#UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy

[thepastisalreadywritten]

[zvaigzdelasas]

There is an overwhelming case for the UK to intervene to stop a US oil tanker carrying 300,000 barrels of jet fuel for use by Israel in Gaza from docking in Gibraltar, according to a letter from a cross-party group of MPs addressed to David Lammy, the UK foreign secretary.

Protests in Spain led by trade unionists and political activists have already resulted in the owners of the Overseas Santorini abandoning plans to dock in the Spanish port of Algeciras. According to Marine Traffic, the ship is now destined to reach Gibraltar at 3pm UK time on Tuesday.

The Gibraltar government, however, insisted it had received no formal request to dock.[...]

Campaigners said the Overseas Santorini was carrying military-grade JP-8 fuel, delivered as part of a contract with the US government, that powers F-16 fighter jets. According to a UN investigation, it was probably an F-16, which are built using UK parts, that bombed British doctors from Medical Aid for Palestinians at a compound in Gaza in January.

The MPs, including members of the Scottish Nationalists, Labour and Green parties, have urged the government to “prohibit and prevent Gibraltar being used as a haven for the transport of military fuel used in Israel’s assault on Gaza”.

The letter said: “The jet fuel will be unloaded and used to fuel the Israeli air force’s F16 and F35 that drop bombs on the people of Gaza. The 300,000 barrels of fuel are sufficient for around 12,000 F-16 refuellings.”

It added: “The case to prevent Gibraltar’s facilities from being complicit in Israel’s breaches of international law are overwhelming. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s assault.””[...]

In May, the Spanish foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, said Spain will not authorise ships carrying weapons for Israel to call at its ports after the country refused to let a ship call at the south-eastern port of Cartagena.[...]

The campaigners said the oil is being shipped by the Valero company from Corpus Christi, Texas and is aimed to reach the port of Ashkelon in Israel. For years, these regular shipments have stopped at Algeciras and Limassol, Cyprus.

On Monday, the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, announced he was making a free trade agreement with Israel one of his priorities in securing trade deals. But ministers are expected shortly to announce limited restrictions on arms export licences to Israel if the arms are deemed capable of being used in Israeli offensives in Gaza.

29 Jul 24

[probablyasocialecologist]

When Keir Starmer was asked if cutting off water and supplies are actions that fall within international law, he said on live radio that Israel “does have that right”. Then, his party claimed he never said this at all. When Starmer said that Labour would not recognise Palestine unilaterally, his own shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, told the Financial Times that Labour would consider it. Nowhere are these contradictions clearer than when politicians express unequivocal support for Israel’s actions while also expressing concern for civilians in Gaza. In a post on X, Lisa Nandy, the shadow international development secretary, appeared to support the suspension of funds to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, because “allegations this serious demand a serious response”, while also “seeking reassurances” from the prime minister that aid could still be provided. I had to read her statement several times to try to understand what she was getting at. Meanwhile, David Cameron said he was “worried” that Israel may have broken international law, but that this did not change the UK’s stance on exporting weapons to Israel. Riddle me that. You might call this tendency Schrödinger’s policy. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said that 7 October could not be taken as licence to “dehumanise” others, but his government chose twice to invoke the right to bypass Congress and provide more weapons to Israel. This dissonance is a product of attempting to reconcile an irreconcilable position. The facts are simply too stark for anyone to confront them while plausibly continuing to support Israel’s actions in Gaza. So politicians instead resort to contradictory and sometimes wild explanations to avoid calling out these actions or demanding that anything should be done about them. The results border on derangement, such as when Nancy Pelosi told CNN that while some protesters are “spontaneous and organic and sincere”, calling for a ceasefire means giving voice to “Mr Putin’s message”. And if that wasn’t enough, last year, she told pro-Palestine protesters to go back to China, as that’s where “their headquarters is”.

[...]

Gaza has become the expression of a legitimacy crisis for an Anglo-American political class who preside over already fragile systems that deliver less and less to their populations, and whose main offering is that the alternative is worse. Things may look stable, but underneath lurk managed discontents about costs of living, diminished social mobility and the ravages wreaked by rightwing governments to which centrists provide no real answer.

