“For decades, the US and UK have enabled Israel’s military aggression and apartheid policies”

By Ben Folley

For more than a century, the Palestinian question has defined Middle Eastern politics, leaving devastation in its wake. At its heart is the displacement of Palestinians, many living as refugees for generations, denied a state and subjected to Israeli military control.

Around six million Palestinians remain permanently displaced, their homeland occupied, their movements restricted. In Gaza and the West Bank, Israeli policies have enforced military checkpoints, separation barriers, and economic suppression. Gaza—walled off since Israel withdrew its settlers in 2005—has been devastated by military assaults, most recently in the offensive launched in October 2023.

The sheer scale of destruction in Gaza is staggering. For its two million residents, the majority of buildings, including health and sanitation facilities, have been damaged or destroyed. Nearly the entire population has been repeatedly displaced, left without sufficient water, food, or aid, while tens of thousands of civilians have been killed.

Israel’s government, backed militarily and diplomatically by the US, officially endorses a ceasefire yet continues to tighten its grip on aid supplies while reports of killings by Israeli forces persist. At the same time, settlement expansion in the West Bank has accelerated, while right-wing political forces push for the mass displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.

Donald Trump’s return to the White House has emboldened these hardliners. His assertion that Palestinians should leave Gaza, paired with rhetoric portraying the enclave as a potential luxury riviera development, underscores the complete disregard for Palestinian rights. Reports that Israel and the US are negotiating with war-torn African nations to accept displaced Gazans reveal the extent of this agenda.

US support for Israel remains unwavering. Since the late 1960s, Washington has provided Israel with around $150 billion in military aid, over $90 billion of it committed since 2000. Emergency funding for the most recent war alone topped $14 billion, supplying precision-guided munitions, air defence systems and artillery. These weapons have not only been used in Gaza and the West Bank but also in attacks on targets in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran.

Beyond its military support, the US has fostered the decline of pan-Arab nationalism, facilitating the normalisation of ties between Arab states and Israel through initiatives like Trump’s Abraham Accords, and maintained strategic alliances in the region. While its military aid to Egypt and Jordan is less extensive than to Israel, it remains significant.

At the UN, the US has repeatedly shielded Israel from accountability, vetoing dozens of Security Council resolutions condemning Israeli actions. The UK, too, has played an inconsistent role. While Labour has nominally suspended the direct sale of arms that could be used in Gaza, it remains integral to Israel’s F-35 fighter jet supply chain and has made no move with partner nations to halt sales to Israel. RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus continues to facilitate UK surveillance flights for Israel and the shipment of US arms, while British ministers avoid addressing these concerns in Parliament.

The UK government’s response to accusations of genocide has been dismissive. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has stated, “I have never described what is going on in Gaza as genocide,” while Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s remark that genocide is “largely used when millions of people lost their lives” was widely condemned for misrepresenting its legal definition.

With Palestine solidarity demonstrations in the UK reaching unprecedented levels of support despite government-driven smears, Labour’s election on the smallest share of the vote of any winning party since 1945 was undoubtedly hit by its unwillingness to urge a ceasefire in the months before it.

Human rights groups and legal experts have denounced Israeli actions as collective punishment, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Accusations of genocide are gaining traction, with many arguing that the destruction in Gaza meets the criteria outlined in the Genocide Convention.

International pressure is mounting. A coalition of states, spanning socialist governments to social democracies and supporters of human rights, is pushing for stronger measures. The UN General Assembly has reaffirmed its support for a ceasefire and an end to Israeli occupation. In 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an advisory opinion declaring Israeli settlements and the West Bank separation wall illegal, calling for an end to the occupation within a year.

South Africa has taken decisive legal action, filing a genocide case at the ICJ in December 2023. This case has drawn backing from Global South nations such as Cuba, Colombia, and Bolivia, as well as European states including Spain, Norway, and Ireland. Leading human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have published reports asserting that Israeli actions in Gaza could constitute genocide.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has been investigating alleged war crimes in Palestine since 2021. In a landmark move, it issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The reaction was swift: the US and Israel condemned the decision, with Washington imposing sanctions on ICC officials.

In January 2025, nine nations formed the Hague Group to coordinate legal, diplomatic, and economic measures against Israel. They are advocating measures akin to the UN-led arms embargo imposed on apartheid South Africa in 1977.

For decades, the US and UK have enabled Israel’s military aggression and apartheid policies. Yet international legal and political efforts are challenging Israel’s impunity and exposing fractures within Western alliances. The increasing recognition of Israeli policies as genocide marks a shift in global discourse. Whether this translates into concrete change remains uncertain, but public and legal opinion is shifting—and with it, the future of the Palestinian struggle. For those of us in the UK, directing the demands of the solidarity movement on to the government of the day remains vital.

• There will be three sessions on Palestine at the ‘Socialism or Barbarism’ dayschool hosted by Arise – a Festival of Left Ideas in central London on March 29th, entitled:
• The struggle for a Free Palestine – from the Nakba to Trump’s Gaza Plan
• From South Africa to Palestine – Boycott, divestment & sanctions versus apartheid
• Palestine, The Balfour Declaration – Empire, the Mandate & Resistance

Get your tickets at https://bit.ly/socialismorbarbarism

Ben Folley is a volunteer with Arise – a Festival of Left Ideas.

