Scottish Labour has formally backed demands for a full ceasefire in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, widening the party’s divisions on the conflict.
Anas Sarwar supported a motion tabled by Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, in Holyrood on Tuesday calling for an immediate truce, in defiance of Keir Starmer’s instruction that Labour should only support “pauses” to allow evacuations and aid to arrive.
Sarwar then directly criticised Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to consider the full cessation of military action in Gaza. Sarwar told MSPs he believed the Israeli prime minister “has no interest in peace”, implying he needed to be removed from power for lasting peace to be achieved. A total of 21 Labour MSPs backed the SNP motion, which was carried by 90 votes to 28.
The coalition between Labour and the Scottish National party at Holyrood echoed last week’s revolt in the Commons when 56 Labour MPs, including eight frontbenchers, broke the party whip to support an SNP motion at Westminster calling for a ceasefire.
Sarwar has repeatedly urged Starmer to take a far tougher line on Israel’s retaliation after Hamas’s atrocities on 7 October, openly distancing himself from Starmer’s refusal to support UN calls for a full ceasefire.
On Tuesday Scottish Labour MSPs supported Yousaf’s motion endorsing demands by António Guterres, the UN’s secretary general, for an immediate cessation of violence to allow civilians to escape the war zone and for humanitarian aid to be delivered.
Tomorrow @ScottishLabour will vote for an immediate ceasefire.
— Anas Sarwar (@AnasSarwar) November 20, 2023
Here I explain why and what I believe needs to happen to make it a reality. pic.twitter.com/cgiuWy6ljf
Sarwar’s amendment went further by regretting that Netanyahu had said “he will not even consider a ceasefire”. It used stronger language than Starmer’s motion last week by urging the international criminal court to investigate the conduct of both Hamas and Israel.
However, the Labour amendment included the qualification that “in order for any ceasefire to work, it requires all sides to comply”, noting that Hamas had stated it would repeat its attacks on Israeli civilians and would continue its rocket fire, if it could.
The debate at Holyrood opened with Yousaf, whose mother-in-law and father-in-law were trapped in Gaza before escaping on 3 November, urging Starmer and Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, to officially recognise Palestine as an independent state.
In a bid to maintain a consensus with rival parties, Yousaf did not name Starmer directly but implicitly criticised the Labour leader when he said a humanitarian pause would be “simply a pause in the killing of innocent men, women, and children, only to resume hours later. Surely, we can and must strive for better than that”.
Sarwar said he was clear that both sides in the conflict had breached international law. “We must stay true to an international rules-based system and everyone’s actions must be judged to make sure that they’re in proper accordance with that international humanitarian law,” he said.
A leaked recording revealed Sarwar told Muslim activists in the party last month he was dismayed when Starmer appeared to give Israel carte blanche to attack fuel, food and water supplies in Gaza during a radio interview in mid-October – a position Starmer then clarified.
Starmer and Sarwar are generally very close allies but Sarwar, one of the party’s most prominent Muslims, believes Starmer is wrong on principle and is worried about the impact his stance on Gaza will have on Muslim support for the party at the next election.
In an interview with Sky News, Elizabeth El-Nakla, Yousaf’s mother-in-law, said she and her husband, Maged, who is Palestinian, believed they could die each night as Israeli shells and bombs devastated their neighbourhood. The house next door was hit in one attack.
“On many nights I would sit on the edge of my bed and I would self-soothe myself and rock for six/seven hours,” El-Nakla said. “And when that sun rose in the morning, you were so glad to be alive.”
