Palestine campaigners in the UK have set out five challenges for the next occupant of Downing Street, which they say could fill gaps in the current government’s foreign policy.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s resignation creates an opportunity for the next Labour leader to go in a different direction. One potential route is a tougher stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The proposed policy changes would impose deeper economic sanctions on Israel and increase co-operation with the UN, Arab governments and the EU to put pressure on Israel to withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories.
“This pledge card outlines five measures that would build on the government’s recognition of Palestine through immediate policy changes, and apply the same principles of international law that Labour has defended in Ukraine”, the Britain Palestine Project and the Council for Arab British Understanding wrote in a statement.
Their five demands are:
- For the UK to ban all trade with illegal Israeli settlement goods and services. British citizens purchasing settlement property, and bidders for the E1 settlement project, would be penalised
- The government should comply with the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion, by suspending all arms transfers to and from Israel and the UK-Israel Trade agreement “while its human rights clause remains breached”
- The UK should work with EU and Arab partners, as well as the UN, to secure the Israeli withdrawal from occupied Palestinian territories
- The UK should defend Jordan’s custodianship of Jerusalem, which has come under challenge
- The UK should demand safe and open access for journalists into Gaza, and “secure access” for investigators
Mr Starmer's critics say he did not take a strong enough stance on the Palestinian issue, despite his landmark decision for the UK to recognise Palestine last year.
Palestine Action
A key issue Andy Burnham will have to address if he gets into Downing Street will be to address the proscription of the Palestine Action group that has proved a troubling policy for the Starmer premiership.
Labour insiders told The National that he would have to consider removing the activists’ status as a terror group, something that has seen 3,070 people arrested for supporting Palestine Action since it was banned in July last year.
“We are over the summer going to get hundreds of middle-class people in their sixties going through the courts over the Palestine Action charge,” a Labour source said. “Andy has to get a grip on this and take them off the terror proscription list.”
While the intelligence services are understood to be lukewarm about designating the group terrorists after they vandalised RAF aircraft, earlier this month the Court of Appeal found that the proscription was lawful.
A Labour backbencher has also called for Mr Burnham to take a much tougher line on Israel, something that Mr Starmer has been criticised for being to slow to act on. “We are talking about a full arms embargo and much stronger sanctions against the hard right in the Israeli government,” the MP said.
The government's partial arms embargo on Israel and escalating sanctions on violent settlers in the occupied West Bank soured relations with Israel, but failed to appease the UK's growing movement of support for Palestinians.
Mr Starmer's departure follows last month's local election losses, with record gains for the anti-war, left-wing Green Party that has put sanctions on Israel at the heart of its policy.
Nominations for a new Labour leader will open on July 9, with a new leader in place by 19 September, although, if Mr Burnham is the only candidate, it could be wrapped up by mid-July.
Mr Starmer said in his resignation speech that he had moved the party from the hard left, where it had been positioned under former leader Jeremy Corbyn, therefore “restoring trust” in Labour.
“I inherited a Labour party that was politically, financially and morally bankrupt. I was told time again that my party was finished, that we were history,” he said. “We proved those people wrong because we changed our party, ripping out the poison of anti-Semitism, restoring trust.”
He defended his government’s stated position of upholding international law. “Our reputation in the world restored with Britain standing up for decency, and the rule of law,” he said.
Little is known about the foreign policy views of Mr Burnham, the man who has done more than anyone else to pressure Mr Starmer into resigning. He spent the past nine years as mayor of the northern city of Manchester but returned to Westminster on Monday after winning a by-election last week.
His city was rocked by a terror attack on a synagogue last year. But in a recent interview with The Guardian, he insisted that, as mayor, he could “not judge” whether Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide. "I can't judge things of that enormity from where I am as mayor of Greater Manchester," he said.
Hugh Lovatt, of the European Centre on Foreign Relations, said Mr Burnham’s policy would depend on whether he chose to maintain Mr Starmer’s centrist approach or shift to the left of Labour.
“What matters more is how he chooses to position himself within his party,” he told The National. “Does he think it useful to orient to the left-wing? His policy [on Israel-Palestine] will be informed by this,” he said.
Former health secretary Wes Streeting, who had been seeking nominations for the leadership but on Monday said he would fall in behind Mr Burnham, has repeatedly expressed concern about the strong sentiments towards the Palestinian issue in his constituency and across the country.
Polling of Labour Party members last month found that an overwhelming majority (87 per cent) support banning trade with illegal settlements, and 78 per cent support suspending all arms exports. More than half (58 per cent) thought their Palestinian issue mattered when choosing a Labour leader.
Rohan Talbot, campaigns director at the British charity Medical Aid for Palestinians, said Mr Starmer's leadership was "marred by half-measures and inaction" towards Israel.
"Whoever walks into Downing Street next must do what Starmer would not to end these horrors – stop providing arms to Israel, stop trading with illegal settlements in the West Bank, guarantee unrestricted humanitarian access and ensure that those responsible for crimes against humanity are held fully accountable," he said. "Respect for international law is measured by actions, not rhetoric. The next prime minister must not be an ally to atrocities.”
Middle East policy
Mr Lovatt said future policy towards Iran will also depend on the kind of relationship he wants to maintain with the US.
“Starmer very much maintained efforts to ingratiate himself with Trump. It’s not so much what Burnham’s Iran policy will be, but what will be his US policy,” he said.
The pressure to take the harder line on Israel will come from Labour voters and progressive circles that are turning away from Labour, rather than MPs.
“Will he learn the right lessons from Starmer’s defeat at the local elections, that he was insufficiently left wing,” he said.
