Labour’s First Test

Labour came to power with a simple message, “Change”. They promised that after 14 years of Tory rule, they would usher in a new way of doing politics – a new approach to foreign policy that would rely on a respect for international law and fix the damage that successive Conservative governments had done to Britain’s reputation on the international stage.

Israel’s genocide in Gaza is the Labour government and Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s first test. So far, it seems their policy of “change” means using different words to steer the same course as their predecessors. During the first two weeks of Labour’s government, we have seen more horrific massacres in Gaza and evidence of Israel’s depravity. Hundreds have been killed by intensified Israeli violence; hospitals have been forced to shut down; famine has continued to spread; reports of torture and sexual abuse of Palestinian hostages in prisons continue; and tens of thousands have been displaced (many of them not for the first time) after evacuation orders were issued for Gaza City. The official death toll, at time of writing, stands at 38,713, although a report in the prestigious British medical journal, The Lancet, states that direct and indirect deaths caused by Israel’s genocidal war could be around exceed 186,000.

David Lammy’s Visit to Palestine/Israel

It was in this context that Lammy, a member of the Labour Friends of Israel who has reportedly received £32,640 from pro-Israeli lobbyists, made his first foreign trip to Israel and Palestine. Only hours earlier, Israel carried out a horrific massacre on the Al-Mawasi “safe zone”, which killed 90 and injured 300. As we have come to expect in the aftermath of such atrocities, Israel claimed it was targeting senior Hamas figures.

Lammy had the opportunity to condemn this latest grotesque act of violence during his meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday or President Isaac Herzog on Monday. Instead, he chose to rely on empty platitudes about the need for Israel to respect international humanitarian law during its war and call for an immediate ceasefire. He also took the opportunity to shake hands with Netanyahu, for whom the ICC has issued an arrest warrant, and who described Palestinians as “the people of darkness” and likened them to Amalek, and Herzog, who, in October, said, “It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible…. and we will fight until we break their backbone.” Extending a hand of friendship (quite literally) to those that are inciting and enacting a genocide hardly seems like the fulfilment of the promise of an “ethical foreign policy” guided by respect for international law.

And what did the Palestinians receive as a result of this visit? During talks with the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) Mahmoud Abbas, whose inaction and collaboration with the Israeli occupation has delegitimised him in many Palestinians’ eyes, he condemned the expansion of Israeli settlements and called for the recognition of a “viable and sovereign Palestinian state” alongside “a safe and secure Israel.” Given Israel’s genocidal violence, track record of undermining negotiations and explicit statements to expel Palestinians, it is unclear how the Labour government plans to realise these stated goals.

Action, Not Rhetoric

The General Election of 4 July sent Labour a clear message: despite their landslide victory, the British public are watching and many see Palestine as a core issue that will determine the way in which the new government is seen. So far, Labour has shown that it is willing to shift the rhetoric on Israel’s genocide but do very little that is substantially different to its Tory predecessors.

Lammy’s call for an immediate ceasefire and respect for international law are empty without concrete steps being taken to put pressure on Israel. The first step would be to immediately place an arms embargo on Israel, which would prevent it from using weapons and parts built in the UK in its genocidal war. This demand echoes the call of 600 lawyers, including three former supreme court justices, in an open letter to former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who said that continued arms sales could be a breach of international law and make the UK complicit in genocide.

The US, Israel’s chief ally on the international stage, is also placing pressure on the new Labour government to not drop the UK’s legal challenge to the International Criminal Court (ICC) case being brought Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. Despite previous commitments that they would reverse this shameful decision by the previous government, the latest reports suggest that Keir Starmer has succumbed to US pressure and will continue to obstruct the ICC’s process.

It is vital that the UK immediately reverse this decision and show that it is committed to international law and its campaign promises. The ICC case, as well as South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), are vital to bring those responsible for the genocide to account. The Labour government must embrace these processes to illustrate its commitments to an ethical foreign policy driven by international law.

Finally, although Lammy promised an extra £5.5 million in medical aid to Gaza, this is not enough to compensate for the £35 million that the previous Conservative government pulled from UNRWA – a decision based on unsubstantiated allegations of the agency’s workers  being involved in the 7 October attacks. UNRWA is a vital lifeline for the besieged, displaced people of Gaza and, at a time when Israel is using famine and the withholding of vital resources as a weapon of war, it is essential that the UK support the agency’s work.

Without taking these concrete steps, the new Labour government’s stance will not differ in any substantial way from their Conservative predecessor. The British people have shown that they are overwhelmingly opposed to Israel’s genocide, want an immediate ceasefire and support Palestinians’ right to self-determination. They will not accept empty rhetoric but want to see action, namely: an immediate arms embargo; support for the ICC and ICJ cases; and the reinstatement of funding for UNRWA.

You can join us at Friends of Al-Aqsa in demanding that David Lammy take these steps by sending him our pre-drafted email on our website here.