Gaza Statement
Notwithstanding the horrendous actions of Hamas on October 7th, the disproportionate levels of intense and sustained retaliatory violence meted out to the 2.3m people of Gaza, 40% of whom are under 14 years of age, have moved us to make this latest statement on the war on Occupied Palestine.
The intensity and indiscriminate nature of this violence may be measured by UNICEF’s March 2025 estimate that more than 15,000 children have been killed and 34,000 injured. Overall, it is estimated that more than 50,000 Palestinian men, women and children have been killed by Israeli forces, with many thousands more having sustained life-changing injuries. These are unconscionable, unjustifiable and indefensible degrees of human loss and suffering.
The two-month Israeli blockade of food and humanitarian aid into Gaza is creating a situation that Jan Egelund of the Norwegian Refugee Council described as, “cataclysmic suffering”. The continued refusal to admit food, medical supplies and clean water will further hasten starvation, disease, trauma and civilian death. We condemn this use of collective punishment as a tool of Israeli policy, and urge PM Netanyahu’s government to return to the Phase Two ceasefire negotiations and pursue hostage release by diplomacy, which has thus far been the only effective means of achieving their freedom.
Further, Hastings and Rye Liberal Democrats urge the British Government to uphold the international, rules-based order that this country may take pride in having helped create in the wake of the Holocaust. We must extend to the children of Palestine the same humanity and compassion that this country rightly and proudly extended to the boys and girls of the Kinder Transport, and today extends to Ukrainian families.
No civilised nation can stand idly by as innocents are exterminated in pursuit of extreme, ultra-nationalist ideology. It is increasingly clear that the current Israeli Government intends to render Gaza unliveable, and to starve Palestinians out of Palestine. This situation is even more intolerable given that these atrocious acts are perpetrated by a friend and ally. An ally, alas, which repeatedly infringes international law, contradicts established British policy and threatens our nation’s community cohesion. It is not antisemitic to oppose the actions of Benjamini Netanyahu’s Cabinet. Indeed, it would be a dereliction of this country’s kinship with the people of Israel to allow it to continue.
We should like to express our full support for the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) competency in the ongoing adjudications of war crimes carried out by Hamas and Israel, and urge the UK Government to fulfil its legal obligations, including, if necessary, the execution of International Criminal Court (ICC) warrants of arrest for Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes for Benjamin Netanyahu (Prime Minister, Israel) and Yoav Gallant (Former Minister of Defence, Israel).
Additionally, we restate our support for recognition of an independent, sovereign Palestinian State based on the 1967 borders, and urge Sir Keir Starmer and Helena Dollimore MP to take note of the growing public outrage with respect to the scale of agonies inflicted upon innocent Palestinian civilians in contravention of humanitarian and international law.
We ask for confirmation that this government has suspended all relevant licences for the Israeli military that might be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza, placing UK Ministers in violation of domestic and international law¹. When 2.3m families face famine, it beggars belief that we should be sending not bread, but bullets and bombs.
Finally, we appreciate that it is imperative that diplomacy be measured and judicious when conducting delicate international relations. This being said, the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary’s prevarication is perilously close to being construed as acquiescence in what former Israeli Government peace negotiator, Daniel Levy, Amnesty International, the UN Special Rapporteur, and other experts, now describe as “Genocide”.
These are not acts that can be undone. A continued failure by the Government to speak unequivocally or to act will be viewed by history as shameful complicity.
Hastings and Rye Liberal Democrats urge Helena Dollimore MP to acknowledge this statement and to confirm her personal position.
1: Criterion 1. and 2. Of the UK’s Strategic Export Licencing Criteria; Art.7 of the UN’s Arms Trade Treaty; Art. 1 of the Genocide Convention, and Art.1 of the Geneva Convention, 1949.)"