The scale of the atrocities in Gaza, which we are seeing daily on our TV screens, has reached levels of horror which have left most of us stunned – both by Israel’s brutality, and by the audacity with which it is defying world opinion. The total Gaza death toll is over 40,000– with an estimated missing further 10,000 buried or blown to pieces. Many thousands more are expected to die from malnutrition, disease or neglect in the coming months. Sadly, each new outrage is no longer shocking, given the number of schools, hospitals, universities, churches, mosques, and water works which Israel has targeted over the last ten months.
Israeli actions have long since gone beyond any acceptable definition of ‘self-defence’ following the 7 October attacks. The ICC chief prosecutor believes there are reasonable grounds to believe Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant bear criminal responsibility for Israel’s use of starvation of civilians as a weapon of war and has made comparable claims about Hamas leaders. The failure of the international community to react and impose consequences for this illegal conduct has led to Israel enjoying a climate of impunity far beyond what it has achieved in the past.
Months ago, the International Court of Justice said there was plausible evidence that Israel is conducting a genocide in Gaza. The ICJ made various demands on Israel to change its behaviour, but these were largely ignored. A state with any respect for international law ought to impose sanctions on sales of arms to Israel, and the UK has a legal obligation to do this, not merely to impose a ban on future licences. It will take time for the ICJ to determine if Israel’s bombardment of civilians does in fact constitute genocide, but the suffering of the Palestinian people is a present day reality for millions in Gaza and the West Bank, and our duty to them cannot be parked until an indeterminate point in the distant future.
The ICJ advisory opinion on the illegality of the Occupation is also devastating; any governments facilitating the continuation of the Occupation, whether by supplying arms or by continuing to permit normal relations with those who benefit from it, are “complicit”, and therefore in breach of international law. Lib Dems must call not just for a two-state solution but for an immediate end to that occupation, and reparations to be paid to Palestinians, as required in the ICJ opinion.
We must ensure that our Government takes firm action to avoid complicity and to show where we stand. As yet, the Labour government has delayed decisions on the arms trade, and has even failed to publish the Foreign Office legal advice which it claimed parliament had a right to see when it was in opposition. The resignation of British diplomat Mark Smith, who was involved in monitoring arms export licences, brings the new Government’s slowness to act into sharp relief. He told Radio 4’s Today programme “that the state of Israel is perpetrating war crimes in plain sight.” A fuller account was printed in Monday’s Guardian.
A very disturbing trend is highlighted in detail in the latest B’Tselem report (B’Tselem is the leading Israeli human rights organisation), which produced compelling evidence that Israel’s detention centres have become torture camps. This was reinforced in a lengthy Channel 4 News Report on Monday this week. It is gruesome and sickening TV to watch – some of the most unpleasant I have ever seen, so be warned.
In summary, 60 Palestinians, 48 from Gaza, have died in Israeli detention centres or torture camps since last October. Israel has routinely tortured detainees in the past, as was detailed in the 2022 report by Amnesty International, but since Hamas’s October 7 th attacks has involved extraordinary levels of brutality. Palestinians detained in Israeli civil and military jails are routinely humiliated and abused by their guards, but some have reported being raped. The rape of Palestinian prisoners by serving IDF soldiers was openly discussed in the Knesset, with some serving MKs declaring it, and indeed anything guards wanted to do, permissible in the detention centres. There was a riot of Israeli citizens (including members of the Knesset) insisting that those soldiers accused of rape should be supported, not punished.
The Channel 4 programme also shows Israeli soldiers taking ‘selfies’ of themselves gloating as they humiliate half-naked men kneeling on the ground after being rounded up as suspected members of Hamas. This all sadly adds up to evidence that both the Israel cabinet and some parts of Israeli society are engaged in a dangerous level of dehumanisation of Palestinians.
As a bewildered aid worker said in an Al Jazeera report last week, the people of Gaza don’t understand why they have been abandoned by the world; the only way the Israelis are going to stop what they are doing is if somebody makes them.
The decision by Liberal Democrat MPs to call for a ceasefire before either the Conservative government or the Labour opposition was a bold move, welcomed by Liberal Democrat members and rightly applauded by many across the country. But now we need to do more. It is time for Britain, and the Lib Dem leadership to take a stronger stand. If International Law is going to have any meaning, such illegal conduct and atrocities have to lead to consequences, and we as Lib Dems should be saying so. Parliament may not be sitting, but the media is reporting daily on the latest atrocities as well as the slow progress towards a ceasefire agreement. There is plenty of opportunity for our spokespeople to be standing up for what is right.
* John Kelly is active in Warwick District local party, a member of the West Midlands regional executive and Secretary of Lib Dem Friends of Palestine.
