UK mulls ban on MPs supporting Palestine

UK ministers are mulling proposals to prevent Members of Parliament (MPs) and councilors from engaging with Palestinian rights organizations.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and James Cleverly, home secretary, are due to discuss the proposals, put forward by the government’s adviser on political violence, John Woodcock.

“My review on political violence is about to be formally submitted to the prime minister and the home secretary. In it, I am asking the leader of every mainstream political party to take a zero-tolerance approach to the menace that is threatening our democracy,” Woodcock said in an article in the Sun on Sunday.

The plans suggest banning MPs and councilors from engaging with groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), as well as environmental organizations like Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil.

“So Rishi and Keir [Starmer] should instruct their MPs and councilors not to engage with anyone from the PSC until they get their house in order and cut the hate from their marches,” he said, in reference to the PM and the leader of Labor Party.

The proposals come as several sitting Labor MPs have attended pro-Palestine demonstrations.

Labor has refused to suspend MPs who have attended PSC events, despite demands from senior Tories, noting that PSC is not a proscribed organization.

Starmer is already under pressure to allow Labor representatives more freedom to decry Israel’s atrocities in Gaza.

Many within Labor believe George Galloway’s landslide victory in a parliamentary by-election points to anger felt by Muslims over the party’s stance on Israel.

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A shadow frontbencher questioned whether the Labor leadership had gone far enough in dispelling false narratives on pro-Palestine rallies.

“We talk about Rishi’s cowardice and how long it took him to come out and stop the messages of hate that have been spewing from the likes of Lee Anderson and Suella Braverman,” they told the Guardian.

“But what’s the difference between what Labor has said and what the Tories have said on these protests? We can’t allow pro-Palestinian protesters to be dehumanized as a Labor party.”

Another shadow frontbencher said “My frustration is that for years, we, Labor, haven’t given the situation in Gaza the attention it deserved. The leadership needs to fix this ASAP.”

Israel waged its US-backed genocidal war on the besieged Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Since the start of the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has killed 30,534 Palestinians and injured 71,920 others.

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