Former Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell called for Israel’s isolation both “economically and militarily” and said UK authorities could play a “leading role” in that process.
The independent MP for Hayes and Harlington (pictured below) was one of several MPs who called for sanctions in the Commons on Tuesday, as Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer took questions about what he called a “man-made” humanitarian crisis in northern Gaza.
(Image: Parliamentlive.tv) McDonnell told the Commons: “The only solution that we’ve had in the past is a total isolation of a country – economically and militarily – to prevent them performing war crimes in the way Israel has.
“I think this Government could take a leading role in that isolation of Israel to bring it some form of negotiated settlement, but can I just say one thing that grates with me in particular?
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“It’s that we have an Israeli ambassador who’s an advocate of ‘Greater Israel’, refuses to recognise the Palestinian state, defies all the UN resolutions that have been passed about how we can secure that peace, and she still remains in this country.
“Why aren’t we expelling the Israeli ambassador?”
Falconer (below) vowed to make “disagreement clear through all channels”, but did not say whether Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely would face expulsion.
(Image: Parliamentlive.tv) He replied: “It is tempting to think that, if only we had representatives more to our tastes politically, then things would be easier.
“There is a disagreement between the British and Israeli governments about the conduct of the war in Gaza and the humanitarian implications that flow from it.
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“We will continue to make that disagreement clear through all channels, both through the Israel ambassador, directly to the Israeli government through the foreign minister, the minister for strategic affairs and the deputy foreign minister, and we will continue to talk to the Israeli government about these issues.”
McDonnell, who served as shadow chancellor between 2015 and 2020, had the Labour whip removed in July after supporting an SNP motion in favour of scrapping the two-child benefit cap.
‘Israel is laughing at the UK’
Several Labour MPs also called for sanctions, as Polly Billington, MP for East Thanet, referred to eight members of the Knesset in Jerusalem who, according to the newspaper Haaretz, called on Israeli defence minister Israel Katz to kill anyone in northern Gaza who “doesn’t come out with a white flag”.
Billington called on ministers to “ban entry” of these politicians into the UK, but Falconer declined to comment on specific sanctions.
Meanwhile, Andy McDonald, Labour MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East, said previous UK Government action had been “completely and utterly ineffective”.
He told the Commons: “The continued repetition of those positions, and the call for a review, and keeping matters under review, isn’t moving the dial one jot.
“Israel is just laughing at the UK, they have no regard for the position here.”
Falconer responded: “The situation in Palestine is appalling, as it has been for a long time in Yemen, in Syria, and a range of other places. We will continue to take serious efforts.
“That our efforts do not secure the progress that we want does not mean that we are not making them.”