Israel has destroyed the graves of World War One and World War Two soldiers in Gaza. And as critics have highlighted, UK right-wingers would have had a very different response to this desecration if Palestinians had been responsible.

Nothing is safe from Israel’s genocidal destruction

Although an October 2025 ceasefire slowed the pace of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, there have been almost daily attacks from the occupation forces. These have killed over 556 people and injured around 1,500. That’s almost five murders for every day of the ‘ceasefire’ so far.

Israel, meanwhile, has accepted that it has killed over 70,000 people in Gaza since October 2023. Over 20,000 of these were children. Because of the extreme number of murders, and the colonial power’s destruction of over a third of grave sites, mass graves have been necessary.

The graves of Israel’s allies in the West have not been safe either. As the Guardian reported on 4 February 2026, Israeli occupation forces “bulldozed” largely British and Australian graves in 2025. These were in the previously pristine Gaza War Cemetery in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Military historian Peter Stanley called this a “deliberate” act from Israel, which hadn’t informed its Western allies at the time:

Israeli occupation forces also destroyed or heavily damaged Canadian and Indian plots in the cemetery too.

According to the Guardian:

Essam Jarada, Gaza cemetery’s former caretaker, whose home is also close by, said two bulldozing operations took place at the cemetery in April and May 2025.

A1 February Commonwealth War Graves Commission update on the cemetery had said:

the cemetery has suffered extensive damage to headstones, memorials, boundary walls, staff facilities and storage areas. Memorials with reported damage are the 54th (East Anglian) Division Memorial, the Hindu Section, Indian UN Memorial, the Turkish section and the Muslim section.

Israel has predictably sought to justify the destruction of graves by blaming Hamas. And the apartheid state’s far-right cheerleaders in the West have been very quiet about the decimation of soldiers’ graves.

This is something many online were fully conscious of:

Where is the outrage from Suella Braverman, Nigel Farage, Robert Jenrick, Robinson and the rest of the ‘patriots’ about this?

The National: ‘Israeli military have bulldozed part of a Gaza cemetery containing the war graves of dozens of allied soldiers – including from the UK…

— Sangita Myska (@SangitaMyska) February 5, 2026

There would have been global outrage if Palestinians had desecrated Commonwealth war graves. But because Israelis did it – crickets. https://t.co/4kAsgJXiiT

— Frances ‘Cassandra’ Coppola (@Frances_Coppola) February 6, 2026

The Palestinians who did care for the graves

In January 2023, Commonwealth War Graves Commission noted that:

Throughout its 100 year existence the cemetery has been lovingly tended by the Jaradah family with each generation passing its passion and knowledge onto the next. Now in its fourth generation, Head Gardener Ibrahim Jaradrah regards himself as ‘a son of the cemetery’ and leads a team of six staff in Gaza territory ensuring our cemeteries remain oases of calm despite the missile strikes, power cuts and make do and mend machinery.

Just reached 10 years with @CWGC. Proud to represent the fourth generation of my family.

Away from #Gaza celebration feels difficult.

Our photos there aren’t just memories, but our connection and hope pic.twitter.com/7aeu2aWdfa

— Ibrahim Jaradah (@HemaJaradah) January 5, 2026

for more than a century, Palestinians maintained and honored the gravesites of fallen British and other Allied soldiers from WWI and WWII. Within months of seizing control, Israel bulldozed the cemetery. https://t.co/P7BJssUljG

— susan abulhawa | سوزان ابو الهوى (@susanabulhawa) February 6, 2026

I visited this cemetery for Allied soldiers several times on trips to Gaza. It was preserved and protected by the Hamas government. It has now been desecrated by the Israeli army, the defenders of the West. https://t.co/QaQB9OoQEB

— Matt Duss (@mattduss) February 5, 2026

Not the first time, and probably won’t be the last

Israeli occupation forces have a habit of destroying not just people’s lives and homes, but also their final resting places. As Al Jazeera has reported:

The Israeli military has wantonly bombed, bulldozed and desecrated Palestinian graves in Gaza multiple times over the years, drawing condemnation from human rights organisations as a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor documented that the Israeli army has destroyed or severely damaged approximately 21 out of 60 cemeteries in Gaza, exhuming remains, mixing them or causing them to be lost, leaving thousands of Palestinian families with crushing uncertainty about the fate of their relatives’ bodies.

And this was happening long before the current genocidal offensive on Gaza began in 2023:

The Israelis also bombed it in 2009, the Palestinians rebuilt it and now once again they ve destroyed it. pic.twitter.com/rxh4GmUmKi

— Bluedaysdarknights. (@direstraits786) February 6, 2026

Amid the five-murders-a-day ‘ceasefire’, the desecration has continued:

Racism may make it hard for Western right-wingers to care about the mass murder and destruction in Gaza. But the next time they put a poppy on and talk about remembering the Westerners who fought in the World Wars, let’s remind them of how little they cared when Israeli occupation forces were desecrating their memory.

Featured image via Commonwealth War Graves Commission

By Ed Sykes

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