The Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said last week that “no humanitarian aid will enter Gaza”, effectively announcing the intention of his government to continue the collective punishment of the beaten and besieged civilian population of the Palestinian enclave in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.
“The blocking of this aid is one of the main pressure levers preventing Hamas from using it as a tool with the population,” he said, “nobody is currently planning to authorize humanitarian aid in Gaza, and there is no preparation to allow such aid.”
Many leading NGOs and international institutions, such as amnesty and human rights surveillance, have long identified the armament of the aid of Israel in Gaza as an act of genocide. In response to Katz’s most recent comments, they have once again condemned the genocidal policies of the Israeli government and have called on Israeli Western allies to take action to enforce international law.
These convictions and calls for action, however, clearly manage to produce the desired results. After 18 devastating months, Israel is still bombing, shooting, moving and affaming Palestinians, while openly declaring his intention to pursue these crimes in the predictable future. And he always does it with the full political, military and diplomatic support of his Western allies, including Great Britain.
This is why we think it’s time for British NGOs to change their punch.
In the past 18 months, many of us working in the human rights and help in Great Britain have made repeated requests to our government to make the strict minimum and apply the fundamental principles of international law on its ally, Israel. We campaigned, we put pressure, we were committed and we explained. We have shown the evidence, underlined the law and asked our leaders to do the right thing. Our pleadings fell into the ears of a deaf. We only encountered indifference.
To date, the government of Keir Starmer continues to trade and even to sell weapons to the Israeli government, although it is aware of the flagrant crimes, Israel is day after day in Gaza and in the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories. He still considers Israel a key ally despite the fact that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) examines an allegation of genocide led by his “war” in Gaza and that there is an arrest warrant of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for various war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Last week, British Foreign Minister David Lammy had talks with Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar – the first diplomat of a government under investigation for the genocide – when he was visiting London. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Lammy had met Sa’ar to “discuss Gaza and other pressing questions from the Middle East”, during what it described as the “Israeli minister’s private visit to the United Kingdom”.
It is unacceptable. Representatives of the British government should not have public or private meetings with high ministers from a country accused of the most heinous crimes recognized in international law. They must not “discuss Gaza and other pressing problems of the Middle East” with Israeli leaders while Israel continues to bomb refugee tents, kill journalists and doctors, and block the delivery of aid to an implacable seat population.
No politician can claim ignorance of what’s going on. Tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed. Many others have been mutilated, traumatized and displaced. Hospitals, clinics, refugee camps, schools, universities, residential districts, water and food establishments have been destroyed. Hundreds of humanitarian workers – local and foreign, including the British – have been targeted and killed, for the crime to try to help the Palestinians.
The British public as a whole is horrified by what Israel does in the occupied Palestinian territories, and they want it to stop. We have seen it in various opinion polls and in the streets in the form of enormous manifestations.
And yet our government is uncompromising. Meetings that so much aid and human rights organizations have had ministers and senior officials – difficult to obtain in the first place – had no impact. The Government of Starmer is waterproof for all the normal lobbying and campaign tools that we use. He refuses to take Israel to account for his blatant violations of international law.
It’s time for us to try a different strategy. We cannot continue to engage with the British government as if we had only a political disagreement. This is not a case of routine from our government refusing to pay enough attention to a conflict or a crisis, due to different priorities or contradictory interests. This is not a disagreement that we can overcome by commitment and debate. Today, British leaders are unaware not only of the most odious war crimes in difficulty daily on our screens, but also insisted on supporting the authors of these crimes – diplomatically, politically and militarily – against warnings and desperate pleadings in the Human Rights sector.
We believe that the only way NGOs can really make a difference in this space is to end any commitment with the government on this issue. By continuing to speak to the government, we do not help the Palestinians on the ground where our colleagues working with a target on the back in Gaza. We simply offer the government the opportunity to say that it does something to help those who are stuck in the killing area of Israel.
We must not participate in processes and commitments that will be used to whiten the complicity of Great Britain in the crimes of Israel.
Rather than trying to speak to a government that does not intend to listen to, we must support demonstrations, boycotts and legal efforts to play the leaders of Israel to account for their role in the genocide. The British government may not be willing to pay attention to our campaigns and reports, but they will end up paying attention to the constantly growing demonstrations in the streets and legal decisions against their Israeli allies before the British and international courts. At this stage, the continuation of a dialogue with the government will only transform us into an instruments of British foreign policy.
There is only one way to follow. We have to name noisily what is happening in Gaza – a genocide. We must name the crime, to underline the complicity of our government and to concentrate our efforts on the elevation of the votes of our Palestinian colleagues on the ground. Meetings with ministers and closed officials will not make a difference, but informing the public of what is really going on in Gaza, with the support of our government, just May.
We know that our actions cannot put an end to the genocide of occupied Palestine, but they can always make a difference. We can add to the pressure on those who have the power to stop the carnage, which is thus necessary. In addition, the cessation of our unsuccessful commitments with the government will allow us to redirect our work, to reconnect with the wider audience to whom we must draw our legitimacy and our strength, and concentrate our energy on the actions that can make a real difference for people in need.
The actions that we, as members of the Help and Human Rights sector in Great Britain, take now, do not only count for those of Gaza. The way in which our government, our main institutions and our society in general deal with genocide in Gaza will establish a precedent to find out how they will treat crises and emergencies in the future – in the country and abroad. He will determine if our country will be a force that works to respect human rights and international law, or which accompanies them whenever it is practical. Today, we must all fight for what is right and show our government that indifference is not acceptable to the genocide, lest we become accomplices ourselves. History will judge how we react at this time.
The opinions expressed in this article are the own authors and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.