Prime minister Keir Starmer’s response to news of a shaky Gaza ceasefire was a racist, gaslighting mess. And it instantly faced widespread criticism for its crass pro-Israel propaganda. Meanwhile, Benjamin Netanyahu already appears to be backtracking on the ceasefire deal.
The UK PM’s response wasn’t exactly a surprise. Because in 2024, Declassified UK revealed that half of Starmer’s cabinet had received money from the pro-Israel lobby. Then, openDemocracy revealed that the “tax haven-based hedge fund with shares in oil and arms” that had donated £4m to Starmer’s Labour also “stood to profit” from Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Combining this with Starmer’s denial of the genocide and ongoing participation in it, the UK prime minister’s pro-Israel bias was already crystal clear.
But pro-Israel lobbyists might as well have written (or perhaps did write) Starmer’s statement, because it was just awful.
Medical Aid for Palestinians director of advocacy & campaigns Rohan Talbot called it “a lesson in racism“. A Byline Times columnist highlighted Starmer’s decision to say Hamas had “massacred” Israelis but Palestinians had simply “lost their lives”.
Former Labour Party NEC member Mish Rahman lamented how Starmer “couldn’t bring himself to mourn a single dead Palestinian“. That is despite the UN suggesting that 70% of people Israel killed at one stage were children and women, and Oxfam insisting that “more women and children have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military over the past year than the equivalent period of any other conflict over the past two decades”.
Starmer: a blatantly racist hierarchy of victims
Genocide expert Martin Shaw, meanwhile, emphasised how:
Starmer prioritises Israeli over Palestinian lives and names Hamas’ atrocities but not Israel’s much greater ones. Even now, he is denying Israel’s genocide.
And Starmer’s statement did indeed create a clear hierarchy of victims.
There was “a maximum of 780 dead Israeli civilians” on 7 October 2023, according to journalist Asa Winstanley. But because Israel has blocked an independent international investigation, we don’t know exactly how many of those Israel killed and how many Palestinians killed. Israel’s following genocidal assault on Gaza, however, killed around 18,000 children alone.
Starmer focused his condemnation on Hamas, though. He called out the “brutal terrorists of Hamas, who committed the deadliest massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust on October 7th, 2023”. Regarding the 251 hostages Hamas took, meanwhile, he used emotive phrases like “brutally ripped from their homes”, “held captive in unimaginable conditions”, and “murdered by Hamas”. And he stressed “we will continue to mourn and remember them”.
He would not mention the unimaginable brutality and murder of Palestinians in Gaza, however. And he would place no responsibility on the war criminals who terrorised them with Western arms. Palestinian homes simply “turned into a warzone overnight”, and people in Gaza simply “lost their lives”. Nor was there a promise to “mourn and remember” the 18,000 children or other civilian victims of Israel’s genocide. Poet Michael Rosen recalled a poignant quote from Labour heavyweight Tony Benn that summed up Starmer’s heartlessness:
Keir Starmer pointed out that many Palestinians 'lost their lives'. That was careless of them.
Tony Benn, eve of Iraq War, Feb 17 1998: pic.twitter.com/YV60WzgsnL— Michael Rosen 💙💙🎓🎓 NICE 爷爷 (@MichaelRosenYes) January 16, 2025
In short, Starmer’s statement was a shameful propaganda masterclass in service of a state responsible for genocide.
15 months and little to show for it but death and destruction
After 15 months of Israel and Netanyahu’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, 94 of the 251 hostages from 7 October 2023 remain in Gaza (34 are reportedly no longer alive). Hamas released 105 hostages during a truce in November 2023, along with four prior to that. Israeli occupying forces, however, have only rescued eight hostages alive, along with the bodies of 40 others (some of whom Israel killed itself).
Meanwhile, Israel has murdered one in fifty of Gaza’s inhabitants, including 18,000 children, while injuring one in twenty. Studies suggest Israel has killed many more people than the official figures suggest (possibly up to 186,000), but mostly children, women, and elderly people.
To summarise, Israel secured the rescue of more hostages during one short truce at the start of its genocidal campaign than it did in 15 months of horrific atrocities against the people of Gaza. And yet the Israeli government torpedoed many opportunities to reach a deal with Hamas.
Considering Israel hasn’t seemed so interested in actually rescuing the hostages, what about its mission to eliminate Hamas? Well, 15 months on, Israeli forces aren’t even close to destroying Hamas. In fact, it seems Hamas is almost as strong as it was at the start of Israel’s campaign. So was Israel’s aim neither to rescue hostages nor annihilate Hamas?
I get why people say this shows it was all pointless, but everyone knew this would happen. It was never actually about Hamas, Israel’s killing and destruction in Gaza was the point. This is just more proof of genocidal intent. https://t.co/xmrReMzLes
— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) January 16, 2025
It was never about ‘defeating Hamas’ and you’re a useful tool of war criminals if you think it was. It’s about preventing Palestinian self-determination by making Gaza unliveable and building settlements in the West Bank. It’s about colonising — stealing land by force.
— Tiberius (@ecomarxi) January 15, 2025
Netanyahu: already walking back
Maybe that’s why wanted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu is still dragging his feet on the ceasefire, even after all of the announcements about the deal. Under pressure from his far-right allies to tank the agreement, he’s trying to blame Hamas for last-minute problems – something Hamas denies. The reality is that the far right in Israel, which is in government, wants to push Palestinians out of both Gaza and the West Bank to further its settler-colonial goal of domination ‘from the river to the sea‘.
Featured image via the Canary
