Keir Starmer faces Labour backlash over support for Israel after saying Tel Aviv ‘does have that right’ to withhold power and water from Gazans
- The Labour leader angered the party’s pro-Palestinian faction with his remarks
- Insiders claim Sir Keir has ordered a seat-by-seat analysis in the fallout
Sir Keir Starmer is facing vitriolic attack from within Labour over his support for Israel – with one prominent figure accusing the party leader of ‘enabling a war crime’.
He angered the party’s pro-Palestinian faction by saying Israel ‘does have that right’ to withhold power and water from Palestinian civilians, though ‘everything should be done within international law’.
The backlash has been so great that Labour insiders claim Sir Keir has ordered a seat-by-seat analysis to assess if it could have an impact on chances of winning the election. Fatima Said, a National Executive Member of the Labour Muslim Network who was parliamentary staff member for Jeremy Corbyn when he was party leader, posted that she assumed the Gaza hospital blast was an attack by Israel.
She said: ‘Keir Starmer… enabled this war crime. Every single politician that has backed Israel and allowed it to get away with breaking international law is responsible for this war crime.’
After Hamas’s attack, she re-tweeted this message by the Al Jazeera Plus channel: ‘Palestinians didn’t break through a ‘border’ to enter Israel. They destroyed a fence separating them from the homes they were forced out of.’
Sir Keir Starmer is facing vitriolic attack from within Labour over his support for Israel
Zarah Sultana, MP for Coventry South, tweeted how more than 500 were dead after the ‘Israeli air strike’ but has not corrected herself nor deleted the tweet
She also re-posted this tweet by a user called @Khadljasays: ‘The genocide Israel is committing in Gaza is not in ‘response’ to events, it is the entire plan of this genocidal settler colonial state.’ Leeds East Labour MP Richard Burgon said the hospital victims were ‘killed in an air strike’ but has not since apologised nor removed the tweet.
Corbynite Zarah Sultana, MP for Coventry South, tweeted how more than 500 were dead after the ‘Israeli air strike’ but has not corrected herself nor deleted the tweet. Other Labour MPs who did the same were Apsana Begum, Sam Tarry, Beth Winter and John McDonnell.
Sources close to Sir Keir said they had ‘no knowledge’ of a seat-by-seat survey of Muslim votes.
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