I am one of least 23 Labour councillors who have resigned from the party since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war. At Oxford city council, where I now sit as an independent, eight of us have left. The reason I quit is because the leader of the Labour party, Keir Starmer, horrifyingly endorsed the collective punishment of Palestinians in Gaza.
In an LBC interview on 11 October, pressed on whether Israel’s siege of Gaza – cutting off power and water – was appropriate, he said: “I think that Israel does have that right, it is an ongoing situation. Obviously, everything should be done within international law, but I don’t want to step away from the core principles that Israel has a right to defend herself.”
I found this response disturbing because Israel’s actions are a form of collective punishment, which is illegal under international law. Starmer is a former human rights barrister and must have known this. His words echoed those of the shadow attorney general, Emily Thornberry, who also refused to condemn the cutting off of water and electricity.
To date neither Starmer nor anyone from his shadow cabinet have openly and loudly called for a ceasefire or for an end to Israel’s lethal and indiscriminate use of force, which is pulverising Gaza – one of the most densely populated parts of the world, crammed with 2.2 million people, almost half of whom are children under the age of 18.
As someone involved in international aid for more than 15 years, I have worked across the region including in the Palestinian occupied territories. I have seen the refugee camps of Gaza, the jarringly idyllically named Beach camp and Jabalia camp, which have both been bombed.
I have spent decades working with emergency international aid teams trying to negotiate for aid to reach conflict areas and advocating for humanitarian access, and calling on governments and politicians to do the same. I never thought I would have to do the same within my own party.
If Starmer can be so reckless with his words and lacking in principle as leader of the opposition, what is going to happen when – as is expected – he becomes prime minister at the next general election? A week later, Starmer’s spokesperson said it was “one of those things where there were overlapping questions and answers based on what had been being said before”. Then Starmer himself started to backtrack. But instead of just saying that he was wrong or that he misspoke, he tried to make it seem as though he had never said what he actually said.
“I know that LBC clip has been widely shared and caused real concern and distress in some Muslim communities, so let me be clear about what I was saying and what I wasn’t saying. I was saying that Israel has the right to self-defence, and when I said that right I meant it was that right to self-defence. I was not saying that Israel had the right to cut off water, food, fuel or medicines.”
It appears that his team’s strategy to dig themselves out of this hole is to gaslight British Muslims and heap further harm and disrespect on our devastated communities. A cynical photo opportunity at an Islamic centre in south Wales – after which Starmer published a poorly phrased tweet that referenced Hamas’s hostages – only made things worse.
The Israel and Palestine conflict is not fundamentally a Muslim or Jewish issue, it is a human rights issue, but the conflict disproportionately affects Muslims and Jews across the world and here in the UK, where people live in increasing fear of hate crimes and for our wellbeing and safety. For Muslims of different national backgrounds, the human rights situation in Palestine is a unifying issue and this is why the resignation of Muslim councillors and activists, and the demoralising of potential Labour voters, really matters.
While it remains to be seen if the much discussed “Muslim vote” holds for Labour, what is very clear from the events of the past two weeks is that we are seen as politically disposable. This, after all, is a party that was accused in the Forde report of “in effect operating a hierarchy of racism”, failing to properly deal with accusations of Islamophobia. As if to prove Forde’s point, just consider this: a “senior Labour source” has been quoted as describing the resignation of councillors like myself as “shaking off the fleas”.
Starmer and Labour can celebrate their byelection wins, driven by a collapse in the Tory vote, but what they can’t do any more is pretend that their drive to power is in the name of all of Britain’s communities, with its multiracial working class. It’s clear that British Muslims – who have been through so much, from disproportionately suffering the effects of Covid to being smeared as “groomers” by the home secretary, Suella Braverman – are just not considered politically important by Labour.
This week, two elderly Pakistani men, who came to Britain in the postwar period to help rebuild the country, contacted me to offer support. They said that by resigning from Labour, I was standing up not just for Palestinians but for them too. I remain humbled by their words.
Shaista Aziz is a journalist, a writer and an independent councillor for Oxford city council
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