The genocide continues – and still the arms flow

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The FT reported yesterday that:

Israel's parliament approved two pieces of legislation on Monday that ban a 74-year-old UN agency for Palestinian refugees from operating within Israeli territory and also cut diplomatic ties with the organisation.

As they noted:

The measures threaten the ability of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to provide food, medicine and shelter to nearly 2mn Gazans displaced by war in the Palestinian enclave.

This is not an accident, of course. This is a deliberate move by the Israeli government to do three things.

First, they want to force the Palestinian people of Gaza out of that territory. This is an act of warfare aimed at reclaiming that territory. Warfare of this sort is illegal in international law but is as old as recorded history.

Second, this is an act of collective punishment on the people of Gaza. Again, this is illegal in international law. The aim is ethnic cleansing. The consequence is genocide. The excuse is Hamas, and however wrong it was, nothing justifies this action.

Third, it is a deliberate snub to the United Nations and the international community. The Israeli government is making clear that it thinks it can act with impunity.

I note the first two of these points: they are facts.

The third is what concerns me here, because the UK has the power to address this issue.

We could unequivocally condemn Israeli government action at the UN.

We could halt all arms sales to Israel.

We could sanction Israel, and I think we should.

We could make clear that we walk our talk of concern and take steps to protect the people of Gaza.

We could, and I think we should, suspend Israel's membership of the UN whilst this continues.

But will Starmer do any such thing? No, of course not.

And will Harris? No, if she is elected.

There is a reason for that. They are enabling the fascist government in Israel to undertake these appalling acts and do not have the will to stop them any more than they will eventually have the will to stop fascism anywhere.

As Tim Snyder would have it, they are surrendering in advance of the onset of oppression, unwilling to do anything to stop it.

Right now, a few million are suffering.

Sometime, it will be many more.

By then, it will probably be too late.

This is the day when action is required, but I expect to hear nothing other than the polite shuffling of papers as blind eyes are turned yet again. The time for that has long passed. Sometime, those who are failing now must be held to account for their doing so. Appeasement of fascists now is as ugly as ever it was.


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