Umm al Kheir is in the South Hebron Hills. It is one of 12 communities that make up Masafer Yatta, in the Israeli-controlled area of the West Bank known as Area C. The village is home to 37 Bedouin families, approximately 300 people. These Palestinians were originally herders in the Negev, but were forcibly displaced from their land by the Israeli occupation during the Nakba of 1948. The community then settled in Masafer Yatta, and has written documents proving ownership of their land.

Illegal colonial settlers are stealing more and more of Umm al Kheir

But since 1981, with the arrival of the first illegal Jewish settlers to the area, the community has suffered immense hardship, which has intensified today. The settlers stole a large area of village land to build the illegal Carmel settlement, where they live today. They regularly terrorise the community and have blocked all entrances to the village for Palestinians, except for one.

Last year, seven settler families stole yet more land, close to the community centre in Umm al Kheir. They are currently living in mobile homes on this land, have fenced off any available grazing, and have recently erected Israeli flags along the whole of its perimeter.

Khalil Hathaleen is Head of the village Council in Umm al Kheir. He tells the Canary about some of the problems the village has been facing.

Last year, Khalil’s much-loved brother, Awdah, was fatally shot by an illegal settler, Yinon Levi.

Levi had driven through Umm al Kheir in a bulldozer to carry out infrastructure work at what is now the illegal outpost, next to the community. The killing, which happened in broad daylight, resulted in the occupation arresting Palestinians from Umm al Kheir on stone-throwing charges, while Levi walked free.

Levi, who is sanctioned by the UK, owns a company called Eyal Hari Yehuda Company Ltd, or Eyal Judaean Mountains Company Ltd, which is known for its work demolishing Palestinian homes in both the West Bank and Gaza.

The loss of Awdah was a huge blow to the community, but it was intentional

Awdah was father to three young children, one of whom is still severely traumatised by the killing of his father and is unable to sleep at night.  His wife, Hanady, tells us that Awdah is irreplaceable.

She says:

It’s really hard to see the settlers getting on with their daily lives, while here they have destroyed a whole community. They destroyed a family; they destroyed my sons. I don’t see any life for me now that they have killed my husband. All the happiness and goodness have gone with him. Awdah was loved by everyone, and he made everything easy when he was here.

You thought there were no problems when he was with us. He would solve all the problems and show the world what life was like in Masafer Yatta. They killed him on purpose.

More than 100 structures have been demolished in the village over the years. In October 2025, more homes, the community centre, and the children’s playground were all issued final demolition orders. The Israeli occupation is expected to come at any time, to flatten these structures, make families homeless and further destroy the fabric of this community.

Khalil says:

Before 7 October, our community had around 5000 goats and sheep. Now there are around 800, and they are kept inside all the time. The animals are now in jail, and this has destroyed the families here. Now there is no source of income for them.

The Israelis have made them very poor. Some cannot afford basic food, let alone milk, for their kids. Any money from the goats and sheep is now used to cover the food, as they cannot go out to graze at all. This is all happening because of the occupation and the violence from the settlers. The settlers killed my brother. Where is the justice in the world?

The occupation’s government, military and police all work together with the settlers, to forcibly displace Palestinians in Umm al Kheir

Recently, a settler went into Umm al Kheir with his sheep. This action was obviously an attempt to intimidate residents of the village and show them that settlers are in control. When activists- who were from the Centre of Jewish Non-Violence, objected to his presence, the police were called out and arrested them, instead of the settler.

There has also been nighttime activity on the stolen land of the outpost, with armed Jewish settlers and their children digging along to music. The occupation’s military and police see these actions but do nothing to stop these Zionist colonisers. Instead, they attempt to stop and arrest those who witness and document the occupation’s many crimes.

Bedouins are herders and traditionally moved with the seasons to the best grazing areas. Due to the Israeli occupation, this is no longer possible, but their livestock are still an extremely important part of their life and an essential source of income.

But in Umm al Kheir, as in other communities in Masafer Yatta and elsewhere in the West Bank, they have been unable to graze their sheep and goats because of the presence of settlers and the theft of their land.

There are now only 800 animals in Umm al Kheir, down from 4000 several years ago, and they are costing money to keep because they can no longer graze outside. As a result, the community has lost their only source of income and has been left with nothing.

“What’s happening in the West Bank is a slow genocide”

Mahmoud Hathaleen, a resident of Umm al Kheir, and a cousin of Awdah, tells the Canary:

Settlers claim that we exist illegally here, and have asked the Israeli government to make more pressure on us, so we leave. They are confiscating our land, demolishing our homes and attacking us in the night, to make pressure on us to leave this land. The outpost built last year has a new road across our land, to connect it to all the settlements.

