THE PROTECT PALESTINE CAMPAIGN HAS ENDED

The Protect Palestine campaign has now closed. This is a statement from Ousman Noor, as the founder of the campaign to summarise our wok, victories, criticisms and reasons for closing the campaign. Friday 17th October 2025

Our Mission

Our mission was to get states allied to Palestine to support the existing Palestinian armed resistance by deploying military force against Israel to stop the genocide of Palestinians and dismantle Israel's settler colonial occupation of Palestine.

Our Community

Over 10k individuals as well 100+ civil society organisations worldwide joined the community.

We established agreed community values and held public meetings for all members.

Our Strategy

In October 2023 the South African Foreign Minister called for a rapid protection force for Palestine.

That was the right idea. States that have made political commitments to Palestinian self-determination should have formed a coalition to intervene militarily against Israel in October 2023 to stop the genocide. If they did that, the slaughter of Palestinians could have been stopped.

Hezbollah, Ansarallah and Iran are examples of non-Palestinian military powers that did militarily intervene against Israel. Many have sacrificed their lives in the struggle, but their armed resistance hasn't actually been enough to stop the genocide or prevent Israel's ongoing settler colonial violent expansion across Palestine.

So our strategy was to build popular support among other potential allies like South Africa, Colombia, Malaysia and Bolivia and Cuba to take actually deploy military intervention against Israel to stop the genocide.

BDS is necessary but insufficient

Recognising that Israel is ideologically committed to genocide, our view was that BDS is necessary but insufficient to actually change the power dynamic on the ground in Palestine.

Israel has a vast ecosystem of genocidal infrastructure across Palestinian land and a population that mostly think of Palestinians as "sub-human". So they are obviously not going to leave unless they are forced to leave. They also have an intense sense of victimhood and entitlement, believing they have a "god given" right to exterminate Palestinians and take their land, so they are not going to be persuaded to leave just because the share prices in some Israeli companies are falling.

This means that military support for the armed resistance is needed, since Israel is still doing the same thing it has been doing without regard for law or morality for the last 77 years.

International Law

A lot of people thought what we are saying something extreme or unlawful (due to severity of propoganda repressing calls against Israel's genocide and the conditions of state repression and interference with freedom of express in many states)

But calling for military intervention against Israel is actually a legal obligation on all states to implement existing international law.

The UN Charter, International Conventions, Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice and Resolutions of the UNGA and R2P all point to there being a legal obligation on every state to take military intervention against Israel to stop the genocide and enforce international law, including for the full dismantlement of Israel's occupation of Palestine and forced evacuation of all Israelis from Palestine.

We set out the legal basis for this in detail in our publication "The Case for Military Intervention to Stop the Gaza Genocide" and in the Washington Report for Middle Eastern Affairs.

Rejecting a UN Peace Keeping Force

We consistently rejected the suggestion of a UN peace keeping force for Palestine. The UN is totally dysfunctional system. We talked about this at all our events and made videos explaining that the UN is conning everyone and is being used to build support for a "2 state solution" (2 state delusion) spearheaded by France and Saudi Arabia, warning people that it would entrench Israeli occupation and apartheid.

For further information on our criticism and rejection of the UN, please watch our interview with Deep Dive Perspective, or listen to our statements rejecting the UN by Ousman Noor, Omer Hussein, Shazia Akhtar, Franck Magennis or Shaykh Asrar Rashid at our events.

We did however support the Colombian proposal made while President Gustavo Petro was attending the UNGA, also supported by other states in the Hague Group for Palestine, to establish a non-UN armed protective force to actually support the Palestinian armed resistance and fully dismantle Israel's occupation of Palestine.

