By Daniel Randall (a UK FOST and RMT activist, writing in a personal capacity)

Labour Party conference voting for Motion 2, and rejecting Motion 1, on Israel-Palestine, on 29/9/25, is a net positive. Motion 1 was largely an exercise in the government and party leadership patting itself on the back. The party leadership has shifted — under pressure — but not far, or fast, enough.

The policy passed recognises the genocidal nature of Israel’s war, and reaffirms Labour’s support for a solution based on equal rights, including equal national rights, for both peoples: Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews. In the first instance, this means an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

One of the key tasks now is to campaign to hold the party leadership and government to the policy passed at conference: a full arms embargo on Israel, and tougher sanctions on the individuals and institutions that make up the infrastructure of Israel’s settlement project in the West Bank.

But there is another vital element that is often missing from the way Israel-Palestine is discussed in the party, including on the left. Without a strong grassroots agency fighting for peace and equality from within Israeli society, external diplomatic pressure will always be limited in its effects.

That’s why it’s unfortunate a motion on supporting the left-wing binational social movement Standing Together was ruled out, on spurious grounds.

Delegates who want to help support Standing Together’s work should get involved with UK Friends of Standing Together. Visit ukfost.co.uk to sign up.