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The Guardian understands Miliband will say in his speech that the sanctions marked a definitive change in how Labour will approach the situation in the Middle East.
“I want to say to the millions of people in this country and indeed elsewhere who have been moved and outraged by the plight of the Palestinian people: we hear you, you were right,” he will say.
“And under Andy’s leadership, we have reset our approach. We call out ethnic cleansing by the settler terrorists in the West Bank. We call out the evidence of war crimes in Gaza. We call out Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. And we match words with actions.
Report: UK’s ‘double lock’ on arms to Israel suspends nothing
The British government has not suspended or revoked a single additional arms export licence for Israel since announcing what Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband described as a “double lock” on military sales, according to an investigation by Declassified UK.
Miliband announced a package of measures on 8 September targeting Israel’s illegal occupation and settlement activity. The measures included plans to prohibit trade with illegal settlements and refuse applications for arms and other exports that materially contribute to the occupation of Palestinian territory.
However, responding to a parliamentary question from independent MP Iqbal Mohamed, the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade confirmed that no further licences had been suspended or revoked since the announcement.
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Labour reformulates Blair’s triangulation strategy
This is how it works. Andy Burnham or Ed Miliband say “You were right on Israel and Palestine, we were wrong.” That’s 2 corners of the triangle.
The new formulation is “Having acknowledged that you were right and we were wrong, we’re going to continue in exactly the same way. We won’t do anything differently. Hopefully you’re too stupid to notice.”
