Hastings Jews for Justice take their case to MP Helena Dollimore

While the carnage in Gaza continues, Hastings Jews for Justice continue to press for the human rights of Palestinians to be respected, and for the UK government to fully assume its obligations under international and domestic laws which in their view it is failing to do. In a recent meeting with MP Helena Dollimore, they asked for her help in bringing their case to Parliament, as Felicity Laurence recounts.

The calamity of the war in Gaza and beyond reaches ever new levels of savagery, with North Gaza now under total siege and its people starving, its hospitals attacked, its people bombed relentlessly.  More than 16,000 children have been killed in Gaza since October 2023 – that’s how many children there are in Hastings. A few days ago this amazing and powerful message from Hastings went out to the world here – it has ‘gone viral’ and been viewed over three million times, across the world, and, I have just learned, in Gaza itself.

People of Jewish heritage are increasingly speaking up to say ‘Not in my name’: that being Jewish does not mean offering support for Israel’s actions, and that standing up for the human rights of the Palestinian people – the rights to life, to food, to water, to safety, to medical care … and to not see their children bombed, burned and starved to death – in no way threatens Jewish life anywhere.

An Israel-critical Jewish voice has existed in large organisations, such as Jewish Voice for Peace, for many years; now, smaller citizen groups are springing up across the UK in many towns and cities, and across the world. Collectively they are a legitimate alternative to the “pro-Israel” perspective of other groups within a diverse Jewish community; these include the Board of Deputies, which by no means speaks for everyone of Jewish heritage.

Here in Hastings, our group Hastings Jews for Justice (HJJ) is reaching out to make our voice of compassion and justice heard in our community. We first sent letters to all of the Parliamentary candidates, and then straight after the election, we approached our MP Helena Dollimore, requesting to meet her, as reported earlier. Finally, on 18 October, after three months,  we were able to present our views to Ms Dollimore directly.  An account of this meeting follows below. Meantime, many of us participate in the recurring, huge London marches, among the hundreds of people in the Jewish bloc; there, we call for a full arms embargo and for a total ceasefire.

Our first stall in Hastings

On Saturday 9 November we held our first stall in the town centre, meeting with people on our streets; we handed out a leaflet explaining our stance and information about what is actually being supported in this war in the name of the British people. As reported here:

“There were many brilliant conversations and interactions with people on the street, some of whom were already aware of a growing momentum within Jewish communities to stand up against Israeli actions and speak out against genocide, apartheid and ethnic cleansing.

“However, for some it was the first time they had been made aware of our existence and we were grateful for the opportunity to differentiate between Judaism and Zionism.”

Our meeting with Helena Dollimore

On Friday 18 October, Helena Dollimore MP met with Teresa Thornhill and myself, representing Hastings Jews for Justice, to discuss the UK Government’s refusal to bring maximum pressure to bear upon Israel’s continuing and rapidly escalating actions, now in particular in Lebanon and in northern Gaza.

Those holding an Israel-critical view here in the UK contend with unremitting efforts to silence them; this has indeed happened here in Hastings, where attempts have been made to stop us from speaking publicly. But we too want our voice to be heard, respected, and consulted by the media and by our politicians. Accordingly, we asked Ms Dollimore to consider our views, and to represent our voice in Parliament, where she is commendably active in raising other issues for her constituents.

We stressed that we constitute a significant Jewish voice in her constituency, where most of us are visibly active in many contexts, some of us also with national and international profiles. We highlighted our own collective depth of understanding about Israel’s history and the present crisis. Many of us have worked in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Between us, we have legal, educational, journalistic, academic, authorial, religious and political expertise.

Furthermore, we all have a connection with the genocide of Jewish people in the Holocaust, some as direct descendants. Many of us have experienced antisemitism in our lives too; we know what this looks like.

We emphasised to Ms Dollimore our core declaration;  that criticising Israel’s actions is not antisemitic.

Ms Dollimore agreed that the situation in Gaza is appalling, claiming strongly that the UK Government is doing absolutely everything possible to bring this war to an end, and listing various Government actions. However, we disagreed on this point, and presented a number of specific arguments, A full description of these can be read here; following are some main points raised with Ms Dollimore, with a particular focus upon the urgent need for a full arms embargo.

