When Jan and I voted in the last election our constituency boundaries had been changed to include Englefield Green, close to Royal Holloway College (student votes), and parts of Slough (less prosperous than the rest of the constituency and with a large population of South Asian origin). We had hoped that the demographics would be sufficiently changed to give opponents of the Conservative Party a chance. During our more than 40 years in Sunninghill, the Conservative candidate had always won more than 50% of votes (58.6% in 2019). The result was MPs of low calibre and little interest in their constituents’ views. This year the result was very different: the Conservative candidate received 36.45 of the votes, Labour 22.2% (a candidate from Slough) and the Liberal Democrats 21.1% (a borough councillor from Windsor).
The new Conservative candidate, Jack Rankin, is an apparatchik whose mentor was the powerful former leader of the council of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. In order to declare himself a local man, he moved into a small house about three minutes’ walk from our home. So we find ourselves in the curious position of living in grander (but still modest) style than our elected representative. Quite a change from the plutocrat who was our former representative. Rankin is clearly an ambitious man out to form a political career: his campaigning has been much more vigorous than any of his predecessors: lots of colour leaflets with photos of Jack out and about in the constituency. He has very much emphasized the local, but on other issues his publicity has been very much the Conservative Party line.
Jan and I have for some time donated to a charity, MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians: https://www.map.org.uk/), which provides health care in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, so this has been a busy year. We were in far away Mexico on 7 October 2023 when I saw the first news of the Hamas massacres and kindappings. I realized immediately that the Israeli response would be fierce, but I could not have imagined the sustained ferocity of Benjamin Netanyahu’s war, no matter the provocations of Hamas’ appalling crimes. So, I decided that, whether he agreed with me or not (I expected not) I would write to my MP. I realize that you may not agree with me (and feel free to tell me why), but I thought my correspondence with Mr Rankin might interest you.
My email of 29 August 2024:
Dear Mr Rankin,
I am writing to you as a concerned constituent to ask you to urge Foreign Secretary David Lammy to take more urgent action to protect civilians and prevent further disease, starvation, and deaths in Gaza, including by immediately halting all transfers of arms to Israel that could be used to commit violations of international law.
Israel's attack on Gaza has gone well beyond what is needed to protect
Israel from further attacks such as those of 7 October. More than 40,000 people
have been killed and 63% of buildings damaged or destroyed. Israel’s use of
starvation as a weapon of war and systematic attacks on healthcare and vital
infrastructure are making Palestinian survival impossible. Independent UN human
rights experts and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concluded in
January Israel’s actions may plausibly amount to atrocity crimes, including
genocide. Since then the situation has only worsened.
The healthcare system is collapsing, with no hospitals fully functional. The
World Health Organization says that a significant proportion of Gaza’s
population faces famine-like conditions. Thousands of children are suffering
from malnutrition, and at least 32 people have already died due to lack of
food. Now a baby has died of polio - the first case of the disease in Gaza in
25 years.
Despite the appalling consequences of Israel's actions, the new government has
failed to take the urgent action needed to protect civilians and ensure the UK
is not complicit in serious violations of international law. Israel’s military
bombardment and systematic attacks on healthcare continue, and Israel is still
preventing essential aid from reaching those in desperate need. The provisional
measures ordered by the International Court of Justice to prevent genocide
remain unimplemented.
The new UK government has pledged to rapidly increase aid into Gaza and push
for an immediate ceasefire. It has also made welcome commitments to upholding
international law in the Middle East, and respect for the International Court
of Justice and International Criminal Court.
But much more needs to be done urgently. I therefore ask that you write
to Foreign Secretary David Lammy to take the following action:
1. Immediately halt the transfer of all arms to Israel that could be used to
commit violations of international law, including attacks on healthcare.
2. While continuing to work urgently to secure an immediate and permanent
ceasefire in Gaza, ensure that this would enable humanitarian aid to reach all
who need it, people to return to and rebuild their homes and essential
infrastructure, and reject the entrenchment of Israel’s military control over
Palestinian territory.
3. Demand an end to attacks on civilians and civilian objects, including
healthcare personnel and facilities, and ensure there are genuine, rapid, and
independent investigations and accountability for those responsible to provide
justice to victims and prevent recurrence.
4. Uphold the UK’s responsibility to protect civilians in Gaza from atrocities,
including genocide, and ensure the provisional measures of the International
Court of Justice are implemented.
5. Urgently press Israel to end barriers to effective aid delivery in Gaza,
including lifting its siege, reopening the crossing points, and allowing the
safe and unimpeded movement of aid and aid workers, medical personnel and sick
and wounded people.
6. Ensure that humanitarian aid is effective in meeting priority health needs
and helps to preserve existing institutions and critical infrastructure, and
that Palestinians remain in control of the recovery and rebuilding of Gaza.
I urge you to speak out in Parliament and on social media, advocating these
vital measures. The UK Government must not stand by while the people of Gaza
endure such unimaginable suffering.
Thank you for your attention and commitment to this urgent matter. I hope you
will take swift action to address these issues and look forward to hearing from
you soon.
Yours sincerely,
Ian Jacobs
15 Upper Village Rd, Sunninghill, Ascot SL5 7BA, UK
The response:
30 Oct 2024
Dear Ian Jacobs
Thank you for contacting me regarding the humanitarian situation in Gaza. I am
aware of the strength of feeling on this issue, not only in Windsor but around
the world.
Like you, I want to see an end to this terrible conflict that continues to
bring great suffering upon Israelis and Palestinians alike. However, it is
clear that while Hamas continues to exist in Gaza there can never be peace in
the region.
