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Bridget Phillipson just accidentally justified blocking Israel from peace talks

On 12 October, deputy leadership contender Bridget Phillipson appeared on the Sunday talk shows. Talking to Trevor Phillips, she discussed why Hamas should have no place in future negotiations. In arguing this, however, she actually made a case for freezing out the Israeli government:


Bridget Phillipson

Host Phillips asked Phillipson:

All right, looking forward, the government keeps saying there can be no role for Hamas. How do you get to decide for the Gazans who governs them?

This isn’t an unfair question, but there is some context you should be aware of.

Firstly, Hamas itself already offered to step down from government in previous peace talks (talks which Israel rejected).

Secondly, Palestinians have actually been clear on who they want to lead them, but Israel are holding him captive (or ‘hostage’, if you will):

Claiming to want peace while doing everything in its power to ensure conflict is nothing new for Israel. As we reported, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu supported the rise and continuation of Hamas – all because it’s easier for him to justify repressing a Palestinian government which supports armed resistance.

Atrocities

Back to the interview, Bridget Phillipson responded:

Well, this has also been an agreement that’s been reached with the Arab League, who have recognised there can be no role for Hamas. We are clear that a terrorist organisation like Hamas that was responsible for the most deadly atrocity, the largest killing of Jews since the Holocaust, can have no part in the reconstruction of Gaza or in a future Palestinian state.

When the US bombs the Middle East, our politicians and journalists don’t usually describe it as a the ‘killing of Muslims’. While there’s no doubt Hamas killed civilians on the 7 October attack (in addition to those killed as a result of the ‘Hannibal Directive‘), this wasn’t a dominant state oppressing a minority group. At the point when Hamas launched its 2023 attack, Israel had lain siege to Gaza since 2005. Israel had also violently repressed peaceful protests against the siege, as Amnesty wrote in 2018:

More than six months have passed since the “Great March of Return” protests started in the Gaza Strip on 30 March.
Their calls for Israeli authorities to lift their 11-year illegal blockade on Gaza and to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their villages and towns have not been met.

According to the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, since the start of the protests, over 150 Palestinians have been killed in the demonstrations. At least 10,000 others have been injured, including 1,849 children, 424 women, 115 paramedics and 115 journalists. Of those injured, 5,814 were hit by live ammunition.

The assaults described above are clearly ‘atrocities’, but you don’t see British politicians or journalists describing them as such; you also don’t see them describing it as an ‘attack on Muslims’, or claiming it gives justification for genocide.

Israel killed far more than those who protested in the Great March of Return too:

Palestinian and Israeli deaths 2008 - 2020 - graph shows 5,590 Palestinian deaths compared to 251 Israeli deaths

The case against Israel – inadvertently made by Bridget Phillipson

Continuing her argument, Bridget Phillipson said:

They may decide they want Hamas. I’m afraid when you look at the appalling atrocities of the 7th of October, there can be absolutely no place for a vile terrorist group like Hamas, who killed countless innocent civilians, took hostages into Gaza, and are responsible also alongside this for significant suffering and inflicting significant violence, even on their own people.

Let’s go through this, shall we?

As noted above, the Israeli government has committed “appalling atrocities”; it’s even committed them since the most recent ceasefire announcement:


And let’s not forget Israel bombed the location of peace talks with Hamas in the sovereign nation of Qatar:


Phillipson added “there can be absolutely no place for a vile terrorist group like Hamas”. Hamas is a terrorist group while the Israeli government is not because we proscribed one and not the other. The Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are clearly “vile”, though, as we’ve demonstrated above and will continue to demonstrate.

Phillipson highlighted that Hamas “killed countless innocent civilians”. You can probably guess what we’re going to say here, because you’ve watched Israel butcher innocent civilians for two years straight.

“Took hostages into Gaza” – took hostages, is it? You may not realise this if you only follow the mainstream news, but Israel has close to 10,000 Palestinian ‘hostages’ – the difference is they call them ‘prisoners’, and the Western media repeats this framing.

Finishing up, Phillipson said Hamas is ‘responsible for significant suffering and inflicting significant violence, even on their own people’. Again, nothing Hamas did comes close to what Israel did before or after October 7. Additionally, Israel has ‘inflicted significant violence’ on its own people too. One key instance of IDF-on-Israeli violence was using the so-called ‘Hannibal Directive’, which authorises soldiers to massacre Israeli citizens to prevent their capture (a directive they activated on October 7). Israel also killed many of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza through its campaign of indiscriminate bombing.

Terror

There’s one more thing we shouldn’t forget, and that’s this:


Did you think the war was about saving the hostages?

Well it wasn’t; it was always a war of extermination, and those exterminated include innocent Palestinians and hostages.

You don’t see Labour talking about this because they’re complicit in Israel’s actions.

And the reason Labour ghouls like Phillipson look dead behind the eyes is because they know that one day they might have to justify their choices at the Hague.

Featured image via Sky News

By Willem Moore

This post was originally published on Canary.