Gaza Genocide, increasing pressure on UK government

Labour Members Back Motion Recognising Gaza Genocide, Increasing Pressure on UK Government

Labour Party members have voted to recognise that a genocide is taking place in Gaza, aligning with a recent UN commission of inquiry that concluded Israel has committed genocide. The emergency motion, strongly supported by trade unions, marks the first time Labour has officially adopted this position.

The decision increases pressure on the government, which has so far declined to use the term, insisting the question should be determined by international courts. Israel is currently facing a genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, which it denies, calling the UN report “distorted and false.”

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy reaffirmed the government’s stance, stressing that “it must be for the ICJ and the ICC to determine” genocide claims. He noted, however, that during his time as foreign secretary, he suspended arms sales to Israel after concluding there was a clear risk it was breaching humanitarian law.

The UN inquiry found reasonable grounds that four of the five acts defined under the Genocide Convention—killing members of a group, causing serious harm, creating destructive conditions of life, and preventing births—have been carried out since the Gaza war began in 2023.

Although several human rights groups and genocide scholars had already accused Israel of genocide, this was the first definitive judgment by a UN body.