The opening paragraphs from Sir Keir Starmer’s piece for the Sunday Times on Sunday October 6th, marking one year since Hamas terrorists smashed through the Israeli border, killing, torturing and kidnapping innocent civilians in their path, provide a masterclass in what discourse analysts sometimes refer to as passivation: changing a sentence from active to passive voice.
Passivation is a linguistic technique that omits or ‘hides’ the actor performing a certain action or actions in a sentence. In political or media discourse, it’s typically used to obscure agency or responsibility.
(To give you an idea of its rhetorical effects, it’s worth noting that children tend very quickly to become artful proponents of the passive style: “Did you bite your sister?” asks the furious father; “She was bitten,” responds the son.)
Here are some examples of that style as it features in Starmer’s opening remarks. Note that in each case, the material action described (murder, massacre, abduction) has no discernible perpetrator:
- “Jews murdered while protecting their families.” [By whom?]
- “Young people massacred at a music festival.” [By whom?]
- “People abducted from their homes.” [By whom?]
Later on, Starmer’s obfuscatory style intensifies. In the parlance of transitivity analysis, material actions – in which a person is shown causing certain actions to take place – are transformed into existential processes in which there is no actor, and certain actions simply occur, as if of their own volition.
(“Did you bite your sister?” asks the furious father; “There was a nip,” responds the son, who, in this version of the scenario, represents a particularly up-and-coming young rhetorician, well-prepared for his first job as a senior political advisor to a serving cabinet minister.)
“As the hours passed, more and more agonising reports emerged. Rape. Torture. Brutality beyond comprehension.” [Yes, but perpetrated by whom?]
In fact, “Hamas” doesn’t feature once in this, an article ostensibly written to (at least in part) honour the victims of October 7th 2023.
This can’t simply be explained away as a stylistic tic, since later on Starmer is happy to position Israel as a grammatical actor/subject, when it “launches a ground invasion in response [to Hezbollah’s rocket attacks]”.
Oddly enough, when Charles Moore emailed the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) earlier this year to check its official position on the October 7th massacre, he received a similarly passivated response: “The Muslim Council of Britain condemns the killing of innocent people on October 7th.” (Eliding, of course, whether the MCB considers the Israelis killed to be “innocent”.)
But did the MCB agree that the murders of October 7th “were carried out chiefly by Hamas”, Lord Moore asked in a follow-up email that he says didn’t receive a response. “Apparently,” he concluded, “the biggest British Muslim umbrella organisation cannot bring itself to say a bad word against Hamas.”
Curiously, much later on Sunday October 6th, a separate piece appeared under Starmer’s name on the Government’s website. Far fewer people will read it, of course, but here, thankfully, the Prime Minister dispenses with the passive style, stating:
October 7th 2023 was the darkest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust. One year on, we stand together to remember the lives so cruelly taken.
Over a thousand people were brutally murdered. Men, women, children and babies killed, mutilated, and tortured by the terrorists of Hamas. Jewish people murdered whilst protecting their families. [emphasis added]
It’s almost as if, in writing for the Sunday Times, the Prime Minister was attempting to triangulate his message about the slaughter, rape and mutilation of Jewish civilians to avoid antagonising a certain section of the electorate.
A certain section of the electorate? According to the 2021 census, there are now 3.9 million Muslims in the U.K. Together, they make up around 6% of the population.
Traditionally, Muslims have been electorally loyal to Labour, but amid rising anger at Starmer’s reluctance to more strongly condemn Israeli actions in Gaza since October 7th, that support has been fraying around the edges.
During the 2024 local elections, for example, Labour’s vote share in wards with over 70% Muslim voters declined by 39 percentage points. At the national level, while 80% of Muslims voted for Labour at the 2019 General Election, analysis of the 2024 general election results by thinktank More in Common suggests that Labour’s vote share fell sharply in seats with large Muslim populations.
