“People want action, not more repetition of, ‘We call for’, ‘We demand’ and ‘We urge’. We want action, and this is not action.”
By Ben Folley
Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated on Wednesday evening that the ‘suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible’ and referred to that suffering as a ‘humanitarian catastrophe’.
It followed Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s statement in the House of Commons on Monday where he identified Israel being responsible for ‘strikes that have killed desperate, starving children’ and elsewhere referred to how ‘almost 1000 civilians have been killed since May seeking aid’.
Both statements reflect the pressure on world leaders to express concern at the scale of suffering the Palestinian people of Gaza are facing at the hands of Israel’s military offensive.
Yet both statements were equally empty in terms of advocating any action that would force Israel as the state breaching international humanitarian law to change course to alleviate that suffering. To recognise those breaches would go further than the UK govermnent has so far prepared to do so, because it would open the way to requiring the UK government to address accusations of Israeli genocide against the Palestinians. The UK Government is still yet to respond to the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion arising from South Africa’s case against Israel’s military offensive.
In terms of future steps, Starmer said, ‘I will hold an emergency call with E3 partners [France and Germany] tomorrow, where we will discuss what we can do urgently to stop the killing and get people the food they desperately need while pulling together all the steps necessary to build a lasting peace. We all agree on the pressing need for Israel to change course and allow the aid that is desperately needed to enter Gaza without delay.’
Lammy’s statement on Monday referred to actions that included, ‘striving to keep open the prospects of a two-state solution’, ‘providing £7 million to strengthen the PA and Palestinian governance’, ‘providing £20 million to support UNRWA’, ‘leading diplomatic efforts to show there must be a viable peaceful pathway to a Palestinian state’ and, ‘pushing to agree plans for a credible next phase in Gaza with a responsible, reformed PA at their core’.
Neither statement commits the UK to taking concrete actions that might pressure Israel to end its violence, or that might aid the development of sufficient global pressure to influence the US.
The actions being demanded of the UK government by the Palestine solidarity movement and by left politicians and activists, include the establishment of a comprehensive and blanket arms embargo preventing the delivery of any arms equipment – by any route – from the UK to Israel, to ban trade in settlement goods and to suspend the UK-Israel trade agreement, and to introduce targeted sanctions on key Israeli individuals and entities complicit in maintaining Israel’s unlawful presence in the Palestinian territories.
85 MPs and Peers signed a letter making such demands, which had been coordinated by Richard Burgon and Imran Hussain, which was hand-delivered to the Foreign Office on Tuesday.
Burgon’s letter followed his presentation on 16th July of a Sanctions on Israel Bill in Parliament making the same political demands.
The Order Paper for the House of Commons that day shows he presented a Bill formally titled, ‘International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on Policies and Practices of Israel (Sanctions and Other Measures)’ with a longer explanatory title setting out it was a ‘Bill to require the Secretary of State to take steps to give effect in the United Kingdom to the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice issued on 19 July 2024 entitled “Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem”, including provision for sanctions and for other measures to give effect to that advisory opinion; and for connected purposes.’
Those demands in both Burgon’s Bill and the letter to the Foreign Secretary, were echoed by MPs in the Chamber on Monday, during the Foreign Secretary’s statement.
Labour MP Andy McDonald said, ‘People want action, not more repetition of, “We call for”, “We demand” and “We urge”. We want action, and this is not action. We have had this so many times before’ before asking, ‘When are we going to take the appropriate action to bring about a comprehensive trade and arms embargo and concentrate the mind of Israel? Nothing else is working. They are not listening, and they are getting away with murder every single day.’
Green MP Carla Denyer asked, ‘When will he stand on the right side of history and implement a full arms embargo, widespread sanctions and a ban on the import of settlement goods, and when will they fund evidence collection for prosecutions?’
Independent MP Ayoub Khan asked, ‘what are the red lines? What will cause this Government to take proactive steps?’
Evidence of pressure on the Govermnent came from the strength of demands for action spread far beyond left MPs across parties but to centrist Labour MPs normally supportive of the Government.
Chair of the PLP Jess Morden MP asked, ‘This month he told the Foreign Affairs Committee that he would take further measures against Israel if there was no ceasefire and if the intolerable situation in Gaza continued. What exactly did he mean by that—specifically on trade, recognition and more?’
Andy Slaughter MP asked, ‘The will of the House is clear on this matter: it wants action, not words. Why is my right hon. Friend not hearing that?’, Flo Eshalomi MP asked, ‘where is the real action from this Government’ and Chi Onwurah MP asked, ‘when it comes to the actions of the UK Government, however, I have to ask my right hon. Friend: is this it?’
And Scottish Labour MP, Patricia Ferguson said, ‘Israel is becoming more and more emboldened by the lack of concrete action by the international community’.
She is right. They have been emboldened each day for over 20 months of this offensive and many more years before that.
Starmer has an opportunity on Friday to show what action he will take. If he fails to, the movement will only increase pressure on him to do so.
- Ben Folley writes for Labour Outlook and is on x/twitter and on bsky.
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