Crisis in Palestine is partly made in Britain
JVL Introduction
Britain has a lot to answer for in terms of what is happening in Gaza (and, of course, not only in relation to Israel and Palestine). Many of the laws under which Palestinians are arrested and placed under “administrative attention” as well as the powers to “bulldoze houses, ban books and newspapers, seal off whole areas and impose curfews, (were) introduced under emergency laws in 1945 – not by Israel, which didn’t exist, but by Britain” – the colonial power for the area after World War One – but promised as a homeland for Jews by Balfour before Palestine became a British mandate.
Instead of apologising and seeking to make amends for its perfidy in 1917 (Balfour) and its period “in charge”, UK political leaders compound the treachery. Here Adam Ramsay outlines what British governments have been doing; eg claiming to want a two state solution but never voting to recognise Palestine. UK governments continue to allow arms manufactured in the UK to be exported to Israel. Sunak said that he wants Israel “to win” and Starmer was one of many who emphasised Israel’s “right to defend itself” – over the rights of Palestinian people to life, security and freedom. The UK has also failed to vote for a ceasefire inside our own parliament and in the United Nations. It has taken 20,000 Palestinian deaths for Starmer to finally say that there should be a “sustainable ceasefire as soon as possible” and for Sunak to say that he thinks that “too many Palestinian civilians have been killed”.
There is much more in this article, which we commend to you.
LL
This article was originally published by Open Democracy on Tue 19 Dec 2023. Read the original here.
British elites have long been a barrier to peace in the Middle East
Politicians parrot unworkable ‘two-state solution’ rather than confronting UK’s role in creating crisis in Gaza
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I was pleasantly surprised to hear this programme on the BBC last night, which provides some important historical context to modern day events.
“Tom Bateman tells the story of the French and British mandates in the Middle East in the 1920s and how they still reverberate today.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001r1h1
“If Britain wants to make up for its mistakes…..”???? Britain doesn’t. Neither does America, nor much of the “West”. The west does not have the honesty to admit it has been and still is wrong, nor the moral courage to do so. Presumably in the fading memory of empires founded entirely on theft, theft of land, of livelihood, of culture and indeed of life itself, the west is incapable of seeing the israeli massacre of civilian populations as a mirror held up to its own actions past, and indeed present. The west seeks the means to justify the actions of its client state, and to avoid blame for the holocaust -which arguably they helped bring about by their shameful treatment of defeated Germany, and to avoid any publicity which reveals its own corruption and deceit. Conservative, Labour, and Liberal politicians are all culpable. To this day, the political establishment sees nothing wrong with, as “Sir” Starmer would say, “unconditional support for zionism”. That’s unconditional support for kleptocracy, for state larceny sanctioned by the “great powers”. Shame!
I have no words to say much with no knowledge, but just one thing I would like to say I am reading this which has been shared by a British person.
This the Mercy of our Lord who has bestowed kindness in many hearts so that we are surviving with ease during hardship.
I always believed God is Just, and now I can see how clear He makes it for those who are choosing to be evil. Millions of people screaming in their ears, yet they are deaf and blind with their full capability of understanding.
I also became clear about the Devil’s hard efforts on destroying our commonsense and winning as he promised
Thank you so much to all of you from the bottom of my heart
Very helpful. A minor but important point, we read ‘Israel’s conception’ in the time of Balfour, when Israel did not exist. Among the other numerous examples the British film ‘The Battle of Britain’ lists ‘Israeli pilots’ flying with the RAF, again before the state was founded.
And parallel example; Arte has a documentary on ‘Antisemitism’ which uses the term to describe events centuries ago, when the term was only developed in the 1870s, by European racists.
Language is a weapon for the capitalist / imperialist class.
‘Almost every academic expert on violence in the Middle East that I approached while writing this piece said they were worried they would lose their jobs if they expressed their actual opinion on the most plausible path to peace. One democratic state is becoming the pragmatists’ option, but academics worry they will be disciplined for saying so.’
Wonderful piece. I learned so much, and learning about it is what most people need to do. Palestine surely does need to be one, democratic, state that combines everyone, and yes, Britain should begin negotiations for that. After all, we are largely to blame, as we are all over the world! Thank you,
Indeed a fine article. The complex history of Palestine over the last hundred or so years includes vast amounts of hypocrisy. The shameful story goes on. Our establishment dispossesses any whose opinions differ, as is so apparent in the Labour Party under its hypocritical and cheating hierarchy.
As mentioned, the old imperial laws that Israel uses against the Palestinians originated from us. And also, some militant Zionists and proto Israelis were murderous terrorists in their day, which is now another unmentionable within our own supposedly free country – a world leader in hypocrisy.
How very effective it is to see the panorama of historical events played out through the experiences of generations of a single family. Effective and also very moving. Thank you for that.
I also agree that the so-called two state solution is as dead as a dodo. In fact it has never actually been alive. There must be a one state solution, in which all people from the river to the sea have equal human and political rights, and who elect their government one a one person one vote basis. Utopian? It’s going to be struggle. But it seemed South African apartheid would never be overcome – but in the end it was!