Celebrities including Steve Coogan and Riz Ahmed call on Starmer to halt arms sales to Israel
More than 100 UK cultural figures have signed a letter calling on Labor leader Keir Starmer to halt arms sales to Israel if he wins the next general election. Starmer’s Labor Party is ranked first in opinion polls before the July 4 election. Still, its leadership has faced intense criticism for broadly supporting Israel’s devastating offensive against Palestinians in Gaza.
In the letter published on Sunday, celebrities including Steve Coogan, Miriam Margolies and Riz Ahmed said that as a former human rights lawyer, Starmer should lead the way in ending the UK’s complicity in war crimes in Gaza.
Referring to the eight-month-long Israeli campaign in Gaza, the letter said that the country had ignored the International Court of Justice’s ruling to “immediately halt its military attack in Rafah. She added: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently facing arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court on charges of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Continuing to sell weapons to a country whose leader is accused of committing such severe violations of international law is both reprehensible and morally objectionable.”
Despite Labour’s lead in the polls, which some polls put at close to 20%, Starmer heads a party divided over the war in Gaza.
Both Labor and the ruling Conservative Party supported Israel’s decision to go to war in October 2023, although the opposition has since called for a ceasefire on humanitarian grounds. UK: Anti-apartheid activist Andrew Feinstein is preparing to challenge Starmer in the next election
In the days following the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, Starmer sparked controversy within his party’s ranks by supporting Israel’s decision to block food, water, electricity and other necessities from entering Gaza. The war, now approaching its eighth month, has turned most parts of the enclave into an uninhabitable hell zone.
Entire neighborhoods have been wiped out. Homes, schools and hospitals were destroyed by air strikes and burned by tank fire. It is reported that almost the whole population has fled their homes, and those who remain in northern Gaza are on the brink of starvation.
Last month, a YouGov poll showed that more than two-thirds of the British people want a ceasefire in Gaza. The British people were also more inclined to sympathise with the Palestinian side compared to the Israelis. YouGov researchers also found that a majority of people in the country support a ban on arms sales to Israel.
