In November 2023, Bob Copeland wrote a powerful piece for West England Bylines highlighting the cruelty of Labour’s position towards Palestine, as a party of opposition. Almost a year later, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli state. In this same period, the Labour Party has been elected into government and its position, despite a handful of tokenistic concessions, has continued to mirror the Conservative administration’s disregard for the human rights, freedom, and lives of Palestinians.
Context to the situation in Palestine
Following the establishment of the Israeli state in 1948, defined in part by the initial Nakba (mass expulsion of Palestinians), there has been a sustained effort from Israel to ethnically ‘cleanse’ the Palestinian people from the region through barbarous strategies including the state-sanctioned encroachment of illegal settlers, mass detention (and often torture) of Palestinian civilians, and various mass killings conducted by the Israeli Defence Force pre 7 October, from the 1956 massacres of Khan Yunis and Rafah, to the 2,000 Palestinians killed in the 2014 ‘operation protective edge’. Since 1967 this conquest has been centred around the occupation of the two last remaining Palestinian territories, Gaza and the West Bank. Both have been subjected to ever harshening conditions by the Israeli military occupiers, with Gaza placed under a siege by land, sea and air.
On 7 October 2023 Hamas, a militant Palestinian group, launched an assault from Gaza into southern Israel, during which atrocities were committed by Hamas fighters, including the killing of 1,250 civilians, and the kidnap of 251 people as hostages.
The Israeli state’s response to these tragedies however has been to use it as a precursor to greatly accelerate the project of ethnic cleansing through what has been termed genocide by various human rights organisations, experts, charities, and potentially the ICJ, as a genocide. The current death toll lies at over 40,000 Palestinians directly killed by Israeli forces, primarily women and children. The medical journal The Lancet, estimated that indirect deaths could well number up to 186,000 (for example due to water/food shortages, destroyed health infrastructure, and disease).
While both the Labour Party (when in opposition) and the then ruling Conservative Party initially rejected widespread calls for a ceasefire, both conceded this position following intense pressure from civil society groups, protest groups, and the electorate, notably in the run-up to the 2024 general election. Both parties have since maintained, however, Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’, while failing to condemn, or often ignoring, various violations of international law, including collective punishment, the targeting of Palestinian civilians (including press and aid workers), and the 3,600 Palestinians held as ‘prisoners’ under administrative detention (without charge) subjected to torture and sexual abuse.
Changes to UK government’s response
That said, there are some ways in which the Labour government’s approach to Israel depart from that of its Conservative predecessors. For example, the restoration of funding to UNRWA, after the Conservative government had withdrawn support in response to unevidenced allegations from Israel that UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) staff were involved in the 7 October attack. Another direct departure from Conservative policy was withdrawing the UK’s objection to arrest warrant applications in the ICC for Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant; and finally, the eventual suspension of 30 out of 350 arms export licences to Israel.
These are of course positive developments, however there are two key aspects which suggest the UK Labour government cannot be trusted to uphold human rights and our commitments to international law in relation to the Palestinian people.
Changes to Labour’s response to Israel’s actions
First, aspects of these policies are not only a departure from the Conservative government’s initial approach to Gaza, but also from the Labour Party’s statements while in opposition. The initial response from Labour to offer essentially unequivocal support for Israel’s response to 7 October, including seemingly explicit support from Keir Starmer for Israel’s supposed right to enforce illegal collective punishment on Gaza through the cutting of water and electricity (which he has since denied- see full footage here) , saw Labour’s proportion of Muslim voters plummet in July’s general election in favour of pro-Palestinian independent and green candidates. In the words of Labour National Executive Committee member Mish Rahman:
“It was hard even to tell members of my own extended family to go and knock on doors to tell people to vote for a party that originally gave Israel carte blanche in its response to the horrific 7th October attacks.”
With mounting pressure from civil society groups, protest, direct action, and the threat of third party and independent candidates during the election campaign, it seems as though Labour has been consistently reluctant to provide any material objection to what may well be internationally recognised as a genocide by the International Court of Justice.
In some ways this new policy ‘shift’ can serve as vindication for third party and independent candidates and voters during the general election who, despite facing ‘vote splitting’ accusations and claims of their irrelevance, may well have forced a turn in the government’s approach to Gaza.
Too little, too late
Second, and most importantly, these concessions quite simply aren’t enough to provide any serious challenge to Israel’s onslaught, and provide little justice or security for the Palestinian people. These tokenistic gestures appear to function as more of a political tool to placate dissent in the UK than a genuine effort to uphold international law and apply pressure to Israel in the face of genocide.
With regards to UNRWA funding and withdrawing the UK’s objection in the International Criminal Court, these are simple rejections of very pro-Israel, months-old Conservative policies; another example of the Labour government patting itself on the back simply for not being Tories rather than making any positive advancements.
Furthermore, the limited extent of the arms license suspension affirms the notion that these policies are tokenistic while the UK continues to operate with 320 arms export licenses to Israel. Crucially, these continuing licenses include those used in the manufacture of F-35 fighter jets, with the announcement coming just after a Danish media outlet exposed the news that an Israeli F-35 launched an airstrike into the Al-Mawasi ‘safe zone’, killing 90 people and injuring over 300.
As Byline Times writer Martin Shaw recently wrote:
“You do not respond to genocide with gestures; you do not continue to treat a state that is suspected of committing genocide as an ally; and cancelling a number of export licences does not cancel Britain’s complicity.”
Consequences for British politics and the Palestinian people
Ultimately, the Labour Party’s response to genocide, as both an opposition and ruling party throughout the last 11 months, will leave another permanent blemish on its human rights record. This may well have long-term consequences in British politics, through the violation of trust felt by not only the Muslim and Arabic community in the UK, but everyone with a simple desire to uphold international law, or even those who simply refuse to accept the constant headlines about children starved, shot, or bombed.
Most importantly however, this has direct consequences for the Palestinian people, who are having to watch as the western world not only turns a blind eye to their suffering, but continues directly to aid it through investments and arms sales.
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