Why is the FCO welcoming extremists who undermine the Middle East peace process?

By Ben Soffa

Earlier today David Miliband welcomed a dangerous extremist to the Foreign Office; someone whose aim is to undermine practically every policy the UK has pursued in the Middle East for the past three decades; who proposes stripping the citizenship from members of an ethnic minority who fail a loyalty test and whose respect for democracy extends to calling for the execution of fellow parliamentarians from opposing parties. So, who is this wild racist with views much more inflamatory than most of the shock-jocks and odd-balls on the recent Home Office ‘ban list’ and why is our Labour Government welcoming him? Well, he’s Israel’s new Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman – and that seems sufficient to gain him an audience regardless of his politics.

I’m all for dialogue, but isn’t this just yet a further example of the double-standards that have blighted Western policy towards the Israeli / Palestinian conflict for decades, damaging the prospects of a just peace being achieved? Whilst Lieberman is welcome in the FCO, the elected leadership of the Palestinians have not only been boycotted by the UK, EU and US but the whole population of Gaza have been punished for their democratic choice. The brutal blockade, imposed by Israel and supported by the UK, sees only a small proportion of the food and medical requirements of the Gazan people being allowed across the border – from a first-world country to a third-world ‘non-state’ where the UN can do little more than report as the effects of malnutrition spread through the population. Israel still controls the land, sea and air borders of Gaza – the occupation has been reconfigured, but not ended.

With a new Israeli government in place, whose makeup is even more hawkish than the last, there is scant prospect for this catastrophic situation to be turned around without a major change of policy from the EU and US. It is essential that Gordon Brown’s warm words of aspirations for a Palestinian state are followed through with actions that could actually deliver one. That requires significant pressure being brought to bear on Israel, principally by President Obama, but, with a third of Israel’s exports coming to the EU, the potential for Europe to pave the way for US action should not be underestimated.

If our Government can sit down with Lieberman, a representative of a government that doesn’t accept the need for a Palestinian state alongside Israel and who many mainstream pro-Israel Jewish leaders in the UK consider to be a racist, why is it not possible to extend an invitation to the parties who will hopefully soon re-form a Palestinian national unity government?

To start an honest dialogue with both Fatah and Hamas representatives would not only encourage Palestinian unity but would ease the path for Obama to break with the Bush-era view that condemns those elected by a majority of Palestinians as nothing more than terrorists. Time and time again we’ve seen that settlements can be reached in seemingly intractable conflicts when someone is brave enough to allow dialogue to begin. Hamas have pledged to accept a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza – the basis of British policy for decades. Now is the time, whilst we still have scope for a progressive foreign policy in this country, to follow the successful example from the north of Ireland and speak to all representatives of the Palestinians.

This weekend I’ll be joining other supporters of Jews for Justice for Palestinians and Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East on the ‘Remember Gaza…End the Siege now’ demonstration. If David Miliband wants to join us – to tell us how he now sees dialogue rather than collective punishment as the path to peace, I’m sure he’d be welcome to.