What the British Parliament – ??and also the Government – ??says about the Gaza conflict will not change the situation on the ground at all. It is a game that is played out in other capitals (Tel-Aviv, Washington, Beirut, Tehran…), with different protagonists, as much as the United Kingdom wants to continue exercising global power and pretends to have much more power bigger than it really is (the last test of a Trident nuclear missile was a failure). This sense of powerlessness is one of the factors in the chaos that descended into the debate on a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, with scenes more typical of the South Korean or Italian legislature than of the supposed gentlemen of Westminster.
Periodically, the Commons celebrate an “opposition day”, in which parties that are not part of the Government can convene a debate and present a motion for voting. The Scottish nationalists of the SNP took the opportunity to talk about Gaza and propose an immediate ceasefire, which also called for “an end to the slaughter of innocent civilians” and condemned “the collective punishment of Palestinians” by of Israel, a definition that could legally be considered a war crime.
The SNP’s position was not entirely disinterested, and can also be interpreted in political terms: Labor is stealing ground from forced marches in Scotland after the fall of Nicola Sturgeon, is the favorite to win the general election in the country, and it suits the nationalists to undermine as much as possible the inexorable progress of their rivals (the Tories, north of the border, paint very little).
And a call for an immediate ceasefire would compromise Labour, whose left agrees with the SNP and much of the international community that Netanyahu’s response to the 7-O massacre is being excessive and must be stopped. However, the official line of its leader, Keir Starmer, obsessed with appearing moderate, is much more nuanced and ambiguous.
The situation in Gaza has poisoned British politics. The feeling of guilt for having been a colonial power in Palestine, which administered the territory until 1948 (and its share of responsibility in what has happened since), is joined by non-negligible doses of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in the british society Xenophobic incidents have increased, pro-Hamas and anti-Israel slogans at pro-Palestinian demonstrations greatly irritate the right, and numerous MPs, especially Labor, are beaten and the subject of personal threats and threats to their families for not clearly calling for the cessation of Israeli attacks.
Half a hundred legislators, in this context, rebelled already in November against Starmer and voted in favor of an SNP text similar to the one now. To avoid a similar crisis, or even worse (there was even talk of resignations at the top of the party), Labor tabled its own motion for debate, which also called for an immediate ceasefire, to which the ‘humanitarian’ adjective, but it recognized Israel’s right to defend itself and made it conditional on Hamas ceasing to constitute a threat (something unrealistic without it disappearing).
According to parliamentary practice, on “opposition day” only a party outside the Government can present a motion for debate, and the SNP had advanced. But Starmer pressed the speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, to also accept Labour’s, in order to calm spirits in view of the threats to legislators, who say they fear for their lives.
Hoyle, who is Labor but is supposed to act neutrally, acceded to Starmer’s demand “to make the debate as broad as possible”. But the passage of Labour’s motion meant that the SNP’s motion (and another of the more pro-Israel Conservatives) was not even debated, which led to a very unedifying shouting match, and that the nationalists the Scots and the Tories left their seats en masse and boycotted the session. The Parliament of gentlemen became that of hooligans.
The SNP yesterday expressed the loss of confidence in Hoyle, and more than sixty MPs (including thirty Conservatives) have requested their leader. He has apologized and admitted his mistake, and Labor supports him. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, true to his line, is silent, until we see which way the wind blows.
