LONDON: The UK government is under pressure to accept that genocide is taking place in Gaza after members of the ruling Labour Party voted to approve an emergency motion at its conference in Liverpool.
It comes two weeks after a UN report said there are sufficient grounds to conclude that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, and in the wake of the UK decision to recognize Palestine.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has consistently said it is up to international courts to decide if genocide is taking place.
A case brought by South Africa against Israel is being heard by the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
In the conference motion, passed by a show of hands, delegates called on the UK government to “ban trade with illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank” and apply “comprehensive sanctions,” including an arms embargo.
The general secretary of the Unison union, Christina McAnea, said: “This is genocide. But if we wait for this to be confirmed by a court, it will be too late, because it’s already happening as we sit here.”
A separate motion titled “Peace in the Middle East” — which urged the government to “fully suspend arms trade with Israel that could be used in the conflict” and “do everything in its power to secure an immediate ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli military forces from Gaza and the unrestricted provision of humanitarian assistance” — was not passed.
The government’s position was reiterated following the conference motion vote by Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy.
He said adhering to “the rules-based order” means “it must be for the ICJ with their judges and judiciary, and for the (International Criminal Court), to determine the issue of genocide in relation to the convention. It isn’t for politicians like me to do that.”
He added, though, that “it’s for the public to look at what they see and come to their own judgments,” and that in his previous role as foreign secretary, “I did see a clear risk that Israel was breaching international humanitarian law.”
Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said: “This is a huge defeat for the government, with the Labour Party finally accepting that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
“This historic vote must now become government policy: imposing comprehensive sanctions on Israel and a full arms embargo.
“After almost two years of complicity in Israel’s genocide, the movement in solidarity with Palestine is turning the tide.
“People across this country are standing side by side with the Palestinian people demanding their liberation.
“If the government tries to ignore this momentous vote, it would not only be in denial of the facts, against public opinion, increasingly globally isolated, but also at war with its own party.”
The co-deputy leader of the Green Party, Mothin Ali, said: “Keir Starmer and his ministers must not waste another second in calling out this act of genocide, end immediately the supply of all arms to Israel and impose strict sanctions on the country.
“It is clear from today’s motion, passed by a majority of Labour members, that the conference would be the right time and place to do this.”
A report by the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory said four of five genocidal acts defined in international law have taken place in Gaza since October 2023: killing members of a group, causing serious mental and bodily harm, deliberately inflicting conditions to destroy the group, and preventing births.
After the report’s release, the UK government said it “has not concluded that Israel is acting with that (genocidal) intent.”
