Recognition of Palestine ‘not nearly enough’ for UK protesters in Liverpool
Keir Starmer has gone further than any UK PM has been able or willing to do in recognising Palestine.
But that’s not nearly enough. It’s the bare minimum for the people who have gathered here to protest ahead of the Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool. The protesters say that unless you follow that recognition up with proper action to make that state a reality, it means nothing.
They’re also angry at the government’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. They say this is a massive overreach of government legislative authority and a blow to the right to protest and to free speech.
They want the government to stop arming Israel, to end the starvation in Gaza and to recognise that what’s going on in Palestine is a genocide.
That’s something significant figures within the party have done, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, for example. But the Labour Party leadership has not taken that step yet.
Pro-Palestine protesters at a rally in Liverpool, UK
Deep divisions within UK’s Labour over Gaza ahead of conference
There’s a lot of tension within the Labour movement about Gaza. You basically have government contracts that are still doing business with Israel – defence contracts, diplomatic relations and so forth.
But you have the party membership, and groups closer to the grassroots of the party, that are fiercely opposed to that, and want the government to do more to isolate Israel.
At this upcoming annual Labour conference, you have groups that are saying the government is trying to stifle free speech. You have smaller Labour organisations that are trying to bring motions to be discussed, and the committee that organises the conference has ruled those motions out.
The committee says it’s for technical reasons, but this has further angered the grassroots of the Labour movement that wants the Starmer government to do much, much more than it is currently doing over Gaza.
A protester holds a sign saying ‘Starmer has blood on his hands’ before the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, UK