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28 Comments
Excellent article. Thanks John.
Spot on, John – but who, beyond LDFP is listening?
Might our party draw attention to the harm being done to the « Western Alliance » by the cruel behaviours in Gaza and the West Bank?
Thank you John for telling it as it is.
I help try to support a family in Gaza. One brother is sharing a tent with the family of his wife. He has young children have scabies with no way of treating it. They have received no aid and are dependent on small amounts we get to them via a relation outside Gaza. The younger brother is on the streets while dodging bullets and missiles. No chance of rest, wash or respite of any kind.
It is hard not knowing if they will survive the next night.
The most difficult thing is utter incomprehension that anyone can see justification in such suffering of innocent civilians who have only known the blockade and occupation. Their family home was bombed by Israel in 2014 and they moved to Khan Younis. That home is also in ruins as is their first tent.
Forgetting about terminology, what about humanity, human rights, international law and just plain compassion? Apparently that is all in short supply when it comes to the Palestinians. Let us at least be a Party of integrity. The Palestinians are only asking for what others are deemed entitled to.
Let’s show this country that we as a Party can be counted on to support human rights and equality for all without fear or favour and above all, to make international law count for something.
There were some export licenses under threat of suspension in 2014, abeit far from a complete arms embargo UK to halt some arms sales to Israel if fighting resumes
Consistency in policy would suugest that LibDem parliamentary should now be calling for a complete halt to all arms exports to Israel, so long as human rights abuses continue to be perpetrated against the Palestinian population.
John Kelly makes a compelling case for British government action to bring Israel’s leaders to their senses, starting with an immediate ban on all arms exports to Israel, and the new Labour administration urgently needs to stop slavishly following US policy. Under Biden, the US has allowed Netanyahu a free hand in carrying out what many see as the genocidal destruction of Gaza and it’s people. Kamala Harris is struggling to reflect increasingly loud demands for an end to American supplies of weapons, without having to admit that the current Democrat president has followed a disastrous course in his dealings with Israel since October last year. In the UK there is no domestic political dilemma for the recently elected government. Supplying weapons to Israel at this time is plain wrong, it’s illegal under international law, and cancelling all the export licenses is the will of the British people.
The solution is simple. The Palestinians release the surviving hostages, cease all resistance and work with Israel and the international community to build peace, prosperity and security in the region. But that would require a fundamental change of heart on the part of the Palestinian leaders which is not where they are at.
Mark Frankel. Are you suggesting that Palestinians just accept their lot as barely surviving the brutal, ethnic cleaning occupation of their land? Are you suggesting that Hamas and Hezbollah, both formed after the creation of Israel are the cause and not the result of Israeli belligerence? Israel, treats even non-Jews with Israeli citizenship in Israel as second-class citizens, depriving them of the right to autonomy as the Nation State Law clearly states. Israel also not only inhabits the greater part of Palestinian land but is building new well-armed settlements illegally at an alarming pace.
I assume you are a fan of the ultra-right-wing Israeli government led by Netanyahu. That government has made clear that there is no room for a two-State solution or any sort of equality or autonomy for Palestinians. That has been the case long before last October. Settler and IDF violence toward non -violent Palestinians was growing at an alarming rate long before then.
So what exactly are you asking the Palestinians to accept?
Palestinians should accept the immediate and unconditional release of all October 7th hostages who haven’t yet been butchered by Hamas. Thy should accept the right of Israel to exist in its pre 1967 borders and should do everything they can to show opposition to Hamas, Hezbollah and their Iranian funders.
Only then can we make progress towards peace.
@ Mark Frankel,
I see you’re in favour of simple solutions.
How about both the Palestinians and Israelis release all hostages and political prisoners, then live in one country in the territory previously known as Palestine? This would avoid having to move several hundred thousand Israelis who are currently in illegal occupation of the West Bank and so are preventing any possibility of a two state solution.
Everyone will have equal rights irrespective of race, language or religion.
There’ll still to be some problems to be resolved about how anyone who has forcibly been dispossessed in the past should be compensated but this could be resolved later.
If Hamas and Hezbollah laid down their arms there would be no more war. If Israel laid down its arms there would be no more Israel. Corny but true.
@Mark Frankel, you are of course right to say that Hamas could end the war by laying down its arms. Can you confirm that by the same logic if I walked into your home and proclaimed it was now mine, you would put up no resistance, in case someone got hurt? The Israel/Palestine problem is not nearly as simple as you suggest, but at its essence it’s the story of a Middle Eastern people being gradually dispossessed of their land by European colonists, colonists who are now using brutal tactics on mainly civilian targets which are clearly illegal under international law.
