I AM ashamed. For 18 months I have kept quiet, terrified that I would be accused of antisemitism.

My silence has been complicit. I am ashamed that my government has been complicit, both in its lack of action and in its help in arming Israel.

The Hamas attack on October 7 was horrific.

No reasonable human being can condone the brutality of the killing of 1,218 people, the rapes, and the taking of 251 hostages.

The Israeli government reaction, however, has itself been brutal but also self-defeating.

Just weeks after the attack the former Tory Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who served in the British army in Northern Ireland, said that Netanyahu's government's actions were disproportionate and were fuelling the conflict for another 50 years.

Since then, another 33,000 people have been killed.

The total number of Palestinians killed is now 53,475 though a recent paper in the Lancet implied that this was an underestimate.

The majority of these are women and children.

Since Israel's breaking of the ceasefire in March, Israel has refused to allow food and aid into Gaza, in effect starving the population.

If this is not an act of genocide, what is?

In September last year the British government concluded that there was a clear risk certain military exports to Israel night be used in violations of Humanitarian Law.

Most, but not all export licences for arms were suspended.

The government now argues in the courts that they must maintain supplies of parts for F35 fighters, used by Israel to bomb civilians.

If the killing of 53,475 people is not against Humanitarian Law, what is?

I am ashamed. We should all be ashamed.

Mike Baldwin

Thorverton