Alistair Burt<\/p>\n
When journalists speak to politicians, the last thing we expect is the truth; still less an admission that the politician has made a mistake.<\/p>\n
So my hopes were not high when I rang Alistair Burt to say that I planned to lacerate him over his failure to censure Israel<\/a> for the slaughter of Palestinians<\/a> during the 2018 Great March of Return.<\/p>\n Burt, who back then served as Britain<\/a>\u2019s Middle East minister, did not respond as expected.<\/p>\n There was a slight pause. Then he replied:\u00a0\u201cI know exactly what I did. I know why I did it. And it\u2019s grim. I have thought about this a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n Burt then cited the case of Razan al-Najjar<\/a>, the young paramedic shot dead by an Israeli sniper. He told me that she was \u201cclearly targeted and murdered by the Israelis\u201d.<\/p>\n This was obvious at the time – but it had never before been said by Burt or any other British minister.<\/p>\n More remarkable still, Burt went on to accuse the Israelis of conducting a bogus inquiry into her death. He said that Israeli investigations\u00a0\u201cwere effectively useless and used as a cover by the Israelis for the killing\u201d.<\/p>\n To prove his point, Burt cited another killing by the Israeli army in the village of Nabi Salih in the occupied<\/a> West Bank.\u00a0In 2011, an Israeli soldier shot a tear gas canister directly into the face of Mustafa Tamimi<\/a> while he was protesting against the theft of water by settlers.<\/p>\n Burt told me: \u201cWe called for an investigation. I was promised there would be a response. Nothing. I do not recall that there was any answer at all.\u201d<\/p>\n Readers of this column are entitled to respond that it\u2019s long been obvious to any informed observer that Israeli inquiries into the deaths of Palestinians are worthless, and a way of avoiding international criticism and meaningful action.<\/p>\n It is nevertheless momentous that a former British minister, one held in high respect by former colleagues, has spelled this out in public.<\/p>\n Right from the start of the slaughter in Gaza<\/a>, today regarded by most experts and human rights observers as a genocide<\/a>, British ministers have taken cover behind false Israeli assurances.<\/p>\n In December 2023, with Israel\u2019s\u00a0slaughter of Palestinians and razing of entire neighbourhoods on full display,\u00a0Labour MP Richard Burgon urged the government to call for an immediate ceasefire. His evidence was powerful and damning.<\/p>\n \u201cHuman Rights Watch has warned that the Israeli government are using the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in Gaza,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cLet us be clear: that is a war crime. Amnesty has similarly warned of war crimes, as has the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking for the Tory government, Andrew\u00a0Mitchell (Burt\u2019s successor) chose to dismiss these urgent messages from the world\u2019s most respected human rights organisations, complacently reassuring MPs that the government had \u201cheard the words of President [Isaac] Herzog that Israel will respect international humanitarian law\u201d and expected Israel \u201cto abide by the words of the president\u201d.<\/p>\n Since then, the Israeli army has committed countless more war crimes and atrocities. It is as obvious today that Mitchell was gravely mistaken to rely on Herzog\u2019s word as it was two years ago.<\/p>\n Yet there\u2019s been no word of complaint from any British government minister that they have been misled. On the contrary, two months ago, Prime Minister Keir Starmer invited Herzog into Downing Street<\/a>. Incredibly, Starmer has never acknowledged that Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza, despite a mountain of evidence.<\/p>\n This is part of a pattern of British complicity in Israeli atrocity denial. Again and again, Israeli assurances have turned out to be empty.<\/p>\n Does anyone remember the horrific killing of six-year-old Hind Rajab<\/a>, along with several relatives, as they tried to flee fighting in Gaza City on 29 January 2024?<\/p>\n Israeli forces shot at their car hundreds of times. In an audio recording of a phone call to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), Hind\u2019s cousin, Layan Hamada, described Israeli tanks approaching, before her screams were cut off by gunfire.<\/p>\n The Israeli army claimed that it had nothing to do with the killings, stating that none of its troops were in the vicinity at the time.<\/p>\n But investigations<\/a> by Forensic Architecture\u00a0and Al Jazeera, corroborated by the Washington Post<\/a>, established that\u00a0an Israeli tank was nearby at the time of the killings.<\/p>\n Remember the Rafah massacre<\/a> this past March? Some\u00a015 aid workers<\/a>, including eight paramedics, were shot dead by the Israeli army while responding to an attack in southern Rafah. The bodies were then buried in a mass grave, along with their bulldozed ambulances.<\/p>\n The Israeli military initially claimed the vehicles were \u201cadvancing suspiciously<\/a>\u201d towards Israeli troops without headlights or emergency signals.\u00a0They said they opened fire because the vehicles posed a threat, baselessly claiming that a Hamas operative and \u201ceight other terrorists<\/a>\u201d had been among those killed.<\/p>\n A surviving paramedic gave an account confirming that the ambulances\u2019 lights were on<\/a> and that they were clearly identifiable.\u00a0Video footage<\/a> recovered from one of the killed medics\u2019 phones also showed the clearly marked ambulances with flashing emergency lights when they came under fire.<\/p>\n Israel changed its account, admitting it had been \u201cmistaken\u201d.<\/p>\n Remember the November 2023 raid on al-Shifa hospital<\/a>? The Israeli army presented a graphic<\/a> depicting a vast underground Hamas command-and-control centre, and alleged that it was connected to the hospital, making al-Shifa a legitimate military target.<\/p>\n The list of Israeli fabrications just goes on and on – and the British government chooses not to challenge them.<\/p>\n For the last two years, the mainstream media has gone out of its way to amplify Israeli denials.\u00a0Even when it doesn\u2019t lead with Israeli versions of events, the BBC almost always gives them considerable prominence.<\/p>\nFalse assurances<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Shifting accounts<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Fabrications unchallenged<\/strong><\/h2>\n