UK minister inadvertently admits support for ethnic cleansing

  • Post last modified:May 13, 2024
  • Reading time:10 mins read


At this point, the horrors of what Israel is doing to Palestine are so apparent that even the US has paused weapons transfers. While said pause is only partial and goes nowhere near far enough, America’s previous support has been so unwavering that it seemed like the Israeli government could get away with striking the US itself (they have blown up several US citizens after all). Given this shift, you’d expect the UK government – including David Cameron – to fall in line and soften their stance.

You’d expect wrong, it seems:

Reading between the lines of his other statements, Cameron may also have done something much worse. Specifically, he said we will support what sounds like ethnic cleansing if Israel can provide a plan on how they’ll perpetrate it.

The ‘pause’

As reported by Al Jazeera, president Joe Biden’s threat to pause weapons shipments is far from straightforward:

The US president added that his administration would “continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of [its] Iron Dome” missile defence system as well as in its ability to “respond to attacks”.

“But it’s just wrong. We’re not going to supply the weapons and the artillery shells,” he said.

Burnett then asked Biden whether Israeli forces, which this week seized the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and launched deadly attacks on the city, had not already “gone into Rafah”.

“They haven’t gone into the population centres. What they did is right on the border,” Biden said.

“I’ve made it clear to ‘Bibi’ [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] and the war cabinet: They’re not going to get our support if in fact they go into these population centres.”

The Rafah border crossing is, however, contiguous with the town of Rafah, and Palestinians point out that even before Israel seized the area, it had been hitting Rafah with air attacks throughout the war, killing numerous civilians, including children.

In other words, the US will continue to send weapons, just not as many, and even then only if Israel invades Rafah (and even then only if they don’t argue the invasion isn’t a ‘full’ invasion, so therefore doesn’t count).

Cameron is arguing we can’t stop arming Israel because the last time there was mention of doing so Iran attacked them. That’s not exactly what happened, though, as the Iranian attack was actually a retaliation, as we reported at the time:

Iran launched 300 drones and missiles at Israel, the vast majority of which were intercepted by Israel, the US, the UK, and ‘other forces’. It’s not unexpected that so many would be intercepted given Israel’s ‘iron dome’ defence system which can detect and shoot down drones and missiles.

Regarding the Israeli attack which started it all, Al Jazeera reported:

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed the attack, saying it launched the drones and missiles under Operation True Promise as part of the punishment for “the Zionist entity’s crime of targeting the Iranian consulate in Syria” on April 1.

The raid in Damascus killed 12 people, including two senior generals in the IRGC’s elite Quds Force.

Of course people were calling for an end to arms shipments given that Israel was striking regional powers in an apparent attempt to kick-start a global conflict. Cameron, however, suggests the Iranian attack was inspired not by an attack on their soil but by protesters arguing that Israel is a menace.

Ethnic cleansing

Cameron did partially condemn the prospect of Israel expanding its bloody assault on Rafah, saying:

Well we don’t believe they should go in for a major operation in Rafah unless they have a plan to move people out of the way and make sure they have shelter, and food, and medicine. We haven’t seen that plan, so we don’t support a major operation in Rafah.

The eagle-eyed among you will notice that Cameron has introduced an out for Israel by saying “unless they have a plan to move people out of the way”. There are two problems with this:

  1. Israel hasn’t had a plan to move people out of the way so far. Instead, it’s blown up those who remained and chased those who fled.
  2. ‘A plan to move people out of the way’ is arguably a plan to ethnically cleanse them.

Here’s what the UN says on ethnic cleansing:

As ethnic cleansing has not been recognized as an independent crime under international law, there is no precise definition of this concept or the exact acts to be qualified as ethnic cleansing.

A United Nations Commission of Experts mandated to look into violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia defined ethnic cleansing in its interim report S/25274 as “… rendering an area ethnically homogeneous by using force or intimidation to remove persons of given groups from the area.”

In its final report S/1994/674, the same Commission described ethnic cleansing as “… a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.”

You could maybe argue that giving people “shelter, food, and medicine” would mean it’s not ethnic cleansing, but Israel would still be using “violent and terror-inspiring means” to move people – the same means which pushed many into Rafah in the first place. It’s also the case that if Israel goes into Rafah, they likely won’t leave anything left for people to return to.

Just look at the destruction which has been wrought in Gaza:

Untrustworthy Israel

There’s also a third problem, in that even if Israel did have a plan to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians from Rafah – a lesser atrocity than simply carpet bombing them – we couldn’t trust the Israeli government to follow through. It’s proven itself to be ruthlessly dishonest, so any plan for ethnic cleansing would almost certainly result in genocide

Cameron has made it clear he will not challenge the lies of the Israeli government, and that he will instead repeat them:

With Israel poised to assault Rafah, there has never been more reason to call for an end to the arms sales. Cameron sought to convince us otherwise, but all he’s done is demonstrate his government will support one atrocity after another.

Featured image via Sky News – YouTube





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