Untitled Document
The British Government likes to portray itself as an ‘honest
broker’ in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, seeing “blame on both
sides”. Perhaps because such a position finds no basis in international
law, the Government dislikes international institutions getting too involved
- as seen when it tried to prevent the International Court of Justice ruling
on the illegality of the Separation Wall 18 months ago. And when this fails,
there is nothing left but retreat into pure fantasy, which describes its policy
over the last year.
In truth, the Palestinians represent an incredibly persistent “local
difficulty”; a thorn in the side of countries interested in running the
Middle East to their own advantage. While the UK pays lip service to international
law, it’s actually busy helping Israel to get away with murder.
In the first six months of 2005 the UK granted licenses for £10.5m of
weapon components to Israel, over three times the amount sold by the same point
in 2004. Meanwhile the European Union, fully supported by the UK, continues
to reward Israel for its appalling human rights record with the EU-Israel Association
Agreement, allowing Israeli products preferential access to European markets.
Although the Agreement is based on “respect for human rights”, and
so should actually be suspended under its own terms, such a course appears unthinkable
from the fairy-tale world of Whitehall.
Although the Foreign Office sometimes admits that their strategy of close engagement
with Israel has failed - hardly surprising given that the ‘strategy’
appears to consist of mentioning the issue at a handful of meetings - their
alternative is even closer engagement through the European Neighbourhood Policy
(ENP). The ENP provides for closer ties with Europe’s neighbours, including
Israel, to go “beyond co-operation, to involve a significant measure of
economic integration and a deepening of political co-operation”. In other
words, the exact opposite of suspending economic preferences.
Of course, the Government falls over itself to praise the Disengagement from
Gaza, ignoring the worsening situation on the West Bank, where an additional
14,000 illegal settlers have moved this year, more than compensating for the
8,500 settlers who left Gaza. The honesty of Sharon and his advisors, who describe
Disengagement as an attempt to “prevent the establishment of a Palestinian
state”, is ignored by the Foreign Office, contradicting as it does the
story they tell the public and the world.
Perhaps it is unsurprising then that the UK’s position has become worse
since Disengagement. Foreign Office Minister, Kim Howells, set the tone in an
interview with the Jerusalem Post in September in which he stated that recent
Israeli air strikes on the supposedly independent Gaza Strip constituted a “proportionate”
response to the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel which had already been
condemned by the Palestinian Authority. The strikes included Israel resuming
its policy of illegal targeted assassinations of militants and launching about
30 aerial attacks on Gaza, destroying schools and homes, with scores of civilians
injured and welfare projects raided, not to mention over 400 arrests carried
out on the West Bank amidst a fragile election process.
When asked what he was expecting of Sharon following Disengagement, Howells
replied ‘nothing’ - it was up to the Palestinians now. Faced with
an impassioned speech by Phyllis Starkey MP in Parliament, Howells ripped up
even the pretence at even-handedness retorting that, yes it was a terrible situation,
but mostly because of the Palestinians “stupidity” in looting the
Gaza greenhouses, the selfishness of the Arab states hoarding their oil wealth
and the corrosive corruption of “Arafat’s cronies”. The Israeli
Ambassador couldn’t have put it better.
British law finds about as much respect as international law. In September,
Jack Straw, apologised to the Israeli government after a British court issued
an arrest warrant for Israeli Major General Almog on war crimes charges. Head
of the Israeli Army’s Southern Command from 2000-4, Almog was responsible
for dropping a one-ton bomb on Gaza in 2002 which killed 15 and injured 150,
and for the destruction of 59 homes in Rafah refugee camp.
Almog was made aware of the arrest and refused to leave his plane at London
Heathrow, promptly returning to Israel. Nonetheless, Straw felt the need to
apologise “as a courtesy” and explain that he wanted to “find
a way to bridge the gap so this doesn’t happen in the future”. Heaven
forbid British courts should arrest war criminals on British soil.
As calls to hold the Israeli government to account grow louder, the British
government disappears further into the mythical world of its own propaganda.
Perhaps the introduction to the European Neighbourhood Policy, which states
that the “EU and Israel share the common values of democracy, respect
for human rights and the rule of law”, has a good deal of truth to it.
Certainly none of those things seems to matter to either if they get in the
way of self-interest. As in the fight against injustice in South Africa, it
will have to be ordinary activists who help bring justice for the long suffering
Palestinians.