Does Pro-Israel Lobby in Britain Really Dominate Labour Party?

Since the ouster of left-wing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was accused of tolerating rampant anti-Semitism within the party, support for “Israel” and the approval of the pro-Israel lobbying groups have become a measure of differentiation for the contenders for the leadership of the UK Labour Party.

Currently, the Labour Party and its leader, Keir Starmer, are trying to repair the party’s relationship with the voting bloc that is angry with the party’s position on Israel’s war on Gaza, and with the support shown by the party’s leadership for the Israeli government, by stipulating in the party’s electoral program the recognition of the State of Palestine.

Reading the paragraph on the party’s position on the Palestinian cause, it appears that there is a manipulation of words, in an attempt to please supporters of Palestine, and at the same time not to anger the Israeli lobbying groups in Britain, which made reactions mixed about the Labour Party’s commitment to recognizing the State of Palestine.

The party pledges to recognize the State of Palestine in coordination with international partners, and through a path of negotiations that leads to a two-state solution and peace, in addition to seeking to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza, release detainees, and work toward a ceasefire.

This commitment is considered, according to observers, a retreat from the commitment that the Labour Party had previously made during the era of its former leader Jeremy Corbyn, who promised to immediately recognize the State of Palestine if the Labour Party won the 2019 elections.

'Israel' Lobby

The British investigative website Declassified UK recently revealed that the Israeli lobbying groups have donated to 13 out of Labour’s 25 cabinet members since they were first elected to parliament.

The list of recipients includes Prime Minister Keir Starmer, his deputy Angela Rayner, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Foreign Secretary David Lammy, and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.

In addition to Jonathan Reynolds, who will oversee arms exports to Israel as UK Trade Secretary, and Labour’s election mastermind Pat McFadden, who is now in charge of national security.

Some of the donations were provided by Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), one of the largest lobbying forces in British politics, and it boasts approximately 75 MPs as supporters or officers.

Major funders of LFI include pro-Israel businessmen such as Gary Lubner, Trevor Chinn, and Stuart Roden, whose donations to MPs have totaled more than £600,000.

LFI does not disclose its funders but was revealed during an undercover Al Jazeera documentary in 2017 to have close relations with the Israeli embassy in London.

The organization’s parliamentary officer, Michael Rubin, was secretly filmed saying LFI and the Israeli embassy work really closely together, but a lot of it is behind the scenes.

Joan Ryan, a former Labour MP and LFI chair, was also filmed discussing a potential £1m payment with an Israeli embassy official.

Seven members of Starmer's secretary have accepted LFI funding to visit Israel, including Reeves, Lammy, and Health Secretary Wes Streeting.

Last June, Declassified UK website revealed in a report that about 180 out of 650 British MPs, in the last Parliament, had accepted funding from pro-Israel lobbying groups during their political careers.

The report indicated that this number includes 130 Conservative MPs, 41 Labour MPs, three Liberal Democrats, three members of the DUP, two independents, and Reform’s lone MP.

The total value, according to the website, of donations made by pro-Israel groups and individuals and Israeli state institutions amounts to more than £1 million.

British politicians also made more than 240 paid trips to “Israel”, at a cost of more than £500,000, and some of these trips included visits to the occupied Palestinian territories.

Remarkably, according to Declassified, 15 MPs have accepted funding to travel to “Israel” amid the genocide in Gaza.

It is worth noting that LFI has funded trips to Israel for 32 of Labour's current MPs since their initial election, providing over £64,000 for these visits.

Israeli Donations

According to the Middle East Eye website, the European Leadership Network, which aims to strengthen links between Europe and “Israel”, funded the visit of both Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Bridget Phillipson, who has now been appointed as Education Secretary.

American billionaire Bernie Marcus is considered one of the supporters of the European Leadership Network, a supporter of Donald Trump and a founder of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

In the same context, Declassified UK revealed that nine of Starmer's prominent team had accepted funding from pro-Israel businessmen.

