Middle East minister: ‘Our quarrel is with Netanyahu government – not Israelis, not Jews’

Middle East Minister Stephen Doughty has told a Labour Friends of Israel event at the Labour conference, that his party’s dispute is firmly with the Netanyahu government: “not with Israel, not with Israelis, and never with the Jewish people.”

At Tuesday evening’s reception, Doughty acknowledged that although LFI has opposed the Andy Burnham government’s sanctions on illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, there had been “honest, candid, constructive engagement” with the group.

As Jewish News exclusively revealed, Doughty was the most senior government representative present, with the entire cabinet absent and far fewer MPs in attendance than usual.

Doughty spoke of his own visits to Israel and stated that the government would not accept “the delegitimisation of Israel,” also expressing opposition to the BDS movement.

He reiterated: “I want to remind you all that our quarrel is with this Israeli government and the actions of its ministers, not with Israel, not with Israelis, and never with the Jewish people.”

Adrian Cohen, LFI’s lay-chair, told attendees: “We’re under very difficult and complex circumstances, and one of the things we’ve been doing at this conference is running the stand as well in the exhibition.

“And I have to say, actually, we’ve mostly had a good reception, and there’s a lot of solidarity.”

Mark Sewards MP, LFI’s parliamentary chair, delivered a speech that echoed the group’s core values, stating: “Friends, we have to face a very simple truth: we will never be able to confront and defeat anti-Jewish racism in this country until we challenge the demonisation and delegitimisation of the world’s only Jewish state and its people.”

He also referenced the upcoming anniversaries of “the third anniversary of the terrible events of October 7 2023, the Hamas-led pogrom, which precipitated the tragic conflict in Gaza” and “the first anniversary of the Heaton Park synagogue attack, a horrific event which still scars Jewish communities up and down the United Kingdom.”

The reception also heard from Matthew McGregor, the prime minister’s director of political strategy, who relayed Andy Burnham’s message that he had come “to express our solidarity with you.”

McGregor continued: “We stand against terrorism, and we stand for peace, and we stand with the community here, not just because it is our policy, and not just because in our actions we hope to express that solidarity, but because it is in our values.”

Attendees also heard a video message from Yair Golan, leader of the Democrats in Israel, and from Emily Moatti, who is 14th on the party’s candidate list.

Some senior Labour ministers explained their absence from the LFI event as a result of prior commitments elsewhere at the conference.

One junior minister even showed Jewish News proof of four other confirmed bookings on Tuesday evening, all arranged before the LFI invitation was received.

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, who spoke at a Labour Friends of Palestine event on Monday, had long been scheduled to leave Liverpool on Tuesday afternoon for a foreign office meeting.

However, other cabinet members who remained at the conference on Tuesday evening chose not to attend the LFI event.

Their absence was seen as a clear sign of a rift between the party and the organisation over Israel policy.