The Labour Party and Israel’s occupation
JVL Introduction
Bambos Charalambous, MP for Enfield Southgate and shadow minister for the Middle East and North Africa, has spoken out strongly against Israel’s occupation.
Despite the Labour party appearing to have disowned the conference motion passed last September (committing the Party to support “effective measures” including sanctions) and now having removed all trace of it from the Party’s website, this statement by Charalambous is welcome.
It recognises clearly the illegality and inhumanity of Israel’s prolonged occupation and repeats Labour’s commitment to recognise the state of Palestine (while sidestepping the wider issue of what is to be done).
It is not enough. But neither is it nothing.
It shows how important the work of the Palestine solidarity movement has been in getting the trade unions on board and keeping Labour on track.
It also shows that it is vital to keep up the pressure to prevent any further backsliding.
This article was originally published by LabourList on Thu 2 Jun 2022. Read the original here.
Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is a fundamental barrier to peace Bambos Charalambous
Bambos Charalambous, MP for Enfield Southgate and shadow minister for the Middle East and North Africa, has spoken out strongly against Israel’s occupation.
Despite the Labour party appearing to have disowned the conference motion passed last September (committing the Party to support “effective measures” including sanctions) and now having removed all trace of it from the Party’s website, this statement by Charalambous is welcome.
It recognises clearly the illegality and inhumanity of Israel’s prolonged occupation and repeats Labour’s commitment to recognise the state of Palestine (while sidestepping the wider issue of what is to be done).
It is not enough. But neither is it nothing.
When it comes to the question of achieving peace in the Middle East, Labour is clear: in government, we would immediately recognise the state of Palestine. We want to see a two-state solution, with a sovereign and secure Palestine and Israel existing in peace alongside one another. But we must acknowledge how far away that goal is.
Having just returned from a week’s visit organised by Medical Aid for Palestinians and the Council for Arab and British Understanding, I have never been clearer in my mind that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is a fundamental obstacle to achieving this vision.
Of course, the occupation is illegal under international law, and there are many Israelis who strongly oppose it. I met with Israeli politicians and citizens during our visit who, like me, see the occupation as harmful to Israel’s peace and stability because of the humiliations it inflicts upon the Palestinian population.
Our delegation saw so many examples of this: Palestinian children undergoing draconian treatment in military courts; demolitions of homes and communities in East Jerusalem; demolition orders on basic infrastructure in the West Bank, including a health clinic partly funded by UK aid; the segregation of road use in Hebron between Palestinians and Jews; the huge expansion of illegal settlements on Palestinian land; the construction of a barbed wire and concrete barrier that cuts across Palestinian communities – to name just a few. It is impossible to document them fully here.
One example, however, sums up the brutal reality of occupation. In Makassed hospital in East Jerusalem, early on the first morning, our delegation was shown into a high dependency neonatal unit containing nine cots. In each, a premature baby lay under glowing heaters, fragile and tiny. All these vulnerable babies were alone. None of them had their mother or another family member with them.
Why were these babies alone? Firstly, the occupied territories are unable to provide the hospitals to treat complex births or premature children – hence the need for some mothers to give birth in Makassed hospital. Secondly, under the rules of the occupation, mothers are allowed a three-day permit to give birth and recover. When the permit runs out the mothers must return to the West Bank or Gaza. If their newborns are too tiny or not well enough to go too, mothers must leave them at the hospital.
Worse still, doctors told us how mothers cannot get permits to visit babies after they have been forced to leave them in the hospital. Even collecting babies when they are fully recovered is difficult – permits to do so are often delayed by months. One of the babies we saw there had been well enough to be collected four months ago, but the Israeli authorities had denied the necessary collection permit to his mother. This, we were told, is common.
The dehumanising impact of this is deep and profound – mothers and babies denied the chance of bonding, of breastfeeding, of the basic skin to skin contact all babies and new mothers need. Unsurprisingly many mothers of children in Makassed hospital develop debilitating post-natal depression. The developmental damage to children is likely to be equally serious.
Later in the week, we met with Breaking the Silence – an organisation of veteran soldiers who have served in the Israeli military since the start of the Second Intifada. Their work aims to bring about the end of the occupation because of the harm they believe it causes to both Israelis and Palestinians.
Joel, an Israeli military veteran, explained that as a soldier he oversaw the permit application process which every Palestinian requesting to enter Israel or East Jerusalem has to undergo, including for childbirth and other urgent hospital treatment. He said the permit regime was extremely restrictive, often only allowing Palestinians into Israel for the bare minimum amount of time necessary.
This system results in situations like the one we saw in the neonatal unit at Makassed. Joel told us that, in other cases, applicants who meet all of the criteria for receiving a permit could be denied by the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, for posing a ‘security threat’. That ‘threat’ was often vague or undisclosed, but it could be something as trivial as being related to someone who had been accused of throwing stones.
