Israel has detained and deported two British MPs, in what is now becoming a routine. But far from returning the favour, the British government continues to be one of Israel’s most loyal international allies, allowing genocide-inciters and war criminals to walk freely in Britain.
Israel detains two British MPs – covering up its crimes AGAIN
The two Labour MPs are doctors, and had planned to observe the healthcare situation in the occupied West Bank of Palestine. Israeli occupation forces stopped them from entering and detained them before deporting them to Jordan. Israel had previously detained and deported two different Labour MPs back in April.
Israel’s hostility to Labour MPs comes in spite of the strong influence the pro-Israel lobby has in Keir Starmer’s government. Despite overwhelming global consensus, Starmer has been a consistent genocide-denier.
And the MPs Israel targeted most recently, Peter Prinsley and Simon Opher, are hardly radicals. Opher continues to praise Starmer, and Prinsley has happily linked up with pro-Israel lobby groups. But Opher in particular has expressed concern about Israel’s crimes. And following his deportation, he said it was ethically unsound for the government to keep supporting the apartheid state:
‘Supporting a regime that’s doing this sort of stuff is just not ethically sound’
Stroud Labour MP Dr Simon Opher was one of two MPs denied entry to Israel while attempting to visit health workers in West Bank
He says the government should go further, ban all arms trade with… pic.twitter.com/1QMRURnHwc
— ITV News West Country (@itvwestcountry) September 17, 2025
Sources in the West Bank have said healthcare is “on the verge of collapse” there, Opher said after his recent deportation. And Israel is clearly “very sensitive” about that, suggesting it wants to hide that situation from the world:
“You have to wonder why they stopped us going in. The only conclusion I can come to is they’re not proud of what’s happening to healthcare in the West Bank.”
Labour MP Simon Opher was barred from Israel for trying to witness the plight of Palestinian healthcare workers. pic.twitter.com/KR8cxLY5pC
— PoliticsJOE (@PoliticsJOE_UK) September 17, 2025
When Israel has allowed British MPs to enter the West Bank in recent months, it has only served to expose the worsening humanitarian crisis Israel is engineering in the occupied Palestinian territory as the world’s attention focuses on the genocide in Gaza. So it’s unsurprising that Israel wants to limit scrutiny of its crimes as much as possible.
Britain enabling the darkness of occupation
Allowing foreign delegations to observe the occupation has long been part of Israel’s attempt to portray itself as a democracy. But in reality, it’s an ethnocracy – an apartheid state that privileges one group of people over another. And that’s all too apparent when you look not just at Israel but at the territories it has occupied illegally since at least 1967. If Israel wants the world to see it as a democracy, it either has to end its longstanding occupation of Palestine, or give everyone under its rule equal rights – neither of which seems likely.
Britain’s leaders, meanwhile, allow this barbarism to continue. While Israel prevents British MPs from observing its crimes, the UK government allows Israeli criminals to come and go freely. This is because Britain is not free. It’s a junior partner to US imperialism, which is the enforcer of a global billionaire class. And Israel’s brutal occupation is very much part of that system’s interests. But with every massacre and cover-up, the mask is slipping, and the world is increasingly seeing this corrupt system for what it is.
Featured image via the Canary
