British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband argued for a more progressive foreign policy towards Israel in a speech to the Labor Party conference in Liverpool, according to the party’s website.
“The only path to peace is through two states, a secure Israel and Palestine, with freedom, dignity and self-determination for both peoples,” Miliband said. “We all know how far we are from that.”
He added that the Hamas attacks on October 7 “cannot justify the suffering that the Netanyahu government has inflicted on Gaza and the West Bank.”
He told pro-Palestinian activists and Labor members at the event that the party’s actions on the issue were insufficient and that British Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government would take tougher action to address it.
“I want to say to the millions of people in this country, and elsewhere, who have been moved and outraged by the plight of the Palestinian people, we hear you, you were right,” he said. “Under Andy’s leadership, we have reset our approach.”
Miliband said he would begin working to “change” the status quo, citing a “broader lesson for our party from Israel and Palestine about how we have changed our approach”.
He further cited Labor’s “progressive values” as the reason for what he claims will be the party’s next success.
“The bonds of solidarity between the British people and those who aspire to peace in Israel and Palestine are too strong to break,” he said. “Our decision to act has mobilized the international community, country after country.”
The secretary of state’s comments follow Burnham’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, in which the British prime minister opposed Israeli plans to build settlements in the E1 area of the West Bank.
“We have acted by banning trade in goods with illegal settlements, recognizing that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal, and sanctioning those who participate in the construction of illegal settlements,” Burnham said. “We want the suffering and death to finally end.”
Gn world
