Burnham must end UK complicity in genocide against Palestinians
If Andy Burnham makes it to Downing Street then he must finally end UK complicity in Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, say the Scottish Greens.
The party’s co-leader, Gillian Mackay, has urged Burnham to halt all political and military support for Israel’s extremist government and urgently investigate if UK-made arms have been used in war crimes.
This week a UN commission of inquiry accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza by deliberately targeting children.
Despite his history as a human rights lawyer, Keir Starmer notoriously defended Israel’s right to cut off power and water supplies to Gaza. His government has denied genocide, fought a court battle to allow it to continue exporting fighter jet components to Israeli forces, and criminalised protesters while UK troops provided training for the Israeli military.
Gillian said:
“Keir Starmer did a lot of things wrong, but his most shameful legacy was his decision to support and then directly enable Israel’s genocide against Palestinians.
“For years, some of the worst war crimes of this century have been inflicted in front of the world by an extremist Israeli government, and Keir Starmer’s response was to follow the Tories in arming them.
“There is no crime worse than genocide, and Labour’s record has been truly shocking. It was one of the worst and most immoral foreign policy decisions since the Iraq war, which Andy Burnham supported.
“If he wants to move on from one of the least popular governments in living memory then Andy Burnham must finally end that complicity.
“That has to mean finally implementing a full and watertight arms embargo against Israel and ending all political and military support for its government."
Gillian added:
“All over Scotland and the UK there are people who will never vote Labour again because they are so disgusted by what Keir Starmer and his colleagues have done to Gaza and how they criminalised thousands of people for protesting against them.
“People deserve the truth. That is why we must also have a full public investigation into the role of the UK government and UK-made arms in the conflict.”