Sir Alan Duncan: How can we still call Israel an ally?

Challenging the right of Israel to exist, or failing to condemn antisemitism and the atrocity of 7 October, are all inexcusable – but the noise around any of these issues should not be allowed to disguise the appalling conduct of Israel itself.

In all the months before Hamas slaughtered hundreds of innocent Israelis, there was hardly a squeak of condemnation from world leaders about the growing extremism of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, both within and outside Israel. His judicial reforms were an attack on freedom and justice within his own country, while ever more violent settler activity against Palestinians in the West Bank accelerated under the watchful and supportive gaze of the Israeli Defence Forces.

Even then – and, indeed, for many decades of occupation – the claim that the IDF adheres to international law has been running very thin.

Those of us who, for many years, have faced intense opprobrium for supporting justice for the Palestinian people have been in growing despair about their plight. The narrative that Israel is a democracy – and that all Palestinians are Islamist terrorists – has been lazily accepted by too many as they sit comfortably at home. Never mind that it’s the Holy Land, and many Palestinians are Christian.

But in that Holy Land, paradoxically at Easter, a convoy of decent heroes was taking desperately needed food to people now facing starvation inside Gaza. Clearly marked on the vehicle’s roof, and travelling down an agreed humanitarian corridor, they were mercilessly killed by the Israelis. Three British aid workers – John Chapman, James Henderson, and James Kirby – are now dead. So were four more: Australian, Polish, Palestinian and US-Canadian.

The inexcusable deaths of seven saintly aid workers are a tipping point in the collapsing reputation of Israel.

As the death toll in Gaza has risen from 1,000, to 10,000, to 30,000, Israel’s justification for this excess feels ever less convincing. The propagandist verbal gymnastics of Israeli spokesman Eylon Levy have, at least, been silenced for now. But through its deceit and callousness, Israel has lost the support of the world. Nobody any longer believes its statements.

Israel fought for its existence and has been a country since 1948. But by annexing the West Bank, breaking international law, and now appearing to want to destroy Gaza as a place fit for humans, it is betraying the enlightened principles of its founder – and is not in any way behaving as a democracy should.

The UK now faces the obscenity of having to build a supply pontoon into Gaza to tackle famine there caused by Israel. As a foreign minister who oversaw the process of arms licensing, I now think that continued arms sales to Israel from the UK cannot be justified and must cease. Even before 7 October, the breaches of international law by the IDF had become inexcusable such that no UK citizens should be permitted to serve in it.

We should salute our aid heroes by devoting our efforts to securing a Palestinian state. In the meantime, all responsible governments must urgently assess whether they can any longer regard Israel as an ally.

Alan Duncan served as a foreign minister between 2016 and 2019