As The Guardian notes this morning:
The UK must impose sanctions on the Israeli government and its ministers and also consider suspending it from the UN to meet its “fundamental international legal obligations”, more than 800 lawyers, academics and retired senior judges, including former supreme court justices, have said.
They are, of course, right.
The arch zionists might claim that this means that every one of these lawyers is an anti-Semite, but unless those making that claim are suggesting that genocide is an inherently Jewish act (and it very obviously and absolutely is not), that argument is impossible to sustain. Genocide is the act of a human being, regardless of their ethnicity, faith or place of origin.
As The Guardian also notes:
Prof Guy Goodwin-Gill, a signatory and emeritus fellow of All Souls College, University of Oxford, said: “Now is the time for the UK to show its commitment to the rule of law and to a future in which Palestinians can freely fulfil their right to self-determination. Everyone must be free from persecution, from displacement and ethnic cleansing, from the devastation and death deliberately inflicted on them in their homes, schools and hospitals, in their farms and villages. No one should ever be a refugee in their own land.”
Precisely so.
The UK has a choice: it can do what is legally required of it, or fail. Right now, it is not doing what is legally required of it.
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Neither is it doing that which is morally required of it.
Are Starmer et al normal human beings? How they can support the incessant murders and vile bloodlust is beyond my understanding.
Well, OK then, by all means but I fear that it is too late.
This episode has already created tomorrow’s angry people on both sides and our future remains unsafe.
This was 15 moths ago.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68177357
Officials in the EU, Uk and US told their govts. that the Israeli response was disproportionate , and the western govts. in danger of complicity in war crimes. They added they were not being listened to.
They were right about that.
Concerns have been dismissed by leaders of both parties and Badenoch is stil suggesting Israel is fighting for western values against barbarism. We need to ask questions of them and our much of our media as to why it took so long.
Starmer/Lammy/Hermer have a list of excuses they use (only for Israel, not Russia or Iran), to justify sitting on their bloodstained hands while war crimes are committed on their watch.
I’ve been wondering what further gross atrocity Israel would have to commit to get the UK government to fulfil our legal responsibilities under IHL.
I can’t think of anything. Because Israel has been in gross and disgusting, public, well researched and evidenced breaches for a long time now. They have crossed all the red lines, and polls suggest that a large proportion of the Israeli public support the war crimes being perpetrated against Gazans (source – Ha’aretz newspaper via Middle East eye https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/majority-israelis-support-expulsion-palestinians-gaza-poll ).
The UK gov’t’s main excuse for effectively doing nothing, is that they leave such matters to the international courts (except if the alleged offender is Russia or Iran).
But this excuse falls flat because:
1. A finding of “plausible genocide” is already on the table from the international courts.
2. International arrest warrants have already been issued for Israeli leaders.
3. The international courts have ALREADY made specific demands on 3rd party states, to prevent and not to facilitate Israel’s crimes.
4. International bodies of which the UK is a constituent member are prevented from expelling Israel by the active opposition or lack of agreement of members such as the UK.
The only possible conclusions are:
The UK is an active facilitator of Israel’s war crimes.
The UK is complicit and culpable for war crimes under IHL, as are senior identifiable members of our government and armed forces.
Every member of the House of Commons & Lords has a responsibility, and also has the power to change this NOW, by requiring the UK government to fulfil its responsibility under IHL.
Senior UK military leaders have a responsibility under IHL to refuse to act in breach of IHL, with special reference to the RAF regarding transport of military supplies to Israel and surveillance flights over Gaza.
A final point that shouldn’t really be necessary, but might help persuade some people… the longer this goes on, the more risk that more diaspora Jews will be subjected to attack. That too is very very wrong, but it will happen, and those who fail to act against Israel’s war crimes, will share responsibility for that antisemitic violence, even if they claim to be 100% unqualified Zionists like Keir Starmer.
Thank you and well said, Robert.
My RAF veteran father is horrified by what the RAF is doing and wonders if the servicemen and women are aware or think about their roles.
Dad suspects that it’s not just the RAF, but thinks special forces have been deployed, too. In July 1981, dad went on training on Salisbury Plain. There were units from the army involved. He recalls the grey berets saying that they often deployed to assist the spooks, allies in difficulty etc.
