Sunak condemned for pledge to vote against Palestine in key UN vote

Palestinian factions have condemned British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for his pledge to vote against Palestine’s bid at the UN for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice regarding Israel’s brutal military occupation.

Sunak confirmed the UK’s intention to vote against the Palestinian bid during his speech at the Conservative Friends of Israel’s annual business lunch. He made his pledge under the pretext of not intending to harm the peace process and the two-state solution. This is being seen as an excuse rather than a reason, given that the peace process has been moribund for almost a decade, and Israel’s continued expansion of its illegal settlements on land earmarked for a Palestinian state make the two-state solution increasingly unlikely.

“We do not beg justice from oppressors,” responded Khaled Al-Batch, a member of the Political Bureau of Islamic Jihad in Palestine. “We will resist the occupation.”

Al-Batch questioned why the blood of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and the child Jana Zakarneh among many other victims of Israeli aggression did not tweak Sunak’s conscience. “Why is he providing cover for the Zionist state to help it evade being held to account at the ICC in The Hague?”

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His stance, added the Islamic Jihad official, makes Sunak complicit in Israeli crimes. “It is an extension of the infamous Balfour Declaration which gave Palestine to the Zionists. Moreover, much is being made of the British prime minister’s Indian heritage, but in backing Israeli oppression he is disowning the legacy of Indian freedom fighters such as Ghandi.”

Other Palestinian factions, including Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, also condemned Sunak’s position. They cited many British stances against the Palestinians and in support of Israeli oppression.