BRITAIN must not be complicit in Israel’s ongoing crimes against humanity, Palestine’s ambassador to Britain warned today after reports emerged that Tony Blair may become involved in Israel’s ethnic cleansing.
The former prime minister and warmonger visited Israel last week to discuss a possible role in mediating the relationship between the country and Arab nations after the war on Gaza.
The role would include a part in Israel’s plan of resettling Palestinians in other countries, according to the Times of Israel.
Mr Blair has so far denied the reports.
Palestinian Mission to the UK head Husam Zomlot said the role would help Israel to “implement the mass expulsion and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland under the guise of ‘voluntary migration’.”
He said in a statement: “We call on the UK government to ensure that no British figure will in any way take part in Israel’s ongoing crimes against humanity.
“We are adamant that any who do will have to bear the legal consequences of such immoral and criminal acts against the Palestinian people.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Stammer, December 27, 2023
2024 is almost certainly a general election year. Westminster rumours of a May poll are rife, but the autumn remains the more likely option for beleaguered premier Rishi Sunak.
An essential function of a democratic election is to offer the possibility of a change of government. The forthcoming contest, however, seems to offer little more than a shift in administrators of the same anti-popular policy.
The problem facing voters wanting significant change — the majority of the electorate one can assume — is the state of the Labour Party. On the most pressing international issues — Palestine and Ukraine — its policy is identical with the Tories: war and more war, as Washington directs.
Domestically its priority is sticking within the narrow parameters of Treasury orthodoxy. Anything involving spending public money is, even after 13 years of austerity, ruled out. So too tax rises on the rich.
The Green New Deal is diluted further by the day, and privatisation looks like extending its tentacles into the NHS.
Even more positive Labour policies, like extending trade union rights, are clouded by a scepticism as to Keir Starmer’s sincerity, given his well-earned reputation for dissimulation and double-dealing.
Original article republished from Middle East Monitor under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir in Beersheba on April 25, 2023 [GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP via Getty Images]
Two senior Israeli ministers in the country’s ruling far-right coalition cabinet have called for the “voluntary emigration” of Palestinians from Gaza and the expansion of settlements, as the post-war fate of millions in the Strip continues to be debated upon.
During their parties’ faction meetings in the Israeli Knesset yesterday, National Security Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, and Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, offered the emigration of Palestinian civilians from the Gaza Strip as a potential solution to conflict between the Occupation and the Palestinian resistance factions.
Speaking to reporters and members of his far-right Otzma Yehudit party, Ben Gvir stated that the ongoing war in Gaza presents an “opportunity to concentrate on encouraging the migration of the residents of Gaza”. He called that potential policy “a correct, just, moral and humane solution”.
Ben Gvir also put forward the construction of illegal Jewish settlements in the Strip, insisting that Israeli forces “cannot withdraw from any territory we are in in the Gaza Strip. Not only do I not rule out Jewish settlement there, I believe it is also an important thing”.
Smotrich echoed those sentiments, telling members of his Religious Zionism party that the “correct solution” to the war and the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “to encourage the voluntary migration of Gaza’s residents to countries that will agree to take in the refugees”. He further predicted that “Israel will permanently control the territory of the Gaza Strip”, a policy that would apparently include the re-establishment of settlements there.
The Finance Minister asserted that Tel Aviv cannot allow the besieged Strip to remain a “hothouse of 2 million people who want destroy the State of Israel”, stating that “as long as I am the Finance Minister, not one shekel will go to the Nazi terrorists in Gaza”.
The proposed colonial policies of the two senior ministers – both of whom are coalition partners of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – come as Israeli policymakers continue to discuss and formulate a plan for Gaza’s post-war future, which they see as being free of Hamas.
While reports have emerged of offers for Arab forces and governing authorities to administer Gaza, such as the Palestinian Authority or a combined force of Arab states, the predominant view on the part of Israel’s far-right government has been for Israel itself to re-occupy the Strip, exile its Palestinian population and resettle it with Israelis and Jewish settlers.
Original article republished from Middle East Monitor under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Original article republished from Middle East Monitor under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
An aerial view of makeshift tents of Palestinian families, who left their homes and took refuge in Rafah city due to ongoing Israeli attacks in Rafah, Gaza on January 01, 2024 [Mohammed Fayq – Anadolu Agency]
A Saudi national fundraising campaign to provide aid for the people of Gaza has, so far, raised more than SR600 million ($160 million), organisers said on Monday, Arab News reports.
According to the report, the initiative was launched on 2 November, 2023 by Saudi aid agency, KSrelief, through the Sahem platform for charitable donations, in line with directives from King Salman and Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman.
The report says the platform called Sahem, especially in the context of the Gaza war, stands as a remarkable example of how digital platforms can mobilise support and resources for humanitarian causes.
The delivery of the aid, which includes 24 tons of food, medical and shelter supplies, is being coordinated by KSrelief to help Palestinians affected by the conflict within the Gaza Strip, the report added.
