AS Israel’s largest military operation in the occupied West Bank in two decades continues, the UN has issued its usual empty rhetoric about its concerns regarding the Israeli government’s actions and motives. The stark reality is the same as it has been for decades: the Israeli government will illegally occupy Palestinian land, terrorise and murder with impunity and the international community will either support their actions or turn away. The Palestinian people, correctly described as inhabiting the largest outdoor prison camp on earth, will go on being the victims of a far-right government that enjoys the support of the Western powers led by the US and UK.

The political and strategic reasons for wishing to maintain a robust state of Israel have long been debated but a two-state solution has never seemed so unattainable or forlorn.

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Recently MPs voted to ban public bodies from boycotting Israel and other countries despite token resistance from some Conservative MPs and widespread Labour abstentions. The Economic Activity of Public Bodies Bill will ban public bodies such as local councils from imposing sanctions on countries that are not sanctioned by the Westminster government – particularly, it would appear, Israel, despite the policies and actions of their crypto-fascist government, apartheid policies towards the Palestinian people and flagrant disregard for international law.

The bill is the brainchild of the Secretary for Levelling Up, the execrable Michael Gove, and is an obvious attack on local councils like Leicester and Lancaster which have boycotted Israeli goods on humanitarian grounds. It’s also a Machiavellian attempt to further Labour Party predicaments that have dogged the party in recent years with allegations of anti-semitism.

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The timing of the bill is apposite. It transparently shows the support of the two main parties at Westminster for a reactionary Israeli government that appears to have no moral compass and no intention of pretending to try and broker a peaceful solution to the occupied territories. It was reported in 2014 that 80% of Tory MPs were members of the Conservative Friends of Israel, and in 2020 approximately one-quarter of the Parliamentary Labour Party were members of the Labour Friends of Israel. Humanitarian concerns do not appear to be high on their list of priorities when it comes to their politicisation of making friends and influencing people.

In short, they are a disgrace to democracy and an affront to human decency and compassion. As the Palestinian people once again assume the role of disposable pawns on the world stage, the UK Government supports the aggressor and ties the hands of any local body that tries to act as a Good Samaritan in shaming and boycotting the state of Israel. Equating criticism of the Israeli government with anti-semitism is a cowardly and erroneous myth perpetuated by those who turn a Nelsonian eye to their crimes against the Palestinian people, and a sign of just how far UK politics has fallen into a dishonourable moral abyss.

Owen Kelly
Stirling

I WAS disappointed to see the report headlined “Eight people hurt in Tel Aviv attack”; the report detailed the attack by a Palestinian man in Tel Aviv injuring several people before himself being killed. Whilst this was in itself a horrific incident, there is a major Israeli military operation going on in the Gaza Strip causing many deaths, hundreds of injuries and major damage to infrastructure. That your paper seems to value the Israeli narrative over the suffering of the Palestinian people is very disappointing; I would expect a more balanced report.

Craig Evans
via email