THE call by MPs, trade union leaders, peace campaigners and others for urgent action to prevent Israel’s planned annexation of the West Bank could not be more timely.
But it must be followed by serious pressure on the government to stand up to Benjamin Netanyahu and his backers in the Donald Trump administration.
Protests have erupted in Israel itself over the impending annexation, which Israeli leaders say will begin next month.
The strength of the international outcry could well be the deciding factor in forcing Tel Aviv to stay its hand.
Israel has long been able to flout UN resolutions on Palestine with impunity, maintain its brutal occupation of the West Bank and murderous siege of Gaza and expand illegal settlements on Palestinian territory because of US protection and funding.
Its token adherence to a long-dormant “peace process” committed to the establishment of a viable, independent Palestine alongside Israel has become so flimsy in recent years that Netanyahu is able to publicly declare that he will never tolerate such an outcome — announcements that his allies abroad politely ignore.
US policy has encouraged settlement expansion and the creeping ethnic cleansing of East Jerusalem over many presidencies, but the “peace plan” concocted by Trump’s son-in-law marks a step change in promoting the naked annexation of occupied land with explicit US approval.
This rips up the rulebook — but Trump has no problem with that. As with his unilateral destruction of the Iranian nuclear deal and his withdrawal from the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty, Unicef and the World Health Organisation, the White House is sending a signal to the world that it will sabotage or boycott any institution it cannot control.
Its behaviour since the Covid-19 pandemic struck has starkly exposed its lawless behaviour: blocking medical aid from Cuba, endorsing a coup attempt in Venezuela, intensifying sanctions against that country and Iran.
Now it stands shamed in front of the world by the police murder of George Floyd, which has sparked immense demonstrations against racism in the US and other countries.
It’s a disgrace that the British government despite all this continues to back Trump to the hilt.
Boris Johnson’s description of the United States as a “bastion of freedom and peace” at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions may be a sick joke, but Britain’s practical support for US actions is more serious.
Ours was the only country to line up with Washington at the World Health Assembly to oppose the pooling of patents for Covid-19 treatments as a “public good” available to all countries.
A cross-party push for the government to join US aggression against China will embolden Trump at a time when tensions could explode into military conflict.
Where Britain has formally refrained from supporting the US — as over the Iranian deal and, now, over Israeli expansionism — that has not been matched by any practical action to dissuade it from its course.
If Israel succeeds in “applying sovereignty” to large swathes of Palestinian land next month, the consequences will not “just” be tragic for Palestinians, for whom brutal occupation and ethnic cleansing are already a daily reality.
They will feed the US’s belief that it can dictate to the world without any pretence of consultation. The real and present danger Washington poses to other countries will increase, as will the chances of global conflict.
Solemn warnings that Israel will be breaking international law if it annexes Palestine, as delivered by Germany today, are unlikely to have any effect unless Tel Aviv understands there will be negative consequences to its actions.
What is needed is a mass campaign in support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, building international links with Palestinian organisations and the left and peace movement within Israel and a solidarity movement with Palestine comparable in scale to the anti-racist protests that are winning victories on both sides of the Atlantic.
