No amount of special pleading and whataboutery, no arguments about Israel’s “right to self-defence” or the politics of Hamas can disguise or justify this reality, which has been identified by academics around the world, including Israeli scholars of genocide and the Holocaust Professors Omer Bartov, Amos Goldberg, Daniel Blatman and Raz Segal. The accusation of genocide has also been made by several UN committees, by Human Rights Watch, by Amnesty International, and by the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention. The International Court of Justice has found that there is a “plausible case” that Israel is committing genocide, and the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
Indeed, Israeli leaders no longer pretend that they are engaged in anything other than a war of extermination. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who in March promised to “open the gates of Hell” in Gaza, told a conference in early May that “Gaza will be entirely destroyed, civilians will be sent to … the south to a humanitarian zone without Hamas or terrorism, and from there they will start to leave in great numbers to third countries”. In April, Internal Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir told a press conference in Florida of his “very clear position on how to act in Gaza and that the food and aid depots should be bombed in order to create military and political pressure to bring our hostages home safely” – a position echoed by Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, who said in a recent television interview that “There is no problem in bombing Hamas’ food reserves … They need to starve. If there are civilians who fear for their lives, they should go through the emigration plan”.
And these crimes are not limited to Palestine. During the past eighteen months, Israel has carried out murderous attacks in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran, and has bombed a boat in international waters in the Mediterranean. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz openly threatened Iran: “What we did to Hezbollah in Beirut, Hamas in Gaza, to Assad in Damascus and the Houthis in Yemen, will also be done to you in Tehran”.
These war crimes are being carried out in full sight of the world, despite Israel’s concerted slaughter of journalists – according to the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, since October 2023, 232 journalists have been killed by Israel, making this “the deadliest conflict for media workers ever recorded”. Israel has also killed over 1000 health workers and destroyed most of the health and education centres in Gaza.
While hundreds of thousands of people, across the British state – including a large and growing Jewish bloc – have repeatedly demonstrated their solidarity with the Palestinian people, and their revulsion at Israeli war crimes, the British government remains criminally complicit in the genocide. Although politicians of both major parties have occasionally made mildly critical statements, this has not been translated into any action. Keir Starmer and other ministers have repeatedly supported Israel’s “right to defend itself”.
British companies continue to provide military equipment to Israel. Although this provides only a small percentage (less than 1%) of Israel’s arms imports, the equipment provided is strategically vital. It is estimated, for instance, that British manufacturers supply 15% of the components of Israel’s F15 combat aircraft. Other exports since October 2023 include 150,000 bullets. A recent report concludes that Foreign Minister David Lammy misled the House of Commons in stating that Britain only supplied “helmets and goggles” to the Israeli army. If confirmed, this would be grounds for his resignation or dismissal.
In the face of this complicity, our tasks are clear. Whatever views people may hold on the 7th October attack on Israel, on the nature of Hamas, or on the virtues of a one state or two state solution, the labour and trade union movement must now work for a total boycott of the Israeli state and all of its institutions, the exclusion of all official Israeli bodies (though not of individual Israelis) from every international economic, cultural and sporting organisation, the withdrawal of all investment in Israeli companies and those complicit in the ongoing genocide, the prosecution by an international court of those responsible for war crimes, and the total isolation of Israel as a pariah state.
From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free!