UK’s ruling Labour Party has urged government ministers not to meet with Israel’s President Isaac Herzog during his visit to London next week, according to Arab News.
Herzog is set to spend two days in the UK, though Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office has not confirmed whether a meeting between them will take place.
A Call for Avoiding Meeting with Israeli President
“The UK has recognized the ‘real risk’ of genocide perpetuated by Israel, so unless this meeting is about peace, what message are we sending?” Sarah Champion MP, chair of the Commons’ International Development Committee, posted on X.
Tensions between Israel and UK began after Starmer revealed his plan to formally recognize a Palestinian state later this month.
After the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrest over allegations of war crimes, London has noted that it would detain him if he entered the UK.
“The prime minister is proving to be absolutely tone deaf to the desperate plight of the Palestinian people and the overwhelming feelings of revulsion of the British people at the brutality of the government Herzog represents,” John McDonnell MP, former Labour shadow chancellor, said.
Urging UK to Recognize Palestinian State
In July, approximately 60 British Labour MPs urged the UK government to immediately recognize the Palestinian state and halt what they labeled as “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza, according to The Guardian.
A group of centrist and left-wing MPs write a letter this week to the Foreign Secretary David Lammy asking him to act immediately to stop Israel’s reported plan to establish a so-called “humanitarian city” of tents in the ruins of Rafah, in southern Gaza.
“By not recognizing [Palestine] as a state, we undermine our own policy of a two-state solution and set an expectation that the status quo can continue and see the effective erasure and annexation of Palestinian territory,” the letter said.
The MPs also described the plan as “ethnic cleansing” warning that such a move means the forcible transfer of civilians and the erasure of Palestinian presence as well.
Gaza Tribunal
British MP Jeremy Corbyn has unveiled an independent “Gaza tribunal” to investigate the UK’s involvement in Israeli genocide in Gaza, according to Arab News.
The Independent MP, who was the former Labour Party leader, has been criticizing Israeli military operation in Gaza since October 2023.
On June 4, Corbyn introduced a bill into the UK House of Commons urging the government to establish an independent inquiry into UK’s complicity in Israeli war in Gaza, including the supply of weapons, surveillance aircraft and use of Royal Air Force bases.
However, the bill was rejected at its second reading earlier this month.
Corbyn announced that he would hold a Gaza tribunal in September as “the public deserves to know the full scale of their government’s complicity in genocide.”
Furthermore, he mentioned the UK’s ill-fated decision to join the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and said: “Just like Iraq, the government is doing everything it can to protect itself from scrutiny. Just like Iraq, it will not succeed in its attempts to suffocate the truth.”
He further assured that they will bring about justice for Palestinians.
Gaza War
Currently, Israel is facing regional and international pressure to put an end to its war in the Palestinian enclave and allow the delivery of more aid.
At the same time, the Israeli government has been facing harsh criticism from countries, nations, and individuals who considered the war as a genocide or ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
Since the beginning of Hamas-Israel War, the Israeli strikes have killed more than 64,200 Palestinians and wounded over 161,500, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Dozens of Gazans including children have lost their souls due to malnutrition throughout the war that caused unthinkable humanitarian conditions.
Rights group Amnesty International has accused Israel of enacting a “deliberate policy” of starvation in Gaza and “systematically destroying the health, well-being and social fabric of Palestinian life.”
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