KEIR Starmer has been challenged to follow his own advice and end arms exports to Israel after The National uncovered a report he had penned for Amnesty International.
It comes after a major investigation from the global human rights charity, which was published on Thursday, concluded that Israel “committed and is committing genocide” in Gaza.
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, singled out the UK, US, and Germany, saying that “states that continue to transfer arms to Israel at this time must know they are violating their obligation to prevent genocide”.
However, the Prime Minister and his Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, have both remained silent on the charity’s investigation.
But a different report which Starmer himself penned for Amnesty International has now come to light – and is seeing calls for the Prime Minister to put his own “words into action and finally stop arming and supporting Israeli forces”.
In the 1998 paper titled Foreign Policy, Human Rights and the United Kingdom, Starmer co-authored a “list of specific recommendations” for the then-Labour government.
It said: “Amnesty International calls on the Government to: ratify and observe all international human rights treaties and standards …
“Support the indivisibility and interdependence of all human rights and ensure that this is reflected in its aid and development policy …
“Continually monitor and strengthen controls on strategic arms exports to ensure that these cannot contribute to human rights violations …
“[And] maintain active and high-level political support for the establishment of a just, fair and effective international criminal court.”
Today, Starmer’s Labour Government is continuing to allow the vast majority of UK arms exports to Israel despite the country’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu being wanted for arrest by the International Criminal Court.
Chris Law, the SNP MP for Dundee Central and his party’s international trade spokesperson, said: “Twenty-five years ago, Keir Starmer was instrumental in shaping Amnesty International’s appeals for the UK Government to protect human rights both at home and abroad.
"This included, but was not limited to, calls to 'strengthen controls on strategic arms exports to ensure that these cannot contribute to human rights violations'.
“In light of Amnesty International’s damning new report into human rights abuses in Palestine by Israeli forces and given that the UK Government continues to refuse to end all arms sales to Israel, it is only right to question whether the human rights lawyer Keir Starmer of then would be impressed by the Prime Minister Keir Starmer of now.”
Law added: “Calling for action is easy – delivering it is the hard part. As the Prime Minister, with the ultimate authority in the country to deliver on his previous promises, Starmer has power to finally deliver upon his calls from 1998.
“As he said then, 'only by so doing will the UK Government be able to claim that it has truly and thoroughly put human rights at the heart of its foreign policy.’”
“He once called on his own party to control arms exports and put human rights at the heart of foreign policy, but currently refuses to follow his own advice. Instead, he is looking the other way and ignoring the destruction in Gaza, leaving the UK complicit in genocide by green-lighting Israel rather than condemning their actions outright.
“As a former human rights lawyer, I’m certain Starmer can see that the assault being waged against Gaza is immoral and illegal.
“If he keeps even a smidgen of the principles that led him to write that piece then it is time for him to put words into action and finally stop arming and supporting Israeli forces.”
No 10 declined to comment on Starmer’s previous calls on the behalf of Amnesty International. The National’s request was passed to the Foreign Office, which also declined to comment.
The Prime Minister has previously denied that what is happening in Gaza amounts to genocide, telling the Commons in November: “I'm well aware of the definition of genocide, and that is why I've never described this as and referred to it as genocide.”
Amnesty International’s 296-page report concluded that there was “sufficient evidence” that Israel has genocidal intent – and that it has “forcibly displaced 90% of Gaza’s 2.2 million inhabitants” using methods which have exposed them to a “calculated death”.
“Israel not only foresaw but intended to inflict conditions of life on Palestinians in Gaza calculated to bring about their destruction,” the charity’s report concluded.
Responding, the Israeli government’s foreign affairs ministry said: “The deplorable and fanatical organisation Amnesty International has once again produced a fabricated report that is entirely false and based on lies.”