Muslim independent candidate Shockat Adam caused a huge upset by beating Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth, then the Shadow Paymaster General, to become the new MP for Leicester South. According to Jewish News, Adam’s brother is Ismail Patel, the founder of hardline Islamist group Friends of Al Aqsa, who previously said that he “salutes Hamas”, and has even met with senior figures from the terrorist group while visiting Gaza.
The seat of Dewsbury and Batley – a formerly safe Labour seat – was won by another ‘Gaza independent’, Iqbal Mohamed, who delivered a speech during the election in which he told a crowd to search their homes for “Zionist” items and thrown them out. “Tell your kids too – even candy shops can be dangerous,” he added, to gleeful chants from the crowd of “from the river to the sea”.
Another Labour stronghold, Birmingham Perry Bar, was won by independent Ayoub Khan. Previously a Liberal Democrat councillor, Khan was investigated by the party last year after he questioned the extent of Hamas’s October 7th terrorist attack, posting several clips on TikTok stating he had yet to see evidence that any of the terror group’s members had beheaded babies or committed rape.
Other Labour MPs only just fought off Muslim independents to hold on to their seats: Health Secretary Wes Streeting won 528 more votes than British-Palestinian activist Leanne Mohamad in Ilford North, while Naz Shah held her Bradford with a narrow majority of 707 votes over Muhammed Ali Islam.
No doubt it might seem a little far-fetched to suggest Starmer’s passivated rhetoric in the Sunday Times is part of some wider positioning strategy in relation to the Muslim vote and the rise of a dangerous sectarianism in British politics.
And yet it’s interesting to reflect that, of the 220 most marginal seats in the recent General Election, Islam was the largest minority religion in 129 of them (58.6%).
Allied to this is the fact that polling undertaken earlier this year, and described as “the largest of its kind” since October 7th, revealed that just one in four British Muslims believe Hamas committed murder and rape in Israel, while 46% say they sympathise with the group.
The figures, which were provided by polling company J.L. Partners for the Henry Jackson Society, a counter-extremism think tank, also suggested that younger Muslims described as more “well-educated” – who are, of course, part of an age demographic that is more likely to support Labour –were the most likely to think Hamas did not commit atrocities on October 7th.
Dr. Frederick Attenborough is the Free Speech Union’s Senior Communications Officer. You can find him on Substack here.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Some people are saying that Israel has killed 200,000+ Palestinians in revenge.
https://accuracy.org/release/ralph-nader-estimates-200000-palestinians-killed-in-gaza/?
Perhaps we could send them 3.9 million morw to help them repopulate.
Ah, the good old ‘estimate’.
A single death a tragedy, 50000 deaths just a statistic eh Marque1
See above…
ttps://legalinsurrection.com/2024/03/poll-71-of-palestinians-support-october-7-massacre-majority-wants-hamas-returned-to-power-in-gaza/
Hamas are Islam’s Nazis. As are the majority of Gazans who support them
Nobody misses dead Nazis. (except Nazi sympathisers – that you “insurrectionist”? Sounds like it to me.
Cracked record. GFH, this is becoming tedious.
“some people” “estimate” – the charlatan’s friends.
Ralph Nader. All you need to know. Been peddling bull poo for decades.
And if they had, may be a good thing…
https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/03/poll-71-of-palestinians-support-october-7-massacre-majority-wants-hamas-returned-to-power-in-gaza/
Hamas are Islam’s Nazis. As are the majority of Gazans who support them
Nobody misses dead Nazis.
Maybe he realises that supplying arms and military intelligence to Israel could lead him and the UK in a bit of trouble with the ICC.
As a prosecutor he should be well aware of the risks involved in supprting genocide.
“genocide“: the complete eradication of a nation or ethnic group, as implied by the slogan “From the river to the sea“. Not to be confused with campaigns of rational self-defence which unfortunately involve the deaths of innocent people. Such is war against aggressors who hide behind their own civilians and who on principle turn down every offer of peaceful negotiation. It doesn’t matter what tactics Israel employs, the Arabs will always conspire in its destruction.
