David Cameron admits Israel is committing war crimes

The Foreign Secretary admits that Israel is committing war crimes by systematically blocking aid into Gaza, which makes the UK complicit.

In February the UK foreign secretary David Cameron stated that Israel "would be in breach of international law" if it continued to block food aid for Gaza.

On March 15th he wrote a letter to Alicia Kearns admitting that aid has not been getting into Gaza due to "arbitrary denials by the Govt of Israel and lengthy clearance procedures, including multiple screenings and narrow opening windows in daylight hours" and that UK aid for Gaza has been routinely held waiting for Israeli permissions, meaning UK food aid for Gaza is being stuck at the border for literally weeks.

Cameron also highlighted the flat out lie from Israel’s government spokesman Eylon Levy that the UN had requested the closure of Kerem Shalom crossing on Saturdays, when it was Israel’s decision to do so, and admitted that Israel has the power to turn water supplies back on.

David Cameron's March 15th letter

Given Cameron’s previous statement on the illegality of blockading civilian aid, it’s impossible to read Cameron’s letter as anything other than an admission that Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza via siege tactics aimed at collectively punishing Palestinian civilians.

It’s good that Cameron has finally been pressurised into admitting that Israel is committing war crimes, but it’s shocking that it’s taken so long given the statements of genocidal intent from Israeli officials dating back to the very beginning of the barbaric Israeli assault on Gaza.

For example the Israeli defence minister Yoav Gollant stated that "we are imposing a complete siege on Gaza … There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything will be closed" on October 9th and the Israeli energy minister Israel Katz bragged that Israel would blockade electricity, fuel, and water on October 12th.

It’s outrageous that the UK government has taken six months to acknowledge Israel’s illegal siege tactics against civilians, when they clearly and openly stated their intent from the very beginning.

It’s even more disgraceful that it’s taken this long given the sickening Israeli tactics of using aid deliveries as bait to massacre starving civilians, their repeated attacks on aid distribution centres, and their assassinations of aid coordinators.

Credit has to go to the Tory MP Alicia Kearns (chair of the foreign affairs select committee) for doggedly pursuing the issue and highlighting the outright lies told by Eylon Levy.

She’s done far more to hold the UK government to account on their complicity with Israeli war crimes than the so-called leader of the opposition Keir Starmer, who has consistently blocked and obstructed efforts to hold Israel to account for their atrocities (even going as far as sabotaging the SNP Gaza ceasefire motion to delete mention of Israel’s collective punishment of civilians).

Cameron’s comments have caused a rift with Rishi Sunak, with his Downing Street spokesperson continuing to defy reality by insisting that UK arms sales to Israel would continue because they still believe that Israel "could" comply with their obligations under international law.

The Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute prohibit weapons transfers when those weapons will be used to violate international humanitarian law, which means the UK government has been making itself complicit in Israeli war crimes all along, and especially so now that a senior government minister has expressed frustration at Israel’s continued use of unlawful siege tactics.

Furthermore Israel’s continued siege tactics, as acknowledged by David Cameron, are in direct defiance of the International Court of Justice order to "ensure the delivery of basic services and essential humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza".

It’s beyond outrageous that Rishi Sunak continues Britain’s complicity with Israeli war crimes, even when his own foreign secretary admits that they’re defying the ICJ by blockading food aid.

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