Britain is letting Hamas weaponise international law

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. The Foreign Secretary’s latest demands of Israel reveal a concerning detachment from reality. The UK’s most recent posturing in this tragic state of affairs encourages the terrorists and is ultimately costing more lives. 

There is no excuse for so consistently misrepresenting the humanitarian situation, when the facts on the provision of aid are so easily accessible.

The allegation that Israel is stopping food from entering is false. The sole purpose of the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) IDF unit is to organise humanitarian provision for Palestinian civilians; it provides constant updates on aid entering Gaza. The IDF’s capacity to inspect aid trucks far exceeds current international provision.

The Nitzana and Kerem Shalom crossings have capacity to inspect 44 trucks an hour, yet on March 21 only 208 aid trucks entered Gaza and, of these, only 71 per cent were distributed by the UN. Yesterday, COGAT confirmed that 142 aid trucks were still waiting to be picked up by the UN on the Gazan side of Kerem Shalom.

The repeated calls for Israel to “turn the water back on” are also dishonest, as Israel is not withholding water. When the facts are so readily available, those perpetuating these falsehoods are partaking in a malicious smear campaign.

The failure to call out Hamas for stealing humanitarian aid, and acknowledge that the impasse lies with distribution rather than with access, plays into the terrorists’ hands. The failure of Lord Cameron to call upon Egypt to comply with its international law obligations is also unforgivable. Unlike Israel, Egypt acceded in 1980 to the 1969 African Union Refugee Convention, which requires it to use its “best endeavours” to receive refugees fleeing “civil disorder”. 

The Convention contains a much broader definition of refugee than the 1951 International Convention on Refugees. Egypt has an obligation to every Palestinian civilian presenting themselves on the Egyptian border. They can be accommodated in Egyptian Rafah, where aid can be provided without diversion to Hamas. Egypt’s failure to adhere to its obligations under the Convention is the real breach of international law. 

The UK has not only let down Palestinian civilians with its absurd posturing. It continues to fail the 134 Israeli hostages, who have been in Hamas captivity for 169 days. Has Lord Cameron demanded that the International Committee of the Red Cross comply with its mandate? Has he insisted that it access the Israeli hostages? Has he called out the refusal of the Red Cross to provide much-needed medicine to those held captive by Hamas? No. 

He has, however, demanded that the Red Cross be admitted to visit terrorist detainees, including those who committed atrocities on October 7. This demand has no basis in international law, as Hamas terrorists are neither prisoners of war nor civilian internees. Having engaged in armed conflict in violation of the laws of war, they are not protected by the Geneva Conventions and there is therefore no mandated access to terrorists in detention. 

This duplicity on the part of Lord Cameron employs a double standard and an inversion of reality at a time when hatred of Jews is on an exponential rise. Tarnishing Israel with the stigma of being a human rights offender when the opposite is true is a malevolent attempt at character assassination. The Foreign Secretary’s echoing of Hamas propaganda perpetuates the war by encouraging Hamas to keep fighting in the hope that mounting international pressure will hand the terrorists a victory. 

Jews all around the world marked Purim at the weekend, commemorating the saving of the Jewish people from annihilation at the hands of an Achaemenid official, Haman. They will no doubt reflect on the modern complicity of international officials in Hamas’ continued attempt to annihilate the Jews.

Natasha Hausdorff is a barrister and legal director at UK Lawyers for Israel Charitable Trust