STATEMENT: UK Government must withdraw support for Israel as conflict grows
As the conflict in the Middle East grows threatening a wider war, the Scottish Greens are calling on the UK Government to withdraw their support for the state of Israel.
Party co-leader Patrick Harvie MSP has issued this statement:
The world is an increasingly dangerous place, and the actions of far too many Governments, including the UK, are making that worse.
Just a few years ago, the vast majority of the world stood solidly against Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and opposed the illegal occupation. Now we’ve seen that unity fractured by a US President who threatens democratic countries and flatters dictators.
Worse, we have seen a breath-taking failure of the global community to take the same united position against the grotesque violence being inflicted on Palestinians. The US, the UK and others are actively abetting genocide while allowing Israel to block media access to Gaza to prevent the world from seeing the atrocities they are committing.
Even a former Israeli Prime Minister has called Netanyahu's government a gang of thugs, and every day they find new ways to prove him right.
Now Israel has expanded its attacks to Iran, in a clear attempt to escalate the conflict and provoke a much wider war. Threats have been made against the whole of Tehran, a city of over 9 million people.
The Scottish Greens have long called for a lasting ceasefire and an end to the UK’s active participation in the ongoing genocide of Gaza. The case for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel has grown ever stronger the longer its illegal occupation of Palestine has gone on, and is now urgent.
Yet Keir Starmer’s Government is still refusing to end the UK’s involvement, actively resourcing and training Israeli forces, and treating the country as an ally instead of the profound threat to global security that it is.
The UK must immediately withdraw all support for this violent rogue state, and work with other countries to have its Government held accountable for their war crimes.
Any Government, in any country, which fails to act has lives on its conscience, and international law will ultimately hold them complicit for their actions.