It is a system in which most people are presumed more likely to represent a security threat than not. Joel also said that the general attitude among many in his unit was to regard the very idea of allowing Palestinians to travel for medical treatment as extremely generous. It hardly needs to be said that there is nothing generous, let alone humane, about babies lying alone in wards like orphans, merely for the sake of a piece of paper.
As shadow minister for the Middle East, I will be speaking at the highest possible levels about mothers and babies separated by the strictures of the occupation. I was heartened during the delegation to secure assurances from the Meretz politician Mossi Raz that he will raise cases with his colleagues in the Knesset.
However, to secure a path to peace, I believe we must ultimately look to systemic change rather than piecemeal improvements. It is important that we do not shy away from naming the occupation as an obstacle to peace. We will continue to oppose illegal settlements, evictions and demolitions which make peace harder to achieve. We must be robust in asserting international law and defending human rights. The citizens of Palestine and Israel, who desire to live in peace, side by side, deserve nothing less.
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A very moving account abour a visit which clearly shook the writer to the core. However the reality is that expressions of concern and fine words about ‘peace’ without mentioning justice, rights or equality, are wholly insufficient. They are but water off the duck’s back of an Israel secure in the knowledge that it will not be held accountable for its violence. Without enforcment action agaisnt the perpetrator mattersi will only deteriorate. And those who have the power to make a difference and merely wring their hands witll have, in the words of Desmond Tutu, shown themselves to be on the side of the oppressor.
He better watch his back, otherwise backstabbing starmer will throw him out.
words mean little when the Labour Party is led by a racist Zionist ‘without qualification’.
The fact is that criticism of Israeli apartheid has been deemed ‘antisemitic’ by Starmer and that is the Labour Leadership’s position
do Palestinian babies not need their mothers then? do they not have the same rights as babies born to Jewish mothers then? an absolute and shameful disgrace. But does the leadership of the Labour Party intend to do something about this ongoing repression?
Just three points. 1 Where’s the term apartheid? 2 How does this fit with Starmer’s ‘unqualified Zionism’? 3 What concrete measures are you taking about the assassination of reporters?
Every day I read depressing, often horrific articles in Haaretz, +972, Electronic Intifada, Mondoweiss etc etc describing the latest Israeli-committed outrage. But whoever came up with the idea of taking Bambos Charalambous to see a high dependancy neonatal unit in East Jerusalem where Palestinian mothers are allowed to stay NO MORE THAN THREE DAYS with their premature newborns is some kind of genius. And then to find a witness from Breaking the Silence to explain the psychology of Israel’s behaviour. . . The brutality of this behaviour is totally relatable to people here – indeed, if new mothers in this country were stopped from seeing their babies for months on end, it would now be regarded as a form of child abuse. We should not let this story stay on the pages of Labour List.
I would suggest that Charalambous’ response be taken at face value – after all, he saw plenty of dreadful stuff, and he CHOSE to highlight the most extraordinarily cruel of all that he saw, and to use Breaking the Silence as his key witness. So why not a formal attempt – from JJP, JVL, IJV etc – to secure a meeting between activist Jews here who know the situation in Israel/Palestine intimately, and very probably know personally the people (e.g. Breaking the Silence) that the MP met? The purpose of any such meeting would be to discuss with him what he meant in practical terms by every word of his last paragraph: in what way (beyond assertions of horror that he will know have nil impact on Israel) does he propose that Britain ‘oppose illegal settlements, evictions and demolitions’? What, in his mind, constitutes being ‘robust in asserting international law and defending human rights’? They are his formulations – and both we, and the ‘citizens of Palestine and Israel, who desire to live in peace’ who he cites, deserve to know what he envisages his words might mean IN PRACTICE. Lets be as uncynical as possible, take him at face value, and see if he can learn from us, and we can learn from him. Otherwise we might as well give up and abandon Palestinians to their fate.
And it will be abandonment.
I know many supporters of the Palestinians believe that somehow, one day, the Palestinians ‘will win’. And I know there are a thousand constitutional schemes for the kind of state(s) that will provide them with freedom and equality. But all of these beliefs, and schemes, are very thin on how to get from A to Z. If we just write off stuff like the article above as ‘handwringing’, we too are indulging in aspirational fantasies rather than trying to develop concrete strategies to achieve the ending of Israel’s oppression.
Yes, indeed. Our Labour Party Leadership is on the side of the oppressors.
Within our Labour Party, it is itself the oppressor. Against the Conservatives, our Labour Party Leadership and Front Bench stooges are worse than useless.
A moving account of the effects of the Israeli occupation on Palestinians. Especially heart wrenching is the description of babies being separated from their mothers in Makasssed hospital because of arbitrary and inhumane Israeli restrictions. It is interesting to note that the author does not address the Apartheid nature of the Israeli state which systematically imposes discriminatory measures on all Palestinians living under Israeli control be it in the Occupied Territories or in Israel itself. This reality leads one committed to Palestinian equality and justice to question whether two states will achieve these aims and instead consider one Democratic state as the way forward.