[catherinetheprincessofwales]

The Times

Extracts: The hardest year of my life: Prince William opens up about Kate’s cancer

The Princess of Wales had major abdominal surgery in January. She later revealed that she was undergoing preventative chemotherapy after cancer had been found. The King also had cancer diagnosed and began treatment earlier this year.

While the princess has spoken about her own journey back to health, William gave the first indication of his own experience as he marked the end of a successful four-day visit to Cape Town.

Speaking in the Portside Tower in central CapeTown, which had been set up as a hub for his Earthshot prize week, William sighed and said: “Honestly? It’s been dreadful. It’s probably been the hardest year in my life. So, trying to get through everything else and keep everything on track has been really difficult.”

“But I’m so proud of my wife, I’m proud of my father, for handling the things that they have done.”

“But from a personal family point of view, it’s been brutal.”

While some commentators remarked on him appearing to be “relaxed” as he hosted the Earthshot prize ceremony on Wednesday evening, William implied that looks can be deceiving.

He said: “It’s interesting you say that, because I couldn’t be less relaxed this year. But it’s more a case of just crack on and you’ve got to keep going. I enjoy my work and I enjoy pacing myself and keeping sure that I have got time for my family too.”

The past two years have seen a major shift for William. As heir apparent after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, William has increasingly adopted a statesman-like role.

In 1947 his grandmother gave an address from Cape Town in which she pledged to serve for her whole life — whether it be long or short.

Nearly 80 years later, William was there under his own steam — with a week of engagements to celebrate the initiative he started four years ago to promote environmental innovations. However, he is also stepping into a more diplomatic role.

William met President Ramaphosa for a wide-ranging discussion. Alongside David Lammy, the foreign secretary, William discussed the relationship between the UK and South Africa. Antony Phillipson, the British High Commissioner to South Africa, described it as the “highest level” meeting.

So, does William relish the double-edged sword of responsibility and freedom that comes with his new role? “It’s a tricky one. Do I like more responsibility? No. Do I like the freedom that I can build something like Earthshot? Then, yes. And that’s the future for me. It’s very important with my role and my platform that I’m doing something for good. That I’m helping people’s lives and I’m doing something that is genuinely meaningful.

“So, the Earthshot [prize] is a culmination, if you like, of all that put together. But it takes a lot of work, and there’s a lot of unseen stuff that goes on, a lot of meetings, a lot of people coming in, a lot of chatting and phone calls, letters, all trying to sort of make the Earthshot get to being the best possible entity it can be.”

But he admits he is frustrated sometimes by the slow pace of businesses and governments to adopt new green technologies.

He said: “I’d like it to be more a team sport. And so, when you go and approach people and say — like business or whoever, or even government — when you approach them and say, ‘Listen, we’re building this incredible thing, please come on board’, some people are extremely fast and keen to it. Others take a little bit longer and it’s those people who take a little bit longer, I’m like, ‘Guys, we just don’t have the time’.”

“So, yes, I get a bit frustrated that it takes a long time to convince people that this is worthy of their attention. But I guess that’s the nature of a global environment prize, you start from scratch and it’s going to take a bit of time.”

William may well have limited time in this role. After all, he doesn’t know how long he will work on these projects as Prince of Wales or when duty will call him to take the top job.

Wednesday night’s ceremony was the biggest of its kind, broadcast live across the world via YouTube and a major African broadcaster.

It opened with a performance of the Lion King’s Circle of Life, which started with a pre-recorded video from the top of Cape Town’s Table Mountain and ended with a live performance in the megadome, a purpose built venue for the awards ceremony, which took 600 people several months to construct.

“I don’t know about everyone else, but hearing the Lion King gets me quite emotional,” the prince said. “But the key thing is really the impact. We need to translate the sort of effort that we put into the visibility of the prize and particularly the visibility of the solutions.”

He hoped his children were watching but may have to wait until he gets home to find out what they thought of it. No doubt that’s wise, given some of his other comments about the discerning opinions of his children, particularly Princess Charlotte.

After the final question about his new beard, William laughed. Even that, it seems, has been somewhat traumatic.

He said: “Charlotte didn’t like it the first time. I got floods of tears the first time I grew one, so I had to shave it off. And then I grew it back. I thought, hang on a second, and I convinced her it was going to be OK.”

After the year William and his family have had, many will hope it will.

