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UK lawmakers urge Foreign Secretary Lammy to recognise Palestinian state
UK lawmakers urge Foreign Secretary Lammy to recognise Palestinian state

Al Jazeera

time2 days ago

  • Politics
  • Al Jazeera

UK lawmakers urge Foreign Secretary Lammy to recognise Palestinian state

Nearly 60 lawmakers in the United Kingdom have written to Foreign Secretary David Lammy this week, calling out Israel's plans for the 'ethnic cleansing' of Gaza and demanding the country immediately recognise Palestine as a state. The 59 lawmakers, all from the governing Labour Party, criticised Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz's plans to force Gaza's 2.1 million Palestinians into a so-called 'humanitarian city' – likened by some analysts to a concentration camp – built on the ruins of Rafah. The letter, sent to Lammy on Thursday and made public on Saturday, cited Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard as saying Palestinians were being pushed to the southern tip of Gaza 'in preparation for deportation outside the strip', slamming the move as 'ethnic cleansing'. They urged the foreign secretary to stop Israel's 'operational plan for crimes against humanity'. It also called on London to follow the lead of French President Emmanuel Macron, who recently announced an intent to recognise a Palestinian state, so as not to undermine its own policy in support of a two-state solution. Dozens of Labour MPs have signed letter calling on @FCDOGovUK Secretary David Lammy to take concrete action on #Gaza including immediate recognition of #Palestine Here it is in full, though more MPs signing up by the minute Thanks @LFPME for coordinating, government must heed — Rupa Huq MP (@RupaHuq) July 12, 2025 Reporting from London, Al Jazeera's Sonia Gallego said Macron had given calls to formally recognise Palestine as a state 'extra heft' during his three-day state visit to the UK this week. In an address on Tuesday to the UK's Parliament, he had said the move was a matter of 'absolute urgency' and the 'only path to peace', calling on the country to help create the 'political momentum' for a two-state solution. Gallego pointed out that Lammy had on Tuesday criticised the controversial US-backed GHF sites at Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee. 'It's not doing a good job. Too many people are close to starvation. Too many people have lost their lives,' Lammy had said. Three out of the enclave's four GHF sites, which have sidelined Gaza's vast UN-led aid delivery network, are located in southern Gaza, effectively forcing starving Palestinians towards Israel's new 'humanitarian city' in Rafah. On Friday, the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that 819 Palestinians have been killed while waiting for food – 634 in the vicinity of GHF sites, which have been operational since late May. On Saturday, 34 more were killed near a GHF site in Rafah. Lammy had also said that the UK could take further action against Israel if a ceasefire deal to end the war in the Palestinian territory does not materialise. But he stressed that London wants to recognise Palestine as part of a concrete move towards the two-state solution, not just as a symbolic gesture. The lawmakers welcomed the Labour government's calls for a ceasefire, its suspension of arms licenses to Israel, and its sanctioning of hardline Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, but said the 'desperation and seriousness' of the situation in Gaza required more action. 'We cannot leave actions in our back pocket while the situation facing Palestinian civilians reaches critical and existential levels,' said the letter, which was organised by Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East, co-chaired by lawmakers Sarah Owen and Andrew Pakes. 'By not recognising [Palestine] as a state, we … set an expectation that the status quo can continue and see the effective erasure and annexation of Palestinian territory,' it added. The Times of Israel reported this week that an international conference aiming to resuscitate the two-state solution was postponed to July 28-29 after plans to hold it last month were derailed by the 12-day Iran-Israel war.

Nearly 60 British Labour MPs urge UK to immediately recognize Palestinian state
Nearly 60 British Labour MPs urge UK to immediately recognize Palestinian state

