The former Palestine Solidarity Campaign head is standing against Labour in this year’s general election – in protest against the party’s betrayal of the people of Gaza.

Kamel Hawwash, a Professor in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Birmingham, will challenge the current Shadow Veterans Minister, Steve McCabe, in Birmingham Selly Oak, which has a significant Muslim population.

He is standing under the banner of Reliance, a ‘disruptor’ group that is fielding candidates across the country at the general election, but may not achieve electoral success as it is unlikely to attract attention from the right-wing media, which have vested interests in keeping the Conservatives and Labour in Parliament.

Labour haemorrhaged Muslim voters in the local elections earlier this month (May 2024) over its support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. McCabe is the chairman of Labour Friends of Israel.

Professor Hawwash, a British Palestinian, quit Labour in October last year (2023) after party leader Keir Starmer supported Israel’s illegal ‘collective punishment’ policy of withholding food and water from civilians in the Gaza Strip.

At the time, he accused the Labour leader of having “blind support for Israel whatever it does” and “throwing Palestinians under a bus”.

Launching his Parliamentary campaign, he said:

“Keir Starmer’s comments condoning Israel’s collective punishment of Gazans were beyond the pale. His unequivocal support for Netanyahu in the months since – which has seen more than 35,000 Gazans murdered – 70 per cent of which are women and children – has been horrifying to witness and he must be held accountable.

“Starmer continues to ignore the daily atrocities and puff his chest out as a proud Zionist.”

On McCabe, a veteran MP who has held Selly Oak since 2010 and was previously MP for Birmingham Hall Green, he said:

“Steve McCabe has repeatedly failed to stand up for the views of his constituents over the past two decades, from voting for the illegal war in Iraq, to abstaining on the welfare bill, to now speaking out unwaveringly for a pariah state committing daily atrocities. He has repeatedly refused to meet constituents to address their concerns on these issues.”

McCabe told The Independent he had “never heard” of Prof Hawwash. Doesn’t it seem odd that the chair of a national political party’s Friends of Israel organisation says he’s never heard of a man who used to lead a national campaign supporting the people of Palestine? I think it’s odd.

He also said he “would not represent the views of those who want to see the eradication of the state of Israel” – which one might expect from a Friend of Israel. But then, nobody else seems to have mentioned such an ambition, so it is odd that he brought it up.

This Writer wonders whether it is time for McCabe to be retired. If, as chair of LFI, he doesn’t recognise the former leader of a pro-Palestine group and misrepresents the ambitions of pro-Palestine campaigners, then he seems confused. An MP should have a strong grip on reality.

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