Britain’s Palestine failure and the collapse of the international rules-based order

So far, the war launched against Iran by the United States and Israel has resulted in widespread death and injury, the destruction of property, disruption to transport, logistics, and industrial sites around the Gulf, escalating energy prices, and collapsing supply chains threatening industry and global food production. The US continues to threaten further escalation if Iran fails to accept its terms.

Lost in all this is an injustice committed by a British government long ago, and the inaction of more recent governments to resolve it through international courts, rather than force.

Palestinian resistance and a century of dispossession

In the 1920s, British statesmen denied the Palestinian people the right of representation so that supporters of Zionism would be encouraged to colonise parts of Palestine.

Later, when Israel declared independence, it was supported by an army that was largely British-trained, over 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their towns and villages and forced to flee to refugee camps in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.

This injustice has been allowed to continue for decades and lies at the heart of the conflict between Israel and the United States and Iran.

With no place for the Palestinians to seek justice, those who remain under the control of the Israeli state find themselves within an ever-shrinking territory living under enforced segregation. Israel is increasingly recognised as an apartheid state, especially following the passage of a law introducing the death penalty for terrorism offences, criticised by human rights groups as creating a discriminatory system that effectively targets Palestinians.

Decades ago, the UN granted the Palestinian refugees and their descendants the right to return to the towns and villages from which they were expelled. That right continues to be blocked by Israel. With no legal route available, Palestinians can only challenge the oppression and dispossession they face through protest and resistance.

Neighbouring countries such as Libya, Syria, Iraq, and Iran spoke out against the injustice and supported the resistance. Branded as terrorists by Western states, these countries were subjected to sanctions and military action, triggering waves of refugees. Iran was left as one of the few states supporting Palestinian resistance, and that is perhaps why Israel and the United States have made war.

The UK’s shifting response to Israeli attacks on civilians

In Peter Oborne’s book Complicit, he compares how Thatcher’s government pushed Israel at the UN in 1985 following the killing of protestors in the West Bank, with how, 20 years later, Blair’s government failed to criticise Israel following the killing of hundreds of civilians in Dahyia.

Rashid Khalidi’s book The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine shows how the killing and maiming of civilians escalated during attacks in 2008, 2012, and 2014 with a total of 4,593 Palestinians killed and 38,618 injured, as Israel adopted what became known as the Dahyia doctrine. Between 2023 and 2026, the Dahyia doctrine was applied to the entirety of Gaza; the numbers killed and injured by Israel have reached sickening levels, supporting the warning by the International Court of Justice of a potential genocide.

If British foreign policy had adhered to the principles of international law and applied real pressure on Israel as increasing numbers of civilians were killed from the start of the 21^st century, perhaps many thousands of Palestinians could have been saved from death and injury, and the repeated destruction of their housing, schools, universities, hospitals, power stations, water supply, and sanitation.

Britain, Israel, and the erosion of international law

The British Government refused to support South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and denounced their interim judgment that there was a plausible risk of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Our government chose not to act decisively to avert that risk. When Israel launched an unprovoked attack on Iran in 2025, the Labour Government ordered the deployment of the RAF to help defend Israel from retaliation. With Labour supported in this by the Conservative, Reform, and the Liberal Democrat parties, the question that should be pressed with all these parties is: Why are we using the RAF to defend an apartheid state?

Palestinians continue to live under a blockade that prevents free access to aid, with many left to starve amid the rubble of their towns and cities destroyed by Israel. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants against Israel’s Prime Minister and Defence Minister. The charges: “…starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts…” (International Criminal Court)

A global slide towards impunity

The breakdown of international law is now almost complete. Ukrainians, Palestinians, Iranians, and so many other peoples have been denied their right to peace and justice by the failings in the UN charter, which have allowed Russia, the United States, Israel, and others to act with impunity.

The current US administration believes that ‘might is right’ and that it has the military power to do whatever it wishes, such as actively supporting Israel in the destruction of Gaza, brazenly taking control of Venezuela’s oil resources, and threatening to destroy Iran’s civilisation and take control of its oil resources. Following Israel’s example of occupying territory in Syria and Lebanon under the pretext of “national security”, the US has declared that taking control of Cuba, Greenland, and Canada is essential for its “national security”.

What Britain should do now

The response of the British government to the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza has been muted. Peter Oborne’s book makes a strong case that the UK has been complicit in the crimes against Gaza.

Our nation should demonstrate to the world our commitment to an international rules-based order and be prepared to stand up against those (including our friends) who seek to undermine it. Steps our government should take include:

• De-listing Hamas as a proscribed organisation as suggested by the Oxford-based Israeli academic Avi Shlaim. How can the Palestinians argue their case if their political leaders are imprisoned and murdered by Israel, and their supporters are imprisoned by this country?

• acting to prevent genocide in Gaza as instructed by the ICJ, and as obliged to as a signatory of the Genocide Convention. This should include working with other nations to impose sanctions on Israel (backed by a credible threat of force) until they end their war and occupation of Gaza, lift the blockade to allow the free movement of goods and people, and surrender those facing ICC arrest warrants; and

• working at the UN with other nations to begin drafting a new charter, so that no nation, however powerful, is allowed to pick and choose which laws it obeys.

Britain could act much more decisively to help bring peace and justice to the Palestinian people and demonstrate the value of having an international rules-based order to resolve disputes in the courts rather than by armed conflict. Then Iran would no longer need to continue supporting the struggle for justice that the Palestinians deserve.

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