Following World War II, in which tens of millions of non-combatants were deliberately targeted and killed, internationally agreed laws were drawn up to safeguard civilians in future conflicts. A heavy responsibility was laid on signatories, first to ensure that their own forces didn’t commit the newly specified war crimes, and second to take action to prevent others from doing so. Sadly, the Israeli military action in Gaza since late 2023 has shown that the noble aspirations Great Britain solemnly signed up to have vanished into the ether. Israel’s retaliation after the Hamas attack has turned into a one-sided slaughter which has been horrific to watch and has involved multiple breaches of humanitarian law.
The idea that the UK has had no power to stop the killing destruction in Gaza is totally false. We could have ended verbal support and military assistance to Israel in November 2023, when it first became clear that for many of Israel’s military leaders the real target was the Palestinian people of Gaza, not Hamas. We could, and should, have followed that up with sanctions – imposed not on a few of the West Bank settlers, but on the whole of Israel. Such action by the British would have been welcomed and imitated by France, Spain and Ireland, putting pressure on the rest of Europe to follow suit.
Although it may seem too late, we can still do this now. With Trump in the White House, those who feared challenging Biden’s US position have a much easier question to answer: do we want to be seen to side with Trump’s America and support a genocidal land-grab by Israel, or is it in our own interest to dissociate ourselves from it ? Not only would we be doing right by the Palestinians, but a European refusal to continue supporting Israel would put Trump in a difficult position. He might feel he had to follow our lead, but if he didn’t, the American public would find themselves isolated as supporters of what will very likely be officially declared a genocide; home support for Trump could be damaged as a result, which would be another win for the action I’m proposing.
The majority of British people want an end to the slaughter in Gaza, but Keir Starmer has shown little interest in what the public think, and his team has fallen into line. However, the ultimate authority in this country is our democratically elected parliament, not the executive, or ‘Downing Street’. If MPs form a big enough cross-party group they can force Starmer to take the actions I’m advocating – actions which are not my idea, and are simply those we are legally obliged to take under the Geneva Conventions and the Genocide Convention, both of which we helped write and to which we signed up. One of the sad ironies is that if Starmer took a principled stand on an international issue like the oppression and destruction of the Palestinians it would enhance his stature as prime minister, and very likely win votes at future elections.
Admittedly, the knock-on effect I predict across Europe and then in the US might not happen, but we won’t find out if we don’t try. If we don’t try something that might work, further killing and displacement of the Palestinians in Gaza will arguably be our fault, and as the authors of the Balfour Declaration, the British are the most culpable of all the bystanders watching Israel step up its cruelty and inhumanity. Left to its own devices Israel will regard completing the ethnic cleansing and annexation of Palestine as a success, but history will more likely record the current conflict as the point at which Israel became an international pariah. By that measure, the Israeli people will be among the winners if we can end the conflict.
Liberal Democrat MPs and MPs from other parties have spoken out against repeated government failures to go beyond mildly rebuking Israel, which is good, but not enough. What we need now is cross-party action to force the government to apply the kind of pressure on Israel which will actually spare the people of Gaza further suffering, rather than just going through the motions, as Labour and the previous Conservative government have been doing for the past eighteen months. If Parliament fails to do that our shameful role in the destruction of Palestine will be remembered as one of the lowest points in modern British history.
* Andy Daer is a member of the Liberal Democrats in South Gloucestershire.
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15 Comments
Well said, Andy. The slaughter of more than 50.000 Palestinians in Gaza must hang heavily on Liberal Democrat hearts, along with the continuing grab-back of land in both Gaza and the West Bank. At the very least, why is our government not trying to work with and strengthen the Arab would-be peace-makers.
Our policy is to cease trading with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and the promotion of trade links with Israel and Palestine. I agree with Andy Daer that the UK should end all military assistance to Israel and should apply sanctions on Israel. These sanctions should be similar to those applied to South Africa in the late 1980s, and should include disinvestment from Israel.
We should also be calling on other countries to comply with UN General Assembly Resolution 3414 of 1975 – which calls on all countries to apply economic sanctions on Israel and stop arms exports to Israel until Israel ends it occupation of the lands outside of its 1967 boundaries.