Arab News

time2 days ago

  • Politics
  • Arab News

Nearly 60 British Labour MPs urge UK to immediately recognize Palestinian state

LONDON: A group of nearly 60 British Labour politicians have called on the UK government to immediately recognize a Palestinian state, following alarming developments in Gaza and controversial remarks from Israel's defense minister, The Guardian reported on Saturday. In a letter sent to UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Thursday, the cross-section of MPs, spanning both centrist and left-wing factions, accused Israel of ethnic cleansing in Gaza and demanded urgent action to prevent the forcible transfer of Palestinian civilians to a camp in the ruins of Rafah. 'It is with great urgency and concern that we are writing to you regarding the Israeli defense minister's announcement on Monday of his plans to forcibly transfer all Palestinian civilians in Gaza to a camp in the ruined city of Rafah without allowing them to leave,' the MPs wrote. Citing a prominent Israeli human rights lawyer, they continued: 'The defense minister's plans have been described by a leading Israeli human rights lawyer, Michael Sfard, as 'an operational plan for crimes against humanity. It's about population transfer to the southern tip of Gaza in preparation for deportation outside the strip.' 'Though an accurate description, we believe there is a clearer one. The ethnic cleansing of Gaza,' they added. The letter, organized by Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East, was signed by 59 MPs, including group co-chairs Sarah Owen and Andrew Pakes, as well as Liam Byrne, chair of the business and trade select committee. Other prominent signatories include Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, Stella Creasy, Clive Lewis, Diane Abbott and Dawn Butler. The MPs outlined five key demands to ministers, some of which are in line with existing UK policy, such as continued funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency and efforts to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas. However, other recommendations are likely to stir political debate. These include imposing a trade blockade on Israeli settlements in the West Bank and granting immediate recognition to Palestine as a sovereign state. 'By not recognizing (Palestine) as a state, we undermine our own policy of a two-state solution and set an expectation that the status quo can continue and see the effective erasure and annexation of Palestinian territory,' the MPs warned. The UK government has previously indicated that it supports recognition of a Palestinian state 'at the point of maximum impact,' as part of a broader peace process in coordination with international allies. A spokesperson for the Foreign Office reiterated this position: 'We are committed to recognizing a Palestinian state and to doing so when (it) will have most impact in support of a peace process.' The Labour MPs' intervention comes just days after French President Emmanuel Macron issued a similar call during his state visit to the UK. Speaking alongside Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Macron stressed the need for an unconditional ceasefire and momentum toward recognition. 'Calling today for a ceasefire in Gaza without any condition is telling the rest of the world that for us as Europeans, there is no double standard. As we are attached to human lives, as we are attached to territorial integrity, we want the ceasefire, no discussion,' Macron said. 'Today, working together in order to recognize the state of Palestine and to initiate this political momentum is the only path to peace,' he added. This is the second letter sent by Labour MPs in recent weeks calling for immediate recognition of Palestine, but the first time the signatories have made their names public. A previous letter also included some parliamentary aides and junior ministers.

Yes, Israel's plan for Rafah would be a crime – but international law has never protected Gaza
Yes, Israel's plan for Rafah would be a crime – but international law has never protected Gaza

The Guardian

time2 days ago

  • Politics
  • The Guardian

Yes, Israel's plan for Rafah would be a crime – but international law has never protected Gaza

Over the past 21 long months of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, voices all over the world have decried the demise of international law and the rule-based order. And indeed, the facade of Israel's adherence to international law has vanished and policies that constitute war crimes are now brazenly declared. This week, Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, has shared plans to forcibly move Palestinians into a camp in the ruins of Rafah. Once they enter, they cannot leave. In other words, a concentration camp, which by definition is an internment centre for members of a national group (as well as political prisoners or minority groups) on the grounds of security or punishment, usually by military order. Michael Sfard, an Israeli human rights lawyer, was quoted in the Guardian as saying that Katz 'laid out an operational plan for a crime against humanity'. Hundreds have been killed and thousands wounded trying to access food. I have tried hard to understand the incomprehensible suffering endured by Palestinians in Gaza and how it is that most Israelis do not acknowledge their humanity. How are they able to show no remorse for what their army is carrying out in their name? I believe the seed of our dehumanisation was planted during the Arab-Israeli war in 1948. Palestinians were violently deprived of land, property and belongings in what we would come to call the Nakba (Arabic for 'the catastrophe'), on the grounds that the land was God-given to the Jewish people. From that time, Israelis have been able to use Arab homes, lands and orchards without any feeling of guilt. The 7 October attacks were the starting point of the war, but Israel has been systematically degrading and dispossessing the Palestinian people for decades. Such violations of international law lead to a feeling of despair about the inability of institutions to prevent the horrors of Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank and to hold perpetrators to account. The UN-backed international criminal court has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant over allegations of 'the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts'. No arrests have been made. The west continues to supply military and political support to Israel. I ask myself: should we Palestinians feel helpless in the face of this failure? And yet the truth is that international law, though used as a measuring stick and point of reference by human rights organisations, has never been Palestine's salvation. Ever since the failure to implement the 1948 UN resolution 194, which gave Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes in what became Israel, we have been disappointed again and again. This has not been for lack of attempts by Palestinians over the years to invoke the law – whether through Israeli courts, international tribunals or third-party enforcement mechanisms. One simple reason for their failure has been that international law lacks effective means of enforcement. More complex reasons rest with the interests of the powerful. My hope lies in Palestinian resilience. The prevalent hope and expectation was that the Palestinians would forget their land in a generation or two. This proved totally unfounded. Seventy-seven years later, Palestinians are as attached to the land they were forced from as in those first few bloody days. Likewise with all the illegal changes and extensive Jewish settlement and altered geography in my home, the West Bank, we Palestinians continue to hold on to the practice we call sumoud: refusing to give up or leave. I cannot speak for Palestinians in Gaza, but I can see that we share the same spirit despite the immensity of the suffering. When the war ends, and journalists and foreign organisations are allowed access to Gaza, the truth will emerge. The heart-wrenching first-hand accounts by those living there – the experiences of the women, men and children, of artists, writers and poets; lives cut short, or changed irrevocably – may yet come to haunt Israelis. It will be our humanity, not any international law, that will judge and hold Israel and its allies accountable. On a different scale but in no less glaring a manner, the illegal unilateral changes that Israel is carrying out in the West Bank, often with the aid of settler militias, will provide an image of Israeli greed for land and its ideologically driven policies. Perhaps there is no better example of the absurdity of Israel's actions than the case of the Old City of Hebron. The city is held hostage by a small group of Jewish extremists numbering 900 who live in the centre of Hebron – the second-largest Palestinian city in the West Bank, with a population of 232,500. The Jewish population is protected day and night by more than 1,000 Israeli soldiers. To allow settlers and soldiers to move freely, restrictions on Palestinian movement include dozens of fortified checkpoints, roadblocks and permanent and temporary military posts. The old city has practically been emptied of its Palestinian population. Is this sustainable? As far as the future of Gaza is concerned, the question that is going to be crucial is whether, with the destruction of the means of surviving – the farmland, water supplies, hospitals and schools – the land can continue to sustain life. The world community that has shamefully failed to enforce international law could make a difference on this matter if it insists that, after the end of hostilities, Israel allows the opening of the Gaza Strip and ensures that aid is brought to enable Palestinians to continue living there while the area is rebuilt. Gaza has a history of 4,000 years of continuous human habitation. Israel's attempt at causing life there to cease is doomed to fail. Palestinians will, either with the help of others or without, find a way to survive. Raja Shehadeh is a Palestinian lawyer and writer, and founder of the human rights organisation Al-Haq. His latest book is Forgotten: Searching for Palestine's Hidden Places and Lost Memorials, with Penny Johnson.

Yes, Israel's plan for Rafah would be a crime – but international law has never protected Gaza
Yes, Israel's plan for Rafah would be a crime – but international law has never protected Gaza

The Guardian

time3 days ago

  • Politics
  • The Guardian

Yes, Israel's plan for Rafah would be a crime – but international law has never protected Gaza

