In his own words with John Webster

The Government has condemned the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and finally decided to act. It has taken rivers of blood to reach this point, but the move should not be underestimated. Although the sanctions are limited, the fact that the British Government has acted—and the way it has done so—has provoked a firestorm. The hysterical reaction from the Israeli Government demonstrates that pressure is beginning to expose cracks in its political position. Those cracks will widen further.

At the time of the First World War, Jews comprised around 10% of Palestine’s population. Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Palestine became a British Mandate. In 1917, the British Government issued the Balfour Declaration supporting a Jewish homeland in Palestine, while stating that the rights of the existing non-Jewish population should not be prejudiced. Between the wars, Jewish immigration increased substantially, particularly as Jews fled persecution and the rise of Nazism in Europe. Conflict became increasingly inevitable.

In 1948, following the end of the British Mandate, war broke out and the Jewish State of Israel was declared. Although Israel proclaimed a commitment to equality, approximately 750,000 Palestinians were forced out. Many were never allowed back.

In 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. The occupation of the West Bank has continued ever since. Israeli settlement there has expanded dramatically beyond the original Israeli state boundary known as the Green Line.

The Israeli Government has increasingly rejected the prospect of a viable Palestinian state. Settlement expansion makes a genuine two-state solution progressively more difficult. Gaza has now suffered catastrophic destruction and mass civilian deaths. Palestinians in the West Bank face continuing violence.

This explains why the British Government has finally felt compelled to act. Britain has long supported Israel while officially maintaining its commitment to a two-state solution, an approach reinforced by the Oslo process of the 1990s. But the scale of the destruction in Gaza, together with continuing settlement expansion and international and domestic pressure, has made continued unconditional support increasingly untenable.

The coming years are likely to bring growing international scrutiny. As investigations and legal proceedings continue, the evidence concerning Gaza and the West Bank will become increasingly difficult to dismiss. The British media has too often failed to convey the full scale of what is happening. As more evidence reaches the public, anger is likely to grow.

The fundamental political question remains: what is Israel’s alternative to a two-state solution? If Israel rejects an independent Palestinian state while also rejecting equal rights in a single democratic state, the Palestinians are left with permanent occupation and inequality—or displacement and expulsion.

The argument that the land belongs exclusively to Jews because of events two thousand years ago cannot justify denying the rights of the people who have lived there for generations. Palestine was not an empty land awaiting settlement.

Britain has shamefully protected Israel from meaningful pressure for far too long. It can no longer do so without damaging its own international reputation, credibility and moral authority.