LABOUR ministers have shed light on a series of meetings they have held with the Israeli government since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Israeli prime minister was accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the global court on November 21 – but the UK Government said relations with his administration would continue as normal.
Now, in three answers to written questions submitted at Westminster, Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer has said that he held talks with his Israeli deputy foreign minister Sharron Haskel on November 29, just days after the warrant was issued.
Falconer further said he held a second round of talks with Haskel on December 5 – the same day Amnesty International published a report concluding that Israel “committed and is committing genocide” in Gaza.
The Foreign Office later told The National that the chair of Israeli Knesset’s foreign affairs committee, Yuli Yoel Edelstein, was also present at that meeting. They were unable to give details on whether it was held digitally or face-to-face.
The following day, on December 6, Haskel said Amnesty was treating people as if they were “stupid” and claimed the charity had changed the definition of genocide to fit what Israel is doing in the Palestinian territory.
Two days later on December 8, Foreign Secretary David Lammy held talks with Gideon Sa'ar, Israel’s most senior foreign minister, an extreme nationalist who has said that a two-state solution is not "realistic".
On December 11, Lammy wrote in an op-ed for Jewish News that he had also met Sa’ar face-to-face “last week”.
The timeline means that Lammy met with the Israeli foreign minister between December 2 and 6. This was the same week in which Anneliese Dodds, a third Labour minister in the Foreign Office, travelled to Israel to meet her “counterparts” in Netanyahu’s administration.
To date, the UK Government has refused to disclose who Dodds met during her visit.
Chris Law, the SNP’s international trade spokesperson at Westminster, said: “The UK Government have proven that they can be prompt in releasing details of other meetings with Israeli officials, and they have already released details of who Dodds met from the Palestinian Authorities on her trip, which is why it is all the more concerning that they have not released details of precisely who from the Israeli Government Dodds met and what they discussed.
“Further delays in releasing details will only lead to distrust in the UK Government’s approach, particularly as they continue to drag their heels on implementing a full arms sales ban.
“There can be no further prevarication – the general public deserves to know about who senior ministers are meeting and what they discuss.”
Scottish Green co-leader Patrick Harvie said: “The Israeli government is inflicting war crimes and genocide on the people of Gaza, and Labour has armed and supported them every step of the way.
“If they are genuinely working for change then it simply isn’t working.”
He added: “It is time for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel, not the ever-closer relationship that Labour seems to be working for.”
Gerry Coutts, from the Scottish Friends of Palestine, told The National: “It comes as no surprise that the UK Government is happy to do business as usual with Israel – the world’s longest illegal occupation as it continues its brutal military assault on occupied Palestinians – and all while severing ties with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. The hypocrisy could not be starker.”
He added: “To put it another way, if there was nothing to hide then why is the UK Government so unwilling to even disclose which Israeli ‘counterparts’ it had met with on trips to Israel? This is indeed another shameful chapter in Britain’s history.”
Timelines of UK-Israel meetings since November 21
- November 21. The International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity.
- November 29. Labour minister Hamish Falconer holds talks with Israeli foreign minister Sharron Haskel.
- December 2. Labour minister Anneliese Dodds heads on a three-day trip to the Middle East, where she meets with Israeli government “counterparts”. The UK Government refuses to say who.
- December 5. Amnesty International releases a major report concluding that Israel “has committed and is committing genocide in Gaza”. The UK Government does not comment.
- Also December 5. Labour minister Falconer again holds talks with Israeli foreign minister Haskel, as well as Israeli Knesset foreign affairs committee chair Yuli Yoel Edelstein.
- December 6. Haskel accuses Amnesty International of treating people like they’re “stupid” and “altering” the definition of genocide so that it encompasses Israel’s actions.
- December 8. Foreign Secretary David Lammy holds talks with Israel’s most senior foreign minister, Gideon Sa'ar, who has gone on record as saying Palestine must lose land in Gaza.
- December 11. Lammy writes in an article for Jewish News that he had also met Sa’ar for a face-to-face meeting “last week”.
- January 6. The UK Government makes public Falconer and Lammy's meetings. It continues to refuse to say who Dodds met during her visit to Israel.
