This week, we saw what we desperately hope are the first cracks in the UK’s support for the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
A joint statement from the UK, France and Canada condemned Israel’s most recent offensive in Gaza and threatened “concrete action” against Israel if they refused to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. The Foreign Secretary also cancelled trade negotiations with Israel and summoned the Israeli ambassador to account for Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Both statements came around the time that UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher stated on the BBC that 14,000 babies could die within 48 hours if Israel did not allow humanitarian aid trucks carrying baby food into Gaza.
God only knows how many of these deaths will have been prevented by the time you receive this newsletter, but what we do know is that the government’s statements are coming far, far too late. We are already 11 weeks into a full humanitarian blockade by Israel which could only have led to the outcome of mass catastrophic hunger – because that was the intended outcome.
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Let’s be clear: as of yet, the government’s response is purely symbolic and wholly inadequate.
No matter how quickly Downing Street might turn on its heels, it can never be forgotten that its policy has been and remains direct participation in the Israeli genocide. Not complacency, not complicity, but direct and deliberate participation.
This is primarily through the RAF’s provision of intelligence to the Israeli military whilst it conducts innumerable war crimes and its leaders are wanted by the International Criminal Court. It is well documented that the RAF has sent 500+ spy flights from its base on Cyprus over Gaza since 2023, more than double the Israeli airforce itself. That is why former Declassified UK journalist Matt Kennard recently described Gaza as a “tripartite genocide,” with the US providing most of the munitions, the UK providing most of the intelligence, and Israel enacting the violence with these resources:
The UK has also provided its share of munitions and military equipment to Israel: A recent investigation by CAAT showing that arms exports to Israel had in fact increased since October 2023, with the Labour government having sent more military items in three months of 2024 than their predecessors had in three whole years. Many MPs are calling on the Foreign Secretary to account for statements he previously made in parliament saying that only ‘defensive’ military components would be sold to Israel. Given recent reporting, there are reasonable concerns he lied to the House of Commons about this and thus breached ministerial code.
All these elements paint a picture of a UK government who is not merely facilitating the Gaza genocide, but particularly and grotesquely keen to participate in it alongside the US and Israel. Gaza, along with the Iraq war, will become another historical emblem of the criminality of the Atlanticist bloc, the calamity that has been the so-called “special relationship”.
As Scottish CND have been arguing for many years, the special relationship has nuclear weapons at its foundation. Since the UK rents its nuclear-capable missiles from the US, and intends to do so for decades to come, UK prime ministers are obliged to comply and support Washington’s foreign policy. Keir Starmer knows as well as every PM before him that the US president could withhold the Trident missiles with one stroke of a pen, undermining the UK’s nuclear programme overnight.
This, of course, would be a wonderful thing, and perhaps allow Britain to finally discard the pointless and costly delusion of being an important country. But in the meantime, the UK is not constituted to pursue a sane and humane foreign policy whilst it touts US-owned nuclear weapons. In short: the Trident rental compromises our sovereignty, and a Prime Minister with courage would simply scrap it as a first step towards securing independence from an increasingly belligerent US.
The pressure on the government is mounting, after more massive demonstrations last weekend and the transparency of Israel’s sustained criminality. Now is the time to make your voice heard to your representatives in the UK government, and let them know that they sit on the wrong side of history if they do not publicly oppose the government’s ongoing support for Israel.
Contact your MP easily via https://www.writetothem.com/ and urge them to express their support for an arms embargo, economic sanctions and the immediate cessation of UK military collaboration with Israel. This week’s events show that the efforts of the anti-war movement do make a difference, however grim the struggle seems.
Thanks as ever for your support and belief in a more peaceful world,
Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament