He said everything within the remit of international law…
Which has the slight issue that "withholding power and water" is (arguably) not legal under international law.
Comment on Israel 'has a right' to withhold power and water from citizens in Gaza - Starmer
killeronthecorner@lemmy.world 11 months ago
He said everything within the remit of international law… It was right there in the video. He didn’t say no but he also didn’t answer the question posed.
Feels like a nothing burger. Simon Coveney said literally the same thing and it was taken the opposite way: www.msn.com/en-ie/news/world/…/ar-AA1i3I8z
lemonflavoured@kbin.social 11 months ago
sunbeam60@lemmy.one 11 months ago
No argument; civilians must be protected and power and water is absolute necessity for civilians.
It’s a war crime.
What Hamas did was absolutely horrid. What Israel is doing is absolutely horrid. No good people, only victims.
Chariotwheel@kbin.social 11 months ago
The difference here is that Starmer was directly asked if shutting off water and all supplies to Gaza is okay, he daid that it was Israel's right to do so.
He followed up with the international law, but he did say in no uncertain words that starving all people of Gaza is Israel's right.
He also repeated himself, I think he wanted to make very sure that he positioned himself as pro Israel, because of the stigma of anti semitism in the Labour party.
killeronthecorner@lemmy.world 11 months ago
He said they are within their right to do that which is within the remit of international laws. He added that part about international law after the host added seiging and resource deprivation to a list of potential rights of Israel.
Agree with you on the last part, he’s being extremely careful about the positioning for exactly that reason.
DoneItDuncan@feddit.uk 11 months ago
At some point though, surely humanity and justice have to take precedence over politicking - I don’t think the need to tiptoe around issues like that is a good enough reason for excusing the collective punishment of 2 million people.
killeronthecorner@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Yeah I’m not vouching for his whole worldview on this, just pointing out that he didn’t say the sieging and resource denial is okay.
peg@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Not when you’re a Blairite. Nothing better than war and dead Muslims.
bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Hamas are the government in Gaza, it’s their responsibility to provide utilities.
guriinii@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Hamas aren’t the government. And all utilities come from Israel.
bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
…wikipedia.org/…/2006_Palestinian_legislative_ele…
floofloof@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
Hamas do govern the Gaza Strip.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas
lemonflavoured@kbin.social 11 months ago
De Facto they are.
RedGee@feddit.uk 11 months ago
There was no anti semisism. If supporting pro Palestine under JC is anti-semitism?
Starmer will always be a traitor to the Labour party in my eyes. And Labour in it’s present form are no different than the Conservatives. Funded in part by the same people. This is why he is pro Israel. Ching Ching.
matt@lemmy.world 11 months ago
While this is true, politics is unfortunately about feelings and optics, not actual facts.
People believe that Labour is antisemitic, and therefore that impression is going to stick with people even if it might wholly be false.
I’m not a fan of Starmer either but politics is a stupid game and I’m not so sure a different response would be a good idea to the public, as much as he should have said literally anything else.