“The British Government has a responsibility to step up for the people of Gaza fleeing the collective punishment, and yet shamefully there is no doubt that they are still choosing complicity rather than compassion.”
By Apsana Begum
The plight of Palestinian refugees remains the longest unresolved refugee crisis in the world, according to the United Nations. This was the situation even before the current war on the civilians of Gaza.
The hundred thousand signatories of a Parliamentary petition – including a large number of my constituents – reflects the strong feeling in our communities.
In Gaza, we are witnessing collective punishment, destruction, and displacement of human lives on a horrific and unprecedented scale. Ongoing indiscriminate bombing has turned a chronic humanitarian crisis into a catastrophe.
For those who survive there is an imminent risk of death by disease and starvation. Millions are displaced. But where are they to go? There is simply “no safe space” left for those fleeing from Rafah.
Previously we have called for safe routes when Russia invaded Ukraine and some visa schemes were set up for Ukrainians. So how can it be different for Palestinians? In fact, humanitarian visa routes are rarely available to Palestinians in any form, despite one in six of the world’s refugees being Palestinian.
I continue to speak out, challenging the fact that Palestinians are all too often treated differently. The dehumanisation – the devaluing – of Palestinian life has been so stark and utterly appalling. History teaches us that a people are dehumanised so that they can be killed, displaced, starved with impunity; and indeed, so that they can be denied assistance and asylum when they are so clearly in need.
I know that my constituents have been utterly shocked at the racism, the Islamophobia, and double standards. Something has been fundamentally broken or revealed – however you look at it. The political establishment has been totally out of touch with the majority of people on this and I think this will not be easily forgotten.
Young people in East London ask me:
How is it that the Government condemns certain countries for their human rights records and crimes but not others?
Why is it that it seems that the right to self-determination is spoken about for some and not others?
Why are some national flags celebrated and others denigrated, even effectively banned?
Why are some deaths mourned and others explained away?
Why is it that for the Government “too many” Palestinians have been killed or that “too many” are starving but there is no condemnation of who killed them or who is starving them?
I – as have many across the UK and around the world – have always been opposed to the bombing and displacement of civilians but this Government has supported it in Gaza.
What did they think would happen when they supported the openly declared intent to reduce the entire Gaza Strip to rubble?
Whenever the Government have been asked about what the long-term plan was for the millions of civilians in Gaza, they have been unable to answer.
Instead, it was this Government that withdrew funding from UNRWA shortly have the ICJ’s interim ruling.
It is this Government that helps ensure Israel has the weapons to kill women and children.
Especially as now when those living the reality of this horror are reaching out for support to survive, it is this Government who turns their back on humanity.
For some time now, Parliamentary political discourse uses migration – even the absolute horror of people dying in the English Channel – cynically as a political tool. It is the age-old phenomenon of scaremongering and scapegoating.
As the Government erodes our civil liberties and democratic rights, as they disenfranchise and disempower, and as they attack the very fabric of our communities through austerity, they foster fear and division and falsely point to migrants for the cause of our alienation.
However, the truth is that it is overwhelmingly clear that the global drivers of refugee movement are intrinsically connected to the legacies of colonialism and empire, which live on to this day.
There is no doubt that the British Government has a responsibility to step up for the people of Gaza fleeing the collective punishment, and yet shamefully there is no doubt that they are still choosing complicity rather than compassion.
- Apsana Begum is the MP for Poplar and Limehouse and a regular contributor to Labour Outlook. You can follow Apsana on Facebook,Twitter/X, Instagram and TikTok.
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