THE decision to block 30 arms export licences for weapons due to go to Israel is a small step forward, and entirely the result of mass pressure on the Establishment.
In and of itself, it is inadequate and no more than a minor inconvenience for the Israeli state as it pursues its Gaza genocide. The decision announced by David Lammy affects only around one-tenth of such licences.
Nevertheless, it is a decision that the Starmer government will not have wanted to take. It has a symbolic significance way in advance of its practical implications, as the rage of Israel’s government and its sycophants in Britain shows.
Above all, it is an acknowledgement that Israel is seriously violating international humanitarian law in Gaza, and that British weaponry could be used in the commission of those crimes.
It also places London somewhat at odds with Washington, by far Israel’s biggest arms supplier and entirely indifferent to humanitarian or legal concerns.
The Tory government concealed the legal advice it received on this point. But the truth is available to anyone with a smartphone, able to watch Israel’s massacres, murders and wanton destruction in real time.
Labour is feeling the heat from the streets — and the polling booths. The sustained mass movement of solidarity with the Palestinian people unavoidably channelled much of its anger at Starmer’s full-throated endorsement of Israel’s genocidal conduct.
And that impacted powerfully in the general election. Labour haemorrhaged votes over the issue, particularly among Muslim communities which have largely supported the party in the past.
It lost four seats and came close to losing several more as a consequence.
Wes Streeting and Shabana Mahmood are two cabinet members who will be worried about immolating their political careers on the altar of support for Netanyahu.
Since the general election, Labour has endeavoured to modulate its position. The government has restored funding to refugee agency UNRWA, although that is something the Tories would likely have done by now.
It also dropped objections to the International Criminal Court seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defence Minister Gallant, on legalistic rather than political grounds.
These are of course mere gestures. A complete arms embargo and a full programme of sanctions on Israel are needed. Moreover, the Navy should cease all operations in the Gulf designed to protect Israel from the consequences of its actions.
This should be designed to press Netanyahu into agreeing to the Gaza ceasefire which even the US administration acknowledges he is blocking, and then to force Israel to halt its murderous settler expansion drive in the West Bank and agree to negotiations for a political solution.
Instead, Lammy assured MPs that he was a “liberal zionist,” a position which has no progressive meaning or content in the present situation. It is merely a cover for continued backing for Israel on all essentials.
So there is a long way to go. But that there has been any shift in government policy is attributable to mass pressure.
Building the movement is therefore vital. The crackdown on the expression of solidarity begun under the last government is continuing full force under Starmer. Those who complain loudest about threats to “free speech” are silent when pro-Palestinian voices are gagged.
The only proper response is more action, more protests, more communication in support of the Palestinians, and a clear message that Labour will continue to suffer at the polls while it backs Israel.
The next solidarity march is on Saturday in London, and a huge turnout is needed to press the Starmer government to go further, faster to stop the continuing slaughter.