[humanrightsupdates]

UK Foreign Secretary Has Opportunity to End Ongoing Colonial Crimes

David Lammy, a descendant of enslaved people, has taken office as United Kingdom Foreign Secretary and said he wants to rebuild the UK’s relations with the Global South.

He has an immediate opportunity to meaningfully address the legacies of UK imperial atrocities, starting with an ongoing colonial crime that he could end immediately – the UK’s forced displacement of the Chagossian people.

The Chagos islands, in the Indian Ocean, were governed under UK colonial rule from the island of Mauritius. The Chagossians, an Indigenous people, are the descendants of enslaved people and contract workers.

Over 50 years ago, when nearly all of Britain’s colonies in Africa were achieving independence, the UK and US governments conspired in secret for the UK to hold onto Chagos and to expel its entire population so the US could build a military base on the largest island, Diego Garcia.

As records show, the expulsion of the Chagossians was based on lies and racism, leaving them in extreme poverty. To this day, the UK government refuses to allow the Chagossians to return to their homeland. This forced displacement, racial persecution, and prevention of their return amount to crimes against humanity under international law. Human Rights Watch argued in February 2023 that individuals should be put on trial for the expulsion of Chagossians and that the UK should pay full and unconditional reparations to generations affected by its forcible displacement.

The new UK Government has inherited these ongoing colonial crimes, but could end them tomorrow. UK governments have repeatedly acknowledged for the last 20 years that the treatment of the Chagossians was “shameful and wrong”, but the same successive British Governments have continued to prevent their return.

Tony Blair’s government used the monarchy to issue an ‘Order-in-Council’, bypassing parliament to prevent the Chagossians from returning.

The UK has treated Chagos – now its only remaining colony in Africa – as a law-free zone, claiming international human rights law and international criminal law do not apply there. The racism is clear: the UK applies human rights law in other overseas territories like the Falklands and on Cyprus, where the inhabitants are of European origin and live freely close to military bases.

[eretzyisrael]

by Melanie Phillips

Five days after Britain’s Labour party won an overwhelming parliamentary majority in the general election, we can see the outline of what this is likely to mean for British Jews and their country’s relationship with Israel. That outline is not reassuring.

The new Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, is said to have purged his party of antisemitism and has persuaded many British Jews that he has made Labour safe again for Jewish voters. On Sunday morning, he told the Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas — antisemite, Holocaust denier and fan of Hitler’s wartime ally in the Middle East — that an independent state was the “undeniable right” of the Palestinian people and that “financial support for the Palestinian Authority” was one of his “immediate priorities”. 

He did not tell Abbas that a condition of this financial support was that the PA must stop paying financial rewards to terrorists and their families for murdering Israelis. Nor did he say that a condition of receiving more British taxpayers’ money was that the PA must end its indoctrination of Palestinian Arab children in Nazi-themed demonisation of the Jews, teaching them that their greatest ambition should be to murder Jews and steal all their land. 

Instead, Starmer proceeded to lecture Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin  Netanyahu, that there was a “clear and urgent” need for a ceasefire in Gaza as well as an immediate increase in the volume of humanitarian aid reaching civilians. As for the war being waged by Hezbollah in Lebanon against northern Israel, Starmer warned Netanyahu:

It was crucial all parties acted with caution.

What kind of “caution” does Starmer suggest is appropriate in the face of a threat of genocide by Hezbollah and its patron, Iran? Or to put it another way, with Hezbollah primed to unleash its armoury of 150,000 rockets and other missiles that can reach all of Israel, and with Iran itself along with Iraqi, Syrian and Houthi militias not to mention the terrorist armies of the “West Bank” all primed to attack Israel if it launches all-out war against Hezbollah, does Starmer really believe that Israel actually needs to be told to act “with caution”? 

Can he really not grasp that, given the daily onslaught over the past nine months from dozens of rockets, drones and guided missiles that have destroyed Israeli border towns, left swathes of northern Israel burning, made more than 60,000 Israelis refugees in their own country and kept other residents in the north trapped in their safe rooms (two Israelis were killed today by a Hezbollah rocket strike that hit their car) that if the Israelis abandon that “caution” it’s because they have no other choice?   