‘Cos they’re the health ministry in Gaza aren’t they? /s
Well he’s resumed funding the terrorists via UNRWA, remember. Same difference, obviously.
Thank the gods for decent people, of which there were many across the country yesterday.
https://x.com/K0sher_C0ckney/status/1842966292237553973
https://x.com/K0sher_C0ckney/status/1842973525696823715
Same here and I wonder if it’s a theme across the mainstream media. Wouldn’t surprise me. Imagine sharing a society with people that hero-worship psychopathic killers, the same people that said psychos would eliminate in a heartbeat ( they’re doing so every day in the West, after all ) because ”non-believers”, ”infidels” etc? Would they also form a ‘Peter Sutcliffe Fan Club’, or commemorate the life and times of Myra Hindley and Ian Brady? Well, ”no Jews now news”, as they say, so double-standards it is then! Make it make sense!
”The Independent decided to commemorate the anniversary of October 7th like this.
By omitting Hamas from the Narrative. The word “Hamas” isn’t mentioned a single time on this page.
They do however, use casualty figures provided by Hamas terrorists.
I feel sick.”
https://x.com/K0sher_C0ckney/status/1843274859171979710
I wonder if one of our resident Jew-hating terrorist-worshippers recognizes themself here. He’s certainly very triggered and doesn’t have the self-control to just walk/scroll on by. I have my suspicions….
”In Brighton a man vandalises a memorial to the Israelis murdered on the 7th October. At the end of the video you can see what it originally looked like.
A decent man intervenes.”
https://x.com/DaveAtherton20/status/1842993120327389390
Want to see a stop to the killing on all sides –
Question certain aspects of Oct 7th due to lack of transparency in reporting. –
Despise ANY group of people who infiltrate our institutions and are paymasters to elected Members of Parliament, because here’s some news.. That’s NOT Democracy.. –
Despise the corrupt MIC and it’s lobbying.. Billions for bombs, not a penny for peace….
And you’re a “jew hating terrorist worshipper”.
Unconditionally agree with the Israeli narrative and welcome the slaughter of 50000 civilians, terrorist pager attacks however….
Utterly deranged bigoted polarisation… Again…
This is rather rich in terms of little tidbits of information something of a blitzkrieg. I’m sure the author knows that the readers will never bother to check but you should at least try to make it look respectable if you want to call yourself ‘doctor’. Do you really need to do that just to make it look a bit more respectable? You must know that we tend to avoid this in this country.
Why won’t he name Hamas? Because he doesn’t want to upset the Muslim voters.
Sooner or later of course that won’t be sufficient to placate them and then he’ll have a problem.
https://youtu.be/0RhLbPrLIMU?si=dCP6fQnWL7A6I6i_
Celente telling it how it is…. You won’t like it….
“Anyone supporting Israel….go over there and fight” ..
If you had any idea what’s going on in the world, you have got rid of your Fiat and bought gold years ago… Just like I did
The proposition is absurd. If he was looking to garner Muslim sympathy then he would draw a distinction between peaceful Muslims and Hamas. After the 7/7 bombings about 20 percent of Muslims said they agreed with the attack. Still a large number but nonetheless a minority. My guess is that he doesn’t like saying the name but that is because of a generalised fear of everything. The man looks constipated at the best of times. Woud you ask a constipated man top say Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthi etc? He doesn’t give two craps about the ‘Muslim vote’. He knows very well that he will be in charge for a very long time regardless of voting. This is yesterday’s politics this idea of their ascension being depeydant on the Muslim vote. They don’t give a crap about Muslims Jews or Christians surely you can see that, These are like cretinous student politicians, Take it on the chin they don’t give a crap about you Muslim or Jew.
Doctor Frederick Attenborough eh.
