The Stain Remains

Palestine Action activists won't allow the stain to remain no matter how the courts and police attempt to beat them into submission. We all must follow their shining example to free Palestine.

The Stain Remains

by C. A. Matthews

The graffiti artist Banksy honored the Royal Courts of Justice in London recently with a great original artwork. Its subject caught the public’s eye immediately. The spray-painted scene showed a judge, complete in black gown and white wig, using his gavel to pummel a protester to the ground. The protester is attempting to hold up a protest sign splattered in his own blood. After the recent “I support Palestine Action” protests and massive arrests of people of all ages and conditions, what image of violent censorship by the state could be more appropriate?

According to Novara Media:

The arrests included Steve, a disabled RAF veteran using a walker, Mike Higgins, a 62-year-old blind and disabled man who was previously arrested on 9 August, an NHS midwife, a retired doctor in her 80s, two mental health nurses and 83-year-old Anglican priest Reverend Sue Parfitt.

Of course, this was to be the only Banksy artwork that couldn’t remain so the British people could enjoy its message for years to come. (There’s actually an earlier Banksy decorating a London police box, so his paintings are usually left alone.) The court had the image of the abusive judge and the downtrodden protester scrubbed from the wall outside the courthouse’s entrance within days. Only an ominous dark shadow of the aggressive judge and the beaten protester remains.

If this dark shadow doesn’t tell the story of our times, I don’t know what does. As someone said after the artwork was washed off the courts’ wall: The stain remains.

The powers-that-be can scrub away a Banksy image, censor and arrest us all they like for protesting against the genocide of the Palestinian people, but the stain of the colonizers’ actions toward the ordinary people will never fade away. As the Irish-speaking group Kneecap said in an X post: “You can’t wash away genocide… Your complicity will always remain.”

There is bright red blood splatter on the protester’s placard in the original image, the protester’s own blood shed because of the judge’s evil actions. In the same manner, no matter how hard the Royal Courts of Justice (Ha!) tries to cover for the UK’s support of genocide, blood stains from the ethnically cleansed victims of Gaza will remain on their hands. No amount of “scrubbing” (censoring) or “whitewashing” (using propaganda/hasbara to cover up lies) will ever wipe away the people’s memory of how red those blood stains were.

It’s time for us all in the West to give up trying to lie our way out of our war crimes. The stain remains no matter how violently a country acts toward their own people who courageously keep pointing out the stain of genocide. Trying to shut down mass protests by censoring an organization such as Palestine Action and proscribing it as a “terrorist group” does nothing to hide the UK government’s past or present war crimes. In fact, it only adds to the government’s growing list of crimes against humanity.

I don’t want to throw stones only at the British. It’s been mostly NATO countries that have funded and armed Israel in their genocidal crusade against the indigenous Palestinian people from its start. For instance, a study by Brown University estimates that American post 9/11 wars have killed at least 4.5 million people worldwide. Genocidaires and their wannabes are regularly encouraged and equipped by Western interests to inflict as much damage as possible upon the oppressed peoples of the world in order to steal the downtrodden’s land and resources.

But why can’t our politicians see the folly of their genocidal ways? Why don’t they hear our cries for justice? Why won’t they stick their necks out and say something, anything, to put a halt to the killing?

Every Westerner instinctively knows the answer to those questions. It’s the profits from the war machine that blind and deafen our depraved politicians. Profits so large and so numerous as to make the average person, who is surviving paycheck to paycheck, scream in anger: “How dare they! How dare they put their obscene scrambling for wealth before the very lives and safety of others!”

But this is all part and parcel of our politicians’ and their flunkies’ job—their real job, that is.

Did you think politicians were elected to office to actually serve their constituents? Sorry to disappoint you, but Western governments all work for their oligarchs—the billionaires/CEOs and other “Captains of Industry”—not for ordinary working class slobs like you or me. These soulless puppets suffer no angst over ordering little old ladies and gents holding placards stating, “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action,” to be taken away to jail. It’s what their true bosses, the oligarchs, want after all.

A happy oligarchy bestows more wealth and perks upon the political class after each round up of protesters, so our public officials are more than happy to oblige them. You can hear the ka-ching! of the cash register each time an activist is processed and put into zip ties. A silenced and cowed proletariat is music to the bourgeoisie’s ears.

