The Independent Alliance of MPs has put pressure on Keir Starmer’s Labour Party to say what it will take for the government to end all UK arms sales to Israel. They asked this question as Israeli occupation forces burned people alive at a hospital in Gaza.
‘100 days of Israel complicity’ under Starmer’s government
Doctors Without Borders explained that “on 14 October, an Israeli airstrike targeted an area housing displaced people inside the MSF-supported Al Aqsa hospital compound in Deir Al Balah, resulting in 65 wounded and 5 dead”. Nurse Eliza Sabatini added that “Tents caught on fire while people were sleeping. The hospital treated 40 patients, including 10 children and 8 women; many of them with severe burns.”
This happened in Gaza, though. And it was UK ally Israel doing the suffering. So there was no stern-faced televised address. There were no sanctions. That’s why the Independent Alliance has asked the government: what would be a big enough Israeli crime for Starmer and co to react?
Independent MPs Jeremy Corbyn, Shockat Adam, Ayoub Khan, Adnan Hussain, and Iqbal Mohamed have been clear in insisting on an end to all UK arms sales to Israel. And in the wake of the latest horrors, Shockat Adam stood up in parliament to ask when Britain would uphold international law and stop supplying parts for the Israeli F-35 fighter jets that are causing so much death and destruction in Gaza and beyond:
The scenes that unfolded outside the Al Aqsa hospital compound were a painful indictment of our collective failure to protect the most vulnerable, especially those still in hospital beds receiving treatment. We witnessed the charred remains of people including children.
The… pic.twitter.com/5p8qGAXTB0
— Shockat Adam MP (@ShockatAdam) October 14, 2024
The Independent Alliance also penned a letter to foreign secretary David Lammy. In it, the MPs marked the 100-day anniversary of Starmer’s government by insisting:
It has been 100 days of shameful indifference to Palestinian life. 100 days of moral and political cowardice. 100 days of complicity in crimes against humanity.
Together with my fellow Independent Alliance MPs, we have written to the Foreign Secretary @DavidLammy asking him:
– When will the UK government end all arms sales to Israel, and join France, Italy, Spain, and Jordan in calling for a worldwide ban?
– What red lines, if any,… pic.twitter.com/r2vLqWvDFf
— Iqbal Mohamed MP (@iqbalmohamedMP) October 14, 2024
Jeremy Corbyn, meanwhile, has stressed that “Israel has spent the past year desecrating international law on live TV”. This visibility makes it all the more damning that Starmer’s government refuses to act:
How can we send aid on the one hand while providing the weapons of destruction on the other?
The Independent Alliance is clear: end all arms sales to Israel now. pic.twitter.com/MpPALwojwc
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) October 11, 2024
Starmer, meanwhile…
So what is Starmer’s government doing? And why is it unlikely to react to the suffering of people in Palestine in the same way it would for people in Israel or Ukraine?
To answer the first question, Starmer and co have continued to give Israel almost unconditional support despite the ongoing genocide in Gaza. In fact, an RAF plane was probably flying over Gaza just as Israel was committing its latest war crime:
At 7pm last night, Keir Starmer’s government sent a RAF spy plane over Gaza to collect intelligence for Israel.
The planes are usually in the sky for 6 hours.
The plane was likely over Gaza when Israel bombed tents housing displaced people at Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir el-Balah. pic.twitter.com/8vANybaCWk
— Declassified UK (@declassifiedUK) October 14, 2024
At the same time as the Israeli apartheid state pushes the Middle East further towards a regional war, meanwhile, the UK government is trying to shift the blame to Iran, which has been surprisingly restrained despite consistent provocations from Israel:
David Lammy getting the worlds most evidenced community note. pic.twitter.com/ovJ4H6SPZi
— It’s Norm (@dcentralised) October 14, 2024
Why Labour won’t act unless we all force them to
So why will the Labour government continue to act like this? For two main reasons, according to Declassified UK co-founder Mark Curtis. Because they’re subservient to US imperialism, and because of the power that lobbyists for Israel have in the cabinet and beyond:
UK national media cannot report the true extent of *how* Britain is supporting Israel or *why* (subservience to Washington and the influence of the Israel lobby). These are being covered up.
👉Why does the UK give Israel unqualified backing? https://t.co/jBRqPibhIx
— Mark Curtis (@markcurtis30) October 14, 2024
And that influence is nothing new, either:
A former British foreign minister said the Israelis control the UK Foreign Office.
It amounts to “entrenched espionage”, he added.
Not a single UK paper reported it.
We need a wide-ranging public inquiry into how our political system was hijacked by a genocidal foreign power. pic.twitter.com/jNmPuvqmkF
— Matt Kennard (@kennardmatt) October 14, 2024
As fellow Declassified UK co-founder Matt Kennard wrote in his book The Racket, the US empire has essentially colonised Britain, which may “be more completely under the control of its American ally than any country”.
He previously told the Canary that “UK territory effectively operates as US territory”, and that the “Anglo-American empire” operates in secret thanks to the silence of mainstream corporate media. He added that “the US sees Britain as its 51st state, and works non-stop to keep the political class loyal to the American empire”.
And right now, as Joe Biden’s shameless support for the genocide in Gaza has shown clearer than ever, there’s nothing more important right now to both the blue and red wings of the ruling corporate party in the USA than to back Israel’s genocidal warmongering to the hilt.
That’s why we should all keep speaking up, like the Independent Alliance. Because without increasing resistance to the status quo, Labour and co will just keep following the lead of the US empire. And the more it does, the more dangerously dystopian the world will become.
Featured image via the Canary
