UK Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, and Israel Prime Minister, Bejamin Netanyahu (Picture by Ben Dance / FCDO)
UK political leaders deny Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people – they are wrong. This is genocide.
David Lammy, the UK’s Foreign Secretary, said in parliament in October 2024 that the word genocide is used "when millions of people lost their lives in crises like Rwanda, the Second World War, the Holocaust" – and that calling Israel’s actions genocide "undermines the seriousness of that term". The Foreign Secretary’s statement is not only misleading – it's wrong.
Since October 2023, Israel has killed over 43,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Yet the UK recognised as genocides the killing of 5,000 Yazidis in Iraq, and the killing of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica, during the Bosnian War.
However, genocide isn’t defined by how many people are killed. Under the Genocide Convention, genocide means acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. This includes killing members of the group and deliberately inflicting conditions of life to bring about the group’s physical destruction.
Israel has repeatedly targeted and bombed Palestinian homes, hospitals and other essential civilian infrastructure, blocked humanitarian aid, and destroyed almost half of the agricultural land. Israel’s political leaders – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – have dehumanised Palestinians, calling them ‘monsters’, and have repeatedly said they will destroy Gaza.
In January 2024, the world’s highest court, the International Court of Justice, ruled that Israel was plausibly committing genocide after hearing evidence brought by South Africa – supported by over 60 countries. Nearly a year on, the situation in Gaza is much worse. Now, many human rights groups and academics agree – this is genocide.
David Lammy is misleading parliament and the UK public. He must tell the truth – that this is genocide – and immediately take action to stop the genocide, and the UK’s complicity.
Read more about why Israel's actions amount to genocide here.