Over the past 21 long months of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, voices all over the world have decried the demise of international law and the rule-based order. And indeed, the facade of Israel's adherence to international law has vanished and policies that constitute war crimes are now brazenly declared. This week, Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, has shared plans to forcibly move Palestinians into a camp in the ruins of Rafah. Once they enter, they cannot leave. In other words, a concentration camp, which by definition is an internment centre for members of a national group (as well as political prisoners or minority groups) on the grounds of security or punishment, usually by military order. Michael Sfard, an Israeli human rights lawyer, was quoted in the Guardian as saying that Katz 'laid out an operational plan for a crime against humanity'. Hundreds have been killed and thousands wounded trying to access food. I have tried hard to understand the incomprehensible suffering endured by Palestinians in Gaza and how it is that most Israelis do not acknowledge their humanity. How are they able to show no remorse for what their army is carrying out in their name? I believe the seed of our dehumanisation was planted during the Arab-Israeli war in 1948. Palestinians were violently deprived of land, property and belongings in what we would come to call the Nakba (Arabic for 'the catastrophe'), on the grounds that the land was God-given to the Jewish people. From that time, Israelis have been able to use Arab homes, lands and orchards without any feeling of guilt. The 7 October attacks were the starting point of the war, but Israel has been systematically degrading and dispossessing the Palestinian people for decades. Such violations of international law lead to a feeling of despair about the inability of institutions to prevent the horrors of Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank and to hold perpetrators to account. The UN-backed international criminal court has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant over allegations of 'the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts'. No arrests have been made. The west continues to supply military and political support to Israel. I ask myself: should we Palestinians feel helpless in the face of this failure? And yet the truth is that international law, though used as a measuring stick and point of reference by human rights organisations, has never been Palestine's salvation. Ever since the failure to implement the 1948 UN resolution 194, which gave Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes in what became Israel, we have been disappointed again and again. This has not been for lack of attempts by Palestinians over the years to invoke the law – whether through Israeli courts, international tribunals or third-party enforcement mechanisms. One simple reason for their failure has been that international law lacks effective means of enforcement. More complex reasons rest with the interests of the powerful. My hope lies in Palestinian resilience. The prevalent hope and expectation was that the Palestinians would forget their land in a generation or two. This proved totally unfounded. Seventy-seven years later, Palestinians are as attached to the land they were forced from as in those first few bloody days. Likewise with all the illegal changes and extensive Jewish settlement and altered geography in my home, the West Bank, we Palestinians continue to hold on to the practice we call sumoud: refusing to give up or leave. I cannot speak for Palestinians in Gaza, but I can see that we share the same spirit despite the immensity of the suffering. When the war ends, and journalists and foreign organisations are allowed access to Gaza, the truth will emerge. The heart-wrenching first-hand accounts by those living there – the experiences of the women, men and children, of artists, writers and poets; lives cut short, or changed irrevocably – may yet come to haunt Israelis. It will be our humanity, not any international law, that will judge and hold Israel and its allies accountable. On a different scale but in no less glaring a manner, the illegal unilateral changes that Israel is carrying out in the West Bank, often with the aid of settler militias, will provide an image of Israeli greed for land and its ideologically driven policies. Perhaps there is no better example of the absurdity of Israel's actions than the case of the Old City of Hebron. The city is held hostage by a small group of Jewish extremists numbering 900 who live in the centre of Hebron – the second-largest Palestinian city in the West Bank, with a population of 232,500. The Jewish population is protected day and night by more than 1,000 Israeli soldiers. To allow settlers and soldiers to move freely, restrictions on Palestinian movement include dozens of fortified checkpoints, roadblocks and permanent and temporary military posts. The old city has practically been emptied of its Palestinian population. Is this sustainable? As far as the future of Gaza is concerned, the question that is going to be crucial is whether, with the destruction of the means of surviving – the farmland, water supplies, hospitals and schools – the land can continue to sustain life. The world community that has shamefully failed to enforce international law could make a difference on this matter if it insists that, after the end of hostilities, Israel allows the opening of the Gaza Strip and ensures that aid is brought to enable Palestinians to continue living there while the area is rebuilt. Gaza has a history of 4,000 years of continuous human habitation. Israel's attempt at causing life there to cease is doomed to fail. Palestinians will, either with the help of others or without, find a way to survive. Raja Shehadeh is a Palestinian lawyer and writer, and founder of the human rights organisation Al-Haq. His latest book is Forgotten: Searching for Palestine's Hidden Places and Lost Memorials, with Penny Johnson.

Israel's ‘humanitarian city' plan paves way for Trump's Gaza Riviera
Israel's ‘humanitarian city' plan paves way for Trump's Gaza Riviera