They made this road in the night, and was supported by the IDF ( Israeli occupying forces), the civil administration and the police. Sometimes these settlers also work in the IDF.There is no light at the end of the tunnel for us. All Palestinian people have lost hope, We all feel there is no solution, no future.

Nobody cares for Palestinian life – not the Arab league, not Europe or the US. What’s happening in the West Bank is a slow genocide, killing Palestinians slowly.

The international presence is welcome in Umm al Kheir. This not only plays an essential role in non-violent resistance against the Israeli occupation but is urgently needed. Do not be put off from visiting the West Bank. Palestinians in communities across the territory are extremely welcoming and need our help, right now.

The occupation has only one aim – to colonise and drive Palestinians from their land. This forcible displacement is implemented through violence and land theft by illegal settlers and is happening throughout Area C of the West Bank. These settlers have the full support and backing of the ‘Israeli’ government, work together with the occupation’s military and police, and are protected by them.

Occupation’s Security Cabinet has now approved measures to tighten ‘Israeli’ control over West Bank and make it easier for settlers to purchase Palestinian land

They receive a salary, have no living expenses, and pay no tax. They are all armed by the occupation and given vehicles. In the case of Umm al Kheir, the settlers have also been given sheep and goats. Pylons have also been erected on the village land to provide the settlements with electricity. Whilst Umm al Kheir are not permitted to be connected to the grid, the settlers’ chicken factory has electricity 24 hours a day.

Settlers all over the West Bank use “security” issues as an excuse to push the government and the army to expel Palestinians and declare their land a closed military zone. Palestinians are unable to access this land, but settlers are still allowed to move freely in these areas. Several years later, it becomes their own property.

After the signing of the Oslo Accords, in the 1990s, the West Bank was divided into Area A, B and C. Area C makes up more than 60 per cent of the entire West Bank, and is the most fertile, resource-rich land in the occupied territory. But ‘Israel’ controls everything in area C, including ‘security’ and planning.

On 8 February 2026, the “Security Cabinet” also approved measures pushed by Ministers Katz and Smotrich, to deepen the de facto annexation of the West Bank. The ‘Israeli” government has described these as steps towards the “normalisation ” of Jewish life in the West Bank.

These approved decisions will bring far-reaching changes to land registration and will make it much easier for settlers to acquire Palestinian land and build settlements.

According to the Jerusalem Post, a Jordanian-era law has also been repealed, which barred the sale of land to Jews. The approved decisions also allow the Israeli occupation to demolish buildings owned by Palestinian families in Area A.

Despite constant fear and uncertainty, the people of Umm al Kheir remain steadfast. Every demolished home is rebuilt; every fenced-off patch of land becomes a reminder of what they refuse to relinquish — their right to exist on their own ancestral soil. Each act of resistance is a refusal to disappear.  Despite everything, the community of Umm al Kheir still believes in freedom.

Featured image and additional images via the Canary

Imagine if you will, for just one moment, having the fucking brass neck to (falsely) boast that you booted Jeremy Corbyn out of the Labour Party while that utterly vile specimen, Epstein’s best pal, Mandelson, was up to his eyeballs in nonce-worshipping.

Corbyn’s Labour certainly had its faults, but it never recruited Peter Mandelson. No shadow cabinet appointments, no diplomatic roles, Crony Mandelson was persona non grata.

Keir Starmer’s government is a gutless, corporate-kowtowing betrayal of everything the Labour Party was supposed to stand for under Jeremy Corbyn. A Corbyn premiership would have been a revolutionary upgrade, not this tepid, right-leaning bullshit we’re stuck with.

I guess it’s easy to think about what could’ve been.

What could have been

Corbyn’s Labour would have built solidarity with global struggles rather than bowed to NATO warmongers and US hegemony. Starmer’s Labour is a whitewashed, Zionist-appeasing machine that silences dissent and props up imperialism.

Corbyn’s Labour would have prioritised aid over arms and cooperation over conquest, turning the UK into a force for global equity, not another lapdog for empire. Starmer’s Labour has escalated tensions with Russia and China to please the Atlanticist overlords and ramped up military spending to 2.5% of GDP while nurses line up at food banks.

