The comments were made at a fringe meeting at Green Party Conference
Green Party of England and Wales migration spokesperson Benali Hamdache branded Keir Starmer’s Labour government ‘even less principled than Margaret Thatcher’ over its position on arms sales to Israel. Hamdache made the comments at a fringe meeting at the Green Party’s autumn conference taking place in Manchester this weekend.
Hamdache told the meeting: “In 1982, Margaret Thatcher stopped the sale of weapons to Israel. In the wake of Israel’s invasion of South Lebanon, arms licenses were withdrawn and an invitation to the British Army Equipment Exhibition rescinded. In that war, 19,000 people died”.
Hamdache went on to contrast this to the approach taken by Starmer’s government. He said: “Today, after 11 months of brutal killing, the death toll stands at 42,000, with over 100,000 wounded. And yet David Lammy will only back a partial ban on weapons sales to Israel. F-35s with British parts rain death down upon the Gazan people. How – over the last 40 years – have international standards become so degraded? How can this Labour government be even less principled than Margaret Thatcher’s government in the 1980s.”
Hamdache went on to say: “The consensus of cruelty in this country’s biggest parties has driven more death and more suffering – not does in Gaza, but in conflicts as diverse as Sudan, Yemen and the Congo.”
The fringe event was organised by Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and was addressed by – among others – the director of Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Ben Jamal.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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