Starmer shows absolutely zero understanding that this crisis isn’t about Hamas, Hezbollah or the Palestinian Arabs. They are proxies and pawns in an Iranian war of extermination against Israel, the essential precursor to the destruction and conquest of America, Britain and the west. 

So little does he understand this that the new Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, is now poring over the government’s legal advice on whether to stop UK arms sales to Israel.

Once upon a time, Lammy was sympathetic to Israel. Now he is a foe. He has repeated what he said before the election, that Labour supports the request by the International Criminal Court prosecutor, Karim Khan, for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant — and that if these Israelis came to the UK after such warrants were issued, Britain would arrest them.

This despite the fact that the claims upon which Khan relied were lies, distortions and blood libels drawn from Hamas-sympathising and Israel-bashing organisations, and were all demonstrably untrue.

[deafmangoes]

So! Labour's in charge now and the Conservatives are out. Job done, right?

Lol, nope. Our first female Chancellor is a devout capitalist of the same vein as the Tories, has had plagiarism claims made against her about her book, and openly supports Israel. Noted transphobe Wes Streeting has been appointed Health Minister, so we're not out of the woods yet regarding the Cass Review. Our new Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, has a good eye for BAME discrimination in the UK, which is great - but also thinks parents not hitting their children enough is the cause of many social ills, and kinda openly supports Israel's continuing slaughter of Palestinians.

And that's just three members of the new cabinet, I've not looked into the others yet. We need to be sure to keep holding them to account throughout the next five years, and not rest easy thinking we've "won" just because the current PM wears red instead of blue.

[allthegeopolitics]

https://www.commondreams.org/news/david-lammy-gaza

[nando161mando]

David Lammy, the UK's Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Affairs, received £70,000 from Israel lobbyist and South African apartheid profiteer Gary Lubner, one month into Gaza's genocide.

The money, according to Lammy's parliamentary registered interests page, was ‘£70,000 towards paying for additional staff’. Lammy was paid out 8 days before the ceasefire vote in parliament, to which he abstained.

[theinconvenientlifestyle]

waronwant

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy is in Israel again - while Israel continues its genocidal violence against the Palestinian people.

The International Court of Justice is clear: by arming and trading with Israel, governments are complicit in war crimes.

The UK government must stop providing weapons and military technology to Israel.

Words are not enough - we need action now.

[theivorybilledwoodpecker]

And we all know it's much higher than 40,000. This doesn't include the bodies of people who have been buried under rubble.

Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris administration is unwavering in their support of Israel.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Kiran Stacey at The Guardian:

Labour has announced its biggest step yet in overhauling the UK’s approach to the Middle East, dropping its opposition to an international arrest warrant against Benjamin Netanyahu despite pressure from Washington not to do so. Downing Street announced on Friday that the government would not submit a challenge to the jurisdiction of the international criminal court, whose chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, is seeking a warrant against the Israeli prime minister. The move makes it more likely that the ICC will now grant Khan’s request, in what would be a stunning international rebuke for Israel over the way it has conducted the war in Gaza and put Netanyahu at risk of arrest if he travels abroad. It also reverses months of British policy after the previous government was steadfast in its support of Israel and its desire to stick closely to the US position.

Ministers are expected to announce further changes within days, including the results of a review of Israel’s compliance with international law. The foreign secretary, David Lammy, has also signalled that he is considering banning some arms sales to Israel. The prime minister’s deputy official spokesperson said: “On the submission, this was a proposal by the previous government that was not submitted before the election. I can confirm the government will not be pursuing that in line with our longstanding position that this is a matter for the court to decide on. “The government feels very strongly about the rule of law internationally and domestically, and the separation of powers, and I would note the courts have already received a number of submissions on either side and they are well seized of the arguments to make their determination.” She would not be drawn on whether the government had a view on whether a warrant should be issued for Netanyahu’s arrest, saying it was a matter for the courts.

The United Kingdom, under new Labour leadership, is dropping its challenge to the ICC arrest warrants for Israel Apartheid State leaders.

[head-post]

Chagos islanders displaced for US military base marched to UK Parliament

Islanders who were forced to abandon their remote Indian Ocean home to make way for a US military base half a century ago protested outside Britain’s Parliament on Monday against a deal they say decided the fate of their homeland without them.

The British government announced last week that it was handing over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius under an agreement that would leave a US naval and bomber base on one of the islands, Diego Garcia.

