by John Pickard
Last week, both Foreign Secretary, David Lammy and Prime Minister, Keir Starmer expressed their opposition to the “intolerable” Israeli bombing of Gaza, which as up to now killed nearly 55,000 people, including tens of thousands of children. They were reacting to the many pictures in the news and on social media showing families bombed and children starving.
Their speeches in the Commons followed a joint statement from leaders of the UK, France and Canada, that their governments “strongly opposed” the expanded Israeli military offensive in Gaza, and which threatened to “take concrete actions” if Israel did not cease its expanded offensive.
Since then, Israel has not ceased its onslaught on Gaza and continues to deny enough essential food, medicine and water to the population. A blockade of humanitarian aid, as a weapon of war, is a major war crime in its own right. But what is the “concrete action” we were promised? Disgracefully, it is to send a UK trade envoy to promote greater Israeli/UK trade.
In contrast, in the Republic of Ireland this week, the government is moving to ban all trade with businesses in the Israeli-occupied areas. It is the first EU government to do so. “It is clear war crimes are taking place, children are being starved and food is being used as a weapon of war,” the Irish foreign and trade minister, Simon Harris, told the Financial Times. “The world has not done enough and we need to act.”
There are even some moves to strengthen the Irish boycott. Airbnb, with its European base in Dublin, is therefore subject to Irish law, and is under pressure to ‘delist’ properties on its books that are in Jewish settlements on occupied territory. Incredibly, Airbnb, In 2019, reversed a previous plan to delist such properties after legal action, but pledged to donate profits from them to humanitarian agencies.
Yet, overall, Irish trade with Israel is insignificant in comparison to the UK, which exported over £3bn in goods and services to this pariah state last year.
The Starmer/Lammy outrage was a pretence for public consumption
It is now clear that the ‘outrage’ of Lammy and Starmer, about “innocent children being bombed”, was no more than a pretence for public consumption – why else send a trade envoy to promoted greater trade? “Greetings from Israel!“, boasts Ian Austin – who is a ‘Labour’ member of the House of Lords, and a supporter of Labour Friends of Israel – “I’m here to meet businesses & officials to promote trade with the UK”
Even the Sky News Arabic journalist, Alistair Bunkall, noted the discrepancy between Starmer’s words and deeds. “Last week the UK government suspended free trade negotiations with Israel in protest at the war in Gaza. This week the UK’s trade envoy is touring Israel. Slightly mixed messaging,” he wrote on X.
If Starmer and Lammy were genuinely angry about the killing of thousands of children in Gaza, they would be taking the moves of the Irish government as a starting point, to completely isolate Israel economically. They would be moving to shut down all trade between the UK and Israel, not expanding it.
They would suspend the UK/Israel trade and partnership agreement which is still in effect at this moment. They would be making moves through the appropriate legal channels to arrest and arraign any British citizens who have been fighting with the IDF, and who may have been implicated in war crimes in Gaza.
Every new step Keir Starmer or David Lammy takes on this issue, further condemns them in the eyes of history. They will be judged – they are being judged – as complicit in genocide and all the hand-wringing in the House of Commons will not change that.
[Feature picture, from Wikimedia Commons, shows the northern Israeli port of Haifa, which Ian Austin is visiting].