Could I suggest that people – and especially any parliamentarians who still have reservations about the thrust of what Andy writes (and I sincerely hope there are none) – take a look at the Amnesty International Report on Israel’s Genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
It’s a lengthy document but you can go straight to the nub of the matter by reading the section on genocidal intent (“Specific Intent”) in the Executive Summary which starts at page 31. There is a very helpful summary on Amnesty’s website which contains a link to the report itself.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/12/amnesty-international-concludes-israel-is-committing-genocide-against-palestinians-in-gaza/.
This coincides with Hamas refusing another cease-fire. The Palestinians are their own worst enemies.
@Mark Frankel – are you really collectively blaming all Palestinians for Hamas?
Also, there are ceasefires and there are “ceasefires”, as the Ukrainians can testify.
@Mark Frankel: “This coincides with Hamas refusing another cease-fire. The Palestinians are their own worst enemies.” Hamas (not the Palestinians generally) is now part of the problem, as Mohammed Abbas of the Palestinian Authority now says, calling for them to released the hostages and accept PA take over Gaza. But Israel will not allow PA to take over either, Israel broke the ceasefire deliberately and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people in Gaza and West Bank over decades is the root cause of not finding a solution. So I agree with Andy Daer the UK government should act now and show moral leadership.
@Mark Frankel 24th Apr ’25 – 9:53am…
What is the point of ‘another cease fire when Israel can break it with ‘another surprise attack’ and Netanyahu can again declare that Israel has, “Resumed combat in full force” and add, “This is just the beginning”…
Palestinians ARE NOT their worst enemy..
by ‘The Palestinians’ do you mean Hamas. These guys https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c175z14r8pro and https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g20pj6epvo don’t.
“The Palestinians are their own worst enemies.”
Benjamin Netanyahu would probably claim the ‘credit’ on that one!
Mark Frankel,
Israel broke the terms of the cease fire announced on 15th January, by not engaging in stage two negotiations. Instead of engaging in negotiations for a permanent ceasefire, the exchange of the last hostages and Israel’s complete withdrawal from Gaza, Netanyahu called for a 50 day extension to stage one along with the release half of the remaining hostages. The stage two negotiations should have been completed before Easter. ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy5klgv5zv0o )
Thanks to all those who’ve contributed, but as often happens, the focus has shifted away from my main point. I want to see Parliament assert its will over an executive which is indistinguishable from the previous Tory administration in its use of lame excuses for inaction. I’ve written to my (Labour) MP, and I hope others will agree that we have an opportunity to encourage what surely must be the majority in parliament to demand that we stand up for the oppressed and beleaguered men, women, children and babies in the West Bank and Gaza, some of whom we can see every night on our TV sets being consigned to body bags.
The Israelis are not inherently bad people, but they are being led by deluded and self-serving politicians, and our role is to tell them there is another, and much better, path they can take if they want to secure Israel’s future. Sanctions are a blunt instrument, but we urgently need to take action to stop the slaughter, today, tomorrow, or the day after. People are dying while we dither.
Parliament’s occasional ‘urgent question’ debates may have a peripheral impact, but more often simply provide the spectacle of unfortunate government spokespeople repeating lame, unconvincing excuses for inaction. The only we way can revive real democracy is for a majority of MPs to force a government reversal. This matters for our system of government, but of course it matters far more for the people of Gaza and the West Bank.
Obviously I didn’t expect my article to trigger a revolution in Westminster, although I admit the muted response in the pages of the LDV has been disappointing. We are witnessing a catastrophic breakdown of human decency in which Israel is now able to openly declare that ‘the gloves are off’ (humanitarian laws no longer apply) in its attempt to exterminate Hamas, but we are also seeing an abject failure by our own government. I believe that unless we can force it to take action – and soon – we will all be tainted with a stain which will not be removed in my lifetime.
I’m sorry you feel disappointed, Andy, but I for one agree with you. What we have seen over the last three years is appalling, cruel, and I believe, illegal.
If any good can come from this catastrophe it might be that at last parliament is given the constitutional right within conditions to decide what it debates and votes on and for and vote free from Party influence.
Very well said.
The cowardice of the last UK Government and now this current government is shameful.
What does Netanyahu have on our political leaders?
It must be pretty damning whatever it is.