David Lammy is desecrating genocide by denying it in Gaza

“These [genocide] are quite properly legal terms that must be determined by international courts… Those terms were largely used when millions of people lost their lives in crises like Rwanda, the Second World War and the Holocaust, and the way that they are used now undermines the seriousness of that term.”

These were the words of Foreign Secretary David Lammy in Parliament on Monday when asked by a Conservative MP whether he would affirm that there is “not a genocide occurring in the Middle East” and that the use of this terminology is “completely inappropriate”.

In choosing to respond this way, Lammy has once again exposed this Labour government’s hypocrisy. After coming to power on the back of promising change and a foreign policy driven by international law, the government has consistently shown that when it comes to Israel, it is business as usual.

The government has continued to treat Israel like a partner, rather than the rogue entity it has become in the eyes of the majority of the world, and they continue to be complicit in its genocide by providing diplomatic cover and military support. Indeed, according to a recent Al-Jazeera investigation, 47% of all reconnaissance missions over Gaza were conducted by the RAF. These provide Israel with on-the-ground intelligence, while an air-bridge, of which the UK is a fundamental part, guarantees the steady supply of weapons that the Zionist entity needs to sustain the intensity of its war in Gaza (and now also Lebanon).

Through his denial, it is Lammy, not those that rightly label Israel’s actions in Palestine as a genocide, that undermines the seriousness of the term. It is he who, in order to avoid accountability for the UK’s ongoing complicity, seeks to downplay the horrors that this government continues to sponsor.

International law

What was perhaps most baffling about Lammy’s response is that he recognises that genocide is a legal term “determined by international courts”. Yet, he fails to acknowledge that Israel is currently on trial for precisely this crime in the world’s highest court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in January ruled that there was a “plausible case” that genocide was being committed.

The Genocide Convention defines genocide as “acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group” by killing, causing harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life that would lead to their physical destruction, imposing measures intended to prevent births or forcibly transferring children to another group.

Over the past year, we have watched in horror as all of this has taken place in Gaza.

In a somewhat ironic twist, Lammy’s comments came on the same day that South Africa submitted a document with over 500 pages of evidence of Israel’s intent to commit genocide. Unlike the British Foreign Minister, who seems to be living in an alternative reality, South Africa’s representative to the Hague, Ambassador Vusimuzi Madonsela, remarked: “The problem we have is that we have too much evidence” – a stark illustration of how out of touch with the rest of the world Israel and its allies now are.

Intensifying genocide in northern Gaza

Since the beginning of October this year, Israel has completely besieged the north of Gaza and implemented the so-called Generals’ Plan. This is designed to ethnically cleanse the entire region by starving out all those who remain (and will all be designated as Hamas fighters) by stopping the entry of humanitarian supplies. In other words, by using starvation as a weapon, Israel is subjecting northern Gaza’s population (estimated to be around 400,000 people by the UN) to conditions of life that will lead to their physical destruction.

In less than a month, Israel’s siege on northern Gaza has killed over 1,000 Palestinians and, according to human rights group Euro-Med Monitor, targeted shelters for the displaced 39 times. Just this week, at least 93 were killed in a single Israeli attack in Beit Lahiya on Tuesday and 50 children were killed in the Israeli bombardment of two residential buildings on Saturday.

At the beginning of the month, Israel also completely cut off aid to the area and then, last weekend, Israeli lawmakers took the unprecedented decision to label UNRWA a “terror group” and ban it from operating on Israeli soil. This move will further undermine the provision of aid and prevent the UN agency from providing necessary support to Palestinians across Gaza and the West Bank.

Unlike our Foreign Minister, who has received £32,640 in donations from the pro-Israel lobby, Israel has made little attempt to hide its intentions for Gaza or the Palestinian people. Only last week, several members of the Israeli ruling coalition, including National Security Minister Itamir Ben-Gvir, joined fascist settlers at the “Preparing to Resettle Gaza” conference, spelling out their intention to occupy the entirety of Gaza and remove the Palestinian population.

Such genocidal rhetoric, which has been a cornerstone of the Zionist project for over a century, is being implemented across Gaza and is now intensifying in the northern part of the strip.

By denying the overwhelming evidence that exists for the ongoing genocide, Lammy is attempting to deflect from this government’s own complicity in Israel’s crimes.

Regardless of the empty platitudes about increasing aid or working towards a two-state solution, there is no doubt that the ruling class (whether Labour or Tory) prioritises its strategic relationship with Israel over international law and the human rights of the indigenous Palestinian population. Unfortunately for them, these attempts to deceive the UK public and international community will not protect them from the inevitable reckoning that will follow Palestinian liberation.

Sharaiz Chaudhry is the Policy and Communications Officer at Friends of Al-Aqsa. He holds a PhD in Islamic Liberation Theology from the University of Edinburgh and has published several journal articles. He also holds Masters degrees in Middle East Politics and Islamic Law.

Follow him on X: @sharaiz_710

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