Sir Keir Starmer

• WE read with dismay the text of the speech given by Sir Keir Starmer, our MP, at the annual lunch of Labour Friends of Israel (Keir Starmer’s keynote speech to Labour Friends of Israel) on November 16.

LFI’s motto is “Working towards a Two-State Solution”.

The “Two-State Solution” is a pious hope that peace will emerge from the US-sponsored process based on the Oslo Accords.

The accords were signed in 1993 and 1995, nearly 30 years ago. During those 30 years Israel has continued to entrench its apartheid system, kill thousands of Palestinian civilians and expand its illegal settlements.

It has made no move towards peace. The so-called peace process is not a process. It is an excuse for apartheid.

During those 30 years, LFI has offered virtually unlimited support to Israel’s successive right-wing governments.

It has hardly campaigned against the occupation, against the settlements and against Israel’s killings of women and children.

Tzipi Hotovely, Israel’s ambassador to the UK, is on record for rejecting Palestinian statehood and for supporting illegal settlements. She attended last week’s lunch.

In the past she said: “This land is ours. All of it is ours.” She has been described as “ultra-right wing” by mainstream members of the UK Jewish community.

She sponsored groups opposed to mixed marriages between Jews and non-Jews; and she favours a one-state solution that withholds citizenship from West Bank Palestinians.

One wonders how LFI are managing to lionise such a person while supporting the “Two-State Solution”.

In his speech, Sir Keir asserts that Israel “embodies progressive values”. That would come as a surprise to Israel’s leaders who are proud to belong to the right-wing camp.

One also wonders how Sir Keir can call Israel a democracy when it grants the right of self-determination to Jews and denies it to others.

Many laws in Israel openly discriminate against non-Jews who make up about 20 per cent of its citizens. That’s why a number of Israeli human-right organisations are saying that Israel practises apartheid.

Sir Keir took part in an event organised by us in 2015 in support of Palestinians. But since becoming Labour leader he has been mostly silent.

He says that he is “pro-Israel, pro-Palestine and pro-peace.” But how can he describe himself as pro-Palestine if he stays silent in front of Palestinian suffering?

Do we need to conclude that Palestinians don’t count in the post-Corbyn Labour Party?

SABBY SAGALL (Chair),
UNA DOYLE, STEPHEN KAPOS, ROGER HIGGINSON, ROBERT BOYCE, PAUL O’BRIEN, OWEN HOLLAND, LUCA SALICE, JANET GREEN, GARETH MURPHY
Camden Palestine
Solidarity Campaign