Telegraph

time6 days ago

  • Politics
  • Telegraph

Israel's ‘humanitarian city' plan paves way for Trump's Gaza Riviera

One by one, displaced Gazans would pass through security checkpoints where they would be searched for weapons or signs of links to Hamas before being allowed into a new 'humanitarian city' built on ruins. Once inside, they would not be allowed to leave unless they want to follow a Trump-approved 'emigration plan' to start the mass deportation out of the Strip. That is the latest plan proposed by one of Israel's hard-line leaders, the foreign minister Israel Katz. Critics say it would amount to ethnic cleansing. Michael Sfard, an Israeli human rights lawyer, described Mr Katz's plan as 'a crime against humanity'. 'It is nothing less than that,' he said. 'It is all about population transfer to the southern tip of the Gaza Strip in preparation for deportation outside the strip.' About 600,000 people, mostly those who are already displaced, would be moved in the initial phase, followed by the rest of the roughly two-million-strong population. The hawkish Mr Katz, an ally of Benjamin Netanyahu's, presented the scheme on Monday as part of the overall mission to finally defeat Hamas. It is difficult to know with any certainty what such an unprecedented undertaking would look like in practice. One analyst said Mr Katz had, in effect, just ordered the construction of the largest tented area in the world. However, clues can arguably be found in the ongoing initiative to feed civilians via a US backed firm, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), not least because some of its purpose-built distribution sites are in and around Rafah. According to eyewitness reports and some videos that have emerged, civilians are forced to walk for miles through a militarised wasteland where nearly all the buildings have been destroyed by the bombs or bulldozers of the IDF. They are typically corralled between large man-made berms of earth or high metal fences fringed with barbed wire while they wait for ID checks. Hundreds of civilians have been killed in mass-shootings near the sites, with Palestinians accusing Israeli troops. The IDF blames Hamas for deliberately sowing chaos. Mr Katz's comments have prompted alarm not only because of the added suffering it could inflict on ordinary Gazans, but because, some fear, the plan will be used to facilitate the forced displacement of the population. In other words, the highly controversial vision for Gaza as announced by Donald Trump in February. According to the president's so-called Middle East 'Riviera' idea the population would be moved in order to redevelop the Strip into a richman's paradise resembling Las Vegas or Dubai. In more recent months, particularly as he visited Arab leaders in the Gulf, Mr Trump had gone noticeably quiet on this topic. This led commentators to conclude that he had never meant it seriously, but instead used the provocative idea to force the Middle East into coming up with its own plan for post-war Gaza. However, during Mr Netanyahu's visit to the White House this week, the spectre of a 'Trump Gaza' has, arguably, re-emerged. One Israeli official in Washington was reported as saying that Mr Trump was still keen on the idea (although the president dodged the question at a press conference). Mr Netanyahu himself praised the president's 'brilliant vision' and said Israel was close to agreements with third countries to receive Gazan civilians. The prime minister was clear, as he has been since February, to frame the idea as a one of voluntary relocation. 'If people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave,' he told reporters, fresh from having handed Mr Trump a letter nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize. 'It shouldn't be a prison,' Mr Netanyahu continued. 'It should be an open place, and give people a free choice.' Human rights organisations say life is now so grim for Gazans civilians that, if even a half-safe third country was prepared to take them, they would have to agree to go. In other words, in practical terms, there would be nothing voluntary about it. That is the main reason why Mr Katz's plan for a so-called humanitarian city has caused such a stir. Often the most bellicose in Mr Netanyahu's Right-wing cabinet when it comes to the subject of Palestinians, he has consistently been the biggest cheerleader for the idea of relocation, other than the ultra-nationalist coalition partners. As defence minister, he previously ordered officials to prepare a mechanism to allow Gazans to resettle elsewhere. It is no coincidence that the subject of population transfer has re-emerged as formal talks continue with Hamas on a ceasefire and hostage release deal. It does Israel no harm to posit an extreme scenario for what might happen to the enclave if Hamas does not play ball. Although Mr Katz spoke of forcing civilians to the south in the context of a 60-day deal, Hamas will have several potent reasons to reject the proposal. The terror group thrives when surrounded by ordinary civilians – it is their preferred means of fighting. The Katz proposal would also cut them off entirely from incoming aid, emptying their already drained coffers and allowing the IDF to effectively starve them out over months. The humanitarian city would be run by international organisations, Mr Katz said, but did not specify which ones. Finally, their self-styled status as the Palestinian people's legitimate arm of resistance risks being trashed if they consented to rendering the entire population refugees within their own land, let alone – potentially – outside it. However, some analysts believe that Hamas, ground down by the relentless IDF assault, is gasping for a ceasefire and may show some flexibility on these points. An official close to the talks in Qatar said that while agreement had not yet been reached, the 'gaps are small'. If the multiple recent leaks from Israel's security cabinet in the last couple of weeks are to be relied on, the army's leadership is extremely sceptical of any plan that involves their long-term presence in Gaza as a governing power. The Israeli chief of staff, major-general Eyal Zamir, is said to have told ministers that his troops have gone as far as they can go without putting the remaining hostages – 20 are thought to be alive – at grave risk. It would take three brigades at least to secure Mr Katz's proposed 'humanitarian city'. To whatever extent Hamas has been causing unrest at the aid distribution sites, Israeli troops have a tendency to react aggressively when Palestinians come close. Having to police the entire population in a relatively small area raises the risk of further mass shootings and international outrage. Despite the potential for a deal in the coming days, or further down the line, it is clear that for the ultra-nationalists in Mr Netanyahu's government, and indeed others on the Right, population transfer in Gaza is not just a bargaining chip, but a goal. Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, are enthusiastically behind it, and can bring down Mr Netanyahu's coalition if they choose. On Monday it was reported that a $2 billion (£1.5 billion) plan to create 'humanitarian transit areas' inside – and possibly outside Gaza – were already presented to the White House, possibly months ago. According to Reuters, the proposal bore the name of GHF, although the group denies any involvement. Either way, there are powerful forces who want this to happen.

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