Friday, June 28, 2024

PALESTINE ON THE BALLOT IN THE UK ELECTIONS


In Britain, mass mobilisation in support of Palestine stands to pose a real threat to the two-party duopoly. 
LOREDANA SANGUILIANO/SHUTTERSTOCK.

NEW INTERNATIONALIST
28 June 2024
Hamza Yusuf

As droves of voters turn their backs on major political parties over Gaza, Hamza Yusuf looks at how Palestine is shaping the UK elections and beyond.


Britain heads to the polls next week to vote for the preferred choice of government and prime minister. The Labour Party and its leader Keir Starmer are widely expected to win.

But after 14 years of Conservative Party rule, what should be widespread enthusiasm for a Labour government has ostensibly been replaced with a reluctance to vote for the party; namely for its stance throughout Israel’s vicious assault on Gaza.

Eight months into Israel’s bombardment, almost 2 million Palestinians have been internally displaced, 70 per cent of Gaza’s infrastructure has been destroyed and Human Rights Watch have concluded Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war as it emerges that at least 200,000 children are showing symptoms of malnutrition. The death toll is approaching 40,000.

Israeli officials pledged to carry out a campaign characterised by ‘damage not accuracy’ and made firm their commitment to reduce Gaza to ‘a city of tents’. When precisely that was achieved, they proceeded to bomb those tents.

And yet throughout, Israel has been able to rely on unstinting support in Westminster. The UK abstained three times on United Nations Security Council resolutions demanding calls for a ceasefire. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak categorically said he wanted Israel to win the war.

The Labour Party, rather than offer an alternative and push for Israel to be held to account for a litany of war crimes, instead ensured a consensus of zealous support in Westminster for Israel’s systematic ethnic cleansing of Gaza.

As Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant imposed a total siege on Gaza, Starmer insisted Israel had the ‘right’ to deprive more than two million Palestinians of water, electricity and power. The collective punishment of Palestinians that he endorsed is a crime under international law.

Yet Starmer was not the anomaly. Senior Labour politician Emily Thornberry repeatedly failed to provide an answer when asked on BBC Newsnight if Israel’s policy of cutting off food and water to Gaza was within international law, opting to reinforce that the state has the right to defend itself. David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, failed to condemn the forced evacuation of Palestinians, also a war crime.

The Labour Party, rather than offer an alternative and push for Israel to be held to account for a litany of war crimes, instead ensured a consensus of zealous support in Westminster for Israel’s systematic ethnic cleansing of Gaza

Then the Labour leadership instructed the party in November to vote against a ceasefire, even as the death toll in Gaza had already surpassed 11,000. Despite the International Court of Justice saying it’s plausible Israel has committed genocidal acts in Gaza, Starmer stil refuses to countenance the term.

‘END THE TWO-PARTY DUOPOLY’


The Labour leader’s apparent indifference to Palestinian suffering is at odds with the strength of feeling among the public. Polling shows a sizable chunk of the public not only support a ceasefire but also back suspending arms sales to Israel.

A glimpse into the electoral consequences of the Labour Party refusing to recognise and reflect this urgency for Gaza has already been discernible. In the recent local elections in May, celebrations of Labour progress were tempered by the concerns of a loss of votes tracing back to Gaza, something the party’s campaign chief was forced to admit.

And this may just be the start. There is a slate of independent candidates who are running in the general election to deliver a firm message that the Labour Party’s championing of the mass slaughter of Palestinians is a non-negotiable red line. This, along with a growing anti-Labour sentiment from a cross-section of society, could prove a fatal combination as the party seeks that landslide majority the polls are anticipating.

Leanne Mohamad is a British Palestinian human rights activist, now standing as an independent candidate against shadow health secretary Wes Streeting, a staunch supporter of Israel, in Ilford North. Speaking exclusively to New Internationalist, her message is unambiguous: ‘It’s time to end this two-party duopoly. People tell me on the doorstep that a vote for the Labour Party is a vote for the genocide party and I’m standing to show a different politics is possible. Where we speak truth to power, where we stand up for the rights of Palestinians unconditionally.’

‘There is no going back,’ she adds. ‘These politicians, and especially the Labour Party, don’t get to enable the annihilation of Gaza and then make a few mealy-mouthed statements thinking we’ll forgive and all will be forgotten.’

That warning is one that appears to have registered within the Labour Party. It briefed activists saying it ‘needs help’ defending some seats previously considered ultra safe. Indeed, blocs usually loyal to Labour, from students, to progressives to Britain’s small but significant Muslim population are all looking for alternative political homes.

'People tell me on the doorstep that a vote for the Labour Party is a vote for the genocide party and I’m standing to show a different politics is possible'

The Muslim Vote is a volunteer-led organization mobilizing Britain’s Muslims at the grassroots level to ensure votes go to proudly pro-Palestinian independent candidates. ‘The democratic system is broken,’ their spokesperson outlined to New Internationalist. ‘Both political parties have provided unstinting support to Israel in the ongoing genocide. When you have two dominant parties that see eye to eye and remain defiantly at odds with what the public want, then naturally people look elsewhere for alternatives. That’s why we’re not endorsing any Labour candidates. We believe in serving and empowering the 99 per cent, not the 1 per cent.’

STARMER’S WOBBLY SEAT


Even the seat of the Labour leader himself may not be safe. Andrew Feinstein, an anti-racist campaigner and former MP in the South African government under Nelson Mandela, is standing as an independent against Starmer in his London seat of Holborn and St. Pancras.

‘Starmer is emblematic of our sclerotic, mendacious and corrupt politics,’ he tells New Internationalist. ‘Standing against him provided the opportunity to highlight the nature of how broken our politics has become and offer an alternative to those complicit in the greatest crime since World War Two.’

Meanwhile, Labour’s newly released manifesto includes a commitment to recognize a Palestinian state. But Feinstein suggests it’s too little too late and deliberately vague: ‘It actually regresses the previous Labour position on Palestinian statehood and pushes for an undefined peace process whilst granting Israel a veto on it.’

‘This is a capitulation to Israel’s demands, even as it continues to commit a genocide. A genocide for which Starmer has become an apologist. These people don’t represent us. It’s never been clearer that a mass-based, inclusive democratic movement is needed,’ he adds.

The Labour Party did not respond to a request for comment.

‘NEVER BIDEN’


The apathy among some voters for the mainstream parties coupled with a determination to strive for a different kind of politics isn’t exclusively confined to Britain either. As the presidency election looms in the United States, polls show Joe Biden is trailing Donald Trump in key battleground states. A significant percentage of those who cast their votes for Biden last time don’t plan to do so this time.

It was on Biden’s watch that the US flooded Israel with weapons, approving more than 100 different military arms sales. When Israel attacked so-called ‘safe areas’ sheltering displaced Gazans in Rafah, the apparent ‘red line’ for Biden, it was US-made munitions that were used as Palestinian babies were decapitated and bodies were charred.

For many, it makes voting for Biden unpalatable. The hashtag #NeverBiden has erupted and campaigns have emerged to give disillusioned citizens an alternative option at the ballot box: voting for ‘uncommitted’.

Spearheaded by mobilization in Britain and the US, a memo is spreading that appears unequivocal: voters won’t be tricked into backing representatives that have been complicit in a genocide, and are keen to create new people-powered movements to counter them.

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