My late dad did 30 years in the RAF, during and after WW2 (England, Florida, India, Borneo, Java, Ceylon, Scotland, Wales, N Ireland, flying planes then desks. My brother had an RAF medical cadetship (Germany, Oman, England). I grew up on RAF stations. I spent 2 months in RAF Steamer Point, Aden, just before UK colonials were replaced by Russian colonials. But nowadays, I’m ashamed of what our military do, and I’m not naive about our role in the past.
We MUST become internationally accountable, otherwise we fuel hatred and resentment and violence.
Why should ANYONE obey the rule of law if our government won’t?
But of course the letter to PM from 800 lawyers including ex supreme court judges should be headline news – but barely a mention on BBC R4 Today programme.
BBC complicit in war crimes – along with government.
As matters stand at the moment, do you believe the U.K Government could be charged by the International Criminal Court, (I.C.C), as being complicit in war crimes?
Yes, I do.
Thank you, both.
Apparently, Foreign Office lawyers do, too.
It would be great if Elizabeth Wilmshurst and Mark Smith could opine in public.
We also need to get our own house in order, and we can start by looking at financial institutions, pension funds, and UK based charities who are investing in or supporting activities related to illegal settlements.
Personally I am professionally acquainted with several of the signatories. Many of them are Jewish. Any charge of anti-semitism against them does not hold water. My experience of them is that they are compassionate and empathetic and they cherish their belief in the rule of law. When I first studied public international law fifty years ago it was at a time when the memories of the horrors of two world wars was ever present. Sadly it seems to me that, as those memories fade, so does the belief in respect for the rule of law. Wherever you look today the rule of law, at both national and international level, is under attack. The USA is the Petrie dish for the rest of the world. We can and should be afraid but we can and must stand up and resist those who are mounting this attack.
This was posted by a British Government department, ‘UK in Israel’ yesterday:
Great to welcome @LordIanAustin to Haifa! In a day full of innovation by the Carmel, the UK Trade Envoy to Israel visited the cutting-edge Customs Scanning Centre, Haifa Bayport, the Haifa–Nazareth Light Rail project, and the Technion – witnessing – cooperation at every stop.
This 5 days or so after David Lammy loudly proclaimed that trade talks would cease.
Looks like sanctions against Israel are a long way off and that we are being taken for fools.
Staggering…..
This visit should have been prevented by HMG, and Lord Austin should be promptly told to find alternative uses of his time. Lord Austin’s entry in Wikipedia provides rather more than one good reason why. Here’s a link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Austin
Far from having the time and resources to provide hospitality for this individual, the UK Ambassador – Simon Walters – should be recalled forthwith and diplomatic relations with Israel substantially curtailed.
I’ve written to my MP seeking clarification on the announcement.
Thanks
Ah, Lord Austin, whose mission in life used to be destroying Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party, who betrayed his party, recommending voters to vote Conservative in 2019, and who is possibly the most ardently Zionist Gentile in the UK apart from Keir Starmer and Lord Mann, and who was originally appointed to his trade envoy role by PM Theresa May and got his peerage from PM Johnson.
His Wikipedia article is an interesting read.
He is exactly the person I would expect to have made this visit to Israel in these circumstances.
Never mind the alleged infiltration of the Labour/Conservatives by Militant/Extreme Right back in the 80’s what about that takeover of UK Politics in almost all parties by Zionists?
Do you support military action against Isreal ??
No
It is not necessary, or desirable.
Richard, may I enlarge on your comment. Military intervention is never desirable and rarely necessary
RobertJ asks what “further atrocity” would Israel have to commit to force the U.K. government to take action under international humanitarian law. He says he cannot think of one. Well, what about the IDF using one of the 200 nuclear weapons of mass destruction Israel possesses, on the most dense gathering of internally displaced beleaguered Palestinians? That would create unprecedented international outrage. Until recently I thought even Netanyahu would not use the nuclear WMD against Gaza; but as the situation deteriorates, I begin to wonder
He is getting desperate
His interests are in perpetuating war, rather than ending it.
And radioactive beachfront properties don’t sell well.