Protecting the Flotilla

We repeatedly called for states to send military vessels to protect the civilian attempts at breaking the illegal siege of Gaza. We made calls to action resulting in thousands of emails sent to states urging them to send navies to protect the Flotilla. Unfortunately, no state was willing to escort the Flotilla all the way to Gaza, which is why Israel kept kidnapping everyone on the Flotilla every time and the siege was not broken, despite the heroic efforts made by the civilians on board. If a group of states, such as the Hague Group for Palestine, formed a protective naval fleet to escort a civilian flotilla all the way to Gaza to break the illegal siege, it might be possible for this to succeed in the future.

The Hague Group for Palestine

The Hague Group (South Africa, Namibia, Malaysia, Honduras, Cuba, Bolivia, Senegal, Colombia) was the main target of our advocacy. These are basically states that have a commitment to decolonial solidarity and made political declarations in support Palestinian self-determination over their own land, actually followed through with boycotts and sanctions against Israel and have realised that what Israel is doing to Palestinians, is also happening to the rest of us. They actually started discussing a non-UN coalition to militarily intervene against Israel, after we lobbied them on it.

Our Campaigns

To get the political representatives of states that attend these international conferences, to take notice of international demand and for military force against Israel to stop the genocide, we sent tens of thousands of emails (making sure the first few pages of their email inbox were filled with demands) to diplomatic representatives of states including at the Hague Group, the OIC and also The Elders.

These were sent individually by people in the protect Palestine community and their work was crucial to building political confidene in support of military intervention by the states allied to Palestine.

Armed Resistance

A foundational value of our community was support for right to armed resistance to Israel, both by Palestinians and non-Palestinian allies. We commended the armed resistance in all our events and advocated for states to support them with military force.

Events

In August 2025, we held the first ever international workshop to Mobilise a Military Intervention to Stop the Gaza Genocide with over 1,000 people in attendance and speakers including Prof. Mazin Qumsiyeh: Director of Palestine Museum of Natural History, Bethlehem University, susan abulhawa: Novelist, Poet, Scientist, Activist, Craig Mokhiber: International Human Rights Lawyer, former UN official, Prof. Richard Falk, Former UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Dr. Maung Zarni, Genocide Scholar and Activist.

In September 2025, we also held the first ever event in the UK where activists united in support of military intervention to stop the Gaza genocide with speakers including Ousman Noor, Protect Palestine, Shaykh Asrar, Islamic Scholar, Omer Hussein, Palestinian Activist, Lubna Speitan, Palestinian Activist, Shahd Karaeen, Palestinian Poet, Shazia Akhtar, Ummah Action for Gaza, Dr. Maung Zarni, Genocide Scholar, Dr. Damon Minchella, Musician, Franck Magennis, Barrister.

We also spoke online with universities and civil society organisations in South Africa, Pakistan, Malaysia and Turkey to build support for military intervention against Israel to stop the genocide.

Demonstrations

We spoke at multiple demonstrations across the UK in support of military intervention by allied states to stop Israel's genocide of Palestinians.

Criticisms

While opposition to our call for military intervention against Israel from pro-Israelis was obvious, there was a lot of constructive criticism and concerns about the campaign from the pro-Palestine camp.

Here's are the main ones:

"Israel can never be defeated, this campaign is a waste of time".

Israel can be defeated. The existing armed resistance has shown that it is possible. If enough other states supported Palestine militarily, Israel would lose. For other states to join the fight in support of the Palestinian armed resistance, political confidence is needed. To create political confidence, the international public need to be visibly demanding it. We agree with Mirielle Fanon, "defeatism has no place is liberation struggles".

"We should never call for violence, military intervention is always wrong"

Israel is committed to the violent ethnic cleaning and extermination of Palestinians. It has a repeated history of lawless violence fuelled by messianic ideas of race supremacy. It is an unlawful occupier in Palestine and will not end the occupation unless it is physically stopped. Advocating for that through lawful military force is not advocating for violence, and is necessary to end Israel's violence over Palestinians and for the implementation international law including the Palestinian right to self determination over their own land.

