Tom London condemns the Prime Minister’s performative policy on Israel.

One week ago, Keir Starmer described the situation in Gaza as “utterly intolerable”.He spoke as if he understood the moral imperative to act with the utmost urgency to do everything possible to stop the human catastrophe unfolding in Gaza.

On every day of the week since, around one hundred more Palestinians have died. Every single day. Throughout this genocidal abomination over the last 19 months, over 70% of the dead have been women and children and it is reasonable to assume that would be the case here.

Each of the dead has a name, had dreams, loved and was loved. The Palestinian dead are rarely humanised in the UK media. It is far easier to ignore a statistic.

A member of the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, Tzippy Scott said on live TV last week, “Last night, we killed almost a hundred Gazans… Nobody cares (about it) anymore… Everyone got used to the idea that you can kill 100 Gazans in one night… And nobody in the world cares.” He was revelling in the impunity granted to Israel by the outside world.

 In Gaza, where half of the population are children, the threat of death is all-ncompassing. Starving people are living more like animals than humans amongst the ruins or in makeshift tents. Death may come from starvation or dehydration or infectious disease or from lack of medicines and medical care for perfectly treatable conditions.

Or death may come by incineration in a fireball following the dropping of a huge bomb, or by sniper bullets, or by bullets from incessant drones or by tank shells or by missile strikes. 

What is happening right now in Gaza is like the bleakest, most terrifying dystopia that has been imagined. 

Many survivors are amputees. All of them will surely carry the mental scars for life. 

Benjamin Netanyahu no longer bothers to lie about his intentions. He has declared openly, brazenly, that nothing will stop what he calls the war (but which is, in reality, now a genocide, pure and simple). 

Netanyahu would not stop the war if the remaining hostages were freed. They would already have been freed if Israel had not unilaterally broken the ceasefire agreement. His aim is a Gaza totally destroyed with none of the original 2.2 million Palestinians living there. They will all have been ethnically cleansed to “somewhere else” – an unspecified place – or they will all have been killed.

A week ago, Starmer issued a joint statement with the leaders of France and Canada. They threatened Israel and promised the Palestinians and people around the world opposing the genocide in Gaza, to “take concrete actions” if Israel did not cease its onslaught on Gaza and lift restrictions on the supply of aid.

Starmer announced two immediate steps to back up the new position – a suspension of trade talks with Israel and the Israeli Ambassador was to be summonsed for a stern dressing down by the Junior Minister – no one explained why it was not the Foreign Secretary as protocol would usually require.

Now it is reported that the UK’s Trade Envoy Lord Austin is in Israel carrying out his job of encouraging trade between the UK and Israel, just as if last week’s announcement had never been made.

Starmer’s words were merely performative. He did not mean what he said but he wanted to be able to say, “Look what I said.” 

He has kept on sending arms to Israel and in greater quantities than the previous Conservative Government. His government has strongly defended a case in the High Court to allow them to continue to send Israel vital components for the F-35 fighter jets, which Israel uses to bomb Gazans. He has kept sending Israel regular surveillance reports using RAF planes based in Cyprus.

There has been no let-up whatsoever in Israel’s onslaught on Gaza’s civilians.

It is true that Israel is allowing some more aid into Gaza, but it is a mere drop in the ocean. Almost all the aid that is needed is still being held up at the border by the Israeli Army.

Meanwhile, Israel has set up a new aid project designed to bypass the UN. Twenty-four Western foreign ministers have condemned this new organisation. Its head has since resigned, saying the organisation would not be able to fulfil the principles of “humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence”. It looks as if it is a cynical device intended to be a distraction from the urgent need for aid to be properly distributed by the UN to end starvation while babies, children and adults die every day from starvation.

After his ringing declaration a week ago, what “concrete actions”has Starmer taken or even specifically threatened? None whatsoever.

It is an utterly intolerable failure to act.

Tom London is an activist based in north London.

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