One of the key donors is Trevor Chinn, a British multi-millionaire who has spent decades working in the motor industry, chairing such organizations as the AA, the RAC, and Kwikfit.

Since the 1980s, he has funded LFI and Conservative Friends of Israel.

Chinn’s father, Rosser Chinn, was the president of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in Britain. 

The JNF is a quasi-governmental organization which has supported illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine and was described by historian Ilan Pappe as a colonialist agency of ethnic cleansing.

Chinn gave £50,000 to Starmer's campaign to become Labour leader in 2020.

He donated to Reeves, Rayner, Lammy, Streeting, Phillipson, and Lisa Nandy, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall, Environment Secretary Steve Reed, the former chair of Labour Friends of Palestine, and now Culture Secretary.

The total value of these donations from Chinn is over £180,000.

Gary Lubner, a new major donor to the Labour Party, is a pro-Israel businessman whose company benefited from South African apartheid.

Lubner has given around £6 million to the Labour party since Starmer became leader, including £900,000 towards its election war chest. 

Some £350,000 of Lubner’s donations were directed to the offices of Lammy, Reeves, and Cooper.

A third pro-Israel tycoon, former hedge fund manager Stuart Roden, has donated over £1 million to Labour since 2023, with £80,000 supporting the office costs of Phillipson and Nandy.

Other donors to Labour MPs include David Menton, a former director of the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM), and Red Capital, a private company owned by former LFI chairman Jonathan Mendelsohn.

Official Ideology

Keir Starmer does not hide his support for Israel, saying during his first campaign to win the party leadership in 2020 that “I understand, sympathise and support Zionism.”

In contrast, Starmer refuses to express any explicit position regarding the rights of the Palestinian people. Rather, he refused to receive a petition from representatives of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) that included an affirmation of the Palestinian right of return.

He also previously pledged to adopt all the demands of the Jewish Representatives Group in Britain, the sole representative of the Jewish communities in the country, and among these demands are allowing independent investigations into charges of anti-Semitism and the direct expulsion from the party of anyone suspected of being anti-Semitic.

In recognition of his positions, Starmer gained the trust and funding of the Israeli lobby in Britain.

Subsequently, a number of wealthy supporters of Israel launched campaigns to raise thousands of dollars to enable Starmer to win the leadership of the Labour Party.

Immediately after winning the leadership of the party, Starmer took the initiative to offer an official apology to the Jewish communities that were harmed by anti-Semitic behavior within the party, as he put it, pledging to eliminate this phenomenon, which he described as poison.

In 2020, Starmer rebuked Stephen Kinnock, a Labour MP, for criticizing Israel over illegal settlements.

In 2021, Starmer declared that anti-Zionism, Israel's official ideology, is a form of anti-Semitism, which effectively means attaching this charge to the largest human rights organizations in the West, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

In a speech at its annual luncheon in November 2021, Starmer repeated his racist and colonialist statements that “Israel's social democrats made the desert bloom.”

Last year, the Labour leader forced MP Kim Johnson to apologize, after she suggested a fascist Israeli government had been elected in December 2023.

Starmer's office described Kim Johnson's comments as completely unacceptable and insisted that she withdraw them.

The MP said in her apology: “The use of the term fascism was particularly insensitive if we take into account the history of the State of Israel.”

Starmer's reaction to Johnson's use of the term fascist is just part of a pattern of behavior he has continued since he was elected Labour leader, designed to deflect any criticism of Israel and stifle any solidarity with the Palestinians.

In October 2023, Starmer said that LFI was an invaluable source of energy and ideas for me and my team.

Not only did Starmer support Israel's brutal bombing on Gaza by repeatedly saying that “Israel has the right to defend itself,” but he also mentioned on LBC Radio that “Israel had the right to cut off electricity and water to Gaza" and voted against an immediate ceasefire.

Starmer also banned elected representatives from attending pro-Palestinian rallies and refused to meet any Palestinian delegation during his four years as opposition leader.

Instead, he resorted to asking Tony Blair's opinion on how to deal with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.