Emily Thornberry (Islington South and Finsbury)
X: @EmilyThornberry. More here.
Thank you for taking the time to write to me about the horrific events in the Middle East, and for sharing your own views on them with me.
As you may be aware, Parliament has been dissolved for a General Election on the 4th of July, meaning there are currently no Members of Parliament. Therefore, I am emailing you in my capacity as the Labour candidate to be Member of Parliament for Islington South and Finsbury.
I have received a huge number of emails from voters about this issue in recent weeks, expressing their shock and horror at the appalling events that have taken place, and wanted to know how I and the Labour Party will approach this issue should we have the privilege of being elected to government on July 4. In the letter below you can find my full response setting out Labour’s manifesto commitments and policy on this urgent issue, and a summary of the steps I and the Labour Party have already taken to do all we can to bring this terrible bloodshed and suffering to an end. If this is not the first time you have written to me on this issue, I apologise if you have already seen some of the points below.
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Dear Friends
I wanted to respond to everyone who has written to me about the war in Gaza, to set out what I and my Labour colleagues have been doing in recent months to advance the cause of peace in Israel and Palestine, end the bloodshed, secure the release of the remaining hostages, and halt the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe. That approach is how I will continue to address this issue should I have the privilege of being re-elected to parliament on 4 July, hopefully as part of a majority Labour government.
I am writing this letter on 17 June, as the threat of an all-out Israeli assault on Rafah continues to grow. Such an offensive would be an utter disaster for the hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians currently sheltering there, more than half of them children, including huge numbers who have fled their homes elsewhere in Gaza. So let me start by saying that whatever the outcome of this election, I and the Labour Party will continue to oppose such action by the Netanyahu government, and Keir is absolutely right to have called on Prime Minister Netanyahu to immediately stop the military assault there.
While I am relieved that four hostages were recently rescued and reunited with their families, and cannot begin to imagine the horrific suffering they have experienced at the hands of Hamas, I am deeply concerned by reports of very high levels of civilian casualties during the IDF rescue operation, and can only reiterate that there is no excuse, nor any justification in law, for military actions that show a disregard for the lives of innocent people. That is why we urgently needed an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, which is the only way to ensure that the bloodshed is halted, and all the hostages are released.
With every day that passes, the need for a ceasefire grows more and more urgent. I continue to stand strongly behind the wording of Labour’s motion in favour of ceasefire that was passed by the House of Commons in February, which I voted for, which states:
That this House believes that an Israeli ground offensive in Rafah risks catastrophic humanitarian consequences and therefore must not take place; notes the intolerable loss of Palestinian life, the majority being women and children; condemns the terrorism of Hamas who continue to hold hostages; supports calls for Hamas to release and return all hostages and for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, which means an immediate stop to the fighting and a ceasefire that lasts and is observed by all sides, noting that Israel cannot be expected to cease fighting if Hamas continues with violence and that Israelis have the right to the assurance that the horror of 7th October cannot happen again; therefore supports diplomatic mediation efforts to achieve a lasting ceasefire; demands that rapid and unimpeded humanitarian relief is provided in Gaza; demands an end to settlement expansion and violence; urges Israel to comply with the International Court of Justice’s provisional measures; calls for the UN Security Council to meet urgently; and urges all international partners to work together to establish a diplomatic process to deliver the peace of a two-state solution, with a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable Palestinian state, including working with international partners to recognise a Palestinian state as a contribution to rather than an outcome of that process, because statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people and not in the gift of any neighbour.
In recent months, a UN-backed report warned that famine in Gaza is imminent, with half the population expected to face catastrophic levels of hunger. This is a man-made disaster on a scale unparalleled in modern times, which requires urgent and coordinated action from the international community to step up aid deliveries. While I welcome the opening of new border crossings and the US-led construction of a port on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast to facilitate aid deliveries, the amount of aid entering Gaza continues to fall far short of what is needed.
To that end, Labour have been clear that we oppose the Conservatives’ decision to suspend funding for UNRWA. The allegation that several UNRWA employees were involved in the 7 October terror attacks is shocking, and it is absolutely right that anyone found to have taken part in those attacks should face the full consequences for doing so. But given the agency’s vital role providing life-saving assistance during this crisis, it is vital that its funding is restored, and Labour is committed to doing so if elected to government.
In recent months, in my role as Labour’s Shadow Attorney General, I have made it an urgent priority to push the government to give their unequivocal backing to the global community's official investigations into alleged breaches of international law in Gaza.
Throughout the present conflict, I and my Labour colleagues have consistently voiced our support for the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Criminal Court (ICC), and other multilateral legal bodies to hold the parties to this brutal conflict to account – whether that be Israel, Hamas, or any other actor. And I want to be clear that the responsibility for guaranteeing access to vital aid lies with Israel – an obligation underscored by the recent ICJ interim ruling under the Genocide Convention, which Labour in government would continue to demand that Israel comply with in full.
It is deeply worrying that the Tories have had to be dragged kicking and screaming by Labour even to accept that the ICJ’s ruling is binding. In February, for example, when I directly put the question of the court’s authority to the Attorney General in Parliament, she was unwilling to confirm the government’s support for the ICJ. You can watch my question to her by clicking here.
And I recently used another question to the Attorney General to ask her whether she would condemn threats of sanctions made by Republican senators in the US against ICC employees, and to stand up for the Court’s independence in investigating allegations of war crimes in Gaza. It’s deeply disappointing that once again she chose to respond only with vague platitudes. You can watch that question by clicking here.
On the question of arms exports to Israel, I have said for years in relation to this and many other conflicts that the British government must abide by the obligations it has under domestic and international law to ensure that UK-made arms are not used to target civilians or civilian infrastructure, to commit acts of internal repression, or to launch rockets indiscriminately into areas where there is a disproportionate risk of civilian casualties.
