Labour MP Tahir Ali called for Britain to take "military action" against Israel Monday during a heated debate at House of Commons on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, The Jewish Chronicle reported.
Ali, who represents Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley, made the remarks during a speech by Liberal Democrat MP Richard Foord.
Foord had argued that Hamas's "disarmament and disbandment must be part of any lasting solution" to the conflict when Ali interjected, saying, "On the issue of disarmament, should we not also be calling for Israel's disarmament, given the atrocities that have been committed? Previous governments have intervened in the Middle East to take action on human rights abuses and protect international trade routes. Is it not about time that military action was taken against Israel as well?"
Foord rejected any equivalence between the two, calling Hamas "a proscribed terrorist organization" and distinguishing the group from the State of Israel.
This was not the first such call from Ali. Last July, according to The Jewish Chronicle, he pressed then-Foreign Secretary David Lammy to "send military personnel to protect Palestinians from the genocide being committed by the IDF."
The debate followed last week's announcement of British sanctions on Israeli settlements in the West Bank, a move several MPs praised while others demanded more, arguing the measures were not harsh enough. Bradford East MP Imran Hussain called for an end to "all remaining arms sales to Israel," including closing what he called the "F-35 loophole." "We must ensure that no equipment of UK origin directly or indirectly supports genocide in Gaza, or war crimes anywhere in the Occupied Palestinian Territories," Hussain said, adding that "the scale of death and suffering caused by the right-wing Netanyahu government's genocide in Gaza demands urgent and further immediate action."
🚨 Labour MP calls for UK 'military action' against Israel
Tahir Ali, who represents Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley, used a parliamentary debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to call for "military action" to be taken against the Jewish state.
He intervened during a… pic.twitter.com/cEOZ9iwxso
— The Jewish Chronicle (@JewishChron) September 15, 2026
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, who announced the sanctions the previous Tuesday, had accused Israel of turning a blind eye to "ethnic cleansing" by settlers in the West Bank, while citing UN reports he said "represent increasing evidence that war crimes appear to have been committed."
Some lawmakers questioned the timing, given Israel's October 27 election. Conservative MP Alicia Kearns noted that "Britain's sanctions wiped" reports about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu allegedly failing to relay a UAE warning "off the news cycle," asking whether "the timing not warrant more reflection." Jewish Labour MP Peter Prinsley voiced a similar concern, warning that "the electorate may swing behind Netanyahu in reaction" to the sanctions.
Former minister Matthew Patrick, also Jewish, shifted the discussion toward the domestic impact of the conflict, highlighting how it has fueled antisemitic attacks against British Jews. Citing last year's Heaton Park terror attack on Yom Kippur, Patrick recounted to the Commons how the attacker, Jihad al-Shamie, shouted "This is what they get for killing our children" while carrying out his assault on the synagogue.
"There are those who would cloak their antisemitism in concerns about the actions of Israel – those whose murderous intent and racist ignorance is dressed up as a moral crusade," he warned, as reported by The Jewish Chronicle.