Corbyn’s Labour would have ended the failed neoliberal austerity policies that have hollowed out Britain for decades. Rail, mail, water, and energy would’ve been back in public hands where they belong, rather than lining the pockets of fat cat shareholders. Starmer’s Labour ruthlessly ditched those Corbyn-lite pledges faster than a rat fleeing a sinking ship. His “fiscal responsibility” rhetoric is simply code for continuing Tory-lite cuts, cosying up to big business with tax breaks for the filthy rich while public services crumble to the fucking ground.

Starmer’s Britain

Starmer’s Britain is still a playground for billionaires, while Corbyn would have taxed them into oblivion to fund the NHS properly, not this half-arsed patching-up.

Starmer’s “growth” is a euphemism for gangrenous decay. NHS waiting lists are stagnating, schools are falling apart and councils are on the brink of bankruptcy, all while he funnels your billions into private health vultures and arms dealers.

Keir Starmer isn’t building Britain, he’s burying it alive, six-feet-deep in austerity’s grave, like a gravedigger with a knighthood.

You see, Jeremy Corbyn wasn’t just a better option, he was the perfect antidote to the poisonous, soul-sucking capitalist rot that Keir Starmer is peddling as “change”.

So next time you hear or see the oligarchs plaything taking a swipe at his predecessor, just remember the Labour Party didn’t have a place for an honourable, decent man like Jeremy Corbyn, but it has plenty of room for paedo-enablers, Tel Aviv bootlickers, corporate shills and Blairite zombies.

And that’s just Peter Mandelson.

Decency???

To be honest, I am absolutely sick of hearing the liberal media tell us that Keir Starmer is a beacon of decency, a steady hand rescuing Britain from Tory chaos. In reality, the BBC and Guardian’s insistence on Starmer’s decency is just cover for their own complicity in propping up a system that chews up poor and working class people.

Starmer is anything but decent. If you have read the last five hundred words you might even agree with me, wherever you place yourself on the Overton Window.

Starmer’s entire rise reeks of deceit and opportunism.

Starmer won the Labour leadership in 2020 by pledging a raft of left-wing Corbyn-lite policies such as scrapping tuition fees, nationalising utilities, and defending migrants rights. But once in power, they were abandoned faster than a bad date.

That isn’t decent, it’s calculated betrayal.

What about the freebies? I haven’t forgotten about that, and I doubt you have either. More than £100,000 of freebies from the elite — more than every other Labour leader combined — while pensioners freeze and children go hungry under Labour’s austerity-lite regime.

If that’s decent, I’m a devoted Faragist.

Authoritarian thuggery

Then there’s Starmer’s vicious purge of the Labour left, which the liberal media whitewashes as “professionalising” the party. Starmer and his former enforcer, Morgan McSweeney, have systematically expelled or marginalised anyone with a whiff of socialism under the guise of rooting out antisemitism, but really to crush dissent and drag the party to the right to the delight of their elitist paymasters.

Decency? No. Authoritarian thuggery? Yes.

On Gaza, his slow-footed, mealy-mouthed response to Israel’s actions has been a national embarrassment and a fucking disgrace and has truly exposed his lack of moral spine.

Complicit Keir Starmer is a jellyfish, drifting with the tides of power rather than boldly standing against injustice.

Even the ultra-Blairite, Wes Streeting privately thinks Israel is a “rogue state” committing “war crimes” and “calculated brutality”, yet publicly it’s business as usual for this dreadful, callous government.

Remember, “decent” Starmer rolled out the red carpet for Israel’s war criminals, licensed the tools of their barbaric, criminal slaughter, and suppressed the movement demanding accountability, only to be told it was unlawful.

Maybe someone in the liberal media can explain to me how supplying military equipment to a baby-killing regime is in any way, “decent”?

Haven’t the actions of this vile, discredited Prime Minister caused enough harm to children already? Their blood is on your grubby hands, Keir Starmer.

Starmer: a gutless fraud

Less than two years into the age of beige, Starmer is the most unpopular PM on record, with polls tanking and chants calling him a “wanker” echoing from football grounds to darts halls across the country.

We are not fooled. Keir Starmer isn’t a fighter for the people, he is a doormat for the establishment.

Keir Starmer isn’t decent, he is a man without conviction and the embodiment of everything that is so very wrong with centrist politics — hollow, elitist, and utterly treacherous.

Starmer’s diabolical legacy was secured some time before the latest Peter Mandelson scandal.

History will not remember Keir Starmer as a decent Prime Minister, it will remember him for the gutless fraud that he is.

