Nobody can say they weren’t warned. The Andy Burnham government might have looked like Continuity Keir with more positive vibes for the first six weeks or so, but on Tuesday a new line was drawn. When Burnham said he felt Labour had not done enough on Palestine and Gaza, he had meant it. His decision to impose trade sanctions on illegal settlements in the West Bank was to be his first break with the past.
Some opponents chose to get their retaliation in early, before Ed Miliband had even stood up to make the announcement in the Commons on Tuesday. Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador, declared on Sunday that Ed was guilty of “hating Jews”. Which rather implied he thought Ed hated himself.
Huckabee also wondered when we would get round to sanctioning Russia, China and North Korea. Er … We have, Mike. Try to keep up.
The Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, insisted that “the UK would be on the wrong side of history” if the sanctions were imposed. Presumably that means that doing nothing as Israeli settlers, with the explicit endorsement of the Israeli government, seize land, burn homes and kill children is the right side of history. It’s a strange world we live in.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right security minister, went completely rogue. His take was that this made “Las Malvinas” Argentinian territory. As though it was the sanctions that were the nail in the coffin for the Falklands. Still, there was some consistency there. The Israel government has never placed much weight on the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination. So why should they bother to make an exception for the Falkland islanders?
Nor was all the oppo to be found abroad. Kemi Badenoch wrote a piece for the Jewish Chronicle in which she insisted that the government was desperate to win back Islamists and that Jews would no longer be safe in this country. Bizarrely, though, she made no effort to engage with what the Tories proposed to do about the Israeli settlements. Presumably nothing. Just give another nod and a wink to Benjamin Netanyahu as yet more Palestinians are forced off their land. I mean, it’s not as if the diplomatic efforts until now have had much effect.
By contrast, the Commons itself was an oasis of calm. Proof that just occasionally MPs are capable of behaving and arguing as adults. A proper debate with proper arguments, sincerely held. This could have been partly helped by fewer than 10 Tory backbenchers having bothered to turn up – we have to assume most of them don’t care much either way what goes on in the West Bank – but the Labour benches were all but full. For most of them, this was a statement that was long overdue. Though there was little triumphalism to be seen. More like relief. Burnham even showed up to lend support.
Miliband started by addressing his own Jewishness. He had reason to be grateful to Israel for providing a home to some of his relatives and he condemned all forms of antisemitism. But there was a separation to be made between the Israelis and the Israeli government. This was about righting a wrong, not giving in to hatred. And these sanctions would only apply to goods and services provided to or from the illegal settlements. This wasn’t a blanket ban on everything Israeli. It was about taking a moral stance. At no longer being a bystander while a foreign government broke the law. It was time to live our values and fight oppression and suffering. We were not powerless. It was the only way to maintain the dream of a two-state solution. Nor were we alone. France and Canada had also joined other countries in imposing sanctions.
The tone of the debate was immeasurably improved by having Tom Tugendhat reply for the Tories. Had Priti Patel still been the shadow foreign secretary, it would almost certainly have become a lot more bitter. Although Tugendhat was clearly operating with one hand tied behind his back. It wasn’t immediately clear what Tom really thought about the sanctions, but he was under instructions from Kemi to say they were definitely a bad thing and they needed to be opposed. So that’s rather what he had to do.
Tugendhat began with a long list of things with which he agreed in Miliband’s statement. That the settlements were illegal, that crimes had been committed, that Hamas were a terrorist organisation and that a two-state solution was the only workable outcome. You felt that in another world, Tom might have left it at that. But he had a job to do so he came out with a few comebacks. The sanctions wouldn’t work, British security would be compromised and 25% of the UK would die because we would no longer receive Israeli pharmaceuticals.
As with Kemi, Tom couldn’t quite square all this away with his default position of doing nothing. Tugendhat considers himself a man of action. Someone who would much rather be seen to be doing something. Now he was left to endorse the option of continuing to let Netanyahu get away with allegations of literal murder. As if all our allies automatically got a free pass. An annual allowance of dead children. Up to 100 and we promise to look the other way.
Much of the rest of the statement was taken with Labour MPs offering their appreciation to a government that had listened to their concerns. Nor was it just the home crowd. Edward Leigh declared he was the longest-standing member of the Conservative friends of Israel and he was 100% behind Miliband in this. Enough was enough. Kit Malthouse and Desmond Swayne felt much the same. When you have these three on your side, you’ve almost certainly more than made your case.
Oliver Dowden was a little more reticent. Couldn’t we have waited just a little bit longer? Until after the Israeli elections. Then Netanyahu might be out of office and a more moderate government installed in its place. It was hard to know what he was getting at. It’s not as if any Israelis are in much doubt about the nature of their current government. Britain imposing sanctions isn’t going to sway some marginal voters into thinking that maybe they needed more illegal settlements after all. Maybe it was just Oliver’s way of thinking out loud. He’s easily confused after all.