UK foreign secretary says critics of Labour’s Gaza policy ‘were right,’ vows tougher action
Ed Miliband says Britain will target trade and financial links with illegal Israeli settlements as Labour resets its Palestine policy
LONDON (MNTV) — British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has acknowledged that critics of Labour’s approach to Israel’s genocide in Gaza were “right,” while pledging tougher action against the Israeli government and illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Addressing Labour’s annual conference Monday, Miliband described the suffering inflicted on Palestinians under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as “a stain on the conscience of the world.”
He said threats faced by Israel could not justify its actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
“I want to say to the millions of people in this country, and indeed elsewhere, who have been moved and outraged by the plight of the Palestinian people: we hear you. You were right,” Miliband said.
He said Labour had reset its approach under Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
“We call out ethnic cleansing by the settler terrorists in the West Bank. We call out the evidence of war crimes in Gaza. We call out Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine,” he said.
Miliband said the government would match its criticism with action, including banning imports from illegal Israeli settlements and targeting British financial, construction and other services supporting settlement activity.
Britain announced the measures earlier this month as part of a broader policy targeting illegal Israeli settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Miliband stressed that Labour’s dispute was with the Israeli government rather than the Israeli people.
He also accused the Netanyahu government of undermining prospects for Palestinian statehood.
“When it comes to the attempt to destroy the two-state solution, this party, this movement, this government said we will not let you succeed,” he said.
‘Survivor’s responsibility’
Miliband also invoked his family history, saying his parents had taught him what he described as a “survivor’s responsibility” to oppose injustice.
“My parents didn’t just observe a country fighting for values. They taught me that I have a responsibility to fight for them too,” he said.
Miliband, who is Jewish, has previously spoken about relatives killed during the Holocaust and his grandmother finding refuge in Israel.
He said that responsibility meant refusing to stand by in the face of oppression and injustice.
The foreign secretary also called for closer cooperation between Britain and the European Union, arguing that Europe remained central to British interests in areas ranging from trade and security to climate policy and the Middle East.
“Our future lies in a stronger, deeper partnership with the European Union,” he said.
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