Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, has said that incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham was right to apologise for her party’s stance on the conflict in Gaza.
In a video shared on his social media last week, Burnham apologised for the positions that Labour took on Hamas’ invasion of southern Israel on October 7 and the subsequent Gaza War under Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership.
“Many people feel that, at the start of Israel's military action in Gaza, my party didn't get it right, and I am sorry about that,” he said.
Cooper was facing a grilling from MPs during an appearance at the Foreign Affairs Select Committee and was asked by Labour MP Abtisam Mohamed whether she agreed with her soon-to-be leader.
She replied: “Yes, and I think a lot of what he was referring to were the issues we had as a party in opposition.
"It was about our early response to this, in which we should have been faster to call for a ceasefire and clearer from the start about the importance of international humanitarian law. That is a reflection for us a party, and I agree with it.”
However, the foreign secretary defended the pro-Palestinian measures the government has taken since coming to office, saying: “We should be clear about the things we have done. We recognised the state of Palestine, which was a historic decision, and suspended the previous government’s negotiations on a trade deal.
"We have suspended all arms exports to the IDF that could be used in Gaza, and we have had four waves of sanctions, including the sanctioning of two members of the Israeli Cabinet and the most recent wave of sanctions on violent settlers.
“We restored funding to Unrwa, increased support to the Palestinian Authority for both funding and capability building, and done the medevac and student evacuations. We also introduced a new international peace fund with Australia and Canada, and we have been strong advocates for the peace process.”
Questioned about why the government didn’t pursue measures recommended by the committee last year, including a trade ban on goods from West Bank settlements, Cooper said the government had hoped more progress would have been made towards a two-state solution, but that the Israeli government’s “blatant disregard” for the peace process and continued settlement expansion prompted a change in direction.
“In the autumn, we were seeking to try to leverage a diplomatic process that, at least in Gaza, did seem to be delivering some pressure and some progress,” she went on.
"We also raised a series of concerns through the Christmas recess and into the new year about what was happening in terms of the settlements and the continuing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. In that period, it became clear how difficult this was going to be and the risk that we were going backwards."
Cooper also said that the government was learning from the “limitations” faced by a number of countries that had already imposed some form of sanctions on Israel, but wanted to potentially expand the sanctions regime in a way linked to settlement expansion, especially around the controversial E1 settlement block.
“If you look at the E1 settlements at the moment, we have the ability through the sanctions regime to go after settler violence for abuse of human rights,” she explained.
"We can take action and we can put sanctions down where there is evidence it is linked to settler violence, but if it is simply a contractor that does a contract for E1, it is quite hard for us to use our existing sanctions regime to do that.
“We think we need to expand the sanctions regime to look at making it more about international humanitarian law, not just human rights abuses. That would allow us to then say to all businesses that are considering contracting to develop the E1 settlements, ‘If you do, we will be pursuing sanctions.’
“It will take us a bit of time to bring that in and expand that, but I strongly think that we need stronger levers to be able to put pressure on international businesses that are tempted to get involved in the E1 settlements. Those settlements are illegal, and they should not be going ahead.
“It is about not just short-term illegality but the long-term undermining of the viability of a two-state solution. The warning that I want to be able to give to businesses now is, ‘Do not engage with the E1 settlements.’ We are going to pursue sanctions on that, and we want to work with other countries to encourage them to do the same.”
She went on to say that she expected E1 contracts to be signed during August.
Her comments come as the JC revealed that potential sanctions against Israel as a result of increased settlement activity could result in disagreement with the Trump administration, with a state department spokesperson strongly criticising a recent piece of legislation in Ireland, saying that the US opposes “any efforts to economically isolate, or discriminate against, Israel”.
Cooper also told MPs that former Conservative Middle East Minister Alistair Burt will be appointed as the UK’s first-ever envoy for complex consular cases.
“His focus will be on the most difficult and complex detention cases involving British people overseas, including those where there are human rights concerns,” she said.
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