Israel has been accused of losing its moral authority in its current war with Hamas by Tory MP Alicia Kearns, Chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee. Kearns claimed that Israel has gone “beyond self-defence” and broken international law, warning that its actions could increase support for Hamas among Palestinians. She added that “bombs don’t obliterate an ideology and neither can a stable state be constructed from oblivion.”
Former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace also criticized Israel’s tactics, saying that its legal basis for military action in Gaza is being undermined. Wallace wrote in the Daily Telegraph, “Israel’s legal basis for military action in Gaza was ‘being undermined’, and warned its government was ‘making the mistake of losing its moral authority alongside its legal one'”.
Ten Tory MPs, including former Cabinet ministers Kit Malthouse and George Eustice, have pleaded with the Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron to push for an immediate ceasefire, as Israel’s strategy is “neither proportionate nor targeted.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that operations would continue until Hamas is dismantled, despite the growing international pressure over the scale of civilian casualties in Gaza, which Hamas-controlled authorities put at more than 18,000.
However, Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy pushed back against Mr Wallace’s criticism, describing his language as “unfortunate.” He told the BBC that allowing Hamas to “literally get away with murder” would be more likely to radicalize people than Israel’s military tactics. Regardless, Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestinian mission to the UK, accused the Israeli army of normalizing “the mass murder of children, [and] women” and “the mass destruction of hospitals, schools, churches, mosques.”
Kearns, who chairs the committee of MPs tasked with holding the Foreign Office accountable, warned that Israel could inadvertently increase support for Hamas among Palestinians, as Hamas is an ideology that recruits into its membership. A recent opinion poll carried out by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research found that support for Hamas had more than tripled in the occupied West Bank compared to three months ago, with 70% of respondents saying armed struggle was the best means of ending the Israeli occupation
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