London mayor Gaza ceasefire call sparks criticism

Sadiq Khan has become the most high profile figure to back calls for a ceasefire in fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, in an intervention that sparked criticism from within the Jewish community.

In a video posted online on Friday, the London mayor said: “I join the international community in calling for a ceasefire. It would stop the killing and would allow vital aid supplies to reach those who need it in Gaza.

“It would also allow the international community more time to prevent a protracted conflict in the region and further devastating loss of life.

“A widespread military escalation will only deepen the humanitarian disaster. It will increase human suffering on all sides. No nation, including Israel, has the right to break international law,” he added.

In a fuller statement Khan then said he also backed Israel’s “right to defend itself” and its right to “take action to free the hostages.”

Khan’s intervention contrasted with the continued stance of Labour leader Keir Starmer who has joined prime minister Rishi Sunak and the Biden administration in America in calling for “humanitarian pauses” in fighting to ensure essential aid reaches Gaza, but also backing Israeli’s right to defend itself and retrieve hostages taken by Hamas.

One communal source responding to the London mayor’s statement told Jewish News:”This misguided intervention has done significant damage to Sadiq’s standing in the Jewish community. He should be supporting the consensus call for humanitarian pauses, not playing politics.”

Later the Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council released a statement in response to politicians calling for a ceasefire.

It said:””You cannot both believe that Israel has the right to defend itself against atrocities like this and also call for a ceasefire while Hamas says it will do the exact same thing again, and continues to hold over 200 hostages.”

Around 39 Labour MPs have also backed an early day motion tabled by Richard Burgon demanding an immediate ceasefire and an “end to the total siege of Gaza”, about one quarter of the party’s total number in parliament.

But Labour shadow environment secretary Steve Reed told Sky News on Friday that while the only long-term solution to the crisis was political, rather than military, Israel had the right to take action.

“What I would say to colleagues is if this attack that Israel suffered had been on the UK, if it had been on the US, our state, the United States and our state would have sought to defend ourselves to protect our citizens by dismantling the capability of a terrorist organisation that carried it out,’ he said.

“That applies to Israel too, they have the right under international law to do that.”

The Sunday Times journalist Gabriel Pogrund had been among those to question what the end game of those calling for a ceasefire in the region would look like.

Appearing as a panelist on BBC Question Time, the journalist said:”Anybody who talks about a ceasefire has to state, in detail, what the diplomatic solution looks like”.

The former Labour MP, Ian Austin, now an independent peer, was more direct in his criticism of the London mayor’s stance on Friday writing on X, formerly Twitter;”Sadiq Khan can’t stop kids killing each other on the streets of London, yet thinks he can provide useful advice on the most complicated and difficult conflict in the world.”

Some senior Labour figures have been offered extra security after reports said they had received threats over their failure to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.