LAST month the First Minister of Wales Eluned Morgan was in Machynlleth, in my constituency, and spoke of the scenes of misery, chaos, and destruction we are seeing from Gaza. 

The war has somehow slid even further into depravity since then. An invasion that began after the attacks committed by the terrorist organisation Hamas, killing 1,200 and taking 251 hostage — which I condemn completely — has mutated into an out-and-out genocide of the Palestinian people. 

At least 50,000 Gazans lay dead (a conservative estimate), most of them women and children. I am a father of two. The thought of the loss of one child is beyond heartbreaking, the thought of tens of thousands killed or injured is beyond comprehension. 

Food, water, and electricity has been blocked for 20 months, aid has been restricted to its lowest level yet, and the UN has warned 2.1 million people are at critical risk of famine. The entire population is being forcibly starved to death.  

Morgan said: “It is imperative that world leaders put pressure on the Israeli government to stop this slaughter.” 

She is right. But there is little the Senedd or the Welsh government can do to stop the bloodshed. It falls to London to take a stand. 

The government has suspended a small number of arms export licenses, paused trade negotiations, sanctioned West Bank settlers, and sanctioned the Israeli cabinet ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir.  

This is much too little, much too late. These are token gestures that will do nothing to convince the Israeli government to stop its genocidal campaign. 

While we are still the world’s sixth largest economy, still a member of the UN security council, and still a major Israeli ally, the UK’s capability to influence events abroad is vastly diminished compared to what it once was. 

I am not naive. The chances of our government (or any Western government bar that of the US) successfully pressuring Israel are slim to none.     

The UK government’s calculation therefore seems to be thus: as a proper condemnation of Israel and the taking of more substantive action will not likely affect the motives of the Israeli government, these steps will not be worth the costs they incur with our allies. 

For that, read Israel and the US (primarily) — neither of whom can we confidently rely on to do the right thing any longer. 

I believe that the scale of the abject horrors we are witnessing should compel myself and fellow parliamentarians to disregard those costs.  

I will go further: the refusal to take a truly principled position on Gaza has and will continue to do massive damage to our moral authority as a country. 

On the June 2 I led a debate in Parliament on ending arms export licenses to Israel. I called for full transparency from the government on the weapons we provide and an immediate suspension of arms export licenses. 

I do not believe we should be involved in foreign wars. But we are involved in this one already. We are involved on the side of a government that kills hundreds of civilians a day using weapons systems part constructed by our defence industry.  

The components which go into the F-35 fighter jets that Israel uses to level buildings, in an area with a comparable population density to London, are 15 per cent British-made. There is no getting away from that. 
 
The F-35 programme is one of the most sophisticated supply chains in the world. If we really wanted to, we could track every part and impose a total ban on exporting arms to Israel.  

This is our business: without British arms export licenses, these jets could not fly. They could not drop their bombs. We are complicit in the deliberate, brutal extermination of a whole people. 

Wales has a proud history of standing up for other small countries. Our party’s founder rose to fame by speaking out from the backbenches against our imperialist conquests during the Second Boer War. 

All of us attending the Welsh Labour conference this weekend will sympathise with the plight of the Palestinian people and the immense suffering of Gazans. But that is not enough — we need action.

We need an immediate suspension of UK arms exports to Israel as the bare minimum. 

We need this before any talk of peace negotiations, before any talk of a two-state solution, as crucial as those things will be to securing a lasting peace. The slaughter needs to stop.  

We must shout louder and demand better from our government, or we will not be judged kindly by history.

Steve Witherden is a Labour MP for Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr. Socialist Campaign Group member Steve will be speaking at both the March for Palestine rally outside Venue Cymru at noon and then at the Welsh Labour Grassroots’ fringe meeting at 6pm on Saturday.