UK: Liberal Democrats back Israel arms ban, ousting Hamas and proscribing IRGC

Britain’s Liberal Democrat party passed a motion in favour of suspending arms exports to Israel and backing an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on Monday at its annual conference in Brighton.

The motion, which was tabled by British-Palestinian MP Layla Moran, passed with an overwhelming majority and also called for Hamas to be ousted from Gaza "through diplomacy".

It also recognised Iran as an “existential threat” to western democracies and asked for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation. 

Moran said she had worked with both pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian groups to formulate the motion, which may explain its mixture of positions.

The motion noted “the ongoing humanitarian devastation in Gaza, where now over 40,000 Palestinians are now estimated to have been killed and vast numbers have life-changing injuries”.

It also condemned Iran, saying it “continues to destabilise the region including via its Revolutionary Guards, its supply of arms to its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, and the military responses which it threatens against Israel”.

It advocated for a “political and diplomatic” rather than military solution to “get Hamas out of power”.

On arms exports to Israel, the motion backed more extensive restrictions than those brought in by the Labour government earlier this month, when 30 out of 350 arms exports were suspended.

The Liberal Democrats voted for “immediately suspending arms exports to Israel, in accordance with similar decisions taken by previous UK governments of all political parties”.

And the party called on Britain to follow other European countries by “immediately recognising the state of Palestine”.

Members also affirmed the party's support for the International Court of Justice (ICJ), “including respecting in full the ICJ advisory opinion that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal and upholding its findings”.

However, the motion did not label Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide, unlike the Green Party’s motion earlier this month.

‘The party fell short of calling a spade a spade’

Jonathan Purcell of the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP), a legal advocacy group, told Middle East Eye the motion was a “really good start”, and called on aspects of it to be “reflected in government policy”.

However, he added: “What’s really noticeable is what's left unsaid rather than what's included. Systematic torture of Palestinian detainees was not addressed and, unlike the Greens, the party fell short of calling a spade a spade and explicitly recognising Israel’s assault on Gaza as a genocide."

The conference comes after the Liberal Democrats made significant gains in July’s general election, growing their seats in parliament from 15 MPs to 72. The party’s manifesto backed a ceasefire in Gaza and a suspension of arms to Israel.

Party leader Ed Davey told journalists he was optimistic about the party’s future, having arrived at the conference on a jet ski.

At a conference fringe event held by the Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine (LDFP) on Sunday, ICJP director Tayab Ali told participants that “Israel’s decades-long belligerent occupation, combined with this new far-right dogma, led directly to the explosion of violence on 7 October”.

Speaking alongside Palestinian Ambassador Husam Zomlot, he said that the conflict was “not complicated”, and “only becomes complicated if we’re beholden to Israel’s powerful lobbying machine, and not only beholden to it but also compelled to believe it, for some reason”.

Zomlot said it was “the British Empire that started this entire issue in the first place, giving away our land without even consulting us. It is the UK that needs to own this responsibility”.

That evening, Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper spoke at a reception hosted by the LDFP and the ICJP, describing the situation in Gaza as a “humanitarian catastrophe” and backing a “two-state solution”. 

Zomlot and British Palestinian Families co-founder Ehab Omar also spoke at the reception.

Purcell told MEE that 23 MPs and several peers were in attendance across the two events.