How the Gaza-Israel war loomed over UK's Labour Party conference

Liverpool, England - Two solitary figures and a Palestinian flag are the first signs of activism at Liverpool’s Wapping Dock amid the stream of suited delegates heading for the Labour Party Conference late Monday morning.

One silver-haired woman, wearing a scarlet jacket and beaming white smile, hands out a leaflet printed with a black-and-white photograph of two men - one Arab, the other Jewish - holding hands and inspecting vegetables at a marketplace. ‘Under Islam’, the words above it read.

It is a picture that has been shared countless times on social media, attempting to explain the level of coexistence that existed in the Holy Land before the creation of Israel.

A more contemporary image next to it shows a Palestinian man, hands bound and slouched beneath an aviator-wearing Israeli soldier. 'Under Zionism', the title reads.

It's this type of campaigning that Keir Starmer has tried hard to stamp out since becoming Labour leader in 2020, with Zionism becoming a byword for anti-semitism for some sections of the party.

"The Labour Party leadership continues to be concerned about how it is portrayed via policies on the Israel-Palestine issue"

Jackie Jarvis, an activist with the One Palestine group, left the party in 2019 when Jeremy Corbyn stepped down as leader, which ended a brief period of radically pro-Palestine policies in Labour.

“We’ve had some people say we shouldn’t be here,” she said, referring to the killing of at least 1,200 Israelis by Hamas on Saturday morning.

Her male colleague, wearing a bright red Free Palestine t-shirt, says his mission here is to promote a one-state solution, a vision that would see Israelis and Palestinians living side-by-side in peace and equality, just as the group says existed before 1948.

It is generally an unwelcome viewpoint in Labour, but given the decades of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank and an entrenched military occupation, a two-state solution is also a very distant prospect.

Throughout the four-day conference, members and delegates spoke of the urgent need to end the fighting in Palestine and Israel, while MPs repeatedly cited a two-state solution as the only viable path to long-term peace.

Inside the main building, a member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), stood in front of a stall with bottles of Palestinian olive oil amid a spread of campaign literature, said the reception from guests had been good but the dark cloud of the weekend’s violence still hung over the conference.

"It's a challenging time to be raising the issue of Palestine at the conference… we have had a positive response from a lot of delegates, obviously there are heightened feelings around the issue, but overall the people who come to the stall want to find out more," he said.

"We are still raising the issues we’ve had to raise - the ongoing situation faced by the Palestinian people, our concerns around what has been described by Amnesty and others as Israel’s system of apartheid, and also campaigning [against] the government’s proposed anti-boycott bill."

Starmer has been eager to end the years of complaints of antisemitism within the Labour membership under Corbyn with a pivot in Labour’s foreign policy toward Israel, including opposition to the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and lending its support behind a bill banning city councils for engaging in an economic boycott of Israeli goods.

This week, to the uproar of many former and current Labour members, he avoided condemnation of Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza, the enclave controlled by Hamas - one of the most densely-populated areas in the world and home to an estimated one million children.

The level of Israeli bombing so far has been horrifying, with thousands of civilians displaced and the siege on Gaza extended to prohibit the import of food and water.

Former MP Louise Ellman left Labour under Corbyn over the anti-semitism row and told the conference that "very sadly but maybe inevitably" innocent civilians would be killed in the bombing of Gaza but Israel had the right to defend itself. 

Since Saturday's retaliatory bombing campaign began, more than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed, including over 300 children according to the Gaza health ministry, with whole apartment blocks and entire neighbourhoods levelled, according to reporters on the ground.

"The Palestinian ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot urged Labour politicians present to put peace at the forefront of its foreign policy agenda if it takes power next year"

Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who like many Labour MPs is a member of both the Palestine and Israel parliamentary groups, said any response by Israel should be “proportionate” and within international law. 

It is largely the consensus of MPs in Labour, although rank-and-file members appear more inclined toward an immediate ceasefire to prevent further loss of life and human suffering on both sides.

