“Putin disrupts food aid for Gaza by attacking Ukraine ports, says Starmer” reads the headline of a recent Guardian article.
Earlier this month, Starmer claimed the Russian president was “willing to gamble on global food security” after several grain ships in the Black Sea were damaged by Russian strikes.
When Starmer complains that Putin is “delaying vital aid from reaching Palestinians”, we are inclined to ask: Why do the Palestinians need food aid in the first place? Who is responsible for artificially causing a famine in Gaza, by halting aid deliveries?
We encourage our readers to look through the government statement itself. Although it comes with a health warning: the levels of hypocrisy will make your stomach churn.
Change of heart
Funnily enough, almost exactly a year ago another very interesting headline hit the press: “Israel ‘has the right’ to withhold power and water from Gaza, says Sir Keir Starmer”. What a drastic change of heart our leader has had!
“I think that Israel does have that right.”
Sir Keir Starmer tells @NickFerrariLBC that it is acceptable for Israel to withhold power and water from citizens in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/S1L5nftyG5
— LBC (@LBC) October 11, 2023
It would seem that ‘Sir Kid Starver’ has grown a conscience! But given the abruptness of this truly Damascene conversion, some questions do spring to mind: Why? What has changed?
Why is the prime minister – after 13 months of backing Netanyahu’s slaughter – suddenly so gravely concerned with the plight of Palestinian people?
A year ago, Starmer staunchly defended Israel’s right to put Gaza in a state of siege, isolating it from all foreign aid, likely resulting in thousands of deaths.
He didn’t seem to care so much about ‘global food security’ then. Was he visited by three ghosts in the night like Scrooge? Or did his heart grow by three sizes like the Grinch? Of course not – Christmas is months away.
What upsets ‘our’ PM is not so much that atrocities are being committed – after all, Britain’s democratic, civilised, upstanding allies in Tel Aviv commit atrocities as easily as they breathe air.
Let us not forget the tens of thousands of innocent Gazans (and now Lebanese) massacred by the Zionist state. Nor the hospitals, schools, and universities bombed into oblivion.
As is always the case with the cold, calculating proponents of western imperialism, it’s a matter of who is committing said atrocities: friend or foe?
Russia vs Israel
Lets compare the Labour leader’s statements on Ukraine-Russia war versus the genocide in Gaza.
In reference to Russia: “Russia is a constant threat”, “Russia has no respect for the norms and laws that govern our international system. Not only was their illegal invasion a blatant attack on the principles of the UN Charter, but the way they have executed their war in Ukraine shows no respect for human life, or the consequences of their invasion across the world.”
At the same time, one in four English councils could go bankrupt unless they are bailed out by the government in the next two years. pic.twitter.com/dXkRNIuW2W
— Fiona Lali (@fiona_lali) October 21, 2024
On Israel, a different story altogether: “We stand with Israel and her right to defend herself against the terrorists of Hamas”, “Israel [is] the symbol of Jewish security to the world”, “In this dark hour, Labour stands with Israel”, and so on.
While IDF troops hospitalise UN peacekeepers, and Netanyahu is hellbent on dragging us into World War Three, Starmer evokes ‘international law’ and the UN Charter to attack Putin. The irony is lost on no one.
Starmer’s morality is not shaped by compassion, nor human rights, nor international law, but the interests of the predatory, profit-driven system he represents.
His and David Lammy’s faux concern for the plight of Palestinians is nothing but a smokescreen to cover their complicity in the crimes of British imperialism.
Down with imperialist hypocrisy! Down with the warmongers!
