Protests at Erev

Via a private US-Israeli company known as The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), Israel has used a façade of aid delivery to slaughter defenceless Palestinians, as exposed in eyewitness accounts. Even the steadfastly Zionist British government has acknowledged problems with the GHF in a statement to the UN Security Council in June.

Despite this, the former spokesperson for the murderous GHF, Shahar Segal, is allowed to continue making money at a London restaurant, Miznon, which has branches in Soho and in Notting Hill. Recently rebranded Erev – ‘evening’ in Hebrew – Segal’s presence with Miznon makes Elgin Crescent / Kensington Park Road the darkest corner of Kensington, quite a statement given the history of the area, with serial killer John Christie having operated nearby and Kensington & Chelsea council being the local authority.

As Spokesperson for the GHF, Segal provided daily updates on the project from his New York base. When he resigned from the role in July, with the crimes of the GHF already documented, Segal expressed no remorse for the slaughter of the innocents that he had supported. The restaurateur had done his job as a respectable face providing cover for the ultimate crime.

On his Instagram page, Segal has posted Zionist lies that have been used to dehumanise Palestinians and justify genocide, including the notorious false claim that Hamas raped Israeli women and babies.* In reality, it is the Israeli army that has carried out systematic rape of Palestinian prisoners; another example of accusation as a projection of guilt by an Israeli official.

Another figure to have enabled Israel’s rampage in Palestine is Segal’s business partner at Miznon/Erev, Eyal Shani, a celebrity chef who has provided over 3000 meals a day for Israeli troops to fuel the killing of mainly children and women. This was understood by Shani when he posted the following call for genocide on his Instagram: “It is the duty of each and every one of us to do everything in our power to annihilate these despicable murderers, not leaving a trace of their existence…”

GHF

It has been widely reported that Israel and the United States have used the GHF as a tool for starvation of a population, a war crime: “Human Rights Watch analyzed announcements made on GHF’s Facebook page of 105 distributions across the 4 sites and found that 54 distribution windows were under 20 minutes long and 20 distributions were announced as finished before their official opening time had begun”.

“Even at full capacity at the four sites, the GHF scheme is only capable of providing about 60 trucks of food per day…as compared to the 600 trucks per day that entered Gaza under the UN-led aid scheme during the ceasefire in early 2025.”

“Regular killings by Israeli forces near GHF sites also amount to war crimes, given all the evidence indicating that these are deliberate, targeted killings of persons the Israeli authorities would know would be Palestinian civilians.”

The GHF slaughter of Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces, without justification, violates both international humanitarian and human rights law. States, including Britain, are obliged to prosecute individuals when there is evidence of their complicity.

Human Rights Watch states that the GHF’s role in Gaza is part of Israel’s “use of starvation of civilians as a weapon of war” and that the organisation “turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths” constituting “serious violations of international law and war crimes.”

Israel killed at least 859 Palestinians at GHF sites in just two months, May to July. This explains why protestors are now regularly visiting Erev/Miznon Notting Hill to raise public awareness of the restaurant’s direct link to genocide. The protests centre on the genocidal GHF and not the Israeli citizenship of the owners.

Erev/Miznon’s menu consists of appropriated Arab cuisine. Despite this the restaurant is marketed as “Israeli street food” in some countries, while the London branches are promoted as “Mediterranean street food.”

*[British Deputy PM David Lammy is an enthusiastic spreader of the ‘raping babies’ lie, propagating it on Sky News (without pushback) in 2023. At a public event last week, economist Faiza Shaheen, who was summarily ousted by Labour as their candidate for Chingford & Woodford Green shortly before the 2024 election, told the audience that at a candidates’ meeting, she raised the issue of the genocide with David Lammy, then Shadow Foreign Secretary, now Deputy Prime Minister. She said that Lammy told her “Don’t worry, people will move on.”]

by Tom Charles

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Another corner of Kensington that doesn’t get much daylight is the council’s secretive Investment Committee. David Kear reports on an ongoing campaign urging divestment from Israel’s weapons and tech…

RBKC Divestment Protest – Monday 03 November

For over a year Independent RBKC councillors have had a ceasefire /divestment motion to full council listed for debate debate. In November 2024 a large group of residents held a vigil outside the Town Hall and a protest inside.

This year two independent councillors made representation to the Investment Committee on the issues of investment of Council pension funds in weapons and tech supplied to Israel. The secretive RBKC Investment Committee refused to consider the ethical and reputational arguments for divestment.

Last Monday, a large group of RBKC residents protested outside the Town Hall when the Investment Committee were meeting, demanding that they discuss divestment.

Much of the RBKC investment portfolio is managed by two outsourced Asset Management companies: Blackrock and Baillie Gifford. Just 1.5% of RBKC’s £1.2 bn pension fund is invested in weapons and tech used by Israel in Gaza, but this adds up to a substantial £18.4m

The protestors on Monday were denied observer access to the meeting, so chanted, sang and gave short speeches making a compelling case for divestment.

Eventually the chair of the Investment Committee, Cllr Quentin Marshall came out to inform the protestors that divestment was not on their agenda and agreed to meet separately with a member of the protest group. Yet more delays, filibustering and prioritisation of ‘more pressing’ issues by RBKC.

There is precedent for RBKC to divest from the pension fund. Relating to investment in Grenfell-related companies, the chair said: “It is the view of RBKC that it does not wish to invest in companies associated with the Grenfell tragedy on ethical grounds. Neither the Council nor the Fund has any relationship with these companies.”

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