ANDY Burnham and his Cabinet minister Louise Haigh have been accused of "failing to show leadership" on Israel as aggression intensifies in the occupied West Bank.
Prime Minister Burnham has garnered a lot of attention for saying that Labour "didn't get it right" over Gaza and the party need to do better, while his First Secretary of State Haigh has previously said it is "impossible to conclude that what is happening in Gaza is anything short of genocide".
But neither have set out any tangible sanctions the UK Government plans to implement even as the Israeli military storms towns and villages in the West Bank.
Israel has launched an aggressive crackdown in the occupied West Bank, detaining hundreds of Palestinians in reaction to a shootout in a village near Nablus where four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed.
The “wide-scale military operation” ordered by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu intensified on Sunday as settlers began marauding through villages and attacking Palestinians, according to Al Jazeera.
Settlers tried to set two mosques on fire, reports said, including at the newly-built Al-Rahma Mosque in the town of Qusra, where slogans like “Jewish revenge” were spray-painted on the walls.
Richard McNeil-Willson, a Middle East expert based at the University of Edinburgh, told The National that by remaining silent Burnham and Haigh are creating a "moral vacuum".
He said: "The Government under Andy Burnham is failing to show leadership on Israel, and risks repeating the past, disastrous mistakes of the Starmer Government.
"Keir Starmer repeatedly ignored and sidelined international legal norms when dealing with mass Israeli state violence in Gaza and wider Palestine, enabling Israel to conduct crimes against humanity with impunity. This deliberate moral and legal failure by the Labour administration has created long-lasting implications, degrading peace, security and justice in our world.
"The intensification of violence in the West Bank by Israeli settlers forms a well-documented part of the genocide of Palestinian people and their forced removal from their internationally recognised homeland. Settler violence has been enabled by subsequent Israeli governments for decades, and continues to hamper not just the cause of peace and justice in Palestine, but is part of a wider system of Israeli aggression and destabilisation throughout the region.
“Members of the current administration, including cabinet member Louise Haigh, have previously called out this genocide of Palestinians. Yet, as with Starmer, once they reach a position of power and the means to make change, they silence themselves, creating a moral vacuum that allows violence to grow and justice to die."
Since October 2023, Israel has killed at least 1185 Palestinians in the West Bank, including more than 250 children. At least 12,652 Palestinians have been wounded and more than 24,000 have been detained.
In Gaza, the death toll is more than 70,000, according to the strip's health ministry. The National also reported last week how more than £53 billion will be needed to rebuild "only part of what was destroyed" amid Israel's genocide in Gaza.
At the start of the month, Burnham apologised for Labour's initial response to Israel's military action in Gaza adding that the UK was too slow to call for a ceasefire.
He said more needed to be done to "strengthen our approach", to "ensure the Israeli government adheres to international law and to keep the prospect of a two-state solution alive".
Last year, Haigh called on the government to impose sanctions on "Netanyahu and members of his genocidal regime". Last week, the Green Party wrote to her to ask if she still stands by her statement and whether she would commit to implementing the 2024 International Court of Justice ruling in full by imposing "comprehensive sanctions" on Israel, including a full arms embargo.
McNeil-Willson added: "The Burnham Government must be the first to be on the right side of history. They must take clear and decisive steps against the Israeli perpetrated genocide that is taking place not just in Gaza but throughout Palestine.
"Failing to do so will leave Burnham with a legacy as sullied as that of Starmer’s, and will continue the global slide towards violence, injustice and insecurity.”
SNP MP Brendan O'Hara, the party's foreign affairs spokesperson, said: "Andy Burnham's new team were very keen to tell us all just how disappointed they were with Keir Starmer's response to the genocide in Gaza and just how different their approach would be, but in the face of Netanyahu's relentless violence, it seems they will be every bit as silent.
"Andy Burnham will soon discover that effective foreign policy can't run on 'vibes'. It needs clear action in the face of such blatant breaches of international law.
"Netanyahu's systematic attacks and intimidation in the occupied Palestinian territories are nothing new but they will only stop if the international community stops appeasing and arming his government.
"That's the test of the new Burnham government, otherwise all his words will turn out to be just as hollow as Keir Starmer's."
The UK Government has been approached for comment.
