Clarifying remarks made about Israel

Of course, I have never suggested that Israel was “the greatest single cause of the climate crisis”. Wherever did Jonathan Freedland get such an idea from (The sacking of Long-Bailey shows that, at last, Labour is serious about antisemitism, 26 June)? Scraping through my memory, I now think I can see where this suggestion comes from.

Some years ago I had links with an organisation that commissioned a legal opinion that found that the EU was in breach of the provisions of its trade treaty with Israel. The treaty lays down that both parties must respect international norms and human rights. It provides a procedure to be invoked if either side breaches the treaty. Clearly Israel is in grave breach of international law, as was laid down in the international court of justice advisory opinion of 2004. These breaches are continuing as are frequent violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

I attended a meeting in Brussels with European parliamentarians with whom we shared the legal opinion, in order to try to build up pressure for use of the trade treaty to hold Israel to international law. I presume that on that occasion I made arguments, that I often make, that facing the catastrophic challenge of climate change, we need the multilateral system to work and not to be undermined.

Israel should be held to account for its constant cruelties and breaches of international law. It is the EU, the UK, the US and many others who are failing to hold Israel to account and are therefore further undermining the multilateral system.

Antisemitism is a great evil that has inflicted endless suffering and culminated in one of the greatest crimes in human history. False claims of antisemitism to prevent Israel being held to account, as should any nation, are a misuse of the seriousness of the real history of antisemitism.
Clare Short
London