Overwhelming Labour Party support for condemnation of “Israel’s continuing illegal actions”
JVL Introduction
In a context of sustained attacks on the left in the Labour Party and an ongoing purge of members including many Jewish socialist members the outcome of the debate on Palestine was astonishing.
A motion condemning “Israel’s continuing illegal actions” was passed overwhelmingly on 27th September.
In a statement issued to Jewish News shortly after the motion was overwhelmingly passed by delegates in Brighton, shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said: “We cannot support this motion.”
She added, refering to Labour’s generalised, platitudinous support for “a just, lasting peace” that “We condemns all actions [such as this motion] that are making that goal more difficult.”
We can only marvel at her and Starmer’s continued contempt for the membership.
This article was originally published by LabourList on Mon 27 Sep 2021. Read the original here.
Labour conference passes Young Labour Israel and Palestine motion
Loading article text…
The current Labour leadership will completely ignore the vote. Unsurprisingly [at the time of writing] there is no report of this on the BBC or in The Guardian. There’s a short report in the ‘i’. What is NOT reported in the MSM is as important as what they CHOOSE to report [and the slant they give it]. “Shaping the narrative” as Chomsky says.
I am disgusted by Lisa Nandy’s opposition!
The factual events condemned by the motion were also identified by the Israeli Chief of Police in his condemnation of
MP Itama Ben Gvir for stirring up violence in Jerusalem .
See
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20210515-itamar-ben-gvir-the-ultra-nationalist-accused-of-stirring-up-violence-in-jerusalem
Ben Gvir promotes a policy of hateful intolerance –
rooted in the xenophobia of the late Meir Kahane the far right extremist.
It is not this motion from the Labour Party which stands in the way of peace – it is the “Kahanists” and their like including all who tolerate them.
Steve McAbe has a nerve to talk of the “Good Friday agreement” when LFI is as intolerant of other voices of the Jewish Community as the “Orange Order” ever were of
Roman Catholics in the Christian Community.
Jan Brooker is right – the almost complete failure of the media to report this is a classic example of the ‘propaganda model’ that Chomsky analyses.
We must celebrate that this motion was introduced by YOUNG labour. They are the voice of tomorrow and when us old creeps with our unthinking acceptance of what authority tells us the YOUNG will grow up and carry the concepts of socialism onward for many years. To borrow from an unfortunate Nazi song “tomorrow DOES belong to the young” and fortunately the YOUNG would seem to be more able to use their own intelligence on important issues more than their brainwashed seniors have ever done.
No wonder Jess Barnard is on the leaderships hitlist. What’s the betting Jawad Khan will soon be served with a “NOI” and then, auto excluded.
What a party!
Bravo to Young Labour.
I see no mention of the passing of this motion in the MSM – no surprise.
Is it me, or does anyone else think Nandy is beginning to sound like Oswald Moseley on speed?
Well done Labour members for passing this motion – – – despite the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
McCabe..” This vote shows that there are still too many in the party who remain unhealthily obsessed with Israel.”……well not really, it is concern for Palestinians, which McCabe doesn’t deem worthy of a mention
McCabe..” This vote shows that there are still too many in the party who remain unhealthily obsessed with Israel.”……How out of touch or significantly blind to what he does not want to understand and on that subject which he wants others to believe him implicitly, an untrustworthy sad con man who attempts to disguise that actually, he is unhealthily obsessed with the Israeli government.
If Labour Friends of Israel and Steve McCabe cannot see that they increasingly stand on the wrong side of history, then, history will judge them harshly.
Let us celebrate Young Labour, their integrity and their courage, in bringing this motion to Labour Conference.
Their example shows the way forward.
The motion mentions the arms trade. But, relations go beyond this and extend to ongoing military collaboration between the UK and Israel. Both the UK and Israel (and Saudi Arabia) are important ‘allies’ of the US.
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-05-15-how-the-uk-military-supports-israels-combat-operations-against-palestinians/
As long as Israel serves US interests in this strategically important part of the world it will continue to be supported, no matter how it acts towards the Palestinians. It is the role of the ‘Israel lobby’ to ensure that this relationship is maintained.
The UK establishment has, ever since Suez, seen its interests wedded to US hegemony.
Any perceived threat to US imperialism – and the Zionist project to which it is linked – is not allowable, which is why the Corbyn project had to be destroyed.
‘Antisemitism’ was the weapon of choice. One reason it worked is because it enabled those parts of ‘the left’ enamoured of identity politics to be manipulated.
It is the role of international civil society to pressurise governments into seeing that support for Israel – at least as presently constituted – to be more
trouble than it is worth.
This motion goes a small way in that direction – and is to be welcomed.
Passing this motion is confirmation that members REALLY MEAN TO ACT on the strong support expressed in a previous pro Palestinian motion that was passed with an overwhelming majority at conference 3 years ago.
