What does it take for the British government to express genuine outrage over the conduct of Israel? The extermination of tens of thousands of civilians, many of them children, did not cross that particular threshold. What Donald Trump flippantly summarised as “a civilisation has been wiped out in Gaza” did not qualify either: to be specific, the obliteration of almost all civilian infrastructure, such as homes, hospitals, schools, libraries, mosques and universities. Deliberate starvation; repeated forced displacements; the butchery of medics, aid workers, journalists; overwhelming evidence of industrialised torture and sexual violence – none of this merited much more than our foreign secretary issuing a tweet or, at best, penning a letter to “urge” Israel’s government to do something he knows it will not do.
So what has finally driven David Lammy to direct real, righteous anger towards Israel – to describe its actions as “unacceptable, counterproductive and deeply concerning”? Two Labour MPs, Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed, being denied entry to Israel and deported.
My objection is not to Yang and Mohamed, subjected to this diplomatic humiliation because they were en route to visit the illegally occupied West Bank, where a UN special rapporteur has warned of mass ethnic cleansing by Israel. It was their past criticisms of Israel’s violations of international law that led to their removal, after all. Israel’s authorities knew they would speak the truth about what they would witness, rather than regurgitate propaganda: the authorities claim Yang and Mohamed sought to “document Israeli security forces and spread anti-Israel hatred”. (But really, they needn’t worry: Starmer’s goons blacklist Labour MPs who speak out about Israel’s crimes quicker than Lammy’s speechwriter can think up meaningless platitudes.)
A shellshocked parliamentary Labour party decided that this time Israel needed to face the consequences: namely, a few dozen MPs posing in a photoshoot alongside Yang and Mohamed, all staring down the barrel of a camera looking very stern indeed. Tel Aviv’s rulers haven’t quaked so much since Lammy last sent a disappointed missive on headed paper.
The two deported MPs have every right to feel aggrieved. Yet it is not an attack on them to point out that they are now being showered with more heartfelt emotion by their insipid colleagues than has been offered up for all the Palestinian women, men and children slaughtered in 18 months of genocidal depravity.
“This is no way to treat British parliamentarians,” cries Wes Streeting, the health secretary who was nearly unseated by the then 23-year-old British-Palestinian wunderkind Leanne Mohamad at the last election, not least because of his failure to take a stand against genocide. Streeting’s colleagues suffered embarrassment and inconvenience; as new reports underline, Palestinian detainees held without charge and trial – including children – have been beaten with batons, subjected to electric shocks, denied access to medical care, sprayed with tear gas in cells, menaced by dogs, deprived of food and water, had their toenails removed, been dunked in chemicals, set on fire and sexually abused. In Westminster, there is not even a fraction of the uproar at this barbarism, but then the victims do not have the grand imprimatur of “British parliamentarians” – they are mere Palestinians.
In truth, the unpleasant treatment of Yang and Mohamed could have been worth it if it achieved what thousands of Palestinian children being burned alive and crushed under rubble has not: forcing the UK government to cease its complicity in some of the worst crimes of our age. Alas, it will not.
Remember the three British aid workers slaughtered by the Israeli state in Gaza almost exactly a year ago? Don’t feel embarrassed if not, given how swiftly the World Central Kitchen attack was memory-holed by British politicians and media outlets alike. Six western aid workers and their Palestinian colleague set off in a convoy of vehicles clearly marked with huge WCK logos. They had coordinated their movements with the Israel Defense Forces on a pre-approved route. The Israeli army then methodically attacked the vehicles one by one in direct, targeted strikes, killing all seven aid workers. British politicians even let Israel get away with massacring our own citizens – do you really think the Israeli authorities are going to blink at whisking two backbenchers back to Heathrow Terminal 4?
No amount of photoshoots featuring Labour MPs with hammed up indignation on their faces will erase the central fact. This government is helping to facilitate genocide. Under legal pressure, it has suspended fewer than 9% of arms export licences to Israel, and continues to send crucial components for F-35 jets to rain death and destruction on Gaza’s traumatised survivors – something Mohamed has commendably criticised. As research by Action on Armed Violence has uncovered, the Royal Air Force has conducted well over 500 surveillance flights above Gaza since December 2023, with no public explanation.
Despite incontestable evidence of Israeli war crimes, the British government refuses to describe them as such – with Lammy’s fleeting objective description of Israel’s total siege on Gaza as violating international law swiftly disowned and walked back. No action is therefore taken, whether imposing sanctions on the Israeli state or preventing British nationals from serving in its military. Indeed, a group of lawyers, including the distinguished barrister Michael Mansfield, has submitted a legal complaint to the Metropolitan police alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity against 10 such British people.
Yang and Mohamed wanted to report the truth. Too many Labour MPs, however, are affronted because they believe their collective status as Very Important People has been besmirched. That’s why these two wronged parliamentarians no doubt can’t walk around the House of Commons right now without their frowning colleagues plaintively asking: “Are you OK?”
Israel isn’t actually being finally denounced as a rogue state, here. It’s being subjected to an impromptu rendition of our political masters’ favourite anthem – “Do you know who we are?” – before yet more F-35 components are dispatched to Israel so that toddlers can be incinerated in their tents. And the thing is, politicians more offended by their wounded self-importance than by genocide think they’ll get away with it. It’s our job to make sure they don’t.
Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist
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