OPINION: Labour’s clear stance on Israel-Palestine: civil society peace building
The new government's next move can be crystal clear: showing solidarity with Israelis and Palestinians fighting for peace
No other foreign policy issue has so profoundly divided communities, polarised opinions, and fuelled antisemitism and Islamophobia as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. With Labour entering government with its largest majority in decades: What will the leadership do to address this?
Labour can lead the world in the critical priority of civil society peace-building in Israel and Palestine. By addressing this issue at its root, they can tackle the domestic fallout and set a new precedent by showing solidarity with Israelis and Palestinians fighting for peace.
Last month, as Labour MPs campaigned across the country, the UK and fellow G7 members included unprecedented language in their Leaders’ Communique, centering civil society in their commitment to lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace.
This historic change was driven by 350 civil society organisations and supported by a broad swathe of UK parliamentarians. It can now form the nucleus of Labour’s approach to an issue needing a radical re-think, following unprecedented violence, trauma, and tragedy.
The 160 members of the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP) – who know all too well the horrors of, and since, October 7th – spearheaded the G7 campaign, calling for a new approach that ends the failed era of conflict management and places civil society at the heart of a drive toward conflict resolution.
They have continued their critical work of combating violence and polarisation within their communities and remain the most determined advocates for peace and diplomacy. Just last week, many of them led a historic peace event that I was lucky enough to attend.
If the ideas and initiatives that Labour are preparing are to have any chance of success, it will depend on these highly networked and determined advocates who can persuade and educate their communities about the urgent need for diplomacy, the concessions it requires and the gains it can deliver. While also working to build trust within and between both societies, and addressing the deep trauma that will shape them in the aftermath of such devastating events.
Labour has a unique role to play. Labour was among the first worldwide to endorse the International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian peace (IFP), and continues to be a staunch supporter of civil society peacebuilding.
The same concept proved instrumental to Labour’s delivery of the Good Friday Agreement, with the International Fund for Ireland (IFI) working for twelve years before peace was achieved to create the conditions necessary. Blair’s Chief Negotiator– and close Starmer ally Jonathan Powell– called it the “great unsung hero” of that historic achievement.
For peacebuilders’ work to reach the required scale, the international community must work together, leveraging each other’s strengths and insights. An International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace, like the IFI, could pool contributions from actors like the UK, US, Europe, and Arab states, each bringing resources, insights, relationships, and legitimacy, increasing the budget and ambition of projects, as well as their impact and reach within Israeli and Palestinian societies.
Over time, this grassroots peace movement could shift the politics and diplomatic horizon in the region. It could also transform the dynamics here in the UK, presenting a joint Israeli/Palestinian movement to be in solidarity with, helping to puncture the toxic debate and the antisemitism and Islamophobia that often accompany it.
Within Labour’s first 100 days, Lammy could invite a coalition of countries for an inaugural meeting to map and coordinate support for civil society in the region as part of restoring a diplomatic horizon for Israelis and Palestinians. This first step of establishing an informal working group could then later be formalised into an IFP.
Now that it is official G7 and UK policy to support and institutionalise Israeli-Palestinian peacebuilding, Labour can lead the world in this project, with a strong majority and five years ahead of it, within a volatile and uncertain world.
This approach chimes with core Labour values and is supported by parliamentarians across the political spectrum.
It can draw UK communities together and transform the reality on the ground for Israelis and Palestinians, opening space for diplomacy to be restored.
After years of empty promises from global leaders and the greatest tragedy in this conflict’s history, the UK can again be a leader in international peace building and play a critical role in ending this war.
- Rachael Liss, UK rep for Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP), working on the design and implementation of ALLMEP’s European and UK advocacy strategy
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