This article, much edited, was printed as my weekly column in the daily Plymouth Herald on 25th October 2023. Of course the title and tone were changed, but given previous censorship I’m please and surprised it was printed at all.

Plymouth people still recall the mass bombing of civilians in our city, Plymouth, 80 years on. Children are taught our history generation after generation, the photos and testimonies are on permanent display in our museum and municipal buildings. This collective memory of horror, human suffering and destruction is highly valued and maintained as a lesson never to be repeated.

Our huge cohort of amateur local historians recall as often as is allowed the siege of Plymouth by royalist forces during the first English Civil War. Our town was the isolated bastion of progressive Parliamentary forces in a sea of a royalist army seeking to maintain the feudal power of landlords, dukes and princes, and the King.

For three years the blockade bombarded the city and sought to prevent food and water getting to the residents until finally liberated by the New Model Army. With the restoration of the monarchy, Charles II built the Royal Citadel including guns pointing inwards ready to shoot the civilian population should we rise against totalitarian power once again.

We have our own lessons in siege and civilian deaths in war that should inform current events.

Truth be told, civilians are always targets of war. Feudal wars saw the landlord – he who had plundered and stolen the land in the first place – conscript his subjects as and when necessary to defend his region or expand his territory. 

Conscripts are civilians in uniform, not soldiers out of choice. Plymouth has its history of the King’s naval press gangs taking civilians hostage and forcing them onto the ships to fight at sea. 

Overall in war, the majority of deaths have been civilians, not soldiers, generally a 2:1 ratio and civilians suffering far higher numbers injured.

The bombing of one-third of Plymouth during the Second World War won the hearts and minds of inhabitants for the vengeful fire-bombing of entire cities of civilians in Germany, and probably even the atomic bombs on civilian cities in Japan in 1945. 

The entire history of warfare has included the systematic killing of civilians under the offensive premise that citizens of enemy states are complicit in the actions of their rulers.

Following the Second World War, where more than 70 million people died – the majority civilians – a new morality has been attempted. 

The United Nations comprising 193 sovereign states has long declared the targeting of civilians illegal under international law, the killing and ill-treatment of civilians being prohibited by the Geneva Convention. “Grave breaches”, such as “wilful killing”, are considered as war crimes. 

Similarly, siege tactics are war crimes where civilians are first trapped inside a city and then targeted and bombed, or blocked from access to food, water or essential supplies.

Such international laws have precious little impact. Just over one fortnight ago, the State of Israel declared itself to be in a state of war with Hamas, the government of Gaza, part of the State of Palestine recognised by 138 counties of the United Nations. Of over 6,000 people killed in this war, some 1,200 are military personnel from both sides as defined by articles of war, and the overwhelming majority -now over 5,000 civilians killed – are Palestinian civilians, including 1,700 children. Hundreds of thousands more are sick and injured, the Siege of the Gaza Strip imprisoning and targeting 2.3 million human beings.

The asymmetry here, the difference of power between Israel, the most militarised State in the entire Middle East and the impoverished people of Palestine – calls into question the definition of war. For war there has to be two State armies, each with a scale of military infrastructure that certainly does not exist in Palestine. We are watching genocide and ethnic cleansing taking place.

Now we see the deployment of two aircraft carrier convoys from the United States with additional ground forces, to be complemented by Plymouth 42 Commandos in alliance. Plymouth is once again involved in war. 

This time Plymouth’s forces are part of an overwhelming show of force from a global imperial power against a besieged people suffering indescribable pain and death. Will the current horror spread across the region as the next imperialist war? 

Humanity is a very long way away from a world where the killing of civilians is disallowed. Quite the opposite. One sides’ war crime is another’s justifiable defence. 

The current debate centre’s upon justice. Social justice. The the struggle for the right of all people to the freedom that comes from human agency – a voice in your community, the ability to make decisions over your own life, freedom of movement, the right to remain in your birthplace and home, and sufficient access to the basic needs of life: water, nutrition, shelter, access to health care and education. 

The conditions that create war have remained fundamental throughout the history of the human race. There can be no peace without social justice – for everyone.