At Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs), independent MP Ayoub Khan of the Independent Alliance of MPs, took Labour Party PM Keir Starmer to task over what the International Court of Justice called a ‘plausible genocide’ of Palestinian people:
‘The Genocide Convention makes it explicitly clear that genocide is not about numbers it’s about intent’
Indep MP Ayoub Khan asks what the PM’s definition of genocide is
Keir Starmer tells MPs Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza#PMQs https://t.co/ZTbv6x8cal
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PMQs: ‘genocide intent’
Khan said:
Article two of the United Nations Genocide Convention makes it explicitly clear that genocide is not about numbers, it’s about intent. And the intent of the Israeli government and the IDF has been explicitly clear in words and in actions over the past 400 days, more than 45,000 innocent men, women and children killed.
On the 28 October the foreign secretary denied that a genocide was even taking place and suggested that the Israeli army had not yet killed enough Palestinians to constitute a genocide. And… at PMQs, the prime minister stated that he had never referred to the atrocities happening in Gaza as a genocide.
Will the prime minister share his definition of genocide with this House? And will he state what further action he is prepared to take to save lives of desperate and starving men, women and children…?
In response at PMQs, Starmer didn’t share what contrary definition of genocide he has, nor what he would do to help Palestinians:
It would be wise to start a question like that with reference to what happened in October of last year. I’m well aware of the definition of genocide and that’s why I’ve never referred to it as genocide.
But article two of the UN genocide convention states:
In the present Convention, genocide means… acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group
Palestinians are a national, ethnical, racial and largely religious group and Israel is killing them en masse. In fact, Joyce Msuya, acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, has said that “the entire population of north Gaza is at risk of dying”.
Israelis themselves have highlighted public comments from Israeli authority figures that suggest that Israel’s onslaught on Gaza goes beyond warfare.
In a letter to the Israeli attorney general from December 2023, a group of former senior members of Israel’s diplomatic corps, academics, journalists, former members of Knesset, and social activists say Israel’s judiciary is ignoring “extensive and blatant incitement to genocide, expulsion, and ethnic cleansing in Gaza by public figures”. They write “the explicit calls to commit atrocious crimes, as stated, against millions of civilians have turned into a legitimate and regular part of Israeli discourse”.
The letter references such incitement, including one from Israeli MP Yitzhak Kroizer. He said “the Gaza Strip should be flattened, and for all of them there is but one sentence, and that is death”.
Blatant racism from Starmer
Starmer opened PMQs by saying:
It is also Islamophobia awareness month. And I reaffirm our commitment to standing against discrimination and racism in all its forms
Yet standing against Islamophobia and racism in “all its forms” clearly doesn’t apply to the Palestinians in Gaza. In his answer to Khan, Starmer suggested the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023, which killed around 1,200 Israelis (some of whom Israeli forces themselves killed) justifies Israel killing around 45,000 Palestinians, of which 70% were women and children (according to the UN). That’s not a diplomatic, nor statesman-like approach.
The Independent Alliance of MPs call for:
a total arms embargo, an end to the illegal occupation and settlement policy, and the immediate and unconditional recognition of the state of Palestine
Featured image via the House of Commons
