Israel and Gaza

August 2025

I continue to share your deep concern & condemnation of the Israeli Government’s actions, both through expanding its military operations there and in continuing its utterly abhorrent blockade of the Gaza Strip. I also support the UK Government's recent decision to summon Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely with regard to the approval of a major settlement in the West Bank. The E1 settlement east of Jerusalem, would effectively cut the West Bank in two and will do nothing but prolong the suffering in the region.

Last month, I was proud to add my name to Sarah Champion MP’s cross party letter calling on the UK to recognise the state of Palestine at the UN Conference in New York on 28 & 29 July. With 255 MPs from nine parties signing, it shows that support for Palestinian statehood cuts across the traditional political divides in Parliament. You can read Sarah’s letter here.

That followed a letter sent to the Foreign Secretary in June in which all 72 Liberal Democrat MPs had already (https://bsky.app/profile/calummillerld.bsky.social/post/3lrpldy3x2k2y), called for the immediate recognition of a Palestine state. 

Recognition will clearly not solve all, or even many of, the challenges in Gaza or the West Bank, but it is a vital step toward a just and lasting peace. The Liberal Democrats have consistently led the way, calling for a suspension of military sales to Israel and urging immediate recognition of Palestine. This is about standing with the Palestinian & Israeli people seeking a just peace and keeping hope alive for a two state solution. 

July 2025

On Gaza, I condemn the Israeli Government’s actions, both through expanding its military operations there & in continuing its utterly abhorrent blockade of the Strip. I shared my thoughts in my latest column in the Wimbledon Guardian, which you can read here.
 
My Party’s consistent objectives since the breakdown of talks in March has been a resumption of the ceasefire, the release of all hostages, unhindered access for aid to enter & be distributed to those who desperately need it in Gaza and measures to promote dialogues and meaningful progress to  a two-state solution which is the only feasible means of promoting  long-term peace between Israel & Palestine. To maintain pressure on the Government to do more, I recently supported a Parliamentary Motion put forward by my Party Leader, Sir Ed Davey, calling on the Government to go much further and faster in applying pressure to the Israeli Government. You can see the EDM here.

The actions of Prime Minister Netanyahu & his Cabinet - both in blocking aid to Gaza and expanding military action with a view to taking over the entire Strip - have gravely undermined progress towards these goals.

That’s why I was relieved to see the Government taking a step forward in holding the Israeli Government accountable earlier in May. After months of strong words but insufficient action,  from the Labour leadership, they have moved to suspend progress towards a new free trade agreement with Israel & will be reviewing the 2030 UK-Israel Bilateral Roadmap.

Liberal Democrats have been clear, however, this action remains wholly insufficient in the face of the catastrophe unfolding in Gaza. We are demanding the Government does everything in its power, urgently, to enable aid to reach those whose lives depend on it in Gaza, to ensure the UK is not complicit in the grotesque use of starvation as a tool of war by the Netanyahu Government.

Our Government also needs to go much further - to prevent further violations of international law in Gaza and to show every Israeli minister who advocates the dispossession of Palestinians they too will be held accountable.

That’s why Liberal Democrats are continuing to call for:
 

• An immediate ban on the export of all UK weapons to Israel - including component parts for F-35 planes - to ensure no UK arms can be used to perpetrate human rights abuses.
   
• The UK Government to legislate to stop all trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories, to ensure the UK does not contribute to the growth of settlements.
   
• The immediate recognition of a Palestinian state, affirming the right of Palestinians to self-determination and recognising only a two-state solution will deliver security and dignity to both Palestinians & Israelis.
   
• Imposition of further sanctions on Israeli politicians and settlers - implicated in the ongoing breaches of international humanitarian law. 

The expansion of the Israeli Government’s military activity in Gaza is disgraceful. It is already bringing further devastation for Palestinians, who have already endured 16 months of war. Nor is it clear military action will do anything to support getting the 58 remaining hostages back to Israel. Diplomacy & negotiations have been the only consistently successful route through which those in Hamas’ captivity have made it home.

In his response to the Government on Tuesday 20th May, Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs spokesperson Calum Miller pressed the Government on when it will finally recognise the Israeli Government’s actions constitute “an actual breach of international law”, rather than just the ‘risk’ of a breach which the Government has so far maintained.

Calum has also written to the Foreign Secretary, calling on the Government to commit to the following additional measures in the event that Prime Minister Netanyahu & his Cabinet continues military action and refuses to comprehensively lift its aid blockade:

• Consider sanctions on other Members of the Knesset from the Otzma Yehudit and Mafdal–Religious Zionism parties, including:

  - Minister of Settlement and National Missions, Orit Strook, who claimed in April 2024 “there is no such thing as a Palestinian people". 

  - Minister of Heritage, Amihai Eliyahu, who said in November 2023 that “nuking Gaza” was a possible policy solution - which he later claimed was “metaphorical”. 

  - Minister for the Development of the Periphery, the Negev, and the Galilee, Yitzhak Wasserlauf, who said in April 2024 rebuilding Israeli settlements in Gaza would represent a “total victory” for Israel.

   

• Confirm any Ministers in the Israeli Cabinet who mirror the language of Ministers Ben-Gvir, Smotrich and Katz and call for the dispossession of Palestinians should be sanctioned.
   
• Declare the prospect of sanctions remain on the table for any Ministers in the Israeli Cabinet who oppose the comprehensive lifting of the aid blockade.

I am absolutely committed to continuing to push the Government to adopt Liberal Democrat proposals which would, if implemented, apply genuine pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu to lift his blockade and stop his destructive military campaign.

December 2024