After the “Conservatives”… the fires of the Gaza war reach the Labor Party in Britain

Within one week, internal pressure forced Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to dismiss Home Affairs Minister Suella Braverman. After its opposition to the demonstrations in support of the Palestinians, today it is the turn of the opposition Labor Party, of which 10 leaders have submitted their resignations. Angry at the party leader’s position of rejecting the ceasefire in Gaza.

Mass resignations

The events that have so far ended in a major impasse for the Labor Party, the largest opposition party in Parliament, have followed rapidly since Israel escalated its attacks, which killed thousands of civilians in the Gaza Strip. Which threatens the cohesion required to win the next general elections.

• Party leader Keir Starmer’s statements to a radio station last month caused shock when he considered that Israel has the right to cut off water, electricity and fuel supplies to defend itself, especially since they were issued by a lawyer and former prosecutor.
• This position prompted dozens of Labor Party municipal council members to submit mass resignations, including the resignation of Afrasiab Anwar, mayor of the city of Burnley in northern England.
• On Wednesday evening, 10 leaders in the Labor Party announced their resignation from their positions within the party. In protest against Starmer’s position on the war in Gaza, including several ministers in the shadow government, before representatives of the House of Commons went to vote on a parliamentary petition calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
• The petition was presented by the Scottish National Party, and 294 MPs voted to reject it, while 125 others supported it, including 56 MPs from the Labor Party and the ten leaders, thus contravening Starmer’s recommendations to abstain from voting.
• Outside the Parliament headquarters in London, thousands of supporters of the Palestinian cause demonstrated, demanding a ceasefire, and they expressed their rejection of the position of the parliamentarians who rejected the petition.

International relations researcher, Hani Al-Jamal, sees these partisan tensions within Britain as a reflection of Israel’s failure to maintain the support it enjoyed within Europe and the United States at the beginning of the Gaza crisis, when it was subjected to a sudden attack by Palestinian factions that caused the killing of hundreds of Israelis.

As a result of Israel’s response in a way that targeted the massive killing and displacement of defenseless civilians in Gaza, Israeli justifications have no longer gained global acceptance, and many supportive voices have shifted to calling for a ceasefire and the protection of civilians, and this is what some political circles in Britain are witnessing, according to Al-Gamal.

He added to Sky News Arabia that these mass resignations “convey a message that Israel crossed every conceivable red line when it bombed Gaza, and Israel should not be given a blank check in what it does there. Rather, these military operations targeting civilians and infrastructure must be stopped.” Forcibly displacing the indigenous population.

In a sign of a feeling of a moral crisis within the Labor Party, the resigned labor leaders, Al-Gamal continues, believe that the party leader’s position on Palestine is not consistent with established values, and that their responsibility as elected members is to work to bring about change from within, but these endeavors did not receive any attention from Starmer. ; They submitted their resignation from the party.

A shake-up within the Conservative Party

Last Monday, the Prime Minister fired Interior Minister Suella Braverman, after internal criticism; Her critics accused her of inflaming tensions by opposing pro-Palestinian demonstrations inside the country.

Sunak chose James Cleverly as Home Secretary, and former Prime Minister David Cameron was appointed Foreign Secretary, in profound changes that precede the general elections scheduled for 2024.