By Ben Chacko
LONDON: British Labour is rapidly losing the plot in relation to Palestine. Ed Miliband’s sanctions on Israel over West Bank settlements, his denunciation of “settler terrorism” and “ethnic cleansing” and his pledge to the mass solidarity movement — “we hear you, you are right” — indicated a new start after years of British complicity in the genocide in Gaza.
It seemed one of the few issues on which the Burnham government genuinely represented an advance over the unlamented Starmer set-up. Even then it was clear that Miliband’s moves only represented a sea change if it was clear that they were a first step, to be followed by other measures putting real pressure on Israel and supporting the Palestinian people.
Instead, the government has been travelling in the opposite direction. First, it has maintained the preposterous, undemocratic and authoritarian proscription of Palestine Action as “terrorist.” This absurd act of Starmerite excess, aimed at appeasing Israel and Donald Trump, has led to the arrest of thousands of peaceful demonstrators. More were dragged away outside the Labour conference last month.
Miliband has indicated embarrassment at this fiasco, and Burnham has yet to defend it. But they have failed to act. The issue is going to the Supreme Court for judgement. Perhaps ministers are hoping that the judges will get them off the hook.
But that is far from guaranteed. Burnham should instead announce that the government will not contest the appeal and thus abandon the proscription and avoid the spectacle of one court case after another involving peaceful and eminently respectable anti-genocide protesters. Then there is the Prime Minister’s over-the-top response to the Green Party adopting the “zionism is racism” policy at its conference.
While both the tactical timing of the motion and some of its contents are questionable, it is entirely wrong to brand its promoters as “racist” and use it as a lever to rip up local government arrangements with the Greens.
It makes Burnham look like a pro-Israel obsessive, determined to punish those speaking up for Palestinian rights and block legitimate criticism of the definitely racist Israeli state. Now we have the government’s refusal to countenance Jeremy Corbyn’s call for an official public inquiry into British state complicity with the Gaza genocide.
The evidence for such complicity is powerful. It ranges from arms sales to spy flights assisting the Israeli military to critical diplomatic and political support. Corbyn’s own Gaza Tribunal, which held public hearings in London last year, exposed much of this. But only a government-backed public probe could bring to light all the facts.
Undoubtedly, such revelations may be embarrassing — certainly to the woeful Starmer, but also to former foreign secretaries David Lammy and Yvette Cooper, the latter still a senior Cabinet member. But it would be a cleansing light let in on British involvement in one of the greatest crimes of the post-war era. And blocking an inquiry makes the government look shifty and as if it has indeed got lots to hide.
So in all these respects Burnham is falling well short of the promise of Miliband’s statements last month, and of the hope that lessons had genuinely been learned by the Labour Party. The mass movement is right to be dismayed. It clearly has more work to do to effect the real change in policy and attitude demanded by the majority of British public opinion.
If Burnham and Miliband really want to get on the right side of history they should end the proscription of Palestine Action, drop the senseless campaign against the Greens, end all arms sales to Israel and impose comprehensive sanctions on the genocidal state. (IPA Service)
Courtesy: Morning Star
