THE Labour UK Government is going beyond genocide denial and attempting to revise its definition in its refusal to accept Israel is committing such an act in Gaza, a Middle East expert has said.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he does not believe a genocide is being committed in the region despite being “well aware” of its definition.
In response to a question from MP Ayoub Khan in the Commons about atrocities being committed in Gaza, Starmer said: “I'm well aware of the definition of genocide, and that is why I've never described this as and referred to it as genocide.”
Richard McNeil-Willson, who lectures in the Islamic and Middle Eastern studies department at Edinburgh University, said Starmer’s position on Gaza is becoming “politically untenable” after a UN special committee report said the policies and practices carried out by Israel are “consistent with the characteristics of genocide”.
The committee, set up in 1968 to monitor Israel’s occupation said in its annual report that there were serious concerns that Israel was “using starvation as a weapon of war” and was running an “apartheid system” in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
A report by Human Rights Watch also accused Israel of “crimes against humanity” in causing the massive, deliberate forced displacement of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy last month claimed that the term genocide referred to “when millions of people lost their lives in crises like Rwanda, the Second World War in the Holocaust” and that using it to describe Gaza “now undermines [its] seriousness”.
McNeill-Wilson (below) said Labour are engaging in an “incredibly dangerous” approach in not only denying genocide but attempting to “redefine the nature of what genocide is”.
“This is more serious than even genocide denial because what they [the Labour Government] are attempting to do is redefine the nature of what genocide is, ignoring international law, ignoring statements by the UN, ignoring statements by the ICJ and international courts.
“Under their definition, which focuses on numbers, it also means that Srebrenica cannot be seen as a genocide under this. It also means that there’s a denial when it comes to genocide historically that has occurred in Australia, Canada, the US, other genocides that occurred as a result of British colonialism.
“This is incredibly dangerous in that not only is it a denial of genocide but it’s an attempt to rewrite what genocide is, where the British government is now potentially making the case that instances that have been clearly documented as genocide now no longer count as genocide under this, simply as a means of protecting Israel and their position on Israel.”
Under Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, genocide means committing acts with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.
These acts include killing members of a group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
McNeil-Willson said many of these acts have been conducted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and, while Labour’s stance on Gaza has always been morally untenable in his view, it was now becoming politically untenable too.
He said: “It’s done as a political calculation from the Labour Government that the moral loss at the moment is less [important] than the political gain they will get from not accepting this.
“Where we need to get to is where it increasingly becomes politically untenable. There’s clearly signs that is becoming the case.
“We saw it in the election where Labour took a large hit from those who were angry at its stance towards Gaza, we saw that in the US election as well.”
He claimed Labour were regarding genocide denialism as being easier than accepting it is taking place, given this would lead to legal implications for the UK.
“What is of course part of that political calculation as well is that genocide denialism in this case is seen by the Government as better than having to deal with the implications of accepting the term genocide,” McNeil-Willson said.
“Once the UK accepts the term genocide, then the UK has legal implications within that process. Not only does the UK have to challenge it but it has to accept its role in the creation or perpetuation of the genocide, which the UK does not legally want to do.”
Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials have said.
The Foreign Office has been approached for comment.
