Netanyahu’s war crimes in Gaza are carried out with US complicity. Dragan Plavšić argues this is an important reason to demonstrate against him on 17 September

Trump’s unprecedented second state visit to the UK later this month will see the British establishment at its most servile and sycophantic. Desperate to cling to a ‘special relationship’ that’s long been nothing special, it’s dusting off the pomp and pageantry to flatter a president viewed negatively by 80% of Britons. Trump’s unflinching support for Israel also adds to the woes of a Starmer government much under fire for its own complicity on Gaza.

Key here has been the relentless pressure it’s been under from the Palestine solidarity movement, including thirty national demonstrations – and counting. In July, this pressure told. Starmer announced that unless Israel agreed a ceasefire, ended West Bank annexations and committed to a two-state solution, the UK would recognise Palestine in September.

None of this means Starmer and company have suddenly come to their moral senses. After all, they continue to prosecute leading figures of the Palestine movement. They continue to impose restrictions on demonstrations. And they continue to proscribe Palestine Action for terrorism, with hundreds arrested for defying an absurdly authoritarian decree.

As for recognition, it will be a mere diplomatic fig leaf for deflecting criticism unless matched by decisive action. So the critical questions remain. Will the Starmer government impose an arms embargo on Israel? Will it stop sharing intelligence? Will it stop training IDF troops? Will it impose economic sanctions?

These questions are more urgent than ever. Trump dismissed UK recognition as ‘rewarding Hamas’, while Netanyahu presses on with his Gaza occupation plan, including the murderous seizure of Gaza City and the forcible transfer of Palestinians to concentration camps in the south. Meanwhile, his far-right finance minister Smotrich says the so-called E1 plan for building 3,400 settler homes in the West Bank will ‘bury the idea of a Palestinian state’.

Trump has said Netanyahu’s plan is ‘up to Israel’. Smotrich claims Trump agreed the E1 plan. All this points to unwavering US support for the genocidal logic of the mass ethnic cleansing Israel is seeking. The goal is to ‘solve’ the Palestinian question by terrorising the Palestinians out of Palestine, dispersing them across the Middle East, and extinguishing the very idea of a Palestinian nation, let alone a state. As Trump proposed in January: ‘You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing and say: “You know, it’s over”.’

The result for Washington – an ethnically homogeneous Israel no longer threatened from within by the liberation struggle of the Palestinians – will be a much fortified outpost of US power in the Middle East.

None of this will trouble the British establishment as it rolls out the red carpet for Trump. Starmer has no intention of jeopardising US-UK relations for the Palestinians. The business interests of the British state are his overriding concern.

This is why the Palestine movement has to keep up the pressure. Trump’s state visit is an opportunity for a massive protest against the genocide and the ruthless imperialists sustaining it.

Join the national demonstration against Trump’s state visit on 17 September, 2pm Portland Place, London.

From this month’s Counterfire freesheet