Pausing UNRWA aid in the midst of a genocide is amorality of the highest order

This letter speaks for itself. I would only add that English Labour’s cowardice in the face of an ongoing genocide will be no different from the Tories should it become the next UK government. Not only will they not call for a ceasefire or respect the ICJ order, they continue to ‘discipline’ members for speaking their mind. Labour MP Kate Osamor had the whip suspended for having the temerity to say on Holocaust Memorial Day that other genocides, including Gaza, should also be remembered.

The decision by the US and its UK lapdog to ‘pause’ UNRWA funding, shows they are quick to act upon allegations, most likely derived by torture, that 7 UNRWA workers out of 13,000 – 152 have been killed by Israeli bombs - may have aided Hamas. This is another form of collective punishment carried out by the US, UK and other western governments and is diabolically cruel. Notably, Ireland has refused to go along.  

At the same time, the US/UK rejected an overwhelming order from the world’s highest court that because Israel has the intent to commit and is committing genocide, it must immediately supply aid and stop targeting civilians. Instead, the US is complicit in genocide by rushing weapons and money to the far-right Israeli government, even bypassing Congress, so the slaughter can continue. 

Aid to those who are suffering genocide is conditional but arming the perpetrator of the genocide isn’t. This is amorality of the highest order. 

Here’s a thought experiment. Suppose Palestine had corralled 2.3 million Israeli Jews into Gaza, 70% of them refugees from the Holocaust, effectively imprisoning them and periodically bombing them into submission? Would the west have stood idly by? 

I’d like to think an independent Scotland would have the moral courage of Ireland to denounce western hypocrisy and its sanctioning of genocide. But remaining part of the failing UK, at a minimum, we are guilty by association.