Britain’s chance to reclaim and exert its moral authority

It is now 131 days since the ceasefire collapsed. Despite evidence that almost half of those killed are children, Israel’s unrepentant hardline government threatens new outrages daily. Plans to expel the remaining 2 million people from Gaza and turn it into a “hi-tech luxury resort” are a new low in the inhumanity on show. As hope dwindles, our fears of more deaths of innocent civilians and the remaining hostages grow.

Recognition – something many of us voted for in the UK parliament in 2014 – is not a silver bullet. Those in both Israel and Palestine determined to fight to the death show little respect for the international humanitarian law it invokes. Joining President Macron’s call for action is about shifting the paralysis that has befallen the international community. Support for a two-state solution is waning, strengthening those who claim there can only ever be a win or lose for one side. Saving lives requires breaking the deadlock that is failing the people of both nations. It is not for either Hamas or Benjamin Netanyahu to dictate when Palestine exists – it is about the people, not their representatives.Recognition is thus the minimum all countries who have yet to do so must now take – before there is nothing left of Palestine to recognise.

It also moves the discussion to: what next? Getting aid and food to a population on its knees must be the priority – whether by air, sea or land. So, too, must be strengthening those voices in both nations standing up to their leaderships. Israeli o pinion polls show that Israel’s citizens know what Benjamin Netanyahu is doing will not bring home those still in captivity, nor make Israel safe. Neither can Hamas claim the backing of a desperate and broken Palestinian population for its murderous acts. Recognition undermines Hamas rather than helping it – it is no fan of the two-state solution and its terrorism gains traction when peace and security seem impossible goals.

The UK can move quickly if there is the will. Plans announced this weekend to offer more medical visas to Gazan children in need of urgent treatment are a very welcome move.

Above all, this crisis highlights a need to rethink how we work and who we work with in an era of rightwing populism. When our allies will not listen to pleas for peace, what hope is there of tackling hostile foes who see the old world order’s impotence? The UK’s capacity to secure change cannot be reduced by its historical past status as a bridge between the US and Europe. It is time to show we can still be a standard bearer for social justice at home and abroad.

Stella Creasy is the Labour (Co-op) MP for Walthamstow

Photograph by Behlul Cetinkaya/Getty