Over 2,000 British nationals fought in Israel’s Gaza genocide, yet Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood — who promises to crack down on illegal migration — remains silent on their return. Among those with “dear family members” serving in the Israeli military: Attorney General Richard Hermer, former Attorney General Suella Braverman, and Labour MP Josh Simons, who claims the “right” to Israeli citizenship.

Author bio: Jody McIntyre is an investigative journalist whose work can be found at jodymcintyre.substack.com. He stood at the 2024 UK general election, receiving over 10,000 votes.

Labour’s Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has been promising to get tough on border control in recent months, declaring that Britain has become a ‘destination of choice’ for ‘every people smuggler and would-be illegal migrant across the world’. On the subject of returning IDF militants, however, she has been silent. Last week, Declassified UK reported on a Freedom of Information request which revealed that over 50,000 foreign fighters have served in the Israeli military during the Gaza genocide. Britain was sixth on the list, with over 2000 British dual- and multi-national citizens confirmed to have fought. We do not know anything about the 2000+ or whether or not they have returned to the UK. Furthermore, according to statements on record, the list could include relatives of senior British officials.

In July 2023, Richard Hermer KC, a “close friend” of Labour Prime Minister and “Zionist without qualification” Keir Starmer, proudly declared that he had “dear family members” serving in the Israeli military. One year later, he was appointed Attorney General for England and Wales, the ‘chief legal adviser to the Crown’.

Were Hermer’s “dear family members” on the list of the more than 2000 British nationals who fought in the Gaza genocide? Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, apparently so keen to clamp down on dangerous criminals entering the UK, apparently does not know or care. But Hermer is not the only senior British political figure with relatives in the IDF.

In April 2024, Conservative peer Lord Ahmad defended the “right” of such citizens to enlist in the Israeli military on the basis that occupied Palestinian territories were not recognised as an independent entity by the British government, and that the genocide in Gaza would therefore be classified as ‘a foreign government’s forces…engaged in a civil war or combating terrorism or internal uprisings’. However, since Britain officially recognised the State of Palestine in September, it would seem that the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870, which explicitly prohibited ‘engagement in the military or naval service of any foreign state at war with any foreign state at peace with Her Majesty’, must now apply; something that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, with her responsibility for ‘protecting our borders’, will surely take a keen interest in.

Labour’s Attorney General added: ‘I actively support a range of…Israeli organisations.’ Hermer mentioned previously serving as an officer for the Union of Jewish Students. Speaking to an undercover journalist, a former UJS activist named Adam Schapira confirmed that the group receives funding from the Israeli embassy in London and the powerful American lobby group AIPAC. Yair Zivan, a campaigns officer for UJS, later became a press officer for the Israeli military and adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister.

In his university days , Labour MP Josh Simons called himself a “Marxist” and told a friend that the Israeli state ‘should not have been founded’. Now, he’s a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Israel. Simons has mentioned having ‘friends and family in Israel’, a state with compulsory military service, and in a parliamentary debate with Conservative MP Kit Malthouse in June 2025 declared his ‘right to claim citizenship in Israel’. Two months later, Simons was one of a group of “Labour Friends of Israel-affiliated MPs” who confronted National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell in a ‘testy and emotionally charged conversation’ regarding the government’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state.

Labour MP Damian Egan has a more obvious connection to the IDF: his partner Yossi Felberbaum is a former Israeli spy recruiter from “Unit 8200”. Are his relatives on the list of 2000+? Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood apparently doesn’t know, and doesn’t care.

Hermer is not even the first British Attorney General to have relatives fighting with the Israeli army. Suella Braverman, who Boris Johnson appointed Attorney General once in February 2020 and again in September 2021, also claimed to have ‘close family members who serve in the IDF’. Are her relatives on the list of 2000+? Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood apparently doesn’t know, and doesn’t care.

Perhaps Shabana is more selective in which criminals she wants to prevent entering the UK? On behalf of the Israel lobby, Shabana worked tirelessly to bring down the West Midlands police Chief Constable Craig Guildford. Guildford had recommended that violent Maccabi Tel Aviv “ultras” not be allowed to travel to Birmingham, but Shabana felt otherwise. Even when Guildford was eventually forced into retirement last month, Shabana was unrelenting, declaring that she would have sacked him if she had possessed the legal power to do so.A parliamentary petition calling for a public inquiry into pro-Israeli influence in British politics passed 50,000 signatures this week. Perhaps the family ties between British politicians and the Israeli military go some way in explaining the sway of the lobby.

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