Scottish isle has shown leadership our leaders sorely lack

The National

26-07-2025

I'm referring to the community-owned Isle of Eigg – population, 120 – which has signed up to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign. Modelled on the movement which brought down Apartheid South Africa, it seeks to isolate the genocidal state of Israel by, for example, boycotting its goods and divesting from its economy. No more Israeli goods will appear in the local shop, and the residents declare that this is 'part of a continuous commitment to fundraising and solidarity with oppressed peoples.'
Eigg is taking the action that Westminster will not. Our leaders have a different approach to the violent depravity and deliberate starvation inflicted by Israel on Gaza: statements which express distress and anger, but mean nothing, while they continue to arm Israel.
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On Friday evening, the UK, France and Germany issued a statement which declared that the 'time has come to end the war in Gaza', while demanding that the civilian population's needs must be met.
I bet they're trembling in their jackboots in Israeli military headquarters. Sure, they got away with 21 months of slaughtering plausibly well over 100,000 Palestinians in Gaza alone, indiscriminately wiping out civilian infrastructure and the pillars of civilisation, imposing a wantonly illegal siege while destroying local food production, and subjecting the survivors to torture, kidnapping and rape. But the British, French and German governments have sent yet another really disappointed letter, so the game is up, boys!
Let's be candid here. As Israel's entirely manufactured famine ravages Gaza's traumatised survivors, and photographs of children and babies reduced to skin and bone belatedly make it on to front pages, the Western public is increasingly disgusted and angry. Letters such as this are not, in actual fact, aimed at Israel at all. They are intended to deflect scrutiny about the role of Western leaders in manufacturing one of the great crimes of our age.
Israeli protesters demonstrating against the genocide Sure, France has finally agreed to recognise an independent Palestinian state – an act which still eludes the Labour Government – but this is hardly the most pressing action. Western governments know exactly what Israel has been doing for nearly two years. Their leaders and officials have insisted on declaring their genocidal intentions with uncompromising honesty, day after day. On Thursday, the Israeli Heritage Minister declared that Israel is: 'racing ahead for [[Gaza]] to be wiped out. Thank God we are wiping out this evil. We are pushing this population that has been educated on Mein Kampf', adding 'All [[Gaza]] will be Jewish.'
Not exactly subtle, is it? You may wonder why on earth Israel's rulers would self-incriminate themselves so willingly. Don't they know the world can hear them? Well, alas, they know almost the entire Western media – with exceptions like The National – will suppress these bloodcurdling promises. And they know that Western leaders will take no meaningful action.
Western leaders know that the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against the Israeli leadership for war crimes and crimes against humanity. They know that South Africa's genocide case at the International Court of Justice led to devastating rulings and provisional orders. They know that a consensus of genocide scholars and NGOs from Amnesty International to Medicins Sant Frontieres have concluded this is genocide. They are also familiar with the deluge of videos and photographs exposing Israeli atrocities, as well as confessions by Israeli soldiers, such as that they are deliberately shooting at the unarmed civilians they starved.
Our government could stop providing Israel with weapons, including components crucial for the functioning of its F-35 death jets. It could impose sweeping sanctions on Israel, as it has had no problem doing in other cases. It could impose a trade embargo on Israel, on the grounds that there is no worse crime than genocide, rather than continuing annual trade worth nearly £6bn.
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It's not just the British government rendering itself actively complicit. Ursula von der Leyen – the president of the European Commission – declared that 'the images from Gaza are unbearable'. But they are clearly entirely bearable, because earlier this month, the EU refused to impose sanctions on Israel, leading Amnesty International to condemn it for a 'cruel and unlawful betrayal' of the Palestinian people. The EU is Israel's biggest trading partner, and Israeli campaigner Ami Dar declared that 'the EU could make Israel open the gates to virtually unlimited aid into Gaza on a day's notice. Not doing so is a choice.'
The active decision of Britain and its Western allies to facilitate genocide is exactly that – a choice.
The Israeli state knows it has been able to get away with anything – from reducing Gaza to apocalyptic ruin to proposing a concentration camp before the strip is removed of all living Palestinians. Israel understands that its Western allies have domestic pressures, and they must occasionally respond to that anger with statements that are ultimately meaningless.
Which brings us back to Eigg. This small island will not end the genocide alone. But all injustices are overwhelmed by collective power, by acts that are big and small. In the here and now, Eigg has shown the leadership that is currently lacking. They will inspire others to take action.
Struggles against injustice are often contagious. So while our leaders continue to make themselves actively complicit in the crime of the century, here's to the spirit of Eigg.
For generations to come, people will ask – what did you do during Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people? Eigg has a good answer. Make sure you do, too.