Keir Starmer to rule over Gaza?

DECLASSIFIED UK, 16 Jan 26

This week, it was revealed that UK prime minister Keir Starmer has been offered a place on Donald Trump’s Gaza “Board of Peace”, and he looks poised to accept the offer.

Last November, the UN Security Council (UNSC) voted in favour of establishing the board as a “transitional authority” to oversee Gaza reconstruction as well as the deployment of an International Stabilisation Force, with a mandate lasting until the end of 2027.

This allowed Trump to drive a bulldozer through any “Uniting for Peace” proposal at the UN General Assembly (UNGA), which authorises that body to take over from the UNSC in its role of maintaining international peace and security.

The actions of the UNGA become particularly important when the UNSC is deadlocked due to vetoes used by the major powers. The US government, for instance, has continually vetoed resolutions calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

By September, the “Uniting for Peace” mechanism had been backed by 45 UN human rights experts including special rapporteurs, independent experts, and working group members.

They urged the UNGA to recommend six proposals, including establishing a peace force, opening all crossings into Gaza, and deploying humanitarian naval missions.

The initiative also had the support of international leaders such as Colombian president Gustavo Petro, and had a chance of passing the two-thirds voting threshold at the UNGA.

But the effort was stymied by Trump’s “Board of Peace”, which effectively puts the genocidaires in charge of planning for the day after the genocide.

“I assume that the US, at Israel’s urging, was very unhappy about the prospect of Uniting for Peace”, international law expert Richard Falk told the Electronic Intifada.

“It’s a very strange context in which the perpetrator of genocide and its principal supporter are rewarded by presiding over a supposed peace process”, he added.

The same could now be said for Starmer, a man who continued to provide intelligence support and sell arms to Israel amid the genocide, while welcoming Israeli soldiers to train on UK soil.

On Tuesday, foreign secretary Yvette Cooper responded to the reports that Starmer was due to join the board, and showed little signs that the prime minister would reject the offer.

“We supported the 20-point plan to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza”, Cooper said. “That is still fragile and there’s still a huge amount of work to do, including humanitarian surge and support, and including the decommissioning of weapons from Hamas”.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign responded to these developments, saying: “This would amount to a grotesque new low for Starmer, once again deepening his complicity in the denial of Palestinian rights”.

The group added: “Trump’s board is not about achieving lasting peace or justice. It’s about entrenching Israel’s colonisation, fragmentation and occupation of Palestinian land”.