"Why would any state outside the axis join the fight, this thinking is delusional"

The oppression of Palestinians is at the centre of a web of Zionist oppression around the world. I could talk about a lot of "isms" here (capitalism, colonialism, racism, imperialiam etc.) but I think most people get the point.

While living in Jordan in 2024 I was campaigning for an end to international trade with Israel, focussing on energy supply (I was coordinating the Global Energy Embargo for Palestine under the direction of a Palestinian organisation). We succeeded in getting Colombia to end its coal supply (30% of Israel's coal) to Israel. This happened because the Colombian President knew that the privatised coal industry in Colombia is dominated by US and Zionist corporations that had been destroying Colombain rain forests as well as indigenous life and exploiting labour and were therefore detested by socialists across Colombia. He realised that supporting Palestine against Israel, was also a way of taking power back from Zionists in his own backyard.

This is how intersectional solidarity works, hence our slogan "Their fight is our fight". Through this process, President Petro recognised that supporting a free Palestine is also supporting a free Colombia because they have the same ultimate common adversary. This is why he ultimately called for a non-UN armed protective force for Palestine to support the Palestinian armed resistance.

If Colombia, South Africa and others in the Hague Group can be convinced then its obviously not delusional to advocate for it. It is possible for states, particularly if states with an anti-imperial history formed a coalition, that they would join the fight against Israel - but this requires political confidence and public awareness. A strategically feasilble way to do this would have been to send military navy vessels to support for flotilla's attempt to break the siege of Gaza for example (which we advocated for).

"The Armed Resistance don't need outside help"

This has been one of the most consistent criticisms made about the campaign. Several accounts have said they are against the idea of states like Colombia or South Africa sending military support on the basis that the existing Palestinian armed resistance can beat Israel on their own without external support.

This is obviously not true. The armed resistance does need military support to actually end the occupation of Palestine. Yes, the existing armed resistance to Israel have done damage to Israel's occupation of Palestine and repeatedly make heroic sacrifices, but Israel committing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza in full public international view for 2 years cannot be seen as a military victory for the existing armed resistance.

I have genuinely found it hard to understand why pro-Palestinian account often advocate support for Yemen's military interventions in support of Palestine, but potential support from states like Colombia or South Africa and others in the Hague Group (who have publicly expressed interest) is rejected, despite their proven (and growing) commitment to the Palestinian cause.

Israel is a client of the USA, we should focus on tackling Zionism at the "head of the snake" and leave the armed resistance to Israel to Palestinians in Palestine.

It is obviously true that Israel depends on US support and Zionism must be beaten at the centre of imeralist power for Israel's support system to collapse.

Strategically though, it would be a good way to speed up the decline of US imperialism if a coalition of states allied to Palestine sent a naval fleet to protect the Flotilla and escorted them all the way to Gaza to break the illegal siege. To prevent this from happening, the US & Israel would have to declare war on 8-9 states from different continents at the same time (and then potentially the allies of those states might be forced in to the confrontation to support their own allies). Simultenously, the US government would have to deal with growing domestic support for Palestine and the objectives of the flotilla (including from MAGA diehard). A military intervention in support of the flotilla by states allied to Palestine would be very damaging for US imerpial interests. The idea is not fanciful but is already being discussed by Hague Group states (they need more public support than they are getting for this idea).

But more importantly, if the efforts to end the arms trade in the US succeeds one day and they suddenly pulled the plug on Israel there is a serious chance of Israelis going on a killing rampage across Palestine. Remember, a lot of Israelis think they are the victims, are "gods chosen people" and would blame Palestinians for their miserable condition. Yes, many of them would run away but they already have a devastating amount of weapony (including artificial intelligence weapons) and a vast network of genocidal/surveillance infrastructure all across Palestine. If Israel lost US support, it might make them go into full scale extermination mode (this is also what the Nazis did when they started losing the war, 80% of all Holocaust victims were killed in the final 2½). If that happens, it would be essential for a range of states allied to Palestine to be preapred to intervene in support of the Palestinian armed resistance to stop the massacre. This requires mobilising for it now.

