Only international economic pressure on Israel can lead to resolution

When the Israelis launched their assault on Gaza, MPs were crowding into the chamber of the House of Commons to condemn the attack in the strongest terms, including many MPs who have never voiced criticisms of the Israeli government before.

Party leaders joined in. Nick Clegg said the Israeli incursion was “disproportionate”. Ed Miliband said it was “wrong and unjustifiable”.  David Cameron has so far said very little and has been criticised by Ed Miliband for his “silence”.

But anyone who has listened to parliamentary debates on Palestine will know that there’s never any shortage of condemnation.  Spokesmen for all three parties are constantly condemning or deploring the illegal settlements, the blockade of Gaza, the treatment of child prisoners, the breaches of international law.

The criticism may be harsher now, and come from a wider range of MPs, but it is still just words and no actions.  Nicholas Soames, one of the few friends the Palestinians have on the Tory benches, expressed widespread frustration when he said: “I have sat here these last 30 years and heard the same statement every year; for 30 years, nothing has happened.”

It’s true there have been small changes. Labour brought in labelling for settlement goods in 2009. Labour supported Palestine’s bid for UN membership in 2012.  And the Government warned UK firms last December that they would “neither support nor encourage” trade with illegal settlements.

But none of these match what needs to be done in the wake of the pitiless Israeli attack on Gaza over the last four weeks or the Israeli army’s earlier rampage through the West Bank.

Theories abound as to why party leaders are so unwilling to put real pressure on the Israelis – whether it is fear of losing votes or donations or media support. But the truth is the Israelis will only come back to the negotiating table if we are prepared to use our economic muscle. The Americans won’t.  It has to be us.

Labour’s National Policy Forum had an opportunity last month to apply a very gentle form of pressure by saying that the next government will tell UK firms to end trade with settlements – on the basis that trade cannot be legal with settlements that are illegal.

The TUC adopted this policy in 2009 and the Co-op followed suit in 2012, banning settlement goods from their shelves, so it would only be a question of falling into line with the other two arms of the Labour movement.

Despite a score of amendments from CLPs and unions, the compromise wording offered by the leadership just says “Labour will not encourage or support” trade with illegal settlements, which is exactly the same as the current Government’s position and fails to give Labour any distinctive policy.

Labour should adopt a “stepladder” approach, exerting progressively stronger economic pressure on Israel until it halts settlement building, lifts the blockade on Gaza and comes to the negotiating table with a fair offer for Palestine.

If curbing settlement trade doesn’t do the trick, then the next step would be to suspend the tariff reductions that Israeli goods enjoy under the EU-Israel Trade Agreement – an agreement which offers Israel more favourable treatment than any other country outside the EU on condition that they respect democratic and civil rights – which they don’t.

If that doesn’t work, they could ban prominent Israelis from travelling in Europe – as they are busy doing to Russians.

And if that doesn’t work, they could press for selective sanctions against Israel at the UN (under Chapter 7 of the Charter) as they have already done to many other countries.

And if that doesn’t work, they could suspend Israel’s membership of the UN until they fulfil one of the conditions of their accession to the UN in 1949 that they would give the Palestinians full civil and political rights.

Only international economic pressure can lead to a resolution of the conflict. As in South Africa peace will only be achieved when major Western governments start to face up to their responsibilities and pile on the pressure.

Failing to apply economic pressure just plays into the hands of Hamas and other radical movements who believe that military force can still help the Palestinians.  It undermines the mainstream politicians who have put their trust in international pressure and non-violent protest.

The current right-wing Israeli government wants to weaken Hamas militarily, but leave them in charge politically, because as long as people believe that Hamas are terrorists, Israel has a cast-iron excuse for not engaging in serious peace-talks.

The only way for Labour to unpick this paradox is to be a good but candid friend of Israel and provide the incentives to push them towards a peace settlement that is in the interests of Israelis as well as the Palestinians and the whole world. Once that is achieved we can all reap the benefits: Palestinians, Israelis and Europeans.

Martin Linton is director of Labour2Palestine and a former Labour MP