As the Zionist colonial entity’s genocide in Gaza shows no sign of relenting, British parliamentarian Jeremy Corbyn’s inconsistencies and evasions too show no sign of diminishing. As Labour Party leader between 2015-2020, Corbyn rarely mentioned the Palestinian cause against Zionist occupation and colonisation. On one of the rare occasions, he spoke about Palestine (in November 2017) to commemorate the centenary of the British Empire issuing the Balfour Declaration, which pledged “a Jewish national home” to the European Zionist colonial movement, he bemoaned that one side of the King George V’s Declaration remains unfulfilled! In other words he didn’t condemn the colonial declaration. Instead, he de facto endorsed it and proclaimed that its shortcoming was that the indigenous Palestinians, unlike the Zionist colonial-settlers, don’t have a country as of yet. In 1917, the Jewish population of Palestine was between 60-80 thousand, as opposed to at least 700,000 Palestinians. There and then, on the hundred year anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the genteel Corbyn outrageously insulted the Palestinian anti-colonial struggle by virtue of endorsing the very imperialist death warrant which underpins the Palestinian tragedy.
During the recent commemoration of the 76th anniversary of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, the Nakba, Corbyn once again took the opportunity to showcase his inconsistency and evasion on the greatest issue of the day on three occasions. Firstly, on the 15th May he posted on the social media website, X that
“Today marks the anniversary of the Nakba, when 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes. The Nakba didn’t end in 1948. It is an ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing, violence and occupation.”
The root cause of the Palestinian expulsion derives from the document that he endorsed while leader of the Labour Party, that is the Balfour Declaration. It is a contradiction to, with one side of your mouth endorse the Balfour Declaration and with the other side condemn the ugly fruits of the declaration that is the ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians by the end of 1948. Between 1917 and 1948, the embryonic Zionist colonial-settler entity was nurtured into existence by Britain. More so, what he fails to say is that most of the ethnically cleansing was done while Britain was still the nominal ruler of Palestine. That is by the 15th May 1948, 400,000 Palestinians had already been ethnic cleansed under Imperial Britain’s watch. To be fair to Corbyn, this cruel obliviousness to British Empire’s imperialist crimes is a standard unspoken protocol on the British left-activist scene. Britain’s anti-imperialist or anti-colonialist are keen on highlighting the imperial crimes of other white supremacist Empire’s but are frankly loath to even comment on how the British Empire has contributed to a contemporary geopolitical dilemma, especially in Palestine. For example, when Palestinian historian, Professor Rashid Khalidi informs us that the current genocidal strategy employed by the Zionists in Gaza, ie “mowing the lawn”, was introduced and taught to Zionist colonial-settlers by British imperialists you may as well as practice speaking gobbledegook with Dolphins in these activist circles.
Secondly, on the previous day he had issued a video recording titled “We are a Global Movement for Palestine” in which he correctly states that the Zionist aggression is a genocide because it is an “intention to destroy a people.” But once again, he makes no mention of the Balfour Declaration which laid the grounds for this intention. Winston Churchill was under no illusions about what the British government was doing in Palestine in the 1930s. During the British military crushing of the Palestinian ‘Arab Rebellion’ in the late 1930s he endorsed the future Palestinian genocide in the following terms:
“I do not admit that the dog in the manger has the final right to the manger, even though he may have lain there for a very long time…I do not admit, for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America, or the black people of Australia…I do not think the Red Indians had any right to say, ‘The American Continent belongs to us and we are not going to have any of these European settlers coming in here’. They had not the right, nor had they the power.”
In the same video recording, he attacks the current Britain’s Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron for continuing to supply “lethal weapons to Israel to continue the bombardment of Rafah. That is a disgrace.” Far from a disgrace it is merely the political inheritance of Imperial Britain’s implementation of the Balfour Declaration. The Declaration stated the British government will “use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement” of the Zionist colonial-settler entity in Palestine. As such, when the Palestinian resistance staged an armed operation on October 7th 2023, the British government promptly jumped to the assistance of its Zionist-settler colonial project in Palestine. According to Declassified journal the British government has flown 200 surveillance flights over Gaza in support of the genocide.
Thirdly, on the latest London demonstration on the 18th May to commemorate the Nakba, Corbyn bellowed the three main demands of the ‘global movement for Palestine’: a “ceasefire”; “stop the supply of weapons to Israel” and “justice for Palestinians”. How is one supposed to have justice for the Palestinians without first and foremost condemning the Balfour Declaration and its attendant Zionist colonal-settlerism? To be to fair to Corbyn, unlike the disappointing Senator Bernie Sanders in the United States, he has consistently called for a ceasefire since October 2023. The ceasefire would have saved tens of thousands of lives and stopped the deliberate civil destruction of Gaza. But at the same time a ceasefire also means kicking the ball down the lane for a few years until there is another flare up of resistance to colonisation. The latter is also the position of American Presidential candidate, Dr Jill Stein who argues that a “ceasefire by itself won’t hold, it doesn’t address the problem, it will keep coming up. We have to address the fundamental crisis from the beginning of the state of Zionist Israel.”
As a British parliamentarian with an official loyalty to King Charles III it’s understandable Corbyn has a continued loyalty to Britain’s imperialist blood soaked historical record in Palestine. At the same time he clearly has a desire to posture with those on the right side of history, such as American students who are protesting for an end to the genocide and the decolonisation of the Zionist colonial-setter entity. Yet one can safely argue American students and millions of others are not sacrificing their futures for a prim and proper implementation of King George V’s imperialist colonial document – the Balfour Declaration.
Zionism is colonial-settler project which will always be colonially hostile to the indigenous population of Palestine. Corbyn’s position of a boot in both camps with one boot soaked in blood of the imperial Balfour Declaration and its attendant Zionist colonial-settlerism, while the other boot calling for peace for the indigenous population is inconsistent, illogical and untenable. He needs to begin to call for the complete dismantling and decolonisation of the British authored, Zionist colonial-settler project in Palestine.
Churchill's Colonial Karma 