Newly elected Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Liz Truss poses a grave threat to anti-apartheid activism in the UK. As individuals, we must stand up for Palestine, now more than ever before.
This summer, in the midst of yet another brutal Israeli attack on Gaza, Liz Truss declared that the UK ‘stood with Israel’. Israel murdered 44 Palestinians in these attacks, including 15 children. 5-year-old Alaa Qadoum was one such victim, killed by shrapnel from an Israeli missile whilst playing in the street outside her home.
Truss’s allegiance to the apartheid state is no recent development. Earlier in 2022, in spite of Amnesty International’s damning 280-page report on Israeli apartheid, then-Foreign Secretary Truss initiated free trade talks with Israel, praising the human rights-abusing state as a “freedom-loving democracy”.
With anti-BDS legislation on the horizon, this parliamentary session will be hugely significant in shaping the future of anti-apartheid activism in the UK. Worryingly, Truss has already vocalised her support for anti-BDS legislation. She has pledged that under her leadership, the government will deliver on a Bill “to end local councils bringing in Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) policies that target Israel”.
This seriously threatens the right of public bodies to make ethical choices. The proposed Bill has faced vehement criticism from anti-apartheid organisations in the UK, who argue that the right of public bodies to boycott and divest from those who abuse human rights and fail to comply with international law must be upheld. There are also widespread concerns that this legislation is a significant step towards criminalising the right of individuals to practice BDS.
With Truss in Downing Street, we need a Labour Party that stands up against human rights abuses and the violation of international law. Disappointingly, Keir Starmer continues to show little willingness to do so.
Earlier this year Starmer hosted members of Israel’s Labor party and claimed that he disagreed with Amnesty International’s watershed report on Israeli apartheid. And in an address to Labour Friends of Israel last November, Starmer conflated anti-Zionism with antisemitism and pledged to ‘strengthen’ ties between Britain and the apartheid state of Israel.
With the sorry state of political leadership in Britain, now is the time for individuals to stand up. Now, more than ever before, we must come together as individuals and human rights-defending communities to pressure our MPs to make better decisions for Palestine.
Join #TeamFOA today and stand with thousands of others in opposing apartheid, human rights abuse and injustice.
