David Lammy's visit to Israel was a disgrace. He must now act on arms sales and Unrwa
The UK's new Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer makes no secret of the nightmare legacy he inherited from Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government - or his determination to sort it out.
One of the worst examples of Tory malpractice concerned Gaza.
Sunak made a terrible mistake when he promised Israel’s bloodstained Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "unequivocal" support, thus giving the green light to Israeli mass murder of Gaza’s civilian population.
He allowed Britain to supply arms to Israel despite mounting evidence of Israeli atrocities.
Then the Conservative government ordered the suspension of British donor aid to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees based on an unevidenced dossier circulated by Israel suggesting that Unrwa employees played a role in the atrocities of 7 October.
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In its final days in power, Sunak’s government disgracefully tried to thwart the International Criminal Court's (ICC) attempt to slap an international arrest warrant on Netanyahu and his defence secretary, Yoav Gallant - as well as on Hamas' leaders.
All of this made Sunak’s government complicit with Israel’s well-documented atrocities.
But the incoming Labour government has a golden opportunity to put matters right.
Silent complicity
So there was keen expectation here in Jerusalem on 14 July ahead of new British Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s visit. An expectation that has been disappointed.
Lammy produced one platitude after another.
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Arriving a day after the Israeli slaughter of at least 88 Palestinians in a supposed safe zone in Khan Younis, Lammy had an opportunity to reset Britain's relationship with Israel by condemning the massacre.
Many will have felt that he had a moral duty to do so.
Instead, he timidly fell into the Tory pattern of never condemning Israeli atrocities in Gaza if the Israeli authorities stated that Hamas was the target. Like David Cameron, his low-grade Conservative predecessor, Lammy chose silent complicity.
Lammy called for a ceasefire and promised more humanitarian aid to Gaza. While of course welcome, this "motherhood and apple pie" was in reality little more than bland waffle of the kind that Palestinians are all too familiar with.
If this is the best Lammy can come up with, he ought never to have come here in the first place.
The brutal truth is that the new, inexperienced British foreign secretary will be judged by actions rather than words.
In the short term, there are three actions Lammy must take if he is to seriously break with the shameful Conservative collaboration with Israel's barbarism in Gaza.
'Moral test'
The first is simple. Lammy can restore British funding to Unrwa, the only international agency capable of dealing with the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the enclave.
The Sunak government was wrong and naive to give in to Israeli entreaties to cut off Unrwa funds. Last week in New York, the British ambassador to the United Nations went a small way to acknowledging that indefensible Tory error when she expressed British "support" for Unrwa. But no money was forthcoming.
The second measure is even easier. One of the final and most disgraceful acts of the outgoing Conservative government was an attempt to block the ICC's attempt to slap an international arrest warrant on Netanyahu and others.
Britain is arguing that Israel has impunity in Gaza, meaning that it can commit any war crime it chooses without consequences.
Last week, the eminent KC Geoffrey Robertson, in a carefully argued article for the Guardian, called the decision on whether to end ICC protection for Netanyahu Labour’s "first moral test in power".
It’s impossible to disagree.
However, Israeli media reported on Monday that Lammy had given assurances that the UK will maintain its objection to the ICC prosecutor's application for arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant.
If these reports were true, then Lammy has surely failed in this test.
When MEE reached out to the Foriegn Office for a comment, we received the following statement: "The Foreign Secretary has consistently said in his meetings in Israel and the OPTs that the government has only recently come to office and currently is working towards agreeing a position."
Meaningless trip
The new foreign secretary’s third immediate challenge is to publish the official legal advice on whether arms sales to Israel breach international humanitarian law. Lammy called for this to happen when in opposition. Will he publish it now that he is in power?
Much hangs on this decision, above all arms sales (and other military support) for Israel.
In fairness to Lammy, he has covered a great deal of ground since entering the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office - and scarcely a week has passed since the election.
But time is not on his side. On the evidence so far, I believe that he has made a stupid error by making this trip to Israel and Palestine.
Many will have found it stomach-churning to see him shake hands with Netanyahu, who may shortly find himself being hunted for war crimes.
Lammy did not need this gruesome photo opportunity and appeared to have got nothing in return.
He has been to Israel before and it is hard to see what new he learned on this short and meaningless trip.
Netanyahu is a master politician, well known for running rings around US presidents, let alone ingenues such as Lammy.
We can be certain that the British foreign secretary will have heard apparently compelling arguments in favour of procrastination and doing nothing. With a ceasefire so close, why upset the applecart by pursuing the arrest warrant?
Britain wields such significant influence behind the scenes, so why waste it? There is little doubt that the Israelis will have handed Lammy bulging files supposedly demonstrating Unrwa's collaboration with Hamas.
And then there is the Starmer factor.
Lammy will not want to upset his Downing Street patron, and Starmer will in turn be listening carefully to arguments for inertia coming from Joe Biden’s White House.
But decisions over Unrwa funding and the ICC arrest warrant cannot wait.
Let’s hope for some bold announcements when Lammy reports back to the Commons this week.
He will be judged on them. So will Starmer.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
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