For once, Lammy was right
JVL Introduction
A couple of rare chinks of light in the overarching gloom – our web editor Richard Kuper, writing on behalf of Jews for Justice for Palestinians, succeeded in getting a letter published in the Guardian; and Foreign Secretary David Lammy let slip that Israel has actually breached international law by blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Lammy’s revelation was quickly blotted out by Downing Street which persists in refusing to name Israel’s many crimes. This was the subject of Richard’s letter, republished below. We follow it with the text of the Guardian article to which it referred.
NWI
This article was originally published by The Guardian on Thu 20 Mar 2025. Read the original here.
David Lammy is right: the Israeli blockade of Gaza is a breach of international law
No 10’s disowning of the foreign secretary’s comments is troubling, and its relative silence and inaction is a tragedy, writes Richard Kuper of Jews for Justice for Palestinians
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Given that the Labour party and Starmer in particular are in hoc to BICOM and the many other Israeli lobby groups in the UK, it comes as no surprise that Starmer jumps to defend Israel’s genocidal campaign. I have written to Lammy suggesting that he end the blockade of Gaza by simply sending landing craft from Cyprus. UK has 2 surplus aircraft carriers which could also be dispatched to provide a back-up force. Why do we never see readers comments?
It is unfathomable to me that this government, made up as it is of reasonably-educated, law-abiding, ethical people can still find excuses for giving moral and practical support to a regime whose politics is rooted in the deliberate, strategic use of mass-murder. When they enter their offices in Whitehall and Downing Street, do they hang their humanity up on pegs? Do they fold it up neatly and put it in a drawer? Do they file it? What is so very bad about the idea of cutting Israel off? It really hurts to think that our representatives in the world care more for protecting this sham of a democracy and those who get rich off it than it does for stopping the brutal murder of so many innocents.
Perhaps we could be reminded of how many of today’s Labour MPs are Labour Friends of Israel ?
Same for the Labour members of the House of Lords ?
At last David Lammy has shown some backbone. Keir Starmer disgraces the Labour Party and this country by undermining him. Netanyahu, hiding behind the lie that his opponents are antisemitic, takes the utterly disgusting pose of a cheap playground bully playing victim and builds political capital for war out of it. Anyone pro-Palestinian, non-Zionist who has experienced real violent antisemitism can only resent his cynicism with bitter revulsion. Let’s hope Lammy doesn’t give way. I pray that he decides to stand on the right side of history. If the BBC had done what they are supposed to and presented a proper balanced view inclusive of showing how many Jews are against Netanyahu, then he would not have been so easily able to sustain his Zionist heretical lies. Now that it’s so clear that it’s Israel that has broken the ceasefire, is the BBC now going to respond to our many letters and emails and change their policy?
The thing is that I don’t believe the blind support for Israel regardless of the atrocities it commits is actually good for Israel. Does it make it more secure? Does it reduce conflict? A good friend is one who is willing to call you out when you are in the wrong, to disagree – and to act upon that disagreement. Israel’s best future lies with living alongside the Palestinians in peace as equals. No other outcome will serve Israel’s interests. By being uncritical of Israel, by selling it arms, by lying for it, by taking no action that means anything against it, we are actually enabling it to be in a state of permanent war for the foreseeable future. Netanyahu will pass, Smotrich will pass, but how does Israel build a peace in the future? We could, as good friends, take action against it when it does wrong, as it so obviously is at the present time, in the hope that it “sees sense”, and comes around; but to blindly support it is to condone horrors and destroy its core.
To be consistent Lammy should resign….but he won’t. Let’s hope that he and Starmer are held to account for this.