ICJ, he was proud to see the articles he had written and published on invoking the Genocide convention among their papers. Craig was as deferential as ever, citing US journalist Sam Husseini as the person who had inspired him to re-read the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) and then publish articles on how it could, and indeed should, be invoked.

The three presenters and the videographer, Gordon Dimmack, are fellow travelers from the ongoing struggle to Free Julian Assange. Any of the four could have given an hours long speech about the continued persecution of the Australian journalist still imprisoned in Britain's maximum security prison, HMP Bellmarsh. Mr. Assange's plight received only the briefest of mention in the presentations to the constituents, and the short discussion between the presenters held before the public meeting.

The transcript of Hedges’ speech includes hyper-links as citations to validate his statements. The speech by the veteran journalist, is, of course, an article in itself.

In the conversation, Murray remarked on a likely future political effort against the Zionist genociders. The State of Israel can be ejected from the UN in a vote by its General Assembly. This very real threat is giving the US serious pause on the use of its veto in Security Council meetings, as vetoing resolutions on Israel’s genocide there is one of the potential triggers for a vote to eject Israel.

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Sources

📽️ Craig Murray, Richard Medhurst and Chris Hedges talk to a packed hall in Blackburn about Palestine [01:01:41], Murray with Hedges and Medhurst, Gordon Dimmack, 2024-06-15

📽️ In Conversation： Chris Hedges, Craig Murray and Richard Medhurst [00:17:45], Murray with Hedges and Medhurst, Gordon Dimmack, 2024-06-15

Nero's Guests, Chris Hedges, The Chris Hedges Report, 2024-06-16

Irgun, Stern Gang: Know your terrorists before you support bombing of innocent civilians, Chandra Vikash, Counterview, 2023-11-10

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, UN

Resolution 242 (1967), Digital Library, United Nations

Public Meeting On Gaza Genocide With Chris Hedges and Richard Medhurst Blackburn 13 June 2024, Murray with Hedges and Medhurst, Craig Murray, 2024-06-16

He Helped Prosecute Israel at the ICJ, Now He’s Running for Parliament [00:33:58], Medhurst interviews Murray, Richard Medhurst, 2024-06-17