Starmer's Israel trade envoy should hang his head in shame

Yahoo

16-05-2025

This week, former Labour MP Ian Austin used these pages to argue that Britain should press ahead with a new trade deal with Israel – and ignore the growing calls, including mine, for trade sanctions instead.
There's a total moral vacuum at the heart of his argument.
He offers a series of statistics and anecdotes about the benefits of trading with Israel, of being its ally. It's a comprehensive list, as you might expect from a member of the trade team intent on doing a deal.
To all of that, I say: who cares? Who cares about any of those things – about money, business interests, academic collaboration – every single thing he lists?
How can they even begin to compete with the overwhelming moral and legal case not to trade with a regime engaged in war crimes and human rights abuses, let alone on the scale that Israel is? Austin offers us an entirely one-eyed view.
He says nothing of international law, of genocide, of famine – as if they don't exist. He cites the Hamas atrocity of Oct 7 2023, rightly so, but says nothing of the ongoing atrocities of Israel in response.
There have been more than 50,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza since Israel's offensive began, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, of which thousands are children – let that sink in. That is before considering the new abomination of state-sponsored famine as a weapon of war.
Instead, he labels Hamas as cowards and claims they hide in hospitals and schools.
In saying this, he acts simply as a mouthpiece for Israel, which regularly bombs such places and uses this exact excuse – it happened again this week, another hospital bombing and another 60 civilians dead.
How on earth can anyone try to justify this, morally, legally or intellectually? Ian Austin should hang his head in shame.
The case for sanctions against Israel is clear and compelling. It's overwhelming, if we act consistently.
The precedent we have is Russia – our response to the invasion of Ukraine, the killing of civilians, the destruction of infrastructure and the occupation of lands – was strong and unequivocal.
We imposed unprecedented levels of sanctions, one wave after another, and talked openly about breaking the Russian economy to force them to stop. That is the right response.
And it stands, for the moment, in stark contrast to how we have reacted to Israel's invasion and occupation of Palestine.
Of course, we live in post-truth times, in the second coming of Trump and all that entails for logic, honesty and consistency. But this beggars belief.
Trade sanctions for Russia's illegal invasion and war crimes – but trade deals for Israel.
Austin says Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. Even if that were true, it cannot justify war crimes and human rights abuses.
But it doesn't feel true that Israel is a democracy, especially if you are a Palestinian living under Israeli control in Gaza or the West Bank. It's not for nothing that the International Court of Justice has labelled Israel an apartheid state.
There is no case for being an ally of such a country as Israel is under its current government. No case for a trade deal – but there is an overwhelming case for trade sanctions.
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