UK

Keep up the pressure on Starmer and Lammy – end all arms sales to Israel!

Labour Hub Editors

By Matt Willgress, Labour & Palestine

At the time of writing, Israel’s military assault on Gaza has killed over 45,000 Palestinians, injured more than 70,000 and displaced over 75% of Gaza’s population. The illegal war has destroyed – and is every day still destroying – housing, hospitals, schools and universities.

This is the context to a major development at this year’s TUC Congress in September, when delegates took the historic decision of unanimously passing a motion that reveals in its entirety the utter inadequacy of the new government’s approach to Israel’s illegal war.

In particular, the union movement further upped the pressure on an issue where public campaigning has already led to limited moves from the Government, namely that of arms sales to Israel – by calling for an end to all licenses for arms traded with Israel.

This was a welcome and much needed rebuke to the decision of Foreign Secretary David Lammy to suspend just 10% of arms export licenses – a decision which also, as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) pointed out, crucially excluded indirect exports of components for the F-35 combat aircraft known to have been used to massacre civilians.

The motion also recognised Israel’s war on Gaza amounts to a plausible case of genocide and  should be met with a principled foreign policy, that under the Genocide Convention requires all steps be taken to prevent genocide and punish those responsible. It called for sanctions against individuals and entities that have incited genocide. Again, the PSC commented that this was in “marked contrast to Labour’s position of treating Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as a key ally.”

The motion further recognised Palestinians are subjected to a system of apartheid. As was the case with South African apartheid, this requires a concerted effort from the labour movement to dismantle it. The TUC therefore called for sanctions and building boycott and divestment campaigns.

This is an opportunity to further ramp-up our amazing Palestinian solidarity movements. This means that those who support Palestinian rights within and beyond the Labour Party should now echo the concluding calls of the motion on the British Government in their entirety, namely calling on the Government to:

“a. immediately recognise the State of Palestine, contributing to a two-state solution

b. end all licences for arms traded with Israel, meeting international law

c. demand a permanent ceasefire and the release of all hostages and Palestinian political prisoners

d. ensure safe access to essentials including water, electricity, and food, and restore funding to UNRWA

e. following the ICJ and ICC statements, impose sanctions upon individuals and entities who have made statements inciting genocide against Palestinians

f. revoke the 2030 Road Map for UK-Israel bilateral relations.

g. ensure decent work and quality public services are embedded in the reconstruction of Gaza.”

We will not rest until Palestine is free.

• Sign the petition for a full arms embargo on Israel at https://bit.ly/armsembargo

Central Liverpool venue. Saturday September 21st, 16.30. Register here

With the Palestinian Ambassador to the UK: H.E Husam Zomlot. Plus: Richard Burgon MP, Kim Johnson MP, John McDonnell MP, Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, Hugh Lanning (Labour & Palestine,) Fraser McGuire (‘Arise,’) Jess Barnard (Labour NEC member,) Maryam Eslamdoust (TSSA General Secretary,) Mick Whelan (ASLEF General Secretary) & Matt Wrack.(FBU General Secretary.)

On the eve of Labour Conference, join us in-person in Liverpool in solidarity with the Palestinian people and discuss the next steps in building our movement and putting our demands on the new UK Government.

Hosted by Labour & Palestine, with Arise – a Festival of Left Ideas. Refreshments provided. Sponsored by over 200 individual donations – thanks to all! Free event but solidarity donations essential to hosting costs.

• National March: End the Genocide in Gaza – Stop Arming Israel

Saturday 21st September – 12pm – Liverpool: St. George’s Plateau (Outside Lime Street Station). Coach details here.

Image: David Lammy and Keir Starmer. https://www.flickr.com/photos/190916320@N06/53188920677 Creator: Labour Party | Credit: Labour Party Copyright: Labour Party. Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic CC BY-NC-ND 2.0