Two years ago, I was proud to be elected as a Labour councillor in North Kensington, the area where I grew up. I am now among the 20 Labour councillors who have submitted their resignation from the party in light of Sir Keir Starmer’s position on the atrocities unfolding in Gaza.
From the outset I have condemned the shocking attacks of October 7, which claimed the lives of 1,400 Israelis. It is absolutely correct to unequivocally condemn the killing of innocent civilians on both sides. Instead of adopting this highly uncontroversial position, Starmer chose to provide disturbingly one-sided support for Israel, effectively giving a green light to the suffering and collective punishment of innocent civilians in Gaza which he, as a former human rights lawyer, must have known to be a war crime under the Geneva Convention.
In a filmed interview on LBC radio, he appeared to claim that Israel had the right to withhold electricity and water from Gaza, endorsing the collective punishment of 2.2 million civilians. Since then, he has failed to acknowledge the indiscriminate and disproportionate killing in Gaza which has claimed the lives of 3,195 children and seen the bombings of healthcare services, churches and schools and destroyed whole neighbourhoods.
Senior Labour figures also cannot plead ignorance of Israel’s intentions given that from the outset it has made chilling pronouncements such as saying that "hundreds of tonnes of bombs" had been dropped on the Gaza Strip with an "emphasis on damage and not on accuracy" according to Israeli Defence Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari.
Israel has a right to defend itself, but no country is exempt from international law and what we have seen over the past three weeks goes well beyond any rational definitions of self-defence. Even now as the civilian fatalities mount and United Nations experts have warned that "in the name of self-defence, Israel is seeking to justify what would amount to ethnic cleansing” the Labour leadership continues to resist calls for a ceasefire which is crucial for enabling access to humanitarian aid.
The loss of each Palestinian life should be mourned just as vocally and unambiguously as a life lost in Israel
The life of a Palestinian is of equal value to that of an Israeli. The loss of each Palestinian life should be mourned just as vocally and unambiguously as a life lost in Israel. The failure to do so on the part of Starmer, and the privileging of Israel’s right to self-defence over the lives of thousands of ordinary civilians in Gaza who have now been killed reveals a disturbing dehumanisation of Arabs and Muslims.
Aside from the moral imperative for any progressive party to see Palestinians as human beings entitled to basic rights, the stance of the Labour leadership risks major electoral damage. Following the events of the past two weeks a self-selecting survey among 30,000 British Muslims by Muslim Census has revealed the extent of the anger. Only five per cent of those who replied said they would now vote Labour.
Starmer’s position has unquestionably alienated Arab and Muslim voters who identify powerfully with the plight of Palestinians, however this is not solely a Muslim issue. Ensuring that Palestinian human rights are upheld is a humanitarian question not a religious one and unites hundreds of thousands of people from all backgrounds, including many Jewish individuals and campaign groups who have joined the weekly demonstrations calling for a ceasefire. Yougov polling from October 16 has shown that 76 per cent of adults in the UK think there should be a ceasefire.
Starmer’s comments have however served to reinforce the findings in the Forde Report, which accused the party of operating a "hierarchy of racism" where anti-black racism and Islamophobia were not taken as seriously as other forms of racism. Many Arabs and Muslims within the party have felt unsafe and unrepresented for some time. The dehumanisation of Palestinians, which amounts to complicity in the atrocities carried out against them, has meant that many including myself could no longer in good conscience continue to represent the Party.
