This afternoon, tens of thousands will take the streets of Liverpool for the nineteenth national march for Palestine since October last year. Organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and our coalition partners, this is the first of these national mobilisations to be held outside of London. A return to the capital on 5 October will bring the total to twenty huge demonstrations in the space of just twelve months.

Horror at Israel’s genocidal violence against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and outrage at Britain’s continued complicity have produced the largest and most sustained protest movement in this country since the struggle for women’s suffrage more than a century ago. Today, on the eve of Labour Party conference, that movement will deliver its message in person to the newly elected government. Unfortunately, there are some within the party determined to try to shut the door and block out the call for justice.

More than 41,000 Palestinians have been confirmed killed since Israel began its assault on Gaza. In January, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) judged the case against Israel for crimes under the Genocide Convention to be plausible. The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has applied for arrest warrants for senior Israeli leaders — including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — for crimes against humanity and war crimes. In July, the ICJ further ruled that Israel’s decades-long occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem is unlawful and found Israel guilty of violating the international prohibition on racial segregation and apartheid. Disgracefully, and despite some small but important steps since Labour entered government, Britain continues to export weapons to Israel including vital components for the F-35 fighter jet known to have been used to massacre Palestinians.

The power of the solidarity movement comes from the millions who oppose Israel’s genocidal onslaught. In Britain, opinion polls have consistently shown that by an overwhelming majority the public supports a ceasefire, with roughly three-quarters of Labour Party voters backing an end to arms sales to Israel (fewer than one in ten are opposed to such a move). Last week, TUC congress voted unanimously to recognise that Israel’s system of oppression against all Palestinians amounts to the crime of apartheid, and to ramp up support for boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaigns while calling on the government to implement a complete ban on all weapons exports to Israel.

Dominating the agenda at the international courts, on the streets of cities around the world, and at the United Nations, the struggle for Palestinian rights is one of the biggest issues in global politics today. It is also a huge issue for Labour. At the general election in July, the party’s large parliamentary majority was tainted by a collapse in support amongst many of its previously most loyal voters. The leadership’s stance on Gaza, which initially extended to explicit support for Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon of war — through cutting off food, fuel, water, and medical supplies — produced deep alienation especially within some minority communities. In constituencies with a Muslim population of 10 percent or more the Labour vote fell by an average of 11 points, resulting in the groundbreaking election of a cluster of independent MPs — for whom Gaza acted as one (albeit not the only) major catalyst. Attempts throughout the year to stigmatise the solidarity movement — including by some within the Labour Party hierarchy — helped to fuel the violence of the far-right this summer.

Repairing this damage is not just a moral imperative — it could prove vital to Labour’s future electoral prospects. Given that, it seems extraordinary that it is by no means a given that these arguments will be heard on the floor of Conference. PSC and other allies are working closely with trade union and constituency delegates to secure a debate on Palestine, so that Conference can express the support of party members for international law to be upheld. For much of the past year, local party units were prevented by diktat from even considering motions on the topic. Despite this, several contemporary resolutions have made it onto the agenda. We are asking all delegates to prioritise the ‘Israel/Palestine’ motions when they cast their vote in the Priorities Ballot on Sunday morning. However, as has already been reported at Labour’s Women’s Conference, pro-Israel factions on the right of the party — closely linked to the leadership — are expected to try to push it off the order paper.

Whatever happens in the Conference debate, PSC will be raising these issues as part of the fringe programme. On Monday we will host two important panels. At 12.30pm, Liz Fekete, Institute of Race Relations, Samayya Afzal, Labour Muslim Network, and journalist Taj Ali will join PSC’s Ben Jamal to discuss ‘Labour, Palestine and Islamophobia.’ That evening, at 6pm, ‘Justice for Palestine: confronting genocide and ending apartheid’ will feature Omar Barghouti of the Palestinian BDS National Committee, along with Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, Sara Husseini, British Palestinian Committee, Mick Whelan, ASLEF, and Jess Barnard, Labour NEC. In what might be a worrying indication of the extent of the new government’s commitment to the international legal system, party managers refused to include the words ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid’ in the official conference guide. The fringe meeting will simply appear as ‘Justice for Palestine’ instead.

Both in the conference halls and on the streets of Liverpool, the Palestine solidarity movement will be raising its voice at Labour Party conference. Our message to the government is that these questions cannot be ignored, and that our movement and our demands will not be silenced or go away.