@Gary Deakin, “butchered by Hamas” is an unfortunate choice of language, because it begs the question: what has Israel done in response? Israel has so far killed more than 40 people for every Israeli who died on October 7, and the IDF bombs and missiles can leave their victims’ remains scattered among the rubble of their homes.
Hamas has long ago revoked its call for Israel not to exist, and the real obstacle to Israel existing within the pre 1967 borders is Israel. It wants to forget those borders and take over the whole of Mandate Palestine. Hezbollah, Hamas and others of Israel’s opponents have said that if Israel ends its war on Gaza – and accepts the two state solution – they will lay down their arms. Most outside observers believe Netanyahu is the main obstacle to peace, and many within Israel agree, because the end of the war will also be the end of his political career.
Gary. It has never been in the interests of Hamas to butcher any of their hostages. They were needed as bargaining chips. Israel acknowledges that some of the hostages have been killed by them and we know that when 3 hostages came out half naked, waving a white flag and speaking in Hebrew they were still shot by the IDF. I think you will find that even Hamas accepted Israel’s existence within the 67 borders in 2017. It is Israel that refuses to acknowledge the rights of Palestinians on their own land. Sadly you choose to ignore the torture and abuse by Israel of the many Palestinian detainees who are held without charge or trial, including children.
You and Mark seem to also somehow believe, despite Israel’s own rhetoric, that they want to have peace with the Palestinians rather than to ethnically cleanse them. Subjugating, disarming and disspossessing a whole people is not the same as achieving peace. In fact it tends to achieve the opposite.
Gary Deakin 22nd Aug ’24 – 12:18pm…………..Palestinians should accept the immediate and unconditional release of all October 7th hostages who haven’t yet been butchered by Hamas……… Thy should accept the right of Israel to exist in its pre 1967 borders and should do everything they can to show opposition to Hamas, Hezbollah and their Iranian funders…Only then can we make progress towards peace…
The brutal fact is that israel will NEVER accept pre-1967 boundaries…Less militant governments that of Benjamin Netanyahu have made that clear…
Israel regards expanding the settlements and the destruction of Palestinian farms and homes , that most of the world regard as ‘illegal’, as their god given right..
NetanFarless
Thank you for an excellent article, i do hope, even expect, that our parliamentarians will see it and act on the suggestions.
The most amazing aspect of this article is that it simply records what is happening in OUR world. To some, there are two sides and they don’t want to be ‘taking sides’. If only they read and gripped the truth, they would know that the destruction, starvation, torture, and large scale killing is being inflicted almost entirely by Israel on Palestinians – the people who lived in Palestine over the centuries. Disproportionality makes this conduct unforgiveable. Let’s speak out and hope to be heard well beyond the membership of our own Party.
Nowhere is safe in Gaza, and children are on the frontline. As Israel’s bombardment and devastation continues, hunger and disease are putting even more lives at risk. But British doctors, through Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) are among those bravely helping the wounded. You can help provide the vital medical supplies, emergency food and humanitarian aid needed to save lives. DONATE NOW TO HELP SAVE LIVES IN GAZA. https://www.map.org.uk/?form=FUNFXHDCJPK
Well written John. There are no simple solutions to this intractable violent conflict, and peace may take a very different form to what we expect. The key thing is for the party to be distinct and active in pushing for the UK to take definitive steps to help end the violence. And it should do so now, at conference and afterwards.
Whilst I would agree that we should strengthen our stance on the conflict, it seems that our party is deathly afraid of its current positions. Whilst our front bench had taken the stance that we should end arms sales to Israel and end all trade with illegal settlements neither of these made it into our manifesto.
More importantly we weren’t even willing to campaign on the issue, indeed I struggle to recognise us as the party that reached out to so many Muslims voters after the Iraq war.
The general public and Muslim voters seem more aware of the Greens party and SNPs demands for a ceasefire than they are of ours.
Most damningly of all the former lib dem seat of Leicester south was won by an independent candidate without the financial or campaigning resources of a political party, and our former seat of Birmingham Yardley was nearly won by the workers party!
Then there is the troubling case of Birmingham Perry Bar where our local party reportedly tried to force our candidate to sign a document limiting what he could say about Gaza, causing him to leave the party and win without our support! Given that this cost us a very spectacular gain from labour we are owed a proper explanation for what happened!
Troubling to see commenters on here refering to Hamas as “Palestine” or “The Palestinians”.
Hamas as we all know are a group comprising a small proportion of the Palestinian population and are not the government of Palestine which is run by the PLO.