Overall, engaging with these criticisms was a constructive part of the campaign process. We knew that talking about this was going to be challenging, and responsding to criticism has been a vital way to build support for an untested idea. We're pleased that people carried on joining the campaign from around the world to support our objectives of mobilising military intervention against Israel.

UK Lawyers for Israel

The UK Lawyers for Israel (a Zionist lobby group) have initiated a prosecution led by the Bar Standards Board of England and Wales (my regulator as a barrister) for alleged "support for terrorism" after I published a legal analysis in support of the rights of Hezbollah under international law to use military force to destroy the IDF as part of this campaign.

I am confident of succeeding at my trial in January 2026 insha'Allah and now have an excellent legal team, thank you to all who supported this push back and misuse of the UK's Terrorism Act to silence and repress anti-Zionist speech in the UK.

Donations

The campaign did not accept money from any governments, companies, philanthropic organisations or grants. The only contributions we received were voluntary donations from our own membership and around $7 profit per t-shirt on 47 sales, all of which has been used to pay for the expenses for running this site, subscriptions to Zoom Premium, MailerLite (newsletter software, needed to send emails to 10k members) CapCut (video editing software) and (unfortunately) a premium X account to make it possible to write long posts and for expenses for hosting our events and demonstrations. The work of this campaign was driven by thousands of hours of volunteer work. No one has made any financial gain from this campaign and accounts will be published on this site.

Why We Closed

With the PNGO (Palestinian network of civil society organisations across Palestine) now backing Colombia's call for an armed protective force for Palestine, there is no need for this campaign to carry on. Instead, we encourage our members to support the PNGO, led by and for Palestinians.

The secondary reason we're closing is that I've been saying the exact same thing for 2 years now and feel like there's nothing more that I can say that I haven't already said. I surrender to Allah, knowing He is the best of planners.

Conclusion

Israel must be defeated militarily if the genocide, occupation and apartheid of Palestinians is to end. States allied to Palestine must establish a protective force to support the Palestinian armed resisance to achieve that.

A lot of people have said this is impossible, but outcomes are for Allah to determine. Our role is to try do our best to manifest the names of Allah to help end oppression. For those who stood with the campaign, or followed me on social media, thank you for your support. It's been an honour meeting so many wonderful people all over the world who support the call for military intervention against Israel. Each one of you that supported this campaign on this journey will be remembered dearly.

WIth this message, I will no longer be on social media. The X, Tik Tok, LinkedIn and Instagram accounts for @ousmannoor will be deleted on Sunday 19th October.

The X account for Protect Palestine will be deleted , but the Instagram one will be will remain online as a historical archive of our work (but will remain inactive).

I will be available by email at ousmannoor@protonmail.com only from hereon.

Indeed, we belong to Allah, and indeed, to Him we shall return.

Ousman Noor
Founder, Protect Palestine
Friday 17th October 2025

Success

When we began, discussions on a military intervention against Israel to stop the genocide were virtually absent from organised activism on Palestine. In discussions with Palestinians in Palestine, there was a sense that military force against Israel is needed, but unrealistic from any entity outside the axis.

Our organised advocacy, events, workshops, campaigns, meetings and lobbying contributed to growing political confidence among individuals, organisation and states allied to Palestine that mobilising military force against Israel to stop the genocide is both necessary and possible.

We are extremely pleased that in September 2025, the Palestinian NGO Network declared support for the proposal made by Colombian President Gustavo Petro for a non-UN armed protective force for Palestine to dismantle Israel's historic and unlawful occupation of Palestine. This means that the campaign's message has been escalated to a state level and is being driven by Palestinians inside Palestine.

Final Interview with Deep Dive Perspective

Watch the final interview with Protect Palestine on Deep Dive Perspective setting out a strategic vision for establishing a military force to support the Palestinian armed resistance going forward.