By Vincent Fean, BPP Trustee and former Chair
10 Oct 2026
I was asked by Al Jazeera to write about the anniversary of the Hamas attack of 7 Oct 2023. I hesitated – 7 October is a day of mourning for the whole of humanity, especially Jews the world over. The enormity of that day and the sheer scale of human suffering which followed persuaded me to write. My article is below, with my thanks for permission to share it.
As UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, the Hamas-led attack did not happen in a vacuum. What preceded it was decades of Gaza siege and inexorable West Bank illegal settlement expansion by Israel. Those facts do not excuse the murder of civilians and the kidnap of hundreds of civilians on that 7 Oct. All human life is sacred, and all humans are created equal.
But the story of the three years since 7 Oct 2023 is the growing understanding around the world that life for Palestinians before 7 Oct was suffering under occupation and oppression – and after 7 Oct came genocide in Gaza and more state-sponsored ethnic cleansing through organised settler violence in the West Bank. That realisation moved ordinary people around the world to organise, to march, to protest – and to seek to change their governments’ policies towards Israel and Palestine.
The 6 and 7 October 2023
What was life like for Palestinians in occupied Palestine on 6 Oct 2023 ? Gaza had been under Israeli siege since 2007. Virtually no movement for Palestinians between Gaza and the West Bank, the two integral parts of occupied Palestine. A rigorous ban on access to Gaza for so-called « dual use » goods, including medical equipment to treat breast cancer and wood more than 2 or 3 cm. thick. More than half the adult population of Gaza unemployed. In the West Bank, Israeli state-sponsored expansion of settlements accelerating on the orders of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, and the Minister of Internal Security, Itamar Ben Gvir –two Jewish supremacists whom Netanyahu had brought from the fringes into mainstream Israeli politics, to ensure his own political survival.
What happened on 7 Oct shocked the world. Rightly, the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, flew to Tel Aviv to express support for Israel. He was not alone – a host of Western leaders came to stand by Israel against attack. Three years on, that world support evaporated long ago, to be replaced by global condemnation of genocide in Gaza and rampant settler violence and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians – Muslim and Christian – in East Jerusalem and across the West Bank.
Bearing witness to genocide
How did this change come about ? The truth came out – on social media from Gaza, by live reporting from brave Palestinian journalists, by photographic evidence of the systematic destruction of universities, schools, hospitals, homes and essential infrastructure. Palestinian doctors told the truth to camera, and were kidnapped or killed for telling that truth. Some are still imprisoned in terrible conditions, like Dr Hussam Abu Safiya ; some are missing.
All this had a heavy cumulative effect on world public opinion. In Britain, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets week after week in peace marches, pressing the British Government – first Conservative, then Labour – to do more to stop the genocide. Government inertia was confronted by grass-roots anger in London, Washington, Paris, Rome, Madrid… People recognised injustice and brutality when they saw them on their TV screens and mobile phones.
Here, without flattery, I should pay tribute to al-Jazeera. The main United Kingdom TV channels – BBC, ITV, Sky – devoted only a fraction of their news coverage to this ongoing humanitarian and political tragedy. Al Jazeera became the go-to channel for informed, systematic coverage.
Public opinion forcing policy change
Fast forward to today : the British Government has at last caught up with the heartfelt views of so many British citizens. The British Foreign Secretary told the Labour Party Conference last week : « I want to say to the millions of people in this country, and indeed elsewhere, who have been moved and outraged by the plight of the Palestinian people – we hear you. You were right. And under Andy Burnham’s leadership, we have re-set our approach ».
But there is much more to do
That re-set was necessary and welcome to the charity I represent – the Britain Palestine Project (website wwwbritainpalestineproject.org). But there is more for the UK to do, giving a lead to its like-minded partners, and further to go. UK action against settlement trade now accompanies condemnation of illegal settlements, and the UK is not alone : France, Canada and 10n European countries are taking action. But the genocide in Gaza has only slowed down – not stopped. Fourteen hundred Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the so-called « cease-fire » of October 2025. Winter is coming, but Israel still prevents the entry of temporary accommodation. Ethnic cleansing and Israel Government-inspired murderous settler violence are rampant in the West Bank.
Our charity, the Britain Palestine Project, calls for a full embargo on bilateral arms sales to and from Israel, and suspension of the UK/Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement. We ask our Government to say clearly now that any Israeli bank which guarantees bids by contractors for the « red line » E1 settlement will put at risk its commercial engagement in and with our country. The tenders for E1 are due to be opened on 19 Octr – just eight days before the Israeli general election. E1 would separate East Jerusalem from its West Bank hinterland, and split the West Bank in two. When the tender bids are opened, we want those envelopes to be empty.
Change must come – from outside ?
Change is in the air, including in the United States, which seems to be the only state that Israel cares about or listens to. Israel’s international reputation is at rock-bottom. Will change come via the Israeli elections on 27 Oct ? It would be foolish to predict the outcome of those elections ; we must wait and see.
But my sense is that we should not put our hope into change coming from within Israel. None of the likely coalition partners is talking about negotiations with the Palestinians, or military withdrawal from Gaza, or stopping settlements. I am told that the younger generation of Israelis is more extreme than their parents’ generation. If that is true, then change will not come from within. It needs to come from outside –by changing the costs and benefits of the unlawful 1967 occupation.
The cost to Israel of occupation needs to rise steeply. The benefit of mutual security and peaceful coexistence with equal rights needs to be realised, by all sides.
Palestinian legislative elections are scheduled for 28 Nov. Palestine yearns for democratic renewal. Those elections need to happen, freely and fairly, without external interference.
Now, as we join in mourning the dead of 7 Oct 2023, we also mourn the tens of thousands of innocents who have been killed in brutal retaliation in the days, months and years which followed. The killing must stop.
Sir Vincent Fean is a former chair of the Balfour Project, now Britain Palestine Project, and serving BPP Trustee. He was British Consul-General to Jerusalem from 2010 to2014.