Located south of the equator off the coast of India, the Chagos Islands have been under British rule since 1814. They became known as the British Indian Ocean Territory in 1965 when they were separated from Mauritius, a British colony that gained independence three years later.

Frankie Bontemps, a second-generation Chagos resident, remarked:

“Today they have a deal that suits them, best of course. But what about the people? What about the people they ignored 65 years ago? I feel, as I do, that history is repeating itself today.”

According to Yasmin Ahmed, director of Human Rights Watch UK, it is crucial for David Lammy, the British Foreign Secretary, Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, and the whole government to recognise that they will not be able to right historical wrongs or meet their international obligations unless the Chagossian community is at the forefront of any agreements that allow them to return to their homeland and receive compensation.

Way for the US military base Diego Garcia

Britain expelled nearly 2,000 people from the islands in the 1960s and 1970s to make way for the US military base Diego Garcia, which supported military operations from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2008, the US admitted that the base was also involved in secret rendition flights for terrorist suspects.

A significant number of islanders have resettled in the UK and unsuccessfully tried to reclaim their homeland through British legal channels. Their struggle has received global support, especially from African countries and the United Nations.

In a 2019 advisory opinion, the UN International Court of Justice ruled that Britain illegally partitioned Mauritius when it decided to end colonial rule in the late 1960s. The UN General Assembly has since passed a resolution calling on the UK to end its “colonial administration” of the Chagos Islands and return them to Mauritius.

Britain’s newly-elected Labour government says the military base status could be jeopardised by possible legal disputes if the deal is not finalised.

“British sovereignty over Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands is non-negotiable”

US President Joe Biden has welcomed the deal, saying it “ensures that the joint facility at Diego Garcia will operate effectively for the next century.” But Britain’s Conservative opposition said the decision to hand over part of the territory to the UK sets a worrying precedent for other vast possessions, including Gibraltar, claimed by Spain, and the Falkland Islands, claimed by Argentina.

The government strongly denies this. Starmer spokesman Dave Pares said on Monday that “British sovereignty over Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands is non-negotiable.”

The agreement would create a resettlement fund for displaced Chagos residents aimed at allowing them to return to the islands – with the exception of Diego Garcia. The UK says the details of any return are now the responsibility of Mauritius. Jamie Simon, whose grandparents were expelled from the Chagos islands, said:

“They shouldn’t have done this deal without asking us what we want. It may be just another island to them. It might just be a military base for them..But for us, it’s home.”

Read more HERE

[good-old-gossip]

UK Minister went to Israel to KISS Netanyahu's Ring

“Arriving a day after the Israeli slaughter of at least 88 Palestinians in a supposed safe zone in Khan Younis, the new British Foreign Secretary David Lammy had an opportunity to reset Britain’s relationship with Israel by condemning the massacre.

Many will have felt that he had a moral duty to do so. Instead, he timidly fell into the Tory pattern of never condemning Israeli atrocities in Gaza if the Israeli authorities stated that Hamas was the target. Like David Cameron, his low-grade Conservative predecessor, Lammy chose silent complicity.

Lammy called for a ceasefire and promised more humanitarian aid to Gaza. While of course welcome, this “motherhood and apple pie” was in reality little more than bland waffle of the kind that Palestinians are all too familiar with. If this is the best Lammy can come up with, he ought never to have come here in the first place.

The brutal truth is that the new, inexperienced British foreign secretary will be judged by actions rather than words.

In fairness to Lammy, he has covered a great deal of ground since entering the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office - and scarcely a week has passed since the election.

But time is not on his side. On the evidence so far, I believe that he has made a stupid error by making this trip to Israel and Palestine.

Many will have found it stomach-churning to see him shake hands with Netanyahu, who may shortly find himself being hunted for war crimes. Lammy did not need this gruesome photo opportunity and appeared to have got nothing in return.

He has been to Israel before and it is hard to see what new he learned on this short and meaningless trip. Netanyahu is a master politician, well known for running rings around US presidents, let alone ingenues such as Lammy.

We can be certain that the British foreign secretary will have heard apparently compelling arguments in favour of procrastination and doing nothing. With a ceasefire so close, why upset the applecart by pursuing the arrest warrant?”

✍️ by Peter Oborne