A Labour MP used a parliamentary debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to call for “military action” to be taken against the Jewish state.
Tahir Ali, who represents Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley, intervened during a speech by Lib Dem MP Richard Foord, who said that Hamas’ “disarmament and disbandment must be part of any lasting solution” to the conflict.
Ali then interjected, saying: “On the issue of disarmament, should we not also be calling for Israel’s disarmament, given the atrocities that have been committed?
“Previous governments have intervened in the Middle East to take action on human rights abuses and protect international trade routes. Is it not about time that military action was taken against Israel as well?”
The Lib Dem rejected the implied equivalence between Hamas, “a proscribed terrorist organisation,” and the State of Israel.
But Monday’s debate wasn’t the first time Ali called for the use of Britain’s armed forces against Israel. During a debate in July last year, the Labour MP urged David Lammy, then foreign secretary, to “send military personnel to protect Palestinians from the genocide being committed by the IDF”.
During the debate yesterday, several MPs from across the political spectrum praised the government’s decision to announce sanctions against Israeli settlements in the West Bank last week.
Some, however, demanded that the government go further.
Labour MP for Bradford East Imran Hussain called on the government to “end all remaining arms sales to Israel and, in particular, close the F-35 loophole,” referring to the fact that Britain still supplies parts to the F-35 fighter jet programme, with some of the finished aircraft sold to Israel.
“We must ensure that no equipment of UK origin directly or indirectly supports genocide in Gaza, or war crimes anywhere in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” he went on.
“The scale of death and suffering caused by the right-wing Netanyahu government’s genocide in Gaza demands urgent and further immediate action.”
Announcing the settlement sanctions last Tuesday, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband robustly criticised Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank.
He accused the Israeli government of turning a blind eye to “ethnic cleansing” by settlers in the West Bank and, while he did not endorse claims that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, he made reference to UN reports which he said “represent increasing evidence that war crimes appear to have been committed” and that the government supported “legal processes to determine this”.
Yesterday, though, some MPs questioned the wisdom of announcing the sanctions close to Israel’s election, which is scheduled for October 27.
Conservative frontbencher Alicia Kearns told MPs: “Before the foreign secretary’s announcement, Israeli news was awash with headlines that Netanyahu allegedly failed to pass on a warning from the President of the United Arab Emirates to Israeli intelligence 10 days before the Hamas attack.
“Britain’s sanctions wiped that off the news cycle; it is no longer being discussed. Given that Israel, a true democracy, is about to go to the polls, did the timing not warrant more reflection?”
Her point was echoed by Labour MP Peter Prinsley, who is Jewish and who noted the “endless debates” on the subject of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Parliament since he was elected in 2024.
The MP for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket continued: “I fear that the attitude of the Netanyahu government will simply harden and the electorate may swing behind Netanyahu in reaction. That is the very last thing we want.”
Former minister Matthew Patrick, who is also Jewish, raised the use of the conflict in antisemitic attacks against Britain’s Jews
Citing the Heaton Park terror attack on Yom Kippur last year, Patrick told the Commons how the terrorist, Jihad al-Shamie, shouted “This is what they get for killing our children” while carrying out his attack on the synagogue on Yom Kippur.
“It is no wonder that this is a sensitive time and a sensitive debate for the Jewish community, because as Mr al-Shamie’s actions show, there are those who would cloak their antisemitism in concerns about the actions of Israel – those whose murderous intent and racist ignorance is dressed up as a moral crusade”, Patrick added.
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