Genocide is being inflicted in front of us, condemnation is not enough

Hind Rajab was only six years old when she was killed by Israeli forces.

The circumstances have never been fully explained, but the horrific audio of her last phone call, made to emergency services, shows she spent her last moments trapped in a car, surrounded by the bodies of six of her relatives and with gunfire all around her.

She died shortly after that call, and so did the two paramedics who tried to rescue her.

Her story was told around the world. You may remember it. Reporters, commentators and politicians shared a sense of horror and disgust and united in condemning her killing. Nobody should ever die like she did; scared, surrounded by death and with no way out.

Six months have passed since she was killed, and the pain and terror she must have felt have been experienced by thousands more in an assault that has continued to pile horror upon horror.

This week marks 300 days since the atrocities of October 7th. It was a terrible massacre that shook the world. There can never be any justification for such bloodlust or for the taking of hundreds of hostages.

But the horrors carried out against Israeli citizens cannot justify the war crimes that followed, or the collective punishment of over two million people.

These are war crimes that the UK is deeply implicated in and that the Tories did nothing to challenge while they were in government. Instead, they offered uncritical political and military support for Israel.

Will Labour do things differently?

Some of Keir Starmer’s statements on this have been a disgrace, and the actions of his government so far have shown only the most marginal change. Anyone who has seen the now infamous footage of him squirming on LBC and defending Israel’s illegal ‘right’ to cut off water and electricity to a civilian population knows that.

Yet we must continue to take the opportunity of a new government to insist on more fundamental change. There are at least some indications that it may come.

The announcement that the UK would no longer challenge the International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was important and reflects how the solidarity movement across the UK has changed the debate. Aid funding to UNRWA has also been restored.

There has been renewed speculation about a possible end to UK arms sales. We need to do everything in our power to make it so, as there will be voices on both sides throughout Whitehall, and even around the Cabinet table.

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The fact that arms dealers and government ministers have watched some of the worst war crimes of the 21st century being committed and chosen to keep arming those responsible is a moral disgrace. If not now, then how many more people will need to die before Downing Street says that enough is enough?

If an arms embargo is introduced, the devil will be in the details. Any ban has to be watertight if it is to be effective, and, just as importantly, it has to last. Weapons can’t simply start flowing again as soon as shots stop being fired.

It’s not just in Westminster that we need to see action. There is a moral responsibility on all of us to stand against what is happening and question our own complicity.

Scotland is no exception. That is why, in Holyrood, the Scottish Greens have led calls for a halt to all Scottish Government funding for companies profiting from the assault and a ban on contracts for the 97 companies named by the UN for complicity in Israel’s illegal settlements.

A lasting peace

There must be years of rebuilding ahead. As part of Israel's campaign against the Palestinian people, schools, hospitals, homes and livelihoods have been destroyed and bombed into rubble. Whole neighbourhoods have been made completely uninhabitable.

It is impossible to see the haunting images of the now lifeless streets and row after row of bombed-out buildings without feeling a deep sense of anger at the inhumanity. How could anyone look at them without feeling a burning need to stop it?

Ethnic cleansing and genocide can never be the basis of peace. That can only come from a negotiated agreement grounded in international law and respect for human rights.

The violence and devastation of the last nine months has only made that possibility even more remote. Recognition of the state of Palestine cannot wait; it is a necessary next step, as most of the world understands.

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When the killing finally ends, things can't go back to a status quo based on occupation, systemic humiliation and a brutal blockade.

It will need international action and a lasting peace to build a future where nobody has to suffer like Hind Rajab and her family did.

Keir Starmer may not be able to stop the destruction, but he has the power to end the UK’s role in it and to use his voice and the UK's considerable resources to support international calls for a ceasefire.

With tensions so high, and with the very real threat of even greater regional conflict, it is a power that I, and millions across the UK and beyond, urgently want him to use.