Momentum has issued the following statements, reproduced below for information

Momentum Statement on Israel-Palestine

We are shocked by the horrifying loss of life in Israel and Palestine in recent days – and deplore all attacks on civilians. It is now incumbent on the British government and the Labour Leadership to call for an immediate ceasefire in order to prevent yet more bloodshed, and to insist that international law is upheld.

As the Israeli newspaper Haaretz has said, this violence did not come from nowhere. Already before this crisis, 240 Palestinians had been killed this year, including 45 children. We cannot break this cycle of violence without ending the ongoing and inhuman blockade of Gaza, the decades-long occupation of Palestinian land, and the criminal system of apartheid operating in Israel, as recognised by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem, among many others.

The risk now is that a death toll already in the thousands could spiral devastatingly. It is deeply alarming to see the Israeli government openly committing the war crime of collective punishment by shutting off supplies of food, water, electricity and fuel to Gaza. We are on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe, deliberately engineered by the Israeli government, and every single British politician has a responsibility to stand up and try to stop it.

Instead, shamefully, we have seen senior British politicians in both Government and Opposition effectively support war crimes under the aegis of ‘Israel’s right to defend herself’. There is no right to commit war crimes. No right to collective punishment. No right to indiscriminate bombing and slaughter of civilians, anywhere. If, as an avowedly internationalist party, Labour believes in the international rule of law, then the Leadership must stand up for it.

Now is the time for all in Labour – and especially the Leadership – to stand up for an immediate ceasefire and a just and lasting peace, predicated on an end to occupation and apartheid.

On Threats to Democracy in Britain + Islamophobic abuse of Apsana Begum

Disturbingly, we have seen the authoritarian Home Secretary Suella Braverman attempt to criminalise even the waving of Palestinian flags – and Keir Starmer fail to oppose this blatant attack on democratic freedom of expression and assembly. In fact, the Labour Leadership has seemed more concerned with censoring the reality of Israeli apartheid.

The right to freedom of expression and freedom of protest are fundamental to democracy. The Labour Leadership must stand up for them in the face of Tory attacks.

Equally, we condemn the abuse of Apsana Begum, Britain’s first hijab-wearing MP, following an opportunistic attack by a morally bankrupt Tory Party. As the Labour Muslim Network have said, it is deeply Islamophobic to hold all Muslims accountable for the actions of other Muslims. Now and always, we stand in solidarity with Apsana.