KEIR Starmer must expel the Israeli ambassador after the country’s security council approved a plan to take over Gaza City, the Scottish Greens have said.
Ahead of the security cabinet meeting, which began on Thursday and ran through the night, Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel planned to retake control over the entire territory and eventually hand it off to friendly Arab forces opposed to Hamas.
The plans stop short of that, perhaps reflecting the reservations of Israel’s top general, who reportedly warned it would endanger the remaining 20 or so living hostages held by Hamas and further strain Israel’s army after nearly two years of regional wars.
The military “will prepare to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zones,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement after the meeting.
In response, Starmer said that Israel’s actions will only “bring more bloodshed” and urged them to reconsider.
And now, Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater has urged the Prime Minister to go further and end all arms sales and political support to Israel, as well as the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely.
Hotovely once called the Nakba – when 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced and more than 500 Palestinian cities, towns and villages were destroyed by Israel in 1948 during the country’s formation – an "Arab lie", and has repeatedly rejected a two-state solution.
“The UK government has not been a detached observer in the genocide against Gaza, it has been an active participant,” Slater said.
“The Prime Minister and his colleagues have chosen to arm and support Israeli forces and have ignored the daily and systemic atrocities that have been inflicted on Palestinians.
“When Keir Starmer sees the images of homes and communities turned to rubble or reads the stories about children being killed while their families are queuing for food, he must know that he has done nowhere near enough to stand against it.
She added that this must include stopping arms sales as well as “military collaboration and political support” for Israel.
Slater added: “That must mean backing sanctions against Israeli forces and expelling the Israeli ambassador who has served as a mouthpiece for genocide.
“This has been a disgraceful chapter in UK foreign policy and has made the Prime Minister and his colleagues complicit in some of the worst war crimes of this century.”
The UK Government has been contacted for comment.
We previously told how a petition to expel Hotovely gathered tens of thousands of signatures in June.
It comes as First Minister John Swinney said Israel’s plans are “completely and utterly unacceptable”, and urged the international community to intervene.
Israel has repeatedly bombarded Gaza City and carried out numerous raids, only to return to different neighbourhoods again and again as militants regrouped.
Today, it is one of the few areas of Gaza that has not been turned into an Israeli buffer zone or placed under evacuation orders.
A major ground operation there could displace tens of thousands of people and further disrupt efforts to deliver food to the territory.
It is unclear how many people reside in the city, which was Gaza’s largest before the war.
