“We can send a very clear message to the government: we will not be satisfied with half measures; Palestinians literally cannot live with half measures, and so this struggle will continue until Palestine is free.”
By Peter Leary
On Saturday 10 October, we will march in London to mark the horrific milestone of three years since the start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. This will be the first march since Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced a series of partial steps to hold Israel to account over its violations of international law and crimes against the Palestinian people. While these measures are still a long way from what is needed, they should encourage everyone who has ever taken action for Palestinian rights to mobilise in huge numbers.
Despite its shortcomings, Miliband’s announcements prompted a ferocious response from apartheid Israel and its apologists in Britain. They include a ban on the import of goods from illegal Israeli settlements, action against companies involved in facilitating those settlements, and the extension of the partial suspension of arms sales to Israel to encompass weapons used to maintain the occupation of the West Bank.
His statement also contained some significant language and admissions. He accepted the illegality of Israel’s occupation – not just its settlements. He also recognised that Palestinians in the West Bank are subject to ethnic cleansing – defined by the United Nations as ‘a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another.’ Significantly, in response to questions from MPs and in subsequent interviews, Miliband conceded that those who protested against Israel’s genocide in Gaza ‘were right, not wrong.’ This announcement is down to the resilience of the Palestinian people and those who have marched, protested, campaigned, and lobbied in support of Palestine.
But while these measures are correct and overdue, even if they are effectively implemented – something that remains to be seen – they fall far short of meeting Britain’s international legal obligations to end all support for Israel’s crimes. Instead, the government seems to want to cherry-pick from its responsibilities under international law.
If the government now finally recognises that Israel’s occupation is unlawful, in line with the International Court of Justice’s July 2024 ruling, then it cannot limit its response to the settlements alone or escape the fact that according to the very same judgement, Israel is guilty of apartheid, a crime against humanity. Now that it admits that there is evidence of war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza, what possible justification can there be for continuing to supply Israel with deadly weapons? Nor can it continue to hide behind the proceedings of the International Courts – where Israel is on trial for genocide – as if it can just ignore that the Genocide Convention obliges states to act as soon as they become aware of a serious risk that genocide might occur – a threshold that was reached a very long time ago. And if those who mobilised against Israel’s genocide in Gaza ‘were right, not wrong’ then why are so many of them still being pursued through the courts?
As Omar Barghouthi, co-founder of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, has put it, by imposing sanctions merely on Israel’s illegal settlements, Britain appears to want to punish a single crime while continuing to aid and abet the persistent criminal. Given these limitations, by far the most important thing that we can take from Ed Miliband’s statement is that mass pressure works and has to be maintained.
Three years ago, the entire political establishment in Britain stood full square behind Israel’s atrocities. Disgracefully, Keir Starmer claimed that Israel had the ‘right’ to deprive Palestinians of water and electricity. Very few MPs would even dare to publicly call for any kind of sanctions against Israel, while in November 2023, both the Conservative and Labour leaderships ordered their parties not to vote for a motion that simply called for a ceasefire.
Since then, millions have taken to the streets and got involved in campaigns in response to the Palestinian call for BDS. They have taken part in a wide range of protest actions, piled pressure on MPs and other politicians and faced down a campaign of smears and police repression. Through mass, grassroots pressure, our movement has broken through that rotten political consensus.
Israel is only able to do what it does because of the support it receives from western governments, companies and institutions. It is down to us to end that complicity. We need to continue to build our solidarity across every part of society, and each and every one of us has a vital role to play in that.
On 10 October, we need to take to the streets of London in huge numbers because if we do so, we can achieve three important things. We can show the Palestinian people that we stand with them as they continue to confront Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and escalating violence across their homeland. We can demonstrate to each other our continuing commitment and determination. And we can send a very clear message to the government: we will not be satisfied with half measures; Palestinians literally cannot live with half measures, and so this struggle will continue until Palestine is free.
- Peter Leary is Deputy Director of Campaigns at the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) – you can follow him on X/Twitter and follow PSC on X/Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
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