Starmer faces major test as pro-Palestine protest set to take place outside parliament

As ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel stall – once again thanks to the latter – and the new Labour Party UK government refuses to change position on the International Criminal Court (ICC), people will be protesting for Palestine outside parliament – in a direct provocation against Keir Starmer.

Israel: the genocide continues as Labour watches

Israel killed dozens of Palestinians on Tuesday 16 July in three separate strikes, as it pounded the territory. Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the three air strikes killed at least 44 people and wounded dozens within an hour across the Palestinian territory. Israel confirmed it carried out two of the strikes.

The health ministry said a strike on a fuel station in Al-Mawasi in southern Gaza killed 17 people, and the Palestinian Red Crescent said a separate strike at almost simultaneously hit the UN-run Al-Razi School in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing five people.

Israel has now killed nearly 39,000 people in Gaza and displaced 90% of the population. However, the UK under the Labour Party is still toeing its line. As the Canary’s James Wright has been documenting, foreign secretary David Lammy recently met with Benjamin Netanyahu in what was a snivelling display of sycophancy.

Then, independent MPs piled the pressure on Starmer. As Wright noted, they wrote to the PM calling on him to:

• Suspend arms sales and licences.
• Restore funding to UNRWA.
• Stop the legal challenge to the ICC over its potential arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant.

Of course, the Labour government is unlikely to listen to any of this.

Hands around parliament

So, a protest is taking place on Thursday 18 July to further pressure Starmer’s administration.

Stop the War Coalition said in a statement:

Israel is committing war crime after war crime. Meanwhile Keir Starmer and our new government continue to arm Israel and may be taking forward the blocking of the ICC’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s PM Netanyahu.

On parliament’s first full day back, the Palestine coalition is calling for a hands round parliament protest this Thursday 18 July at 6pm. We are asking all our supporters in London and the South East to help us link hands around Parliament to show the new government the strength of feeling there is for a ceasefire and an end to arms sales to Israel.

Join us on Thursday as we come together and form a ring of linked hands around Parliament to call on our political leaders to stop arming Israel and push for an immediate #CeasefireNOW in Gaza. Please assemble for a briefing in Parliament Sq. at 6pm before the protest begins.

Given Labour’s near-identical stance on Israel as the Tories’, it is likely protests like this will continue unabated. How Starmer and his team respond is another matter entirely.

Featured image via the Canary