Tory politicians have long supported Israel‘s ability to do whatever it likes to the Palestinian people. While this is obviously disgusting, you can see the political philosophy behind it, in that it appeals to the mentality of Tory voters. Now it seems the Tories are even willing to turn a blind eye to Israel killing our people. And it’s more difficult to understand how that appeals to anyone besides the most unhinged genocide-supporters:
BREAKING: 3 BRITISH AID WORKERS KILLED BY ISRAEL
Rishi Sunak and David Cameron ask for an explanation
We know there will be ZERO repercussion.
They can kill British Citizens with ZERO consequences pic.twitter.com/btmoDmA9en
— Khalissee (@Kahlissee) April 2, 2024
“Rishi Sunak says UK 'shocked by bloodshed' but 'stands by Israel's right to defend itself' as Gaza war reaches six month mark” – His blatant support for Israeli war crimes was evident from the start. Palestinian blood on his hands. https://t.co/mwt6CfmcLi
— Maryam Aldossari (@maryam_dh) April 7, 2024
Six months of unchecked bloodshed by Israel
Prime minister Rishi Sunak was speaking on the six month anniversary of the start of the invasion of Palestine. While UK politicians have offered some criticism of Israel during this period, they haven’t stopped arming the invading nation, and actions speak much louder than words.
Six months later, Israeli wounds are still unhealed. Families still mourn and hostages are still held by Hamas.
We continue to stand by Israel’s right to defeat the threat from Hamas terrorists and defend their security.
But the whole of the UK is shocked by the bloodshed, and appalled by the killing of brave British heroes who were bringing food to those in need.
People are ‘shocked and appalled’ he says. This is true, as polling shows:
So what does the polling show when it comes to our role in the ongoing invasion of Palestine? Namely that it needs to stop:
The unchecked killing has also drawn criticism online:
If Russia did this, Sunak and Starmer would call it a war crime and offer more military aid to Ukraine.
Israel does this, and neither Sunak nor Starmer will call it a war crime and both will continue to support arming Israel. https://t.co/9SorVBpOYD
— Frank Owen's Legendary Paintbrush🥀🇵🇸🇾🇪 (@OwenPaintbrush) April 2, 2024
A Scottish-Palestinian woman has expressed her "disappointment" that it took the deaths of three Britons to spark a change in tone from the UK Government on Gazahttps://t.co/RwDzQ0Ctra
— The National (@ScotNational) April 7, 2024
It’s a position which is even proving unpopular with some figures on the political right:
I wonder if anyone expected Boris to be such a raging warmonger. He proudly sabotaged negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, and now he thinks its shameful to use leverage over Israel's war on Gaza after they killed three Britons. https://t.co/8vKgQIGOKq
— Carl Benjamin (@Sargon_of_Akkad) April 6, 2024
Did Sunak or the British government have anything to say other than that killing Britons is not good?
Foreign secretary David Cameron said the following, as reported by Sky News:
Lord Cameron also wrote in The Sunday Times that the UK’s support of Israel is “not unconditional”, saying that there is “no doubt where the blames lies” for the deaths of Mr Chapman, Mr Henderson and Mr Kirby, and that “this must never happen again”.
In other words there will be no immediate consequences – i.e. Israel gets a pass for killing British civilians.
And given that there are zero consequences, why should Israel worry about it happening again?
Context you won’t read in the mainstream British press
It’s important to give some context to what Sunak said, as there’s not a lot of that happening. This part in particular bears scrutiny:
Six months later, Israeli wounds are still unhealed. Families still mourn and hostages are still held by Hamas.
We continue to stand by Israel’s right to defeat the threat from Hamas terrorists and defend their security.
Firstly, this is what ‘Israel defending itself’ looks like in practice:
An Israeli 🇮🇱 soldier posted this picture on his Instagram saying his new ‘hobby’ is to ‘sniff a 5 year old’s sock twice a day’
The racist dehumanisation of Palestinians 🇵🇸 by Israel is beyond disgusting.
Biden 🇺🇸, Sunak & Starmer 🇬🇧 are supporting fascism. pic.twitter.com/dxNZSXT82f
— Howard Beckett (@BeckettUnite) April 6, 2024
Secondly, the events of 7 October didn’t come from nowhere. Israel had been oppressing the Palestinians for decades at the point of it happening. An Amnesty International report from 2022:
sets out how massive seizures of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, forcible transfer, drastic movement restrictions, and the denial of nationality and citizenship to Palestinians are all components of a system which amounts to apartheid under international law. This system is maintained by violations which Amnesty International found to constitute apartheid as a crime against humanity, as defined in the Rome Statute and Apartheid Convention.
A press release accompanying the report noted:
The unlawful killing of Palestinian protesters is perhaps the clearest illustration of how Israeli authorities use proscribed acts to maintain the status quo. In 2018, Palestinians in Gaza began to hold weekly protests along the border with Israel, calling for the right of return for refugees and an end to the blockade. Before protests even began, senior Israeli officials warned that Palestinians approaching the wall would be shot. By the end of 2019, Israeli forces had killed 214 civilians, including 46 children.
In light of the systematic unlawful killings of Palestinians documented in its report, Amnesty International is also calling for the UN Security Council to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel. This should cover all weapons and munitions as well as law enforcement equipment, given the thousands of Palestinian civilians who have been unlawfully killed by Israeli forces. The Security Council should also impose targeted sanctions, such as asset freezes, against Israeli officials most implicated in the crime of apartheid.
Would 7 October have happened if the UK and its Western allied had stopped supplying the weapons which Israel was using to kill Palestinian civilians and children?
Another important thing to understand is that Hamas would not exist today without the support of the Israeli political and intelligence apparatus. But why did they support it?
The Intercept reported the following in 2018 when covering a video produced by Mehdi Hasan:
did you also know that Hamas — which is an Arabic acronym for “Islamic Resistance Movement” — would probably not exist today were it not for the Jewish state? That the Israelis helped turn a bunch of fringe Palestinian Islamists in the late 1970s into one of the world’s most notorious militant groups? That Hamas is blowback?
This isn’t a conspiracy theory. Listen to former Israeli officials such as Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Segev, who was the Israeli military governor in Gaza in the early 1980s. Segev later told a New York Times reporter that he had helped finance the Palestinian Islamist movement as a “counterweight” to the secularists and leftists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Fatah party, led by Yasser Arafat (who himself referred to Hamas as “a creature of Israel.”)
“The Israeli government gave me a budget,” the retired brigadier general confessed, “and the military government gives to the mosques.”
“Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel’s creation,” Avner Cohen, a former Israeli religious affairs official who worked in Gaza for more than two decades, told the Wall Street Journal in 2009. Back in the mid-1980s, Cohen even wrote an official report to his superiors warning them not to play divide-and-rule in the Occupied Territories, by backing Palestinian Islamists against Palestinian secularists. “I … suggest focusing our efforts on finding ways to break up this monster before this reality jumps in our face,” he wrote.
No justification
The British government’s argument has been that Israel essentially has the right to do whatever it pleases because Hamas massacred its people. It was never a good argument, but how does it hold up now that Israel has massacred our people?
We need to stop arming Israel immediately, and more and more people are waking up to that.
Featured image via Number 10 – Wikimedia
