A SINN FÉIN MP has condemned British Prime Minster Keir Starmer for 'rolling out the red carpet' for Israeli president Isaac Herzog.
Chris Hazzard said Mr Starmer should instead be imposing sanctions on Israel, with the visit coming one day after it bombed Qatar in attacks it said were aimed at Hamas leaders.
When quizzed over the visit today, the Prime Minister said he would 'not walk away from a diplomatic solution'.
'Moral bankruptcy'
Speaking this morning, South Down MP Mr Hazzard described the three-day visit to Britain as effectively enabling genocide while giving diplomatic immunity to Israel.
"Bombs continue to rain down on Gaza, which is in the midst of a famine created by Israel’s criminal use of starvation as a weapon of war," he said.
"Just yesterday, Israel launched an attack on yet another sovereign country, Qatar, which is facilitating negotiations and working towards a ceasefire.
"That Keir Starmer thinks it appropriate to roll out the red carpet for the president of a terrorist state again highlights his moral bankruptcy.
"Isaac Herzog should not be welcomed with open arms by British ministers in Downing Street.
Sinn Féin MP Chris Hazzard accused Keir Starmer of 'moral bankruptcy' (Image: Sinn Féin)"Instead the British Government should stop talking out of both sides of its mouth, impose meaningful sanctions on Israel, demand an immediate ceasefire and end their complicity in this genocide.
"Israel is engaged in state terrorism. They are using every tactic at their disposal to wipe an entire people from existence, as the US and Britain continue to support it.
"In welcoming the President of a terrorist state, Starmer and the British Government are continuing to enable and give diplomatic cover to this genocide and allowing Israel to act with total impunity.
"It's time for world leaders to impose the strongest possible sanctions on the Israeli regime and, as is in their power, finally bring this genocide to an end."
'Gaza is a graveyard'
Mr Starmer has received criticism from other politicians for going ahead with today's meeting with Mr Herzog.
Newly-appointed Green Party leader, Zack Polanski, said yesterday that Mr Herzog should be arrested when he arrives in Britain for being part of the 'Israeli government engaged in an ongoing genocide'.
Meanwhile, the SNP's Stephen Flynn said during today's Prime Minister’s Questions that the visit was akin to welcoming Vladimir Putin to Downing Street.
"Gaza is a graveyard," said the Aberdeen South MP.
"Yet rather than end arms sales, extend sanctions and stand by international law, the Prime Minister will today welcome into his home — a home entrusted to him by the people of these isles — the man who called for the collective punishment of the Palestinian people and who signed the artillery shells that destroyed their homes, their families and their friends; a man who will ignore every word the Prime Minister says."
Mr Starmer suggested that not welcoming Mr Herzog and ending diplomatic relations was 'the politics of students'.
"We all want an outcome that ensures that there is peace, that the hostages get out, that aid gets in and that there is a two-state outcome,” he said.
"It is the only way we will get peace in a region that has suffered conflict for a very, very long time."
See More: Chris Hazzard, Sinn Féin
