Op-Ed by the NJA’s Managing Director, Steve Winston, published in the Jewish Weekly’s 31st July 2025 edition
On 21st July 2025, the UK government published a joint statement, signed by the UK and 30 international partners, on the situation in the so-called “Occupied Palestinian Territories” – a document so steeped in moral confusion and strategic short-sightedness that it may as well have been drafted in Doha, not Whitehall.
Alongside 16 other Western governments, Britain has joined a diplomatic chorus that condemns the only democracy in the region trying to defeat a genocidal enemy, while letting that enemy, Hamas, off the hook. This is not diplomacy. It is appeasement dressed up in the language of humanitarian concern.
Israel is fighting for its very survival against a terrorist group that butchered 1,200 civilians on October 7th, kidnapped the elderly and infants, and has promised to do it again. And yet, this joint statement threatens “further action” – not against Hamas, but against Israel, the nation trying to stop it? The moral inversion is staggering.
What’s worse, this statement ignores Israel’s extraordinary humanitarian effort. Despite facing rockets and tunnel warfare, Israel has coordinated daily aid convoys, opened crossings under fire, and worked with international actors to deliver food and medicine. Israel and the United States even established the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) to bypass Hamas and corrupt UN agencies. It’s working, when Hamas doesn’t get in the way.
And make no mistake: Hamas is the problem. The terror group has looted aid, shelled convoys, hoarded supplies, and sold essentials on the black market. UN warehouses remain full while Gazans starve. But rather than calling this what it is – a weaponisation of suffering – the statement blames Israel. That’s not diplomacy. It’s propaganda.
Yes, there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. No one should deny that. But this crisis is not Israel’s doing. It is Hamas’s strategy. Western media, including the BBC, have played directly into their hands by publishing photos of malnourished children that are either unrelated to Gaza or depict congenital medical conditions. Some of these images have been lifted from past conflicts in Yemen or Syria. Such deceptions may stir sympathy, but they distort truth, and they feed a global narrative that falsely paints Israel as the aggressor, not the defender.
Meanwhile, the joint statement calls for an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire,” as if Hamas, which violated every previous ceasefire, including by launching October 7th, is a good-faith actor. Every truce to date has allowed Hamas to regroup and rearm. A ceasefire without the dismantling of Hamas is not peace. It’s postponement.
The claim that Israel’s relocation of civilians to safe zones constitutes “forced displacement” is equally absurd. Israel has built humanitarian corridors, designated safe areas, and made daily Arabic-language announcements to keep civilians away from combat zones. That’s not ethnic cleansing, that’s battlefield ethics. The war crimes are being committed by Hamas, which hides behind its own civilians and uses hospitals as command centres.
Then there’s the section on “settler violence.” Where is the outrage over the wave of Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians in Judea and Samaria? Where is the mention of EU-funded illegal building in Area C, in blatant violation of the Oslo Accords? This is not a balanced critique, it is a selective, one-sided rebuke.
The consequences are already playing out. The UK has suspended arms exports to Israel, stepped back from opposing ICC jurisdiction, and publicly chastised Israel multiple times – all while Hamas continues to fire rockets and hold hostages. If “further action” means capitulating to terror, we should call it what it is.
And let us not forget Qatar – the country hosting Hamas’s leadership in luxury hotels. To commend Doha’s “constructive role” while its capital remains a safe haven for genocidal leaders is not just naïve; it’s disgraceful.
Israel will protect its people, with or without Western approval. The Jewish state rose from the ashes of genocide. It will not return to powerlessness. That era is over.
