UK 'must take a stand on British citizens involved in Gaza war crimes'

Former UNRWA director calls on government to declare that Britons accused of atrocities face prosecution

Israeli soldiers conduct a raid in Al Ain camp for Palestinian refugees, west of Nablus in the occupied West Bank. AFP

The UK government should issue a warning to British citizens implicated in the Israeli military’s alleged war crimes in Gaza, a former UN diplomat has advised, days after a report was lodged with the Metropolitan Police.

At least 10 British citizens are suspected of involvement in war crimes and rights abuses while fighting with the Israeli military in Gaza, according to the report compiled by UK charity the Public Interest Legal Centre.

A government response is needed while the Met Police review the 240-page document, said Andrew Whitley, a former director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

“At minimum we should ask that the UK government should declare that any British citizens who've taken part in alleged atrocities or war crimes should be subject to prosecution,” Mr Whitley said.

Moderator Andrew Whitley, filmmaker Gillian Mosely, Gaza medic Mohamed Al Zabdeh and former cabinet minister Clare Short speaking at the British Palestine Project event at the Frontline Club in London. Lemma Shehadi / The National

He also called on the Home Office to restrict access to visas for Jewish settlers coming to the UK. Israelis can enter Britain with an Electronic Travel Authorisation, whereas Palestinians must apply for UK visas.

“One very simple tool that can be used is visas. If you live beyond the green line [in the occupied territories], you should be treated in exactly the same way as [your] Palestinian neighbours in next-door villages, who are obliged to get visas to get to the UK,” he said at an event at the Frontline Club.

“Why can’t an Israeli who lives beyond the green line, who lives in occupied territory, also be obliged to get a visa?”

Mr Whitley is chairman of the British Palestine Project, a grouping of former British diplomats and historians seeking a resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, based on the role that the UK has played in the conflict.

The group last year called on the new Labour government to recognise Palestine immediately, and to impose stricter arms embargoes and wide-reaching sanctions on Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Mr Whitley said the project’s contact with UK officials on the Palestinian issue had grown in recent weeks, while the government is being criticised by its own MPs for failing to take decisive action on Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

“Foreign Office ministers are feeling a lot of pressure on this and are finding it difficult to defend the line,” he said, at an event at the Frontline Club in London.

Ten British members of Israeli military accused of war crimes in Gaza

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Lessons from history

With options for diplomacy running short, campaigners have turned to historical agreements, such as the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt in the late 1970s.

The agreement is the subject of a new film by British director Gillian Mosely, which outlines the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict from the Nakba in 1948 to the peace deal brokered by US President Jimmy Carter in 1978.

Ms Mosely said there was a need for “easily accessible histories” of the conflict. She said the last “thorough” British television series on the Israel-Palestine conflict was produced by ITV in 1976.

“As the Gaza war broke and I watched the discussions around it. I was more and more horrified to see the level of context was minimal,” she said, after her film, From Nakba to Camp David: 1947-1979, was screened at the London event.

Palestinians driven from their homes during the Nakba. Getty

She told The National that while “fairly extensive” footage of the Nakba was available in British archives, it might not have been accessible for years because it was “mislabelled”.

“I kept asking the archive houses if there was any moving footage of the Nakba, of the refugees. They kept saying 'no we only have stills'. While I was making this, I found, mislabelled, that footage. That was a very exciting thing,” she said.

The key flaws in the Camp David negotiations risk repeating themselves today, said Mr Whitley. “The Palestinians did not have any seat at the table. There was no way in which they could be represented,” he said.

U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin during the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1978. Reuters.

Former cabinet minister Clare Short, who served in Tony Blair’s Labour government, said the focus needs to be on justice that empowers the Palestinians and gives them a more level playing field in negotiations.

“You can't have an overwhelming power and a very weak one and have equal negotiations,” she said.

Calls for change

The UK government should listen to the “youth demand” about Palestine on the UK's streets, or risk creating a gulf between the political establishment and younger generations, said Ms Short.

“I don’t know how much [pro-Palestine demonstrations] frighten the political establishment, but they do your heart good,” she said. “The future does belong to justice for Palestine.”

Ms Short told The National that the pro-Palestine Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement will take time to achieve results. “There have been lots of victories – firms withdrawing from settlements [but] it's a bit overwhelmed by the horrors in Gaza at the moment,” she said.