Ian Austin is being deployed to Israel to “promote trade”—less than a week after London announced it was summoning the Israeli ambassador and suspending free trade agreement talks, amid British criticisms of expanded military operations in Gaza.
The envoy took to X, formerly Twitter, posting:
Greetings from Israel! I’m here to meet businesses & officials to promote trade with the UK … Trade with Israel provides many thousands of good jobs in the UK and brings people together in the great multicultural democracy that is Israel.
Despite the diplomatic spat between Israel and the gormless British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Austin’s visit passed without incident. However, his critics were keen to remind readers of allegations of past ‘Islamophobia’ against him, including a 2012 public apology for claiming that ‘pro-Palestine’ campaigners Friends of Al-Aqsa were Holocaust deniers. (Lord Austin was a Labour peer who quit the party under the allegedly antisemitic leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.)
Britain is one of many western powers whose support for Israel is equivocal at best, with a strong commitment to punishing the Jewish state, making its new efforts with a trade envoy potentially baffling.
