Dear Prime Minister

We are writing to you to express our concerns about your response to Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians and its increasingly belligerent actions taking the region to the brink of a major war.

Yesterday, in your joint statement with the leaders of France and Germany and your call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, you urged Iran to refrain from retaliating for the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh.

The response highlights all that has been wrong in Britain’s stand on the genocide in Gaza and its fallout.

The violation of Iran’s sovereignty in carrying out the extra-judicial and extra-territorial assassination of Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran on 31 July, should have been met with international outrage and sanctions against Israel.

Instead, it has triggered a wave of demands on Iran, including your own, that they de-escalate from a conflict created by Israel in order to reach a peace agreement Israel clearly has no intentions of signing.

Such calls are an abnegation of responsibility and international law. They are a diabolical example of “blaming the victims” and western exceptionalism. You do not stop a bully by asking its victims to submit to him. You demand the bully stop his aggression.

It is Israel and Israel alone that is dragging the region to the brink of a bigger conflict, and it is Israel alone that must be reined in, through diplomacy, sanctions and by force if necessary.

By appeasing Israel, you are simply showing the Zionist state a green light to attack sovereign states with impunity. When it does, your knee-jerk response is to protect the aggressor and pressure the victim.

And while you talk about giving peace a chance, your government continues to provide diplomatic cover and military support to Israel to continue its pogrom against the Palestinians in Gaza.

Having failed to achieve its military objectives in Gaza and elsewhere in Palestine, it is evident that Israel is now trying to pull western powers into a wider regional war. Netanyahu craves a wider, zero-sum, war pitting the Muslim world against the West. You must stop him before it’s too late.

Since the genocide started last October, millions of Britons have marched on our streets to try and apply pressure on Britain and other governments to put a stop to it. However, that central demand, which is shared by the majority of the country and echoed by the International Court of Justice, has fallen on deaf ears. It is high time that our government stepped up to fulfil its international and moral responsibility and provide protection for the Palestinians instead of legitimising Israeli war crimes and asking the targets of Israel’s belligerence to be passive victims.

Yours faithfully

Massoud Shadjareh

Chair, IHRC