Featured image via the Canary

How to organise your fridge properly

Meat

Fruit and vegetables

Cheese

Sauces

Eggs

Zack Polanski has appeared on the 15 February edition of Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips. If you’re unfamiliar with Phillips, he has a decades’ long history in Labour Party politics. As such, it wasn’t surprising to see him denying the creeping authoritarianism which is happening under Keir Starmer’s government:

Phillips “This is not a country where people get thrown in jail for things they say”@ZackPolanski: 2,700 people have been arrested for holding up signs

And well done to Zack for challenging Phillips smear that ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ is antisemitic pic.twitter.com/fuEDYQJa9K

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) February 15, 2026

Labour liar, pants on fire

In the clip above, Phillips says:

In the press release today, you talk about a ‘Big Brother Britain’. I’m assuming that you’re talking about George Orwell’s oppressive state rather than the telly programme. Isn’t this going over the top a bit? I mean, this is not a country where people get thrown in jail for things… they say, at least not very often.

If you’re a regular reader of the Canary, you’ll know this is complete horseshit from Phillips. Thankfully, Polanski explained why for us:

Well, I think we’re spiralling down that road. First of all, we saw 2,700 people potentially imprisoned, some of them waiting trials, a lot of them for holding up signs saying, I oppose a genocide. We have seen a genocide happen in Israel now for the last couple of years.

To add some specificity, the signs in question said this:

I oppose #GenocideInGaza I support #PalestineAction https://t.co/6j08nAMQNS

— Steve Mackie (@1SteveMackie) February 14, 2026

The government proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, which allowed them to arrest those who support the group. The people who held these signs got arrested for speech, albeit in written form.

As we reported on 13 February, a court has now overturned the proscription. Polanski also touched on this:

“The govt have been completely shamed in court & I’m proud the entire Green MP group all voted against proscription of Palestine Action”@ZackPolanski on the high court declaring the proscription unlawful pic.twitter.com/XUqaelUN8o

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) February 15, 2026

Back to the interview, Phillips responded:

No, that’s not the signs that they’re being arrested for. It is signs which say things like, from the river to the sea, a sign which imply elimination of the State of Israel, which are at some sense antisemitic and intimidating.

This simply isn’t true; Trevor Phillips is a fucking liar.

He’s not just any liar, either; he’s a liar who picked Peter Mandelson of all people to be the best man at his wedding.

The 2,700 in question relates to those arrested for supporting Palestine Action. Additionally, the ‘River to the Sea‘ chant is a call for the Palestinians to no longer be contained in an open air prison — not anything else.

Polanski responded:

Well, as a Jewish person, I don’t find that antisemitic. And in fact, Benjamin Netanyahu himself has used that phrase.

I’m one of only five people in British history who have been Jewish and lead a political party. So antisemitism needs to be taken really seriously in the same way that Islamophobia or any form of racism or hate crime needs to be taken seriously.

Advertisement

But criticism of the Israeli government, I would say, is a moral responsibility when we’re seeing what they are doing to innocent people day in, day out. And our government is not just complicit in that. They are actively enabling it.

So for people who are protesting against the genocide, I would say those people are actual patriots of this country who are saying, let’s have a world where we make sure we’re standing for human rights.

It’s not just Palestine action, though, by the way. We’ve seen authoritarianism over the prime minister wanting mandatory ID cards. We’ve seen the authoritarianism of scrapping jury trials. Pattern over pattern shows that Keir Starmer is a deeply desperate caretaker prime minister who is clinging on to power by trying to crush dissent.

Things took a turn for the ridiculous later on, by the way:

So Phillips moved from talking about thousands of people arrested under terrorism legislation for holding up signs to criticising the idea that the UK is becoming an oppressive police state & then declaring the solution to fly tipping is more surveillance. He really is woeful.

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) February 15, 2026

In bed

As Novara’s Aaron Bastani highlighted, the New Labour types have a lot of support in broadcast media:

The press broadly backs the Tories. But why does the Labour right get such easy treatment from broadcast media?

The answer is political sympathies. Just look at who is married to who. TV news, and New Labour, until recently, went together like sun and shadow. pic.twitter.com/zwPZJOkUNl

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) February 5, 2026

Advertisement

Haven’t seen many/any videos of the broadcast media harassing Mandelson outside his house. Was constant during Corbyn leadership – and indeed for some time after.

I’d say ‘curious’, but it’s because basically the whole of broadcast media (except GB News) swings New Labour.

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) February 10, 2026

Phillips perverting reality as he did above is a clear example of this.

