Whitby Lit Fest author Peter Oborne discusses book Complicit: Britain's Role in the Destruction of Gaza

It is some coincidence. Mr Oborne has long spoken out about atrocities against Palestinians and his book, Complicit: Britain's Role in the Destruction of Gaza, is what brings him to Whitby Literature Festival for a discussion with Channel 4 News presenter Alex Thomson on Saturday, November 21.

The name leaves no ambiguity about Oborne’s position on his own country’s conduct in the Israel-Palestine crisis, but he was “bowled over” by the the marked shift in tone from Westminster as Mr Miliband told the House of Commons on September 8: “The British Government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank – perpetrated by settler terrorists.

“And all too often the Israeli government has turned a blind eye to this and worse, members of it have made statements and taken actions to support the forced displacement of Palestinians.”

A ban on trade with illegal West Bank settlements was also announced.

While it was a departure from previous Government positions, Mr Oborne, 69, says that it simply recognised international law, which “makes it completely plain that it’s a war crime to build settlements in occupied territory, and Israel's been doing that all but ever since 1967, when they conquered the West Bank. Under the Geneva Conventions, it is a war crime to move populations into occupied territory or out of occupied territory, to force people out.

"This situation's been going on and only now has Britain responded, 59 years later. That said, the situation has got much worse in the last four to five years. It's got much, much worse because Israel has expanded its activities massively.”

Although the book relates to Gaza – where, according to the World Health Organization, citing the Palestinian Ministry of Health, there have been more than 74,300 deaths over the last three years – Mr Oborne had the idea for it a couple of years ago while staying in Nablus in the West Bank.

“I was sitting on the rooftop of one of these fabulously beautiful ancient Ottoman houses and looking at the stars across the old city,” he says. A few days earlier, although he wasn’t there, “the townsfolk had seen the missiles going over on the way towards Tel Aviv from Iran and I was looking at this, this terribly tragic situation, and I realised I wanted to write this book about Britain's complicity in the destruction of Gaza.”

Documenting lies is a big part of the book, he says, but with his experience as a correspondent – working over the years for titles such as The Spectator, The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mail – he understands the pressures politicians are under domestically. Back in 2009, he made a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary, Inside Britain’s Israel Lobby.

His knowledge of the subject meant, he says, that “I could write a book which would be meaningful and document the fact that Britain was not acting legally or morally and was actually aiding and abetting what many experts are now, or were already, saying was a genocide, although we're obviously awaiting the results of the International Court of Justice decision.”

In late 2023, South Africa brought a case to the court alleging that Israel is responsible for violations of the Genocide Convention relating to action in Gaza. Israel vehemently rejected the allegations.

Mr Oborne also speaks of the difference in journalistic standards applied to Israeli and Palestinian casualties. “What I document in the book is the failure to understand and report Palestinians in the same way that you would report Israelis. So when Israelis are killed in a terrorist attack, quite rightly the Western media will be giving quite a lot of publicity. You’ll get photographs of the victims, you’ll get their jobs, their names, their family circumstances. Palestinians simply die without names,” he says. “It is not to say that Hamas didn’t commit the most terrible atrocities on October 7. It was disgusting, barbarous, what Hamas did and Israel had every right to respond,” he says, referring to the approximately 1,200 killed and 251 hostages taken, many of which have since died, during the attack in 2023.

“But the response turned into something which was completely out of control.”

On an altogether lighter note, Mr Oborne also speaks about his beloved sport, having this year released Full Circle: A History of Cricket, co-written with Richard Heller, with whom he hosts a podcast on the same subject.

He fell in love with the game at the former Eagle House School in Berkshire as a boy and still plays.

“I was a better batsman age 60 than when I was when I was 16 actually, or even 26, because your temperament improves,” he says. “Sadly, my reactions are not what they were at all. I can hardly walk, let alone run. But I get on. It's a lovely, convivial game, and we've had so much fun. I’ve played all over the world. We have a team which goes to Ireland every year to play there. I've taken teams to Pakistan, to Zimbabwe, to Lebanon.

"We played in central Beirut with Israeli drones circling overhead.”

A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesman said: "This Government has delivered a comprehensive reset in our approach to Israel and Palestine. Within weeks of Andy Burnham becoming Prime Minister, we brought forward a significant package of measures on illegal settlements and settler violence to protect the viability of a two-state solution and support Palestinian civilians."

Adding background information, the FCDO said that as soon as the Government took office, it ordered a review into the Government of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law (IHL), which concluded that Israel is “not committed to upholding IHL in Gaza and that there was a clear risk that UK exports for the IDF in the Gaza conflict might be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of IHL.”

The Israeli government was also approached for comment. It has previously rejected accusations of genocide before the ICJ in The Hague.

​Peter Oborne and Alex Thomson will discuss Complicit at Whitby Pavilion on Saturday, November 21 from 7pm to 8.30pm. Tickets cost £15. Visit whitbylitfest.org.uk