\n<\/p>\n
Pippa Crerar\u2019s focus on action is right (Burnham\u2019s apology over Gaza marks \u2018reset moment\u2019 as Labour seeks to win back progressive voters, 9 July). May we add one element: the law. Two years ago, the international court of justice advised that the 1967 occupation of Palestine is unlawful. Keir Starmer worked to uphold international law on Ukraine. Rightly, he recognised the state of Palestine alongside Israel, and confirmed that the occupation is unlawful. Consequences should follow, but we still await the government\u2019s assessment of the ICJ opinion. Steps to end the occupation are needed. No state that values the decisions of UN bodies should prolong it.<\/p>\n
Our country needs a rules-based international order. The UK relies on due process for the conduct of international affairs. It is in the UK\u2019s interest to challenge the \u201cmight is right\u201d fallacy. The rule of law helps keep us safe, when made effective \u2013 domestically and internationally. Lord Denning observed that \u201cthe rules of international law \u2026 do form part of our English law\u201d. The two are intertwined.<\/p>\n
Trade in goods and services with illegal settlements prolongs the occupation. Israel derives economic benefit from stolen land. The government should ban settlement trade, including financial services. The measures taken against Russia should apply to Israel, which is breaking the same laws. Israel should be held to account for ethnic cleansing and worse in Gaza and the West Bank.<\/p>\n
Diplomacy ignoring the law is ill-advised. The UN security council \u2013 including the UK \u2013 has outsourced Gaza to the Board of Peace, prolonging the suffering of 2 million Palestinians. There is a duty to protect civilians. Israel does the opposite. As the archbishop of Canterbury said, we must not look away. Nor do words suffice. The government should act with partners to secure unrestricted access for food, medicines and temporary accommodation \u2013 with consequences if access is denied. The October 2025 \u201cceasefire\u201d has not ended the violence, with no access for MPs and international journalists.<\/p>\n
Foes and friends are breaking laws which help keep us safe. The\u00a0UK government\u2019s inconsistency undermines the laws\u00a0on which we rely.<\/p>\n
Vincent Fean<\/strong> Former consul-general, Jerusalem<\/em> Pippa Crerar\u2019s focus on action is right (Burnham\u2019s apology over Gaza marks \u2018reset moment\u2019 as Labour seeks to win back progressive voters, 9 July). May we add one element: the law. Two years ago, the international court of justice advised that the 1967 occupation of Palestine is unlawful. Keir Starmer worked to uphold international law<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[531,214,175,1240,76],"class_list":{"0":"post-51131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-international","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-law","11":"tag-palestine","12":"tag-test"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Helena Kennedy\u00a0KC<\/strong> Labour, House of Lords<\/em>
John Kerr<\/strong> Crossbencher, House of Lords and f<\/em>ormer permanent secretary, <\/em>Foreign Office<\/em>
Dominic Grieve\u00a0KC<\/strong>
Peter Hain<\/strong> Labour, House of Lords<\/em>
Jeremy Greenstock<\/strong> Former ambassador to the UN<\/em>
Emyr Jones Parry<\/strong> Former ambassador to the UN<\/em>
David Manning<\/strong> Former ambassador to the US<\/em>
William Patey<\/strong> Former ambassador to Afghanistan<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"