Keir Starmer ignores election anger over Palestine at his peril


High expectations about a possible Labour government change of course on Palestine and British Muslim voters appear to be shattered during Starmer's first two weeks in office

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer at 10 Downing Street on 16 July 2024

David Hearst writes in Middle East Eye on 18 July 2024:

What do the first two weeks of a Labour government tell us about how Keir Starmer intends to run Britain’s foreign policy?

Before the election, David Lammy, then shadow foreign secretary, laid out his vision of Britain’s role on the international stage.  Lammy hoisted the flag of “progressive realism” by which he meant “the pursuit of ideals without delusions about what is achievable”.

What progressive ideals have Starmer and Lammy pursued “realistically”?  The government started brightly with a leak to The Guardian that the UK would drop its legal objection to the International Criminal Court (ICC) application for arrest warrants targeting Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes in Gaza.  This move was coupled with appointing Richard Hermer as attorney general. Hermer is one of the lawyers who signed a letter in May 2023 calling for the former foreign secretary, James Cleverly, to participate in the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) about the legal consequences of Israel’s actions in the occupied territories and Jerusalem.

These moves boded well.

The previous Tory government had contested the ICC’s jurisdiction over Israel though the issue had been exhaustively examined by the court for nine long years before it decided in 2021 that it had jurisdiction.  Cast your mind back to a statement Lammy made to parliament when the then prime minister, Boris Johnson, backtracked on that policy by saying it was not for the British government to state whether the ICC had jurisdiction or not.

“Labour has been clear throughout this conflict that international law must be upheld, that the independence of international courts must be respected, and that all sides must be accountable. Israel must now comply with the orders in the ICJ ruling in full,” Lammy told parliament.  Now that the Labour Party is in power, will Starmer and Lammy respect international courts?

Optimism was short-lived.

First moral test
Within days, the distinguished human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson – who gave Starmer his first job as a lawyer – revealed that Washington was putting pressure on Starmer to back down. The issue would be the “first big moral test” of Starmer’s premiership, Robertson wrote pessimistically.

Last week, Starmer and Lammy flew to the US for the Nato summit. Others might say for instructions. Washington doubled down, saying it would pursue its own objection that the ICC had no jurisdiction over Israel.  Lammy’s next trip was to Israel, where he astonished many by shaking hands with Netanyahu, one of the men accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes by ICC prosecutor Karim Khan.

The timing of Lammy’s handshake could not have been worse.  The meeting took place just hours after Netanyahu had authorised an air strike on al-Mawasi in Khan Younis which had previously been designated a safe zone. Over 90 Palestinians were killed and hundreds wounded.  Netanyahu waited until 9pm that night for proof that the strike had killed its alleged target, Mohamed Deif, the leader of Hamas’ military wing, but none came.

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