For all those reasons, I share the serious concerns that have been raised about whether UK-made arms are being used to commit violations of International Humanitarian Law in Gaza, and I want to be absolutely clear that if such risks have been identified then the relevant licenses to export those arms to Israel should be immediately suspended.
In response, Rishi Sunak has not just rejected calls to suspend arms exports, but refused to clarify what products have been exported since the start of this conflict, and for what purpose they are being used. That is why it is vital that Labour is elected to government next month, so that we can guarantee that arms export controls are being upheld and that no British-made weapons risk being used to harm innocent civilians or to violate international humanitarian law.
But above all else what we continue to need most urgently is an immediate and sustainable humanitarian ceasefire. That is what Keir Starmer, shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy, and shadow International Development Secretary Lisa Nandy have consistently called for, and should I be re-elected I will continue to support them in all that they are doing to work with international allies to secure that outcome.
My own engagement in Israel and Palestine goes back more than four decades to when I was a young woman visiting my father when he was involved in peacekeeping work in the Middle East for the United Nations. I have been back many times over the years, spending time in both Israeli and Palestinian communities, and it has dismayed me each time to see attitudes harder than they were before, pessimism more deeply set, expectations even more entrenched of further violence and bloodshed.
And yet, on my last two visits in 2017 and 2018, I also met senior Palestinian politicians and academics who insisted we must keep alive the prospect of an independent Palestine living in peace alongside a secure Israel, as they struggled for control against the genocidal nihilism of Hamas. And, on the other side, I vividly remember meeting two older men at a kibbutz who talked about a happier past when Israeli and Palestinian children played together unaware of the differences between their communities, and who said they owed it to their great-grandchildren to keep striving to see that happen again.
Throughout my time as the MP for Islington South and Finsbury, and during my time as shadow Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2020, my only priority regarding events in the Middle East has been to consider what position takes us further towards that goal of a two-state solution, and what position would take us further away. We must keep striving to break permanently the cycle of violence, which has trapped generation after generation of ordinary people in Israel and Palestine in endless rounds of division, bitterness, escalation, and death, from which nothing good can occur, least of all the future of stability, security, and lasting peace which all people of goodwill wish to see.
As an MP, my only priority has been to consider what position takes us further towards the goal of a lasting peace and a sustainable two-state solution, and what position would take us further away, and I have never had any truck with people who argue that 'you must always take Palestine's side' or 'you must always take Israel's side', especially when the positions they are advocating represent the furthest extremes of Palestinian or Israeli opinion, not the best interests of either people.
That is why, in my time as Shadow Foreign Secretary, I condemned both the rocket assaults and terror attacks against Israeli civilians by Hamas and other groups, and also the indiscriminate shooting of protestors on the Gaza border by Israeli forces. I spoke out against Donald Trump's decisions to cancel funding to Palestinian aid organisation and to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, just I have consistently spoken out against the Gaza blockade and the spread of illegal settlements.
In all these instances, and many more, I have always believed that we must continue to strive for peace, for the protection of innocent civilian lives, and to keep open the path to a two-state solution, even when that has seemed impossible. And in recent months, we have certainly been back in that dark and hopeless-seeming place.
But amid all the immediate horror, we must never lose sight of the bigger picture, which is the need not just to end this appalling conflict but to redouble our efforts to achieve a lasting peace and a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine. That’s why Labour’s manifesto states plainly that:
Long-term peace and security in the Middle East will be an immediate focus. Labour will continue to push for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, the upholding of international law, and a rapid increase of aid into Gaza. Palestinian statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people. It is not in the gift of any neighbour and is also essential to the long-term security of Israel. We are committed to recognising a Palestinian state as a contribution to a renewed peace process which results in a two-state solution with a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state.
We owe it to the children being born today in Gaza, Ramallah, Hebron, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Nazareth to do everything we can to ensure that cycle of violence, hatred and fear does not become their inheritance too, and I will continue to do everything I can to that end.
The final issue I want to address is one closer to home, and that is the sickening wave of antisemitism and Islamophobia that has swept Britain as the conflict in Gaza has unfolded, with the latest statistics showing a shocking rise in both forms of hate crime, and Jewish and Muslim constituents here in Islington telling me that they have felt scared in recent months to walk down the street.
That would be utterly abhorrent anywhere in our country, but it is totally unacceptable here in Islington, a borough where we have always been rightly proud of our record in standing up to racism, intolerance, and prejudice in whatever form it comes.
At the outset of this crisis, Keir Starmer said in Parliament that "every MP has a duty to work in their constituency to say no to this hate and to ensure that every British Jew and every British Muslim knows they can live their life free from fear and free from discrimination here in their own country".
I have always taken that duty extremely seriously, from when we stood together as a community against the terrorist attack on worshippers at the Finsbury Park Mosque in June 2017 to when we stand together each January to mark Holocaust Memorial Day at the Town Hall. There is no place for antisemitism or Islamophobia in our community, and I urge anyone who sees or experiences any incidents of either to tell me and tell the police so we can take the necessary action to root it out and punish those responsible.
It's an honour to have represented Islington South and Finsbury for the past nineteen years, and during that time I have always tried to speak up for residents and our progressive, inclusive values. This election is a choice between a fresh start with Labour or five more years of Tory cruelty, sleaze, and incompetence. I hope that I can count on your vote to bring the change that Britain desperately needs.
Thank you once again for writing to me, and please do not hesitate to get back in touch if there are any further points you would like to raise. You can read our full manifesto and find out more about Labour’s five missions for national renewal by clicking here.