Featured image via the Canary

If you’re wondering how Reform plan to tackle poverty, we now have an answer to that. The plan is to deny it even exists

Zia Yusuf claims that “real poverty does exist in this country.”
@TrevorPTweets challenges Reform UK’s head of policy on his comments ⬇️#TrevorPhillipshttps://t.co/LFPXoeri6h pic.twitter.com/lqN76RkQ1q

— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 15, 2026

Denial

In the clip above, Zia Yusuf says:

So firstly, it’s really important people understand when the term poverty is used primarily by left-wing politicians, let’s define that term. It is… a relative term, which means that you could literally – this is a mathematical fact – you could increase everybody’s incomes tenfold and that statistic would stay the same.

Oh my god, shut the fuck up, you oily, little nerd.

‘I can tell you mathematically what poverty is‘.

You sound like a Star Trek android, and not the good one.

We can tell you what poverty is, Zia, because most of us here at the Canary have experienced it.

Poverty is not having enough to get by.

Poverty is watching your outgoings outpace your incomings.

Poverty is spending hours a week figuring out how to make the money go around.

Poverty is constantly worrying about bills and life choices.

Poverty is fear and anxiety.

Poverty is the feeling that things will only get worse.

Yusuf thinks it’s a mathematical equation, because he has no idea what the fuck he’s talking about; he’s just another ex-Tory, ex-Goldman Sachs rich boy who wants to gut the welfare state to give his billionaire mates handouts.

Too much will never be enough for these people.

They will take more than they can ever spend, and they will shit, and piss, and moan as they bite the hand that feeds them.

Yusuf continued:

But the most important thing is that Reform, we are fiscally prudent, and we wanted to make sure anything we announced was going to be fiscally neutral.

“Fiscally prudent”, is it?

If you’re familiar with Curb Your Enthusiasm, start imagining the end credits now as you read the following headlines:

Reform have totally let the cat out of the bag about who they are.

Zia Yusuf lecturing that poverty and peoples everyday struggles with rising bills and rent is exaggerated.

Advertisement

A party of the failed status quo, funded and representing big corporate interests. https://t.co/G000aCvbLl

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) February 15, 2026

Social bullshittery

Phillips asked Yusuf if poverty measures are all made up, to which Yusuf responded:

No, it’s worse than that, because real poverty does exist in this country, Trevor. And absolute poverty does exist in very, very small pockets. If you actually want to do the right thing for as many people as possible in this country, then you need to create social mobility. That has been crushed by the Tory government and now this Labour government.

To be clear, ‘social mobility’ is not the phenomenon in which everyone becomes more affluent. It’s the phenomenon in which some working class people land middle class jobs. This is great for sly politicians like Yusuf, because it allows them to point at the fortunate few and say:

See – it is possible for you layabouts to earn more — anyone on poverty wages is just lazy.

If you’re old enough, you will remember the UK’s middle class did indeed expand in the 90s. Social mobility was happening on a larger scale, and we got the ‘lower middle class’ — i.e. working class families who could afford to alternate between taking their kids on holiday to Menorca and Butlin’s Pwllheli (if that seems oddly specific, I’m talking from experience).

This phenomenon happened because we took advantage of the cheap labour of countries like China, allowing us to live beyond our previous means. We could have locked in that progress, and ensured the country’s wealth was evenly distributed. We didn’t do that; instead we got runaway capitalism, with the rich claiming more wealth and authority, and the rest of us losing our rights and purchasing power.

Now, we’re at a point where social mobility can’t happen because even the middle class are fucking struggling. Tinkering around the edges or making savings here or there won’t cut it; we need to hobble the billionaire class, and we need to rob them of their power and influence.

Only then can we have a society in which people can live day to day without dreading tomorrow.

Bootstrapping

You’ve probably heard the phrase ‘pull yourself up by the bootstraps‘, but did you know where it comes from? As Useless Etymology report:

The phrase “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” originated shortly before the turn of the 20th century. It’s attributed to a late-1800s physics schoolbook that contained the example question “Why can not a man lift himself by pulling up on his bootstraps?”

So when it became a colloquial phrase referring to socioeconomic advancement shortly thereafter, it was meant to be sarcastic, or to suggest that it was an impossible accomplishment.

It’s literally impossible for everyone in a capitalist system to be well off and content, because it’s a tornado designed to pull everything up to the top.

In other words, beware of geeks bearing false grifts.

Featured image via the Canary

“I think more than anything it’s making sure that the big polluters are also being taxed properly.”

Zack Polanski tells @TrevorPTweets how the Green Party would deal with fly-tipping.#TrevorPhillips

pic.twitter.com/6EaaunKapQ

— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 15, 2026