- ‘People who are not standing for justice for Palestinians … are on the wrong side of history,’ says Short

LONDON

The British government’s stance on Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza puts the UK on the “wrong side of history” and is driven by a desperation to “be close to America,” according to Clare Short, a former minister and longtime critic of British foreign policy.

Short, who resigned from ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Cabinet in 2003 over the Iraq invasion, sees disturbing parallels between the UK’s involvement in that conflict and its current alignment with the US on Israel’s Gaza assault.

“Tony Blair has still not said there was anything wrong with (the Iraq invasion),” she said in an interview with Anadolu.

“But we have this massive inquiry. It’s about 12 volumes, and it did say lots of wrong things. But it’s such a big report ... (that it’s not) popularly understood.”

Her reference was to the Chilcot Inquiry – a sprawling official review widely seen as damning in its findings – but one she argues has been largely ignored by those in power.

Now, more than two decades later, she sees history repeating itself in Gaza.

“People who are not standing for justice for the Palestinians and the end of the slaughter, of the starvation, are on the wrong side of history,” she said.

“They will be criticized, and then lots of people will claim that they always thought it should have been a ceasefire. Certainly, in 10 years’ time, everyone will have been against what’s happening in Gaza.”

It would be like South Africa back in the day, when “suddenly, everyone had been against apartheid” once it ended, Short said.

“I think people who are not standing for justice for the Palestinians and the end of the slaughter, of the starvation, are on the wrong side of history.”

Starmer ‘so keen to be close to America’

Short saved some of her most scathing criticism for Prime Minister Keir Starmer – a former human rights lawyer – for what she sees as moral cowardice and political opportunism.

“I don't understand what’s wrong with him,” she said. “Why is he not supporting international law? Maybe because he is so keen to be close to America, I think.”

Short, the former secretary of state for international development, lamented what she described as the UK’s subservience to US policy: “Britain is such a feeble, pathetic creature now that it just goes with anything America does, anywhere, all the time.”

She argued that Britain is now “worse than it used to be,” not only in its global posture, but also in how it perceives itself.

“It’s lying about its claims to do anything right or stand up for international law in any way,” she said.

She noted a familiar geopolitical alignment of nations “supporting what Israel is doing” – namely “America, Australia, Canada and then the European white countries.”

“The rest of the world says no. They see the same pattern of colonization, taking of territory, expulsion, and killing.”

‘There will be justice in the end’

Short’s criticism is deeply political, but it is also rooted in her personal experience. Drawing on her Irish heritage, she invoked a long history of resistance to imperial domination.

“My dad comes from the north, a village just three miles north of the border when Ireland was partitioned, and they never gave in,” she said.

It is this sense of endurance and dignity, she said, that she sees echoed in the Palestinian struggle.

“This resistance will go on,” she insisted. “It is costing an enormous (amount), but it will … There will be justice in the end.”

Despite the bleak political moment, Short expressed hope in the growing protest movements across the UK and around the world.

“They do your heart good,” she said of the demonstrators. “There’s young mums with hijabs and push chairs. There’s grey hairs, young ones. And you think – these are the good people of our country, and these are the future of our country.”

She sees similar energy in the US, where she believes generational divides are even more pronounced.

“The young of America are not with it. Young Jews, young students – they’re uniting together. They demonstrated in universities. That’s why they’re being persecuted.”

At such a time, she emphasized the need to keep up pressure for change that governments will increasingly find hard to ignore.

“Make a stand. Make a noise. Join the demonstrations. Pressurize the MPs. Don’t vote for the people who do the wrong thing ... That’s power, and it’s in our hands,” she said.