The best thing you can say about the current crop of Western politicians is that they’re collectively and individually dreadful at covering up who their real bosses are. Everyday more and more of us ordinary folks are figuring out just how corrupt the system is and who has made it that way. (Hint: It’s not immigrants and people of color like some big names have implied.) We’ve figured out how genocide makes the oligarchy lots of money and rids the world of excess population that neither the politicians nor the billionaires are particularly bothered about saving.

We’re all numbers on a spreadsheet or a computer screen to our oligarchic superiors. It’s not like we’re actually human beings like they are. You can only imagine what their conversations are like...

“So,” says the oligarchs to their puppet-politicians, “Let’s wipe out the entirety of the population of Gaza and build a luxury resort-playground on their land in the warm Mediterranean sun. It’ll be fantastic!”

“What’s that you say, Mr. Starmer? There are blood stains on the walls? What’s that you say, Mr. Trump? The stench of rotting corpses under the rubble is everywhere? Quick! Somebody grab a bucket and scouring pad and scrub them away!”

You might have noticed that most billionaires tend to be on the whiter side of the skin-color spectrum (or are trying very hard to pass as white). Mass murdering non-white/non-Europeans is no big deal in their opinion. And they’ve mastered the technique of “throwing shade” on genocide victims or dehumanizing them in the ever-so-cooperative mainstream media. Between the propaganda and threats of going without daily bread, the commoners will hush up and play along with them they figure—at least for a time.

This sort of shade throwing works well for a very special group that the worldwide oligarchy routinely uses to further their goals. Israeli Zionists love to please their billionaire masters and go hog-wild committing war crimes. Palestinians deserve to be wiped out in the Zionists’ minds because Arabs are “human animals” and “worship the wrong god” while living on “our land!” as the Israelis claim. These “crimes” more than justify Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people, obviously.

Throwing shade on others is probably the reason why Zionism has attracted so many evangelical Christian types in the West. Like Israeli Zionists, Christian Zionists enjoy going hog-wild over condemning others who don’t believe or look exactly as they do. They seem to long for a world of all one color and one mindset. There’s no challenge to their tiny intellects that way.

Craven, egotistical politicians like Trump, Biden, Starmer, Trudeau, Carney and the like can’t do enough to please the Zionists and their masters, the oligarchs. In turn, the CEOs of the military-industrial complex can’t do enough to please the Zionists because they are more than willing to do all the dirty work for the MIC by field testing the latest killing machines, drones, and sadistic spyware programs on innocent civilians in Gaza.

How fortunate for the billionaires who profit on endless war! It really is the perfect time for weak-minded, immoral men (like our current crop of Western leaders) to take power, isn’t it?

At no other time in history would the browbeaten—or judge’s gavel beaten—commoners cooperate so fully with such evil by allowing such slimy men to take office, eager to do the oligarchs’ bidding. We of the working class must scrub away the blood stains from our hands, too. We’ve elected—or is it allowed to be selected for us?—these candidates and turned a blind eye toward the billionaires (soon to be trillionaires). We’ve permitted these malignant narcissists to take control of our economies and nations and wreck them for their personal gain as they destroy our planet’s ecology with impunity.

This is what makes the activists of Palestine Action (as well as the Global Sumud Flotilla) and their brave supporters so unique. They’re not willing to sit still and allow the stain to remain. They fight hard to eradicate the evil system even as its merciless courts and police or military forces attempt to beat them into submission. We should follow their shining example. (If you’re in the UK on October 4, sign up here to join their next protest.)

The next big opportunity for We the People have to scrub away our stains and enact justice in the world happens this week. September 18th is the anniversary of the United Nations’ vote to take action against the genocidal regime of Israel. There will be a march and rally in New York City on that day. There are also two emails you can send to your UN reps and the Saudi delegation. Click here to remind them how important it is to take action now.

We need to do everything we can to see that our UN reps do the right thing and enact Uniting for Peace measures to provide food and medical aid, protective troops, and materials to help the Palestinian people rebuild their lives and their country. We who are living in the NATO countries in particular owe it to them. It’s our governments who have colonized—and then permitted the Zionists to colonize—their homeland for so long.

Until Palestine is free, the dark shadow of genocide will reside in our souls. We must call for a permanent ceasefire today. Free Palestine! Lift the stain and free yourself!

