Two British Labour parliamentarians, Abtisam Mohamed and Yuan Yang, were barred from entering Israel on Saturday. They’ve been labelled as “anti-Israel” because they have called for boycotts related to Israel. Yuan Yang MP has specifically called for sanctions against two far right ministers, Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. Abtisam Mohamed MP has supported the boycott of goods from Israeli settlements.
It’s worth noting that hundreds of Israelis living in the UK, and hundreds of British Jews, have called for sanctions against these two Israeli ministers – ministers who, in addition to calling for the resettlement of the Gaza strip, have boasted their success in preventing a hostage deal. If the basis for banning entry is the calling for sanctions on Ben Gvir and Smotrich, the Israeli government will need to also ban the entry of leaders of British Jewish youth movements and Jewish students active in their Jewish societies on campus for doing the same.
Further, calling for a ban of entry of settlement goods is not an uncommon stance – it’s a policy which many parliamentarians cross party have called for – including those that today sit in the cabinet. It is the official policy of one of our three major parties in the UK. The Occupied Palestinian Territories are not Israel, and it is a policy which distinguishes between Israel proper and the occupation.
As always, critics have made this a debate of two sides where you must either support Israel or Hamas, and some have suggested that not supporting the entry ban is akin to supporting Hamas rather than Israel. Calling for sanctions on extremist Israeli ministers or calling for an entry ban on goods made in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories has nothing to do with supporting Hamas. Suggesting it is, it is an attempt to smear criticism of the occupation and extremist anti-democratic and pro settlement government ministers as illegitimate and anti-Israel.
Free speech is a cornerstone of democracy. The decision to ban the entry of these two MPs is yet another step the Israeli government is taking in shutting down free speech and criticism of Israel from within and from abroad.
This comes at a time when hundreds of thousands of Israelis are protesting their own government and the anti-democratic measures it continues to push forward and when most hostage families have called for an end to the war and criticised the government.
Supporting Israel does not mean supporting every decision its government makes. In fact, by doing so, one would be shutting down the voices of many if not most Israelis – 70% of whom do not support the current government and its decision to continue the war.