John Lyndon, executive director of Alliance for Middle East Peace, said he has lost contact with a colleague in southern Israel since Saturday’s attacks and as an Irishman, the violence brought back memories of The Troubles.

Optimism in such bleak times was the only way out, he said, hoping for an 'Omagh moment' in Palestine and Israel today, referring to the unity of Protestants and Catholics in shock and grief after an IRA bombing in 1998 killed 28 people in a religiously mixed market town. This tragedy was a vital step in propelling forward the Good Friday Agreement and bringing peace to Northern Ireland.

Wayne David, Shadow Minister for the Middle East and North Africa, said the absence of the UK - and others - from the diplomatic scene over the past 13 years had lent the impression of neglect and detachment in the region, ushering in hopelessness and desperation.

He said that when he recently visited Oman - a key mediator in the region - he was told by one official that it was wonderful to see a British politician in Muscat. 

"What do you not mean, do you not have British government ministers visiting and engaging in dialogue," he asked. "Not very often," the Omani official responded.

It was the same experience in visits to other parts of the Middle East he said, but something that would change under a Labour government, a highly likely outcome for 2024.

"I give a commitment that Labour will do its utmost in ensuring that dialogue is enhanced in every possible way,” he told a reception for Arab diplomats. 

"There is no point sitting on the sidelines expecting others to do it for us, we will be a proactive government which will put forward the idea of peace."

Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding (Caabu), said the Labour Party leadership continues to be concerned about how it is portrayed via policies on the Israel-Palestine issue.

"It has started, through Wayne David, to express its support for international law, including liability - this is vitality important," he told The New Arab.

"The fact that Wayne David said that Labour supported the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice on this issue and this matters. But we also need to see the senior Labour leadership speak out about what is happening in Gaza, not just on what Hamas has done, which is awful, but the obligations of Israel under international law in bombing a captive civilian population."

The Palestinian Authority ambassador Husam Zomlot urged Labour politicians present to put peace at the forefront of its foreign policy agenda if it takes power next year.

"Starmer has been eager to end the years of complaints of antisemitism within the Labour membership under Corbyn with a pivot in Labour's foreign policy toward Israel, including opposition to the BDS movement"

"We must try to work together to end the suffering… to de-escalate the situation, to protect civilians and to comply with the requirements of International and humanitarian law," said Ambassador Zomlot.

"As ambassador, I know the UK plays a crucial role in upholding and promoting stability and prosperity around the world, including the Middle East.”

He spoke of the good relations between the UK government and the Palestinian Authority under the Conservatives and indicated this would likely continue under David Lammy and Wayne David.

On his way to the next meeting, Ambassador Zomlot heard the tragic news that his cousin and her children were killed in an Israeli bombing of their home in Gaza.

Janna Jihad, the famed Palestinian child reporter, said the UK’s role in the dismantling of historic Palestine gives the British people a particular duty to stand up to the Israeli occupation and Labour should be inspired by the activism of its members in the 1980s in opposing apartheid South Africa.

"My message to the Labour Party is - be the ones who bring about change, be on the right side of history, it is crucial right now more than ever. Reflect on the values of equality and justice that are being called for, especially with the Palestinian struggle," she told The New Arab.

"The situation [in Palestine] is one caused by Britain and Britain must take immediate action to solve, and put an end to injustice and inequality."

John McDonnell, shadow chancellor during the Corbyn era and a long-standing member of Labour Friends of Palestine, made an emotional plea for peace at the conference.

"I am a dad and a grandad, and my children are the most precious gift I have received in my life. So I have to say this: seeing the scenes of what happened in Israel, and to the young people at the music festival, was horrifying and shocking," he said, appearing close to tears.

"I can’t imagine what those parents are going through, so that is why I do condemn the killing of those innocents by Hamas. But as a father and a grandfather, my heart also goes out to the parents of the children killed in Gaza. There is no justification for the killing of civilians on any side."

Paul McLoughlin is a senior news editor at The New Arab. 

Follow him on Twitter: @PaullMcLoughlin