Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband’s package of sanctions against Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and particularly against its increasingly violent settlement programme, is the most significant reset of UK Middle East policy in a generation.
Early last year I wrote about the unlawful detention of Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safiya, who had stood alone and unarmed in front of Israeli tanks as they advanced through the ruins of his hospital in Gaza. Nearly 18 months on, Dr Abu Safiya is still held in an Israeli prison. He has still not been put on trial.
For many people, the extent to which Andy Burnham is prepared to reset UK policy towards Israel and Palestine will be an important test of how far he can be trusted on issues much closer to home.
The US president’s Board of Peace has less to do with peace, in Gaza or elsewhere, and more to do with enforcing a new, transactional global order. Welcome to the America-First Trumpian world.
On Monday of this week, the United Nations Security Council adopted a US-sponsored resolution endorsing President Trump’s plans for the future of Gaza. There were 13 votes in favour, including the UK, and none against. There were two abstentions – Russia and China. Such a decisive result says a lot about the imbalance of power in today’s world – reflected in the reluctance of leaders of European …
Like millions of other people around the world, I can’t get my head around the enormity of the devastation that Israel has been inflicting on human life in Gaza, week in, week out, since the awful attack its own citizens suffered twenty months ago. Neither can I get my head around the fact that the rest of the world allows the atrocities to continue. The most powerful country in the world even …
I was Labour Member of Parliament for Birmingham Northfield between 1992 and 2019 and a former Shadow Transport Minister. I now chair Healthwatch in Birmingham and Solihull, and the West Midlands Board of Remembering Srebrenica. I also work as a public affairs consultant. I am an effective community advocate and stakeholder alliance builder with a passion for human rights. I am a trustee of the Balfour Project charity and of Citizens Advice Birmingham, and a former Chair of Medical Aid for Palestinians.