It is therefore important that Israel is ceaseless in its pursuit of these
barbaric terrorists who, on October 7th, 2023, committed the worst atrocity
against the Jewish people since the Second World War. In recent weeks we have
seen progress in this area with a major Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, eliminated
in an Israeli operation. Only with Hamas eliminated and Israeli hostages
released, do I believe that we can move towards a two-state solution which is
the only feasible guarantee of long-term peace.
It is important that the British Government uses its standing on the world
stage to urge Israel to act within the remit of International Law and to
promote humanitarian pauses wherever possible. These pauses are essential for
allowing aid to enter Gaza and laying the foundations for a peaceful future
beyond Hamas. I am proud of the previous Government’s record in this area,
trebling its previous aid budget to the Palestinian people. I also welcome the
steps taken by the WHO and UNICEF to deliver polio inoculations across Gaza.
Regarding recent developments in the Knesset, it is essential that UNRWA
rebuilds trust and implements the Colonna reforms. Unreformed UNRWA is, at
best, effectively adjacent to Hamas. The risk of Western aid falling into the
hands of Hamas sympathizers would undermine our desire for peace in the region.
I will monitor the situation closely and urge the Government and the UN to
deliver aid into Gaza via various alternative routes.
With Israel now facing aggression on several borders it is more important than
ever that we stand in solidarity with our democratic allies. Proscribed
terrorist groups like Hezbollah seek to take advantage of an exposed Israel.
This was evidenced in recent rocket attacks fired from Lebanon which killed
innocent Israeli children.
With regard to the sale of arms to Israel, it is my view that further arms
embargoes or sanctions would send the wrong message and encourage Israel’s
enemies further, fanning the flames of wider regional conflict.
In the longer term, I support a credible and irreversible pathway towards a
two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, which delivers peace and security
for both nations and the wider region. In my view, the primary obstacle to this
is the continued existence of the genocidal views of the terrorist
organisations which surround Israel but, for peace to endure, Israel will need
to compromise to bring about a lasting settlement.
Thank you again for taking the time to write to me. I will continue to monitor
this situation closely and will work with colleagues across the House to
promote a future of peace and stability in the Middle East.
Yours sincerely,
Jack Rankin MP
Windsor
Working for Ascot, Cheapside, Clewer and
Dedworth, Colnbrook with Poyle, Datchet, Englefield Green, Eton and Eton Wick,
Foxborough, Horton, Langley, Old Windsor, Sunningdale, Sunninghill, Virginia
Water, Windsor and Wraysbury.
My reply:
15 Upper Village Road
Ascot SL5 7BA
(01344) 626387
Mr Jack Rankin MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
4 November 2024
Dear Mr Rankin,
Case Ref: JR00455
Thank you for taking the time to respond at some length to my email of 29 August 2024. I fear that we are unlikely to agree and that my arguments will not change your views. Nevertheless, your email ignores some significant aspects of the long occupation of Palestine by Israel and of the resulting episodes of conflict, for there have been many such episodes and the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023, appalling as it was, is one of many, by both Israeli and Palestinian forces.
Your message does not once mention the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank and all that follows from that occupation. The implication of your message is that this can be dealt with later in the “two-state” solution. But decades of killings and woundings of Palestinians by Israeli civilians and the Israeli military, oppression, denial of fundamental human rights, imprisonment without trial, appropriation of land, and so on are no mere subordinate matter. The occupation is the very core of the matter. It is clear that Israel has no intention of accepting the two-state solution, and Mr Netanyahu and his coalition partners have worked for many years to make that solution increasingly impossible. Killing, and indeed mass murder is not the sole prerogative of the detestable Hamas, but also of Israel, as the massacres of Sabra and Shatila attest. And one cannot ignore the long years of violence against Palestinians by Israelis who call themselves settlers, but who surely meet the definition of terrorists, and who are not infrequently tolerated or, in extreme cases, facilitated by the Israeli military. Moreover, the UK and USA advocate the two-state solution in rhetoric only, have done nothing effective to advance it, and, as allies of Israel are not really honest brokers.
You mention humanitarian pauses to allow aid to be delivered to Palestinian victims of the conflict in Gaza, but your message ignores Israel’s consistent obstruction of aid deliveries as attested by numerous organizations more than worthy of credence. In particular, Israel’s current actions in northern Gaza amount to a deliberate starvation of the population. In this context, the recent Knesset legislation to prevent UNRWA from providing aid, education and healthcare, and (not an insignificant motivation in the Israeli decision) because UNRWA identifies Palestinians as refugees who have been displaced and have rights, is a further effort to deny the very identity and existence of Palestinians and to oblige them to accept aid controlled by their occupier. Viewed in a broader context, this measure is surely part of Israel’s efforts to prevent the UN from seeking to enforce UN mandates in Palestine and Lebanon. Declaring the Secretary General of the UN non grata and demanding the withdrawal of (and indeed attacking) UNIFIL in Lebanon are further measures to remove constraints on Israel’s actions.
You argue that UNRWA is “adjacent” to Hamas – in a small, crowded territory governed by Hamas it would be impossible not to be adjacent. However, “adjacent” is not the same as being linked to, or in league with, Hamas, and as far as I can tell (including the findings of the Colonna report) there is no proof that UNRWA has any substantial links to Hamas that exceed the practical reality of having to operate in a territory controlled by Hamas just as, for example, many NGOs do, other than a very few UNRWA employees who are known to have been guilty of terrorist acts on 7 October. Anything else is unsubstantiated or possibly Israeli propaganda.
Whether we come closer to agreeing with one another nor not, I thank you for your attention to my comments.
Yours sincerely,
Ian Jacobs
