David Lammy is good with words. He says “we need an immediate ceasefire”, in response to Israel’s horrific double tap attack on Nasser hospital (Israel bombed Gaza hospital a second time, killing rescuers, say health officials, 25 August). But he is, as usual, hopeless at following up the fine words with any action.
Ofer Cassif makes clear that the UK government is already “complicit in this devastating human-made catastrophe” (Protests in Tel Aviv, army reservists refusing to serve: in Israel, more of us are saying no to this endless war, 25 August), but lists a number of steps that Keir Starmer and Lammy could take to end this complicity. These include the immediate unconditional recognition of Palestine, acknowledging Benjamin Netanyahu as a war criminal and supporting new West Bank sanctions. Above all, they must “recognise the people of Gaza as victims of a continuing genocide”, with the actions that would have to follow from that under the genocide convention.
It is depressing beyond words that the government refuses to call the destruction of Gaza and its people a genocide until the international court of justice delivers its final verdict, which will take years and by which time there may not be anyone left alive in Gaza.
I don’t know how Starmer and Lammy live with themselves, knowing that their refusal to take every possible step to stop Israel’s horrific assault on Gaza makes them complicit in everything Israel does. Shame on them.
Richard Barnes
Windermere, Cumbria
• Once again, a completely inadequate response from our government to this latest war crime from the Israeli government. Our government could respond with real sanctions against Israel. Instead, we get the same old 10 minutes of hand-wringing and then business as usual. I can’t decide if this is the result of an almost pathological fear of offending Donald Trump or a total moral vacuum at the heart of the Labour party. Either way, it gives me little hope for the future of our country.
Hilary Lang
Frome, Somerset
• Owen Jones is right (From the streets of Baghdad, I saw a clear line to the bloodshed in Gaza, 26 August). The politicians who authorised military campaigns in Libya, Syria and especially Iraq continue to be feted by a culpable media as grandees and voices of experience to be tapped for insights into the latest global crises. If Tony Blair, George Bush and others had instead been held to criminal account, or at least seen their reputations flayed in the public eye, the political space available to those complicit in Gaza’s horrors would have been significantly narrowed.
That should not discourage us from raising our voices. The huge mobilisations against the Iraq invasion helped caution UK governments against attempting to justify future military adventures as freedom exported at the end of the barrel of a gun. If the people of Gaza can sustain hope in hopeless conditions, we have an inescapable duty to hold to account those with responsibility closer to home.
Mike Cowley
Edinburgh
• There is no discounting anything that Martin Griffiths, the former UN under-secretary general, wrote (I’ve seen the UN at its best. As it turns 80, with a world in crisis, it must recover its courage, 26 August). But if the deaths and injuries in Gaza, the courage of doctors, journalists, rescuers and families, the ever-present risk of violating international law (Israel’s attack on hospital in Gaza may constitute a war crime on many fronts, 25 August), the pleas of NGOs and inevitable global condemnation are insufficient to deter Israel, or oblige the US to withdraw support, what can the UN do that it isn’t already trying? It is the decisions of states that allow the defiance of UN resolutions to continue in Palestine and elsewhere.
Janet Dubé
Peebles, Scottish Borders
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