This guy is in so far above his head it’s now comical.
A person indulging in this cowardly technique can be classed as a squirming PARASITE, and that is exactly what Starmer is, ——A beadie eyed scared of his own shadow PARASITE.
I noted with interest “analysis of the 2024 general election results by thinktank More in Common suggests that Labour’s vote share fell sharply in seats with large Muslim populations.”
Unless it is certain that it was Muslim voters that deserted the Labour Party in the 2024 election in seats with a high Muslim population,it is quite possible that it is in fact a reaction to the dominance of Islam among the electorate that drove the loss of political support. (The truth of the situation is not clear to me from the statistics quoted in the article and is open to an alternative interpretation.)
If that is the case then Starmer, in trying to appease the 6% Muslim population in the U.K, is actually acting to the detriment of the Labour Party. I suspect that this may be occurring around the country with voters turning away from those parties that kowtow to a small minority whilst ignoring the majority.
The British people have a longstanding reputation for fairness and have always accepted those from minority racial or religious groups. Current political behaviour that strongly favours minority interests against the best interests of the majority are driving the move towards Reform which is the only Party that speaks and acts for the Majority.
October 7th 2023 was the darkest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust. One year on, we stand together to remember the lives so cruelly taken.
Over a thousand people were brutally murdered. Men, women, children and babies killed, mutilated, and tortured by the terrorists of Hamas. Jewish people murdered whilst protecting their families.
And what was the darkest day in Palestinian history, since the country – originally populated by Palestinian Arabs and only 6% Jews – became increasingly flooded by Jewish settlers who eventually declared the existence of their own state and relegated all Palestinians to ownerless, second class citizens in their own country? Possibly the Nakba in 1948, when 750,000 Palestinians were ‘displaced’ and thousands killed, but there have been so many other instances when thousands have been murdered and thousands have had their property stolen or destroyed – by Israelis.
When will their lives be commemorated?
Over a thousand people were murdered on 7th October, of which how many were killed by Israeli forces? The rows of burnt-out cars were not the result of machine-gun fire, at least not hand-held machine-guns, but the result of APEI-type ammunition and Hellfire missiles – fired from Israeli helicopters and tanks.
The only babies killed were the thousands upon thousands of Palestinian babies killed by Israeli forces since 7th October. But they do not count, do they? Nor do the 100,000 to 300,000 (or more) Palestinians murdered by Israeli forces since 7th October – men, women and children. Nobody talks about them. 100,000 is one hundred times 1,000. Where is the discussion of proportionality?
But how many Palestinians were killed by Israelis prior to 7th October? I have no idea – several hundred thousand, probably. A million? Several millions of Palestinians live – are forced to live – outside of their home country today but nobody addresses that problem, certainly not in Israel.
And why does the author then conflate Palestinians with Muslims? Suddenly all Muslims are what, guilty of murder, guilty of massacring Jews?
Neither does the author question the right of Israel to invade neighbouring countries – again simply creating swaths of destruction, always with the justification of fighting terrorism but factually killing thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians.
And it was indeed Nazi Germany that committed genocide on Jews and that invaded foreign countries on ridiculous pretexts. Now who is doing the same to Palestinians and their neighbours?
It’s the equivalent of writing about the Holocaust, but omitting to mention the Nazis.
Starmer’s piece on the government website does NOT “dispense with the passive style”.
“Over a thousand people were brutally murdered. Men, women, children and babies killed, mutilated, and tortured by the terrorists of Hamas.”
is still in the passive style. Dispensing with the passive style would give you:
“Over a thousand people were brutally murdered. The terrorists of Hamas killed, mutilated and tortured men, women, children and babies.”
What difference does this make? Starmer’s statement draws attention to the circumstances, rather than to the actors.
Starmer’s statement, even here where he identifies the perpetrators, makes them sound like a phenomenon, rather than making them sound like the perpetrators of an evil deed.