The significance of this particular motion is that it empowers members to take action locally AS THE LABOUR PARTY.
If we believe society can be transformed from the bottom up then that goes for the Labour Party too.
Who cares if the cynical grey politicians ignore it…we won’t.
Yes Jan, omission is also a black propaganda technique of course. Anyway, I just this minute did a quick search, and apart from the i, the MSM appear to be completely blanking it, despite the fact that it’s actually a ‘double’ story – ie that conference voted for the motion by 2 to 1 on the one hand AND that Nandy then said – presumably speaking for the leadership – that ‘we cannot support this motion’ on the other. But then again, if the MSM DID cover it, no doubt it would be spun in a way that reflects negatively on the motion and the large vote in favour of it.
McCabe compares Palestine, to N. Ireland.
Where is Southside Labour’s Mo Mowlam? Who, in Southside Labour, is going to go to Israel/Palestine and negotiate a ‘Good Friday Agreement’?
The answer is, there is no one. No one with neither the courage nor the integrity – or negotiating skills – to put themselves in that position.
That was why that motion was passed so overwhelmingly.
Solidarity, with Young Labour, the Palestinian people and their Israeli supporters!
Not one single progressive change that would have affected vested interests, was voted through. No PR – unions clearly knobbled, no 15 pound minimum wage and threshold for leadership candidates raised to 20% , virtually guaranteeing the left will never be able to stand a candidate again (Sure, it’s still one person one vote, but for candidates they get to choose)
So why is the Israel vote not a winner in my mind ? well it is on the face of it,except that only if you think the establishment cares about the Palestine question or indeed anti-semistism, they of course care about neither , unless it gives a political advantage. That’s why I am sure that they are happy that the motion DID pass, so that they can dust off and use the AS smear, whenever they need it.
All in all a depressing conference, that further confirms that all institutions including the LP and unions have been knobbled by the elites.
Here in Bradford this is a very live political issue. As is Islamophobia in the party. Which by being ignored is allowing unsavoury individuals to manipulate themselves into positions on the back of tokenism. We need a general strategy to manage all forms of discrimination. Not this ridiculous single focus on ‘anti-semitism’ which has been hijacked for sectarian political purposes. Another example of a lack of strategic management.
I read the young Labour Motion. It could have been worded better I think, with more impact, but essentially the meaning be the same. Having it dismissed in this fashion is depressing though not entirely unexpected. I wonder how much Steve McCabe really understands about the Irish and Northern Ireland and how “Beyond the pale” came to be a standard English saying after the invasion of Ireland by the Orange Prince. Israel’s invasion of Palestinian Territories after 1948 is entirely “Beyond the pale”.
The significant thing is that it didnt just scrape through – it was passed by a big majority. Which says something very significant about the degree to which Israel’s behaviour evokes widespread criticism, not just on the left. The leadership may have made their contempt for a conference vote clear, but caving in to ‘leadership’ cowardice and authoritarianism doesnt have to be inevitable. Surely the challenge now is to put it up to the party establishment and make sure conference policy is fought for at branch and constituency level.
Good to see the Labour Conference highlight the rank and file’s continuing solidarity with the Palestinians in their struggle against Israeli occupation and state-led terrorism.
But for the sake of truth, sanity, justice… and a just settlement, the resolution should have questioned Hamas’s ethically unacceptable and strategically disastrous terrorist acts.
Good for Young Labour. And due credit to the delegates who voted overwhelmingly for the YL motion. It rather takes the shine off the orchestrated welcome for Louise Ellman on the conference floor. Palestine remains the issue.
This nigh miraculous motion fundamentally acknowledges the plain facts of the State of Israel’s cruel oppression of the indigenous people on the land, some of which Palestinian land has been forcibly annexed and illegally occupied with continuing Israeli settlement building backed by brutality.
Dodging of facts is ultimately counterproductive for all, including Israel.
The froth of hypocritical rage from Labour Friends of Israel is as expected. It is interesting to read within it sly confusing of factual criticism of Israel with widely stretched smearing with so-called antisemtism against the critics, or repeaters of facts, and to observe the threats against our free speech.
Good internationally-minded British Jewish Labour Party colleagues have been victimised to silence them over Israel in a truly antisemitic purge.
It is also interesting to observe the muted and cowardly public response,
of traditional uselessness, from Labour Shadow Nasty Nandy, when the righteous defiance of oppression is done together at the Conference.
Great stuff. McCabe’s response is despicable and delusional.
I agree with Jan Brooker, the Leadership will do nothing.
He didn’t say a single sentence on the subject in his 1.5 hour long speech.
We will not forget that and remind him regularly and ask the question, “What actions are we taking against the Apartheid State of Israel”?