Voters want a fair policy on the Middle East

The Middle East has provided successive British governments with their fair share of challenges over the years. The current coalition government has been no different; from Syria to Palestine to Iraq, there have been numerous battles in the region that have been replicated in the House of Commons. As the Middle East continues to dominate the headlines, there are few signs that the troubles in the region will abate in the coming months, so how political parties respond to them will be all the more important in the run-up to the general election next year.

When Ed Miliband was elected Labour leader in 2010 he used his first party conference speech to call for the lifting of the blockade on Gaza. He was not the only party leader to raise concerns about the occupied territory; when David Cameron visited Turkey shortly after being elected as Prime Minister he was equally frank, calling the Gaza Strip an “open air prison”. Assessing these comments, one might believe that the last election ushered-in a new approach to foreign policy, perhaps one based on human rights and international law. Yet when the Labour Party announced that it would support the Palestinian bid for recognition as a member state at the United Nations, the Conservative-led coalition did not follow suit. Douglas Alexander, the shadow foreign secretary, called on the government to follow his lead; it didn’t.

Since then, further challenges have surfaced in the Middle East. In September last year political opinion was divided over British military intervention in Syria. With the government pushing for parliamentary backing for intervention, it was quashed when Miliband and Labour voted against it. Whilst the civil war in Syria has grabbed the attention of everyone in Westminster, and as bloodier and bloodier events have unfolded, MPs have called for Britain to offer greater humanitarian assistance and support for Syrian refugees. It’s not only parliamentarians who are concerned; in many cases they are responding to the concerns of their constituents.

Parliamentary debates have intensified in recent months over Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip, which has left more than 2,000 Palestinians dead and over 11, 000 injured. Politicians from all sides of the House led calls for Israel to halt its attack on Gaza; they wanted the government to go further in its condemnation of the military assault. Miliband said that the prime minister’s “staunch support” of Israel was “wrong and unjustifiable”, yet the policy on Gaza didn’t change, leading Cameron’s close ally Baroness Sayeda Warsi to resign as a minister.

Public opinion in the UK wants the government to go further in the face of the conflicts in the Middle East. Just under 75, 000 people, for example, signed a petition urging the government to send a Royal Navy hospital ship to Gaza to offer humanitarian assistance. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest against the Israeli war. It is these protests, the letters filling MPs’ mailbags and the emails flooding their inboxes which are indicative of the change that’s needed in foreign policy. Voters want parties to have policies which uphold basic fundamentals like international law; policies that have respect for human rights and support genuine democracy across the Middle East and North Africa. The next government will face even more challenges in the region, but if the coalition’s term in office is anything to go by, it will need to have a stronger, fairer and more balanced approach in its Middle East policy if it wants the full support of the British public.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.