The newly elected anti-genocide independent MPs, including former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, have written to the foreign secretary with a number of demands over Israel’s assault on Palestine.
Shockat Adam, Ayoub Khan, Adnan Hussain and Iqbal Mohamed are the other independent MPs calling for action on the “catastrophic situation in Gaza”.
The MPs united to write the letter after their election on 4 July caused an upset. In Leicester South, Adam defeated Labour shadow minister Jonathan Ashworth.
Labour must stop impeding the ICC
They call on the Labour government to stop its legal challenge to the International Criminal Court (ICC). In May, the ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan sought arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant.
The UK government is challenging this. According to the Israeli outlet Maariv, David Lammy has now assured Israel that Labour will continue the Conservatives’ legal challenge that claims the ICC has no jurisdiction over Palestine.
But, in 2021, the ICC ruled that it does have jurisdiction over Israeli war crimes in Palestine. Indeed, human rights barrister Geoffrey Robertson has called the UK move both “a legal nonsense” and “preposterous”.
As well as calling on Lammy to “drop any legal challenge” to the ICC, the MPs also assert he should “issue a public statement” on the case.
The UK must restore funding to UN aid agency
The letter further states that Lammy and the Labour government must “immediately restore and increase UK funding to UNRWA”. A number of countries stopped funding the the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) when Israel claimed some of its members were terrorists.
But an independent review from a former French foreign minister found Israel gave no credible evidence to support its claim. Following this, most countries resumed funding. But the UK still has not. The UN agency delivers education, social services, healthcare, and refugee camps in Palestine. 1.7 million Gazans rely on it.
Independent MPs: end weapons sales to Israel
The independent MPs also called on Lammy to “immediately suspend all provision of weapons and weapons systems to the government of Israel”. The UK government, under Rishi Sunak, approved 42 military export licenses to Israel from 7 October to 31 May. Five of these are open licenses, meaning they allocate unlimited exports of specified items under just one license.
Their letter also points to a recent study in the Lancet that estimates the true extent of the Palestinian death toll to be much higher than Gaza health ministry statistics. The medical journal writes:
Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.
The indirect deaths are a result of Israel’s destruction of public infrastructure. Israel has damaged or destroyed 31 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza, with many in complete ruin.
Let’s hope these independent MPs continue to oppose the genocide in parliament.
Featured image via Guardian News – YouTube and Middle East Eye – YouTube
