Just as the world felt the West was falling inexorably into the clutches of the far right, the ballot boxes in two of Europe’s most powerful countries handed the right one of the most stunning defeats it has experienced in years. For the British Conservative Party, indeed, this was the worst defeat in two centuries. One decisive factor in the campaigns was the moral awakening among large swathes of the Western public, triggered by Israel’s nine month-long campaign of genocide in Gaza. The widespread horror and outrage in response to the endless atrocities precipitated a deep and broadening gulf between the public and the right-wing governments whose unreserved political and military support for Israel made them complicit.
A telling sign of the divide that led to the defeat of the ruling party in Britain was the victory of Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of the Labour Party. Because of his support for Palestinian rights, a moral stance he has advocated since long before the current war in Gaza, he was subjected to a campaign of vilification. Naturally, he was accused of being “anti-Semitic,” the label hurled at everyone and everything these days, including our shoes, as the outspoken French leftist leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon aptly put it. After a vicious witch hunt, Corbyn was expelled from the Labour Party.
Sensing the profound shift in British public opinion after Israel launched its war on Gaza, Corbyn decided to run as an independent in Islington North, winning by a landslide. Voters in that northern London constituency would have been aware of his position since he actively participated in the massive solidarity demonstrations that have taken place across the UK since last year. In many interviews, he refused to label Hamas as a terrorist organisation, asserting that it is a resistance organisation exercising its internationally sanctioned right to fight a foreign occupation. Ironically, the same stance that led to his expulsion from Labour before the war ultimately contributed to his electoral victory, roundly defeating the candidate from his former party.
Such profound political repercussions of the Gaza genocide will continue.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 18 July, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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