cook_36-38r.qxp_From Across the Pond 2/3/22 3:18 PM Page 36
From Across the Pond
British Parties Rewind the Clock By Jonathan Cook
PHOTO CREDITS MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
a beacon of democracy in defiance of his own party’s recent motion declaring it an apartheid state. Starmer denounced all activism that favors boycotts, even those targeting Israel’s illegal settlements. • And then, in a move promoted by senior figures in the party as “tackling anti-Semitism,” the Conservative government announced efforts to outlaw Hamas “in its entirety,” including its political wing, and threatened anyone offering its leaders a platform, a jail sentence of up to 10 years. Notably, Labour’s frontbench team supported the designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization, even though it represents a huge chunk of Palestinians living under belligerent Israeli occupation. The significance of this all-out, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely gives a press conference on Nov. 3, 2015, in the Lipski plastic factory near the Israeli settlement of Ariel in the occupied West Bank, on the European Union's bipartisan assault on the rights of (EU) decision to label goods made in Jewish settlements. The appointment of the hard‐right Hotovely Britons to stand in solidarity with as Israel’s ambassador to the UK was met with dismay. Palestinians, must be put in a historical and political context as the BRITISH POLITICS are lurching backward when it comes to Israel. hard-won victories over decades are now being quickly reversed. Gains won over many decades that made it possible to critique Israel Beginning in the 1970s and 1980s, activists began to challenge and its belligerent rule over Palestinians, are being undone almost the media’s widespread presentation of Israel’s military occupation overnight on both sides of the supposed political divide. of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem as benevolent and enA rash of recent incidents illustrate how quickly the rot has set in: lightened. The realization that the occupation was ugly and brutal • Both the rightwing ruling Conservative party and the leftwing opwas finally driven home by Israel’s policy of “breaking the bones” of position Labour vehemently denounced a street protest in NovemPalestinians who participated in the mass, non-violent uprising ber against Tzipi Hotovely, Israel’s hard-right ambassador to the UK, against the occupation that began in 1987. a champion of its illegal settlements and denier of Palestinian history. That trend coincided with the increasing visibility of a boycott Senior politicians from each side of the aisle claimed the protest movement against Israel, like the one that targeted apartheid South was anti-Semitic and, in a moment of peak cognitive dissonance, Africa. Similarly, there was a growing awareness that Israel had an attack on free speech. been aided by vigorous lobby groups that sought to shield it from • Shortly afterward, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer shared a platcriticism in major Western capitals. form with Hotovely in support of Israel. He blurred the distinctions After Israel stymied the Oslo peace talks in 2000 and then savbetween criticism of Israel and anti-Semitism, referring to Israel as agely suppressed a Palestinian uprising, the focus shifted to Israel itself. Questions were raised for the first time about whether there Jonathan Cook is a journalist now based in the UK and a winner of might be inherent political, legal and moral problems with a state the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. He is the author declaring itself “Jewish”—defining itself in ethnic and religious terms. of Blood and Religion and Israel and the Clash of Civilisations (available from AET’s Middle East Books and More). This long, slow process culminated in 2021 with reports by two 36
WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
MARCH/APRIL 2022