I agree with Diana, Israel knows that it will carry on getting away with it, condemnation isn’t enough.
I remember David Mellor’s visit to Gaza, he was appalled at what he saw and told the IDF Officer, their treatment of the Palestinians was a affront to civilised values, the Officer glared at him. He obviously hadn’t been briefed on what he should and shouldn’t have said. It wasn’t long afterwards that he was set up, a young woman came into him in a hotel and there was a camera in the bedroom overlooking the bed. The photos showed him in bed with the young lady and it ended his career and I do believe his marriage.
What this did was to get rid of him and scare off any others that criticise Israel. Here’s a link about his visit.
https://www.jta.org/archive/british-envoy-creates-a-stir-with-remarks-on-gaza-conditions
I entirely agree with Diana. Say it like it really is. Brutal, inhuman, and utterly criminal.
This man isn’t long for his position in the Labour Party. Imagine what those members of the Knesset that canvassed with Starmer in Barnet will say when they read his letter.
It’s welcome news that Bambos Charalambous has spoken out about the daily suffering of Palestinians caused by the illegal occupation caused by the apartheid colonial settler regime. We need a concerted effort by Labour MPs to speak out in support of Palestinian rights and counter the Party Leadership’s support for the zionist project.
Yes, I welcome anything which builds bridges between progressive, anti-occupation elements within Israeli civil society and their Palestinian counter-arts. Ultimately in a one state democratic Palestine. My optimism on this took a severe dent when I saw the huge numbers of ultra-religious Zionists on the Flag Day march. I watched this live on Al Jazeera. Most of the participants were young people, some armed, with strong settler representation and backed by Israeli police and army. I can’t see any hope of these right-wing ‘hill top’ boys allowing any kind of merging between the two civil societies in a single secular state. There needs to be more analysis of the consequences of the development of a settler-based fascist street army being unleashed on Palestinians in the West Bank and what it means for Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line. I was appalled to hear the slogans they used.
Thanks to Bambos Charalambous for this scary exposee of just another way in which Israel exercises its inhumane repression of Palestinians, this time at their most vulnerable : distraught mothers and their newly- born babies. Obviously beating and imprisoning stone-throwing children isn’t the lowest to which Israeli authoritarianism can sink.
I’ve been an active member of the Labour Party for over 50 years – the last 40 of them in south-west London – and I will never understand the reasoning of those party members who argue that expressing anti- Israeli sentiment equates with being antisemitic – regardless of any possibly appalling context. Such as that described by Mr Charalamboulos.
Bambo Charalambous will be expelled by Starmer and his mates for making this statement.
I remember very well the visit of David Mellor, who was one of the more civilised members of Parliament, that Bernard Grant refers to.
If you go to the original JTA report that Bernard links to you will find this response from a Labour MP.
‘Pro-Israel members of Parliament, such as the Labor Party’s Douglas Hoyle, plan to question Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe as to what extent Mellor’s views reflect government thinking.’
It should remind us that Labour Friends of Israel and its supporters have always been prepared to defend the most brutal aspects of the Israeli occupation as Louise Ellman did when she justified their treatment of children.
Also noteworthy were the words of the late Chief Rabbi, Lord Immanuel Jakobovitz, who said that ‘Jews and Israelis all over the world were “agonizing over the situation no less than Mr. Mellor.” Which is a blatant lie.
Before going on to question ‘whether Mellor had been fair or helpful in the way he described the problem confronting Israel in the territories.’
What Jakobovitz and the other members of Israel’s chorus of defenders didn’t do of course was condemn what was happening.
We must never shy away from reminding everyone of Starmer’s “commitment to Zionism – without qualification” and we must make sure that Starmer’s support for the cruel and apartheid State of Israel is exposed.
The courage and honesty of Bambo Charalambous should be applauded.
There was much more that he could have said.
We must continue to remind all people of good-will of the excellent motion that was overwhelmingly carried at the last Labour Party conference.
These are achievements on which we can all build.
We must work to isolate Starmer and ensure that he remains on the wrong side of history.
We shall see if this was authorised by Starmer by the consequences for this MP. It could be politician doublespeak. Starmer uncritical friend of Israel. Labour MPs critical friends of Israel. Which allows Starmer to evade the hook. In normal life this is just dishonesty (like ‘I sold you the car but you never said you wanted the keys as well’). For politicians in the bubble- especially incompetent ones like our Glorious Leader, it is also normal life.
A crow has an unfortunate call: a constant complaint that varies over to mockery, but, Bambos is provocative enough here as he stitches together this array of weary clichés and expressions that are conscious culs-de-sac.
I don’t mind grasping at straws – what else have we? – but no healthy grain ever came from these stems.
The Israelis, if conscious of any issues beyond the domestic, understand that they are winning and protected around the world. Any force that can send its forces to attack a funeral procession, is in no mood for any change of direction.