David Lammy met Israeli politician who called for Palestinians to 'starve to death'
Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy has met with an Israeli opposition leader who called for the starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.
Yair Golan, who was a Knesset member for the Meretz party, which describes itself as leftist, is also set to meet Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the UK Labour Party's annual conference in Liverpool.
A former major general in the Israeli military, he currently leads The Democrats, a grouping of the Israeli Labor Party and Meretz.
When the war on Gaza began in October last year, Golan called for electricity to be cut off and all supplies to be withheld from Gaza.
"First of all, close all supplies to Gaza. I think in this battle we should not allow a humanitarian effort," he said at the time.
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"We need to say to them: listen, until the hostages are released, for all we care, you will starve to death. It's completely legitimate."
The policy, which was implemented by Israel is a form of collective punishment, a war crime under international law.
At the time Starmer also appeared to support Israel's collective punishment of Palestinian civilians in Gaza but he has since backtracked and called for a humanitarian ceasefire.
On Sunday, Golan posted a photo of his meeting with Lammy in Liverpool on X, formerly Twitter. He said the two "discussed the conditions necessary to remove the restrictions imposed by the British government on the export of defence weapons".
The meeting came after Britain suspended 30 out of 350 arms export licences in early September.
In August, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly refused to meet Lammy on a trip to Israel because Labour had withdrawn British objections to an application for arrest warrants at the International Criminal Court for Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
Recently, since the announced arms restrictions, Netanyahu has publicly criticised the British government's position.
Corbyn jibe
Meanwhile, Starmer drew laughter and applause from Labour delegates after he was interrupted by a pro-Palestinian student protester, who shouted about the "children of Gaza".
Starmer responded by joking that "this guy's obviously got a pass from the 2019 conference", in reference to the last conference that Jeremy Corbyn was party leader.
The prime minister also urged "restraint and de-escalation at the border between Lebanon and Israel" and reiterated his supported for a "recognised Palestinian state alongside a safe and secure Israel".
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in a slip of the tongue, called for “the return of sausages” in Gaza before correcting to say “hostages” during his speech at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool on Tuesday. pic.twitter.com/Jcib6DTWzX
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On Tuesday, Golan attended an event held by Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), a parliamentary group that counts senior politicians among its members.
The group's official X account said it was "a pleasure" to be joined by Golan and referred to his party as "our Israeli sister party".
At the LFI event, Chancellor Rachel Reeves was photographed with Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely, who has opposed the creation of a Palestinian state and suggested in January that it was legitimate to destroy every building in Gaza.
Backbench Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy warned on Monday that the UK government remains in danger of criminal liability over its continued supply of weapons to Israel.
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