- Israel air strike killed Maisara al-Rayyes
- Gaza war destroyed Saleh’s wedding plans
- Labour win may affect UK policy on Gaza
Israa Saleh, a petite and softly-spoken Palestinian doctor who wears a colorful headscarf, has been mourning for months.
Her colleague Maisara al-Rayyes was killed in November when an Israeli air strike destroyed his family’s home in Gaza City. His remains are still beneath the rubble.
Like her, Saleh referred to al-Rayyes, who received a renowned Chevening fellowship from the British government as a “brother.
“I still grieve over the loss,” she told the central Gaza City, where she has been relocated ten times in the last nine months. This war has stolen everything from us.
She returned to Gaza in 2022 after earning a master’s degree in Liverpool, reminding her of the Strip’s “coastal nature” and “amazing” people.
Rishi Sunak was then the new Conservative Prime Minister. Back at home, Saleh worked for Medecins du Monde, an international humanitarian organization, and intended to marry.
But a year later, Israel’s latest and deadliest assault on Gaza destroyed her wedding dreams, making spending time with her fiance difficult, and venues were damaged.
Saleh, 30, has resided in northwest England for over a year and closely watched the recent United Kingdom election, which resulted in the first Labour government in 14 years. She now cautiously expects Britain to modify its views on the conflict.
“I wasn’t shocked when [Labour leader] Keir Starmer won,” she told the BBC. “But nothing gives me more hope than the ongoing protests nationwide. “This may put pressure on Labour to act.”
She believes the UK is “politically complicit in the genocide” on the one hand, given its support for the Israeli army, and “aiding the population” on the other, having sent humanitarian aid to the Strip.
“Its position should be clear. To bring the battle to an end, they must take a clear stand and listen to their people. “This is how labor should work.”
Asaad al-Kurd, a 51-year-old English teacher and father of six from Deir el-Balah, is less hopeful.
He frequently follows global headlines. However, after losing his sister and her children to the war, as well as dozens of other relatives, his life feels too “hellish” to engage in the news.
I felt detached from this year’s elections,” he told me. “Both Labour and the Conservatives were implicated in the slaughter. Keir [Starmer] and Rishi [Sunak] have pledged unrivaled military support for Israel, justifying its heinous war crimes… Whatever they say does not give me any hope. Nothing will change at all.
He compared the UK to Washington’s “tail” since their foreign policies are closely matched.
“[But] we need to remember that the UK is behind our catastrophe,” he told us. The Conservative Prime Minister Arthur Balfour gave Israel land in Palestine.
War in Gaza ‘top of mind in terms of international policy’
Al-Kurd is a teacher with UNRWA, which numerous nations, including the United Kingdom, halted funding after Israel alleged 12 of its 30,000 employees were involved in the Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel on October 7, which killed 1,139 people. Israel has not offered evidence to back up these assertions.
As the death toll in Gaza approaches 40,000, Olivia O’Sullivan, director of the UK in the World project at Chatham House think tank, stated that the war is “top of mind in terms of foreign policy” for the new Labour government.
She said that improvements in “big policy questions,” rather than differences in tone, would indicate a shift from the previous Tory administration.
Resuming UNRWA financing, shifting arms shipments to Israel, or expressly supporting international court jurisdiction would suggest that Labour was taking a different course, she added.
In opposition, Starmer frequently expressed solidarity with Israel and angered many when he stated that Israel has the right to cut off Gaza’s water and electricity supplies. He quickly reversed the statement, but his overall stance cost Labour four seats to pro-Palestine independent candidates and created a schism among British Muslims who had previously supported the party.
Starmer voted against a parliamentary motion in November calling for an immediate ceasefire. Ahead of the election, he stated in a radio interview that he would not “pronounce that something is either genocide or not” while reaffirming Israel’s “right to self-defense.”
However, he also stated that every government, including Israel, “has to be properly held to account in the court of international law” and committed to reviewing legal advice on military sales to Israel as prime minister.
David Lammy, the incoming foreign secretary who is set to visit Israel shortly, defied the UK’s official policy in late May, supporting the International Criminal Court’s independence as it obtained arrest warrants for Israeli officials and Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes.
The Tories said the ICC had jurisdiction in the case, while US President Joe Biden called any comparison between Israel and Hamas “outrageous.
According to O’Sullivan, Richard Hermer, who was appointed attorney general by Starmer, is “one of the interesting appointments” in the new government.
Hermer, who specializes in human rights law, has criticized Israel. He criticized the past government’s efforts to criminalize boycott activities. He was one of a tiny handful of Jewish lawyers who published an open letter reminding Israel of its “international obligations” at the outset of the conflict.
“On some of these international law issues, we may see some shifts,” said O’Sullivan, who regarded Hermer as a “deep well of expertise.”
According to Kamel Hawwash, a British-Palestinian academic who ran as an independent candidate on a pro-Palestine ticket in the election, if Starmer’s government fails to challenge the Conservatives’ position on the ICC, it will violate “the application of international humanitarian law equally to all states.” Labor eventually won the seat Hawwash fought.
According to Joseph Willits, head of legislative affairs at the Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU), the incoming government must “fully support” the ICC “unequivocally,” and there is “rightly some optimism” surrounding Hermer’s nomination.
Palestinian Statehood and Domestic Divisions
Labour’s manifesto promised to eventually acknowledge Palestinian statehood as part of a “renewed peace process” aimed at a two-state solution.
However, because the Conservatives hinted in January that the UK may acknowledge a Palestinian state before the end of the peace process, commentators do not see Labour’s offer as revolutionary.
Spain, Norway, and Ireland recognized the State of Palestine this year, which irritated Israel.
According to Glen Rangwala, an associate professor in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Politics and International Studies, the new Labour government is unlikely to achieve this. Their manifesto promise requires the continuation of negotiations before recognition is granted, effectively allowing for procrastination on the matter of recognizing Palestinian statehood.
Rangwala believes Labour will dismiss the handful of pro-Palestine independents in parliament as “marginal figures.”
The party is likely to anticipate that after the “current phase” of the Gaza war is over, independents’ public profiles would “diminish further,” and pro-Palestine voters will return to Labour, he said.
Willits, however, stated that if Starmer fails to confront the growing schism, he risks jeopardizing his reputation.
“Some may think it’s easy with a huge Labour majority in parliament to now dismiss Palestine as an irrelevant, fringe, and fifth-column issue,” he told reporters. “If Keir Starmer does not want to be haunted and remembered as the one who stated Israel had the right to cut off electricity and water in Gaza, he must implement this policy reset for Palestine. This will be a massive test for the government.
Prepare for a probable political earthquake.
The November election in the United States may impact Starmer’s strategy.
Even if former President Donald Trump returns to the White House, many believe the UK will try to influence the US position rather than take the initiative.
If Trump wins the election, O’Sullivan predicts that the US’s behavior on this subject will become considerably more unpredictable. They will continue to be meaningful and influential, and a Starmer government will endeavor to handle the repercussions.
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According to Rangwala of the University of Cambridge, while a change of administration in the UK is “unlikely to bring a significant alteration in British policy toward Palestine and Israel,” the US election is a “key complicating factor.”
“If a new Trump administration endorses the widening of Israel’s war aims, many within Labour would seek to distance themselves from Washington,” added the MP.
Even yet, it is more likely that the government’s strategy would change toward pushing the US to soften its position rather than taking a different approach – a tone difference rather than a substantive difference.
As the war enters its tenth month, Willits of CAABU stated, “The number one priority must be to bring this genocide to an end, and this includes an end to reliance on where Washington leads – or doesn’t.”