This article was written before the latest murderous attack by Israel on Gaza, which killed more than 400 Palestinians. Below we publish a statement by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade on this.

The genocidal attack that Israel has unleashed on the people of Gaza is designed to inflict maximum suffering and terror on Palestinians.

Israel has killed more than 400 Palestinians in dozens of airstrikes across Gaza. More than 600 people are reported injured. Israel has also issued evacuation orders for parts of Gaza, suggesting that an assault involving troops on the ground may be imminent.

The families searching for their loved ones, the dead, including children, lying in stained white sheets – these are the people whose death and suffering is supported politically and militarily by our government.

This latest assault follows the pattern of actions and intent that has been pursued by the Israeli government since 7th October 2023 – acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, Palestinian people. A temporary partial ‘ceasefire’ was not an end to the genocide.

Israel has been violating the ceasefire agreement for weeks, increasing attacks and blocking all aid for over two weeks including food and fuel. Since the ceasefire was announced and before today’s assault, Israel has killed more than 155 Palestinians in Gaza, and hundreds of others have been injured, as a result of Israel’s continued military assaults and airstrikes.

In October 2023, Western leaders jumped at the chance to offer Israel impunity for the gravest of crimes, crimes that Israel promised to commit, and Palestinians continue to live in the hell of that impunity. The precedent that was set and excused by political leaders in the UK including the current Prime Minister – cutting off food, water and electricity, blocking humanitarian aid, collective punishment, all of which are illegal under international law – has now become one of the defining features of Israel’s genocide.

Western leaders failed to hold up the basic human rights of Palestinian people. Let us not forget that even calling for a ceasefire was initially beyond the current Labour leadership, even though Israel’s stated goal was to eliminate the Palestinian people. In November 2024 David Lammy wrote “But a ceasefire now would just embolden Hamas”.

Our Government continues to support Israel politically and militarily through arms exports, including for F-35 jets which are used to drop 2,000 lbs bombs on Palestinians. In total, Campaign Against Arms Trade estimates that the UK has approved and/or delivered at least £100m in military equipment to Israel since 7th October 2023. Labour approved almost £11 million single arms export licences to Israel in its first three months in office, according to newly released arms export licensing data. The data also shows that Labour approved anopen licence for “components for combat aircraft”. This licence appears completely incompatible with its supposed commitment not to supply military equipment that could be used in Gaza.

We know that the Government is well aware of the risk of violations of international law because it has admitted it. The Government announced in September 2024 that it found Israel is not committed to complying with international humanitarian law (IHL), and there was a clear risk that UK arms exports might be used to commit serious violations of IHL. It introduced a partial suspension of around 30 arms export licences to Israel.

However the UK’s largest, most financially significant and deadly export to Israel, 15% of every F-35 jet that is dropping bombs on Gaza, was exempt despite the Government confirming this is a clear risk of serious IHL violations. This was an unprecedented decision. No other UK government has ever concluded that this risk exists and continued to export arms.

These jets have been operating in Gaza armed with munitions, including 2,000-pound bombs – explosives with a lethal radius up to 365m, an area the equivalent of 58 football pitches. Trump authorized the release of thousands of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, bombs which will travel to Israel via the Mediterranean for years to come, including through overseas British territory such as military bases on Cyprus and supported by Gibraltar.

The UK Ministers who have been pushing so forcefully to allow for the continued transfer of F-35 parts and components made in the UK to Israel: today will they confirm if the jets used to bomb Gaza last night were F-35s? Will they confirm if UK-made parts and components were used to drop these bombs and unleash this devastation?

This F-35 jet is produced primarily by Lockheed Martin in the US, with BAE Systems the prime contractor in the UK. Arms companies in the UK have been trying to whitewash their image and promote the alleged ‘social value contribution’ they make. But we won’t hear from BAE Systems today, the company won’t be raising any concerns about the crimes these jets are being used to commit. The silence of UK Ministers and arms company executives is deafening.

We demand a full two-way arms embargo with Israel.

We demand an end to trade and military cooperation with Israel.

We demand an end to the UK government’s complicity in and military support for genocide, occupation and apartheid.

Katie Fallon, Advocacy Manager at CAAT said: “The genocidal attack that Israel has unleashed on the people of Gaza is designed to inflict maximum suffering and terror on Palestinians. Israel has been violating the ceasefire agreement for weeks, increasing attacks and blocking all aid for over two weeks, including food and fuel. Our Government continues to support Israel politically and militarily through arms exports, including for F-35 jets which are used to drop 2,000-pound bombs on Palestinians.

“We demand a full two way arms embargo with Israel. We demand an end to the UK Government’s complicity in and military support for genocide, occupation and apartheid.”

See all of CAAT’s information resources on Israel and UK arms sales to Israel here.

Image: c/o Labour Hub.