Burnham said the UK should consider further sanctions against Israeli settlers, criticising the Labour Party's approach to the genocide taking place in the Gaza Strip.<\/b><\/p>\n
Written by: The Middle East Eye<\/i> his\/her staff<\/b><\/p>\n
Andy Burnham has apologised for the Labour government's response to Israel's genocide in Gaza, saying his party "did not handle the situation well" and must do more, signaling a possible shift in the UK's stance on Israel as he prepares to move into Downing Street.<\/p>\n
\u201eI know many people feel that my party did not handle the situation well at the beginning of Israel\u2019s military action in Gaza, and for that I apologize. The response has too often not been good enough. We must do better,\u201d Burnham said.<\/p>\n
Burnham called the \u201eunbearable suffering\u201d in Gaza a \u201ewound on our collective conscience.\u201d He criticized Israel\u2019s continued territorial expansion in Gaza, adding, \u201eWe must do more to put pressure on the Israeli government.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burnham praised Keir Starmer\u2019s government for recognizing Palestine, imposing sanctions on far-right Israeli ministers, and banning the flow of \u201eBritish bombs and bullets\u201d to Israel. \u201eWe have taken some important steps,\u201d he said. \u201eBut let\u2019s be honest: the UK was too slow to demand a ceasefire. Now we need to do more to strengthen our approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201eIsrael continues to violate the ceasefire agreement. Settler violence is increasing in the West Bank and East Jerusalem,\u201d he said. \u201eThe Netanyahu government is clearly trying to make the two-state solution impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burnham has pledged to look into the possibility of further sanctions against Israeli settlers and a ban on trade with Israeli settlements. Burnham's statement is under close scrutiny as he is expected to become the UK's prime minister next month.<\/p>\n
Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester, returned to parliament last month in a by-election in Makerfield. MPs are due to meet this month to nominate their next leader.<\/p>\n
Burnham's statement also carefully condemned the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, as well as anti-Semitic attacks in the UK. While his criticism of Israel is a departure from Starmer's previous rhetoric, it is unlikely to satisfy British pro-Palestinian voices and those angered by the UK's close ties with Israel.<\/p>\n
Burnham, for example, refused to take a position on whether Israel committed genocide in Gaza. The United Nations, as well as numerous rights groups and human rights experts, have recognized Israel's war in the strip, which has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, as genocide.<\/p>\n
\u201eThere is growing evidence that war crimes may have been committed,\u201d Burnham said, but added that he believed \u201eit is for international courts to decide, not politicians.\u201d.<\/p>\n
In November 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on suspicion of crimes against humanity committed in Gaza.<\/p>\n
A Middle East Eye<\/i> In June 2025, it was revealed that former British Foreign Secretary David Cameron had privately threatened Karim Khan, the British chief prosecutor of the ICC, in April 2024: if he issued arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, the court's funding would be withdrawn and the United Kingdom would withdraw from the ICC.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Burnham szerint az Egyes\u00fclt Kir\u00e1lys\u00e1gnak tov\u00e1bbi szankci\u00f3kat kellene fontol\u00f3ra vennie az izraeli telepesekkel szemben, b\u00edr\u00e1lva a Munk\u00e1sp\u00e1rt hozz\u00e1\u00e1ll\u00e1s\u00e1t a G\u00e1zai \u00f6vezetben zajl\u00f3 n\u00e9pirt\u00e1shoz. \u00cdrta: A Middle East Eye st\u00e1bja Andy Burnham bocs\u00e1natot k\u00e9rt a Munk\u00e1sp\u00e1rt korm\u00e1nya \u00e1ltal az Izrael \u00e1ltal G\u00e1z\u00e1ban elk\u00f6vetett n\u00e9pirt\u00e1sra adott v\u00e1lasz\u00e9rt. Kijelentette: p\u00e1rtja \u201enem j\u00f3l kezelte a helyzetet\u201d, \u00e9s mostant\u00f3l t\u00f6bbet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAowjNHLDA:productID":"","rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"wpai_generated_summary":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}