LONDON: British MPs berated UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer for hosting the Israeli president on Wednesday “while children starve” in Gaza.
Starmer met Isaac Herzog in London for talks despite dozens of politicians, including from his own party, questioning how he was allowed into the country.
During prime minister’s questions in parliament, the Scottish National Party’s Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, angrily condemned Starmer over the meeting.
“Gaza is a graveyard,” he said. “What does it say of this prime minister that he will harbor this man whilst children starve?”
The MP said that Starmer had welcomed into his home a man who “called for the collective punishment of the Palestinian people and who signed the artillery shells that destroyed their homes, their families and their friends.”
He said that Starmer was opting to meet Herzog rather than ending arms sales to Israel and extending sanctions against the country in response to its war that has killed tens of thousands of civilians.
The prime minister responded, saying that he “would not give up on diplomacy” in trying to bring peace to the region.
The British government has been accused of failing to take meaningful measures agains Israel for the war, which many academics, observers and governments describe as a genocide.
Starmer has threatened to recognize a Palestinian state if Israel does not comply with certain conditions over the conflict. The UK has also sanctioned extremist members of the Israeli government and suspended arms exports licenses for certain weapons used in Gaza.
However, there are widespread calls across the political spectrum for stronger action.
Sixty MPs and Lords called on the government to deny Herzog entry to the UK and said that his visit risked the government being complicit in genocide in Gaza, under a UN treaty.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski accused Herzog of being “complicit while the Israeli government has engaged in committing genocide in Gaza.”
He said that the Israeli president should be met with “handcuffs not handshakes” when he arrived for his meeting.
Herzog has previously said that there are “no innocent civilians in Gaza” and “it is an entire nation that is responsible.”
In December 2023, he signed an artillery shell with the words “I rely on you” before it was fired into Gaza as part of the war that started in October 2023.
