Dr Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian Ambassador to the UK, spoke on Tuesday to a group of MPs about the role our Parliament should be playing in bringing conflict to an end. “This is no longer war,” he told them, “it’s genocide.” It is hard to disagree with that judgement, but the British government is still parroting Israeli rhetoric, and accepting that the horrific loss of civilian life is justified by the need to eliminate Hamas terrorists and gain the release of hostages. Instead, it should be telling Israel’s Prime Minister that Israel unleashing its massively superior firepower on one of the most densely populated places in the world is now seen as revenge against a civilian population, something which is expressly forbidden by the international rules of law. Many observers in the UK and around the world are wondering why anyone needs to look up the clauses and sub-clauses of the Geneva Conventions. Indiscriminately and knowingly killing civilians, including thousands of children, is completely abhorrent, and an outrage by any measure of human decency.
We can’t hope to understand the Israeli attack on Gaza without recognising that Israel was stunned and traumatised by the depravity of the attackers on October 7th. We all were, and there is no excuse for what Hamas did. Israelis regard Hamas purely as a terrorist organisation, and some have called their fighters “inhuman” or “animals”. [Here is a link to an article we think gives an insight into the origin and development of Hamas https://nationalinterest.org/feature/hidden-history-hamas-207266?page=0%2C1]. Some Israeli politicians have labelled all the Palestinians in Gaza as non-human. Because it is mentioned so often by Israeli spokesmen, it is clear that the horrific nature of the attack, and the way people died, is one reason why the disproportionate Israeli response has been so ferocious.
The duty of countries not caught up in the emotions Israelis are experiencing is to provide wise counsel. The US President mentioned very early on that the Iraq invasion was a warning of how difficult it is to root out terrorists, but has since done nothing publicly to bring the fighting to an end. The UK government appears to still be giving Israel its full backing, very clearly in defiance of public opinion. Yesterday we saw a move by MPs to challenge the government. Together with some Labour MPs and a few Conservatives, Liberal Democrats supported the SNP motion to call for an immediate cease-fire (our own motion calling for a cease-fire was not chosen by the Speaker). It was defeated, but this morning we learned that the UN Security Council has also called for a cease-fire. The UK meekly followed the US in abstaining, and is increasingly looking like an outlier.
Little has been said by Israel about what will happen after the fighting ends, and it seems it has no coherent plan. Its leaders appear to be unaware that its punitive actions in Gaza will only stoke more resentment, and seem to think Palestinian resentment can be crushed by brute force.
Increasingly loud voices of reason are saying the only viable solution is the one which has been on the table ever since 1967 – a separate Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. If our government is to play any part, it must call for a permanent halt to the destruction of Gaza – right now, before any more lives are lost – the release of all the hostages, and the resumption of peace talks. These could be brokered by a consortium of Arab states, and would have to include a commitment by Israel to recognise the equal right of Palestinians to have their own viable and secure state, alongside Israel. Dr Philippa Whitford, an SNP parliamentarian who has served as a doctor in Gaza, was brought up in Northern Ireland. She tells how the Bloody Sunday killing of a very limited number of civilians did more to set off the next 30 years of IRA terrorism than any other factor. That dire warning should not be ignored.
Critics have argued that simply calling for a cease-fire by Israel won’t guarantee acceptance by Hamas or the release of the hostages. That may be true, and Israel’s acceptance will be only one part of the progress towards peace talks. The reason we wrote to all Lib Dem MPs asking them to support the call for an immediate cease-fire in yesterday’s debate is that Israel knows it will have to agree, but says it is going to wait until the call from foreign governments reaches a sufficient level. Currently they’re saying that could still be two or three weeks in the future, and it is imperative that we bring that date forward.
In a heart-breaking video conference yesterday, doctors working with Medical Aid for Palestinians told us some of what lies behind the statistics, like the 27,000 injured having to be treated in hospitals with capacity for only 2,000, in hospitals which are all on the verge of complete collapse. Water and electricity to hospitals have been cut off, and supplies of medicines are virtually exhausted. Even their solar panels and water tanks are being deliberately destroyed – by IDF soldiers on the ground, not by stray ordnance from far away.
With the functional capability of hospitals all but totally ruined, doctors are forced to make harsh assessments of new patients; many get no treatment and have to be left to die. Everyone who spoke told the same story; conditions right now in Gaza’s hospitals are beyond anyone’s worst nightmare.
There will be a domino effect when state leaders start to withdraw support for Israel’s targeting of civilians, and demand for a cease-fire could quickly become overwhelming. Meanwhile, world statesmen including our own Prime Minister decide that the time is not yet right to call for a cease-fire, allowing a completely man-made and totally avoidable disaster to cause more deaths and bring more suffering with every hour that passes.
By not demanding a ceasefire the UK government is not only failing the Palestinians and the Israelis, who have for decades been hostage to the unrealistic ambitions of a succession of right-wing leaders, but is also jeopardising peace in the wider Middle East, and damaging our own credibility as a nation. Husam Zomlot’s take is that our impotent grandstanding over the last few weeks has already caused damage to our relations with countries throughout the Middle East which will take generations to repair.
A reminder : we have our AGM (by Zoom) on Tuesday 21st November at 6pm. The guest speaker will be Chris Doyle, Director of the Council for Arab British Understanding (CAABU) and an acknowledged expert on the Middle East.
We are hoping to recruit some new members to our Committee so please let us know if you would like to be nominated. We are especially keen to have volunteers to be Treasurer and Membership Secretary, and also to be Newsletter Editor or just members of the Committee.
If you want to attend, please register before the meeting at the following link : https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAucuuvpj0tEtcgSHgRHZcqE3x2HUDtAga5