Articles and Videos to Wash the Stain From Our Souls

Animated version of the Banksy artwork: https://x.com/ZillRah7/status/1965848020647633147

Behind bars and erased, Banksy’s art speaks louder than ever https://www.thecanary.co/skwawkbox/2025/09/10/banksy-court/

Police Fail to Arrest Two-Thirds in Biggest-Ever Protest Against Palestine Action Ban https://novaramedia.com/2025/09/07/police-fail-to-arrest-two-thirds-in-biggest-ever-protest-against-palestine-action-ban/

Sign up for October 4th Palestine Action Protest https://defendourjuries.net/lift-the-ban/

Send email to your UN reps to support the Uniting for Peace measures: https://lifelineforpalestine.com/take-action

Complicit Corporations (that you should boycott) https://www.fosna.org/complicit-corporations

From Doha to the UN: Turning Israel’s Terror Into Global Action https://medeabenjamin.substack.com/p/from-doha-to-the-un-turning-israels

More IDF Soldiers Say They Were Ordered To Commit War Crimes and Kill Children https://the307.substack.com/p/more-idf-soldiers-say-they-were-ordered

Death of the Holocaust Industry https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/death-of-the-holocaust-industry

The billionaire class want you thinking Israel controls the West https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/the-billionaire-class-want-you-thinking

“Modern Zionism is a continuation of western colonialism – the use of violence to subdue and dominate other populations, chiefly to control their resources – but with the benefit of a "moral" cover story." --Jonathan Cook, In Gaza, western colonialism has been unmasked https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/in-gaza-western-colonialism-has-been

‘Heinous war crime’: Israel killed dozens of Yemeni journalists in Sanaa strikes https://thecradle.co/articles/heinous-war-crime-israel-killed-dozens-of-yemeni-journalists-in-sanaa-strikes

Here's the real reason Israel attacked Qatar https://palestinewillbefree.substack.com/p/heres-real-reason-israel-attacked-qatar

UN experts stand in solidarity with the Global Sumud Flotilla, demand full protection of all passengers https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/un-experts-stand-solidarity-global-sumud-flotilla-demand-full-protection-all

Global Sumud Flotilla comes under second attack in days https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/09/10/global-sumud-flotilla-comes-under-second-attack-in-days/

Until America Stops Bombing, the World Must Cut It Off https://gordondimmack.com/until-america-stops-bombing-the-world-must-cut-it-off/

Some Days There's Just Too Much Israeli Psychopathy To Write About https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/some-days-theres-just-too-much-israeli

Massacre of Gaza family by US and German-born IDF snipers detailed in damning war crimes probe https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250910-massacre-of-gaza-family-by-us-and-german-born-idf-snipers-detailed-in-damning-war-crimes-probe/

Met Police appoint prosecutor to 'urgently review' application for Israeli president's arrest https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/met-police-appoint-prosecutor-urgently-review-application-israeli-presidents-arrest

Spain Announces Arms Embargo on Israel and Other Steps ‘to Stop the Genocide in Gaza’ https://scheerpost.com/2025/09/09/spain-announces-arms-embargo-on-israel-and-other-steps-to-stop-the-genocide-in-gaza/

Annalena Baerbock: Bridge Builder or Witched Witch of the West https://dianeengelhardt.substack.com/p/annalena-baerbock-bridge-builder

US war department to shift focus from China to 'threats' in Latin America https://thecradle.co/articles/us-war-department-to-shift-focus-from-china-to-threats-in-latin-america-report

ICE Conducts Largest-Ever Raid at Georgia Hyundai Plant: 475 Arrested, Mostly Korean https://scheerpost.com/2025/09/09/ice-conducts-largest-ever-raid-at-georgia-hyundai-plant-475-arrested-mostly-korean/

ICE's 287(g) Enforcement Program Reaches 1,000 Active Agreements Across 40 States https://austinkocher.substack.com/p/ices-287g-enforcement-program-reaches

Agrochemical Industry Hijacked MAHA Report — A Major Assault on Families, Farmers, and Pro-Life Agriculture https://kucinichreport.substack.com/p/agrochemical-industry-hijacked-maha

ROH’s director of opera defends attempt to take Palestinian flag from protesting dancer https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/aug/07/royal-opera-house-director-oliver-mears-criticism-palestinian-flag-protest

How Should Activists Engage With Troops Deployed in Our Cities? https://truthout.org/articles/how-should-activists-engage-with-troops-deployed-in-our-cities/

Bringing Gaza Home https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tGlm84vK_dO4ziqR-98-6iZN2obEbjhb/edit

Trump’s DOJ Wants to Deprive Trans People of the Right to Self-Defense https://theintercept.com/2025/09/05/trans-gun-ban-trump-doj/