Our parties definition of anti-Semitism includes “Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group”
Surely we should apply the same standard for Islamophobia and anti Palestinian racism and treat such comments as what they are – Racism
Right on, bro! Israel has been getting away with it for far too long, by free-lunching on the horrific events of the holocaust. They must be made to realise that the free lunch is over, but the chief problem is that the Americans need the votes of the Jewish electorate. I don’t know what the answer is.
Well said, John Kelly. We urgently need a ceasefire, but time and again we are reminded of a far wider violation, recently defined by the ICJ Advisory Opinion of 19 July declaring that Israel’s occupation is illegal and must end in its entirety forthwith. While its Opinion is non-binding, the laws and principles it invokes are absolutely binding not only on Israel but all UN Member States. That means us, except that we have a bizarre situation in which the former DPP and law hound, now PM, suddenly seems less than keen to uphold international law. To comply with its obligations the UK must cease all activity which might assist Israel’s occupation, so we should ban settlement goods and all purchase or sales of weaponry, etc., immediately, and require Israel in accordance with UNSCR 2334 (2016) to discriminate between its own sovereignty and territory it occupies. We voted for this and should hold Israel to it.
If Labour is reluctant to uphold the law, will the Party hold the government’s feet to the fire? There is more than Gaza and more than the Israel-Palestine conflict at stake here. The world order, and UK’s standing in it, are at grave risk unless we stand up impartially for the rule of law.
Thank you for this John. Since Lib Dems in Cambs now have 3 MPS who are aware that there was a tactical vote for them from supporters of justice for Palestine I intend to forward a link to this article to them. I would like to suggest that Mark Frankel and Gary Deakin read Avigail Abarbanel’s post https://avigail-abarbanel.me.uk/ and the book she edited Beyond Tribal Loyalties. Avigail explains how she gradually became aware of how she had accepted without question misinformation given by the Israeli education system. In the book Jewish activists describe the difficulties of thinking rationally and freeing themselves from subtle indoctrination.
While there is much in the article I agree with, there is also some very glaring omissions.
There is no condemnation of Hamas for it actions on October 7th which precipitated Israel’s invasion of Gaza, there is no words about Hamas’s hostage taking, the refusal to blame Hamas for continuing to fire rockets (rockets it must know are not going to hit their targets) from densely populated areas, almost as if they are inviting the Israeli overreaction that will kill innocents, there is no examination of how Hamas has horded aid meant for civilians and sold it on to dealers who then make it available to those it was intended for but at highly inflated prices.
Yes, the Netanyahu Government has behaved terribly, using the excuse Hamas provided to prop up a Government that was, last October, on the brink of collapse, Yes, the IDF under Gallant’s orders have not cared about who it kills in Gaza.
But to ignore the role of Hamas in purposefully provoking the War in Gaza is not credible.
@Leon Duveen – this is the third LDV article on this topic that I have posted since October 7th and I and others who have written about the current war have made clear their disgust with Hamas’s actions. The focus now has to be mainly on Israel and Netanyahu. There is an excellent liberal Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz that is widely read in the Jewish diaspora and by many others like me who closely follow the politics of the region. While they, like you and me, would obviously like to see the hostages released, Ha’aretz and most other liberal commentators primarily blame Netanyahu for not prioritising their release and for the continuing roll-call of dead hostages killed in the ongoing conflict. One must also remember that there now over 10,000 hostages/prisoners held by Israel – most of whom have not had a trial of any sort. The trials of those who have been tried do not conform with the rules of international law.
I welcome the strength and range of views that John Kelly’s piece has generated. I strongly endorse Peter Price’s appeal for Medical Aid for Palestine – https://www.map.org.uk/?form=FUNFXHDCJPK I also welcome the Party’s early call for a cease fire, but share the concern that the leadership has not as yet done enough. For example I was shocked not to find Palestine on the preliminary Brighton Conference agenda, but at least Gaza will now be debated on the Monday afternoon. This is an opportunity for unequivocal criticism of the genocidal intentions and actions of Israeli leaders, of the well documented killing of young children, of the illegality of denial of aid and collective punishment of Palestinians, and of the verified appalling torture and rape of Palestinian prisoners held without charge in the Sde Teiman compound. And to include a deserved critique of the hypocritical failure of the Labour Government to act. This will also be an opportunity for Liberal Democrats to spell out what is really needed in the ‘two state solution’ that is otherwise sufficiently vague for everyone from Joe Biden, Kamala Harris to Rishi Sunak. Lets be clear that a Palestinian State needs control over its own borders, and internal communications, its own ability to trade internationally, and its own security –as part of guaranteed peaceful borders with a mutually accepted Israeli State. An opportunity for Liberal Democrats to take an international lead. Let’s take it.
We should support the Palestinian people just as we did with the Asian Ugandans and the people from Hong Kong and Afghanistan.