Arm embargo

• UK law states that if there’s a clear risk UK weapons might be used for serious violations of international humanitarian law, or international human rights law, export licences shouldn’t be granted. This comes from the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) Articles 6 and 7 and UK’s, criteria 1 and 2. Under the ATT Article 7, and UK’s own Strategic Export Licensing Criteria 1 and 2, the export authority must inter alia take into account the risk of the arms being used to commit violence against women and children.

We know that women and children are the main victims of Israel’s assaults.

• The government argues it is difficult to know which planes Israel uses in particular attacks. This is not true: there was a well-documented attack by an F35 on 13 July in which 90 people were killed and 300 injured in the ‘safe zone’ of Al Mawasi in Gaza.
• The deployment of F-35s by Israel has been repeatedly confirmed since the current onset of attacks on Gaza, including their role in dropping 2000lb bombs on densely populated areas.
• While Foreign Secretary David Lammy has banned the direct sale to Israel of parts for F35 fighter jets (15% of each jet, according to UK Defence Journal), he has refused to ban the sale of these parts into the ‘global supply programme’, in the full knowledge that the US is free to buy them and donate or sell them on to Israel for use in Gaza.

Further points

The government’s reluctance to impose a full arms embargo goes against earlier decisions taken by both Tory and Labour governments in the past: Margaret Thatcher, Ted Heath and Tony Blair and Gordon Brown all instigated bans of arms provision to Israel at different times.

The UK is under a legal duty to prevent and punish genocide but instead it is effectively condoning it. It has recently been reported that the UK has flown 47% of 1,600 ‘reconnaissance’ flights over Gaza in the last year, to assist Israel. Furthermore, UK bases are among those being used for the airbridge built for the transport of weapons to Israel, with more than 1,200 military cargo flights recorded. This direct involvement surely in itself renders the UK unquestionably complicit in what is recognised in international law as plausible genocide.

A final crucial issue is that the UK has limited its assessment of possible violations of international law by Israel to looking only at restrictions on food and medical supplies, and torture of detainees; it has failed to make an assessment on air strikes.

The destruction of Gaza and its people does nothing to bring the hostages home, makes Israel less safe, makes peace more difficult to attain and makes Jews and Israelis vulnerable to attack all over the world. Some Israelis believe that their extreme right-wing government is driving Israel into a hole it will never get out of. On 24 October, this letter was published in the Guardian, now signed by over 3,000 Israelis who are begging for immediate international intervention to ‘save us from ourselves’.

Ms Dollimore listened carefully to us. In her summing up of our meeting, she mentioned that she is listening to groups from all persuasions, including other Jewish people, which is now part of her work as a Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) [for]British Jews, which, she explained, currently focuses upon antisemitism in the UK.

It was clear that Helena shares our distress at the terrible events in Gaza and beyond, and the unspeakable suffering of so many people, especially the children.

We concluded with these requests:

*that, as a matter of protocol, Ms Dollimore forward our letter expanding upon the points discussed in the meeting, directly to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Attorney General Richard Hermer and Under Secretary of State for the Middle East Hamish Falconer;

*that she sign this Early Day Motion, calling for more urgent action to restrain Israel, and already attracting 61 cross-party signatories including many of her Labour colleagues;

*that she put forward our views concerning UK policy on Israel and Gaza, both in Parliament and in the APPG [for] British Jews. We have now sent her the following specific question to ask on our behalf in the Commons (see the full preamble to the question here):

Will the Department of Business and Trade commit to carrying out the assessment of airstrikes as a matter of urgency, with a view to giving further consideration to whether the sale into the global supply chain of UK-made F35 parts for which Israel may become the end-user can continue?

Ms Dollimore and her team undertook to provide a list of actions taken once these have been completed. We note her subsequent official statement of her position, as expressed in this letter.

We called her office on Tuesday 12 November, leaving a message asking:

1. Has she forwarded the letter to PM Keir Starmer and the colleagues, as requested?
2. Has she received the parliamentary question and what is she going to do about it?
3. Has she signed the Early Day Motion as requested?

As of writing, we are awaiting the promised response to our phone call.

Meanwhile, we will continue to reach out to our community here and to hold the human rights of Palestinians as sacred as those of every other people.

 

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