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The contrast could not be starker.
The United Nations’ Commission of Inquiry has released a report concluding that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza – only a week after we learned that David Lammy, until then the UK’s Foreign Secretary, now promoted to Deputy Prime Minister, had signed a letter insisting his government had not reached that conclusion.
The UN says Israel has committed four of the five genocidal acts defined in international law:
- Killing members of a protected group,
- Causing serious bodily and mental harm,
- Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to destroy the group, and
- Preventing births.
The only act missed out is forcible transfer of children from one group to another group.
The UN also cites statements from senior Israeli leaders – President Isaac Herzog (who was welcomed to the UK by PM Keir Starmer only last week), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former defence minister Yoav Gallant – alongside the destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure, famine, and forced displacement, as evidence of genocidal intent.
Navi Pillay, who chaired the Commission, told the BBC that the only reasonable conclusion from the pattern of conduct was genocide. The acts and the intent both matched the legal definition.
That is clear, blunt – and devastating.
Lammy’s denial
But Lammy’s letter – exposed by The Guardian – insisted the UK had not concluded genocide was being committed.
It was written in the face of more than 64,000 Palestinian deaths, overwhelmingly of women and children.
It was written after repeated warnings from the International Court of Justice that there is a plausible case of genocide.
And it was written despite Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups such as B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights declaring it to be a genocide, months ago.
Lammy claimed the government had not found “specific intent” to destroy the Palestinian people.
But that bar is far higher than the law requires.
Under the Genocide Convention, the UK is obliged to act when there is a serious risk of genocide – not only once it has been proven in court beyond doubt.
The UN’s experts analysed the same statements from Gallant, Herzog, and others that Lammy dismissed. They reached the opposite conclusion.
So the question is not whether the evidence exists – it does.
The question is why the UK government refuses to see it.
Politics, not law
The answer lies in politics, not in law or fact:
-
The UK follows the lead of the United States, which continues to shield Israel diplomatically and arm it militarily.
-
The arms industry profits directly from weapons sales – and the government admits UK-made components go into the F-35 jets bombing Gaza.
-
And both Tory and Labour leaders remain afraid of upsetting pro-Israel lobby groups, even at the cost of complicity in atrocity.
This is why Lammy’s Foreign Office raised the evidentiary bar and pretended not to see what UN lawyers, judges at The Hague, and human rights groups around the world already acknowledge.
Complicity by omission
By denying genocide, the government evades its obligations under international law.
By continuing arms exports, it profits from the slaughter.
By welcoming Israeli president Isaac Herzog – a man accused of inciting genocide – to address Parliament, it displays open contempt for justice.
And while the Foreign Office plays word games, children are buried under rubble, patients die on operating tables without power or medicine, and entire families starve in camps.
These are not accidents of war.
They are the predictable outcomes of policies pursued with genocidal intent.
The wrong side of history
Other nations are acting:
- South Africa has taken Israel to the ICJ,
- Spain and Ireland have recognised Palestine, and
- Even within Israel, rights groups say their government’s actions are genocidal.
The United Kingdom is doing the opposite.
Lammy’s letter, Starmer’s silence, and the continuation of arms sales all show a country determined to stand on the wrong side of the law and the wrong side of history.
History will record that when genocide was unfolding in Gaza, the UN recognised it – and the UK government denied it.
The only question now is whether the public will forgive the betrayal.
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If the UN has found genocide in Gaza, why didn’t David Lammy?
Share this post:
The contrast could not be starker.
The United Nations’ Commission of Inquiry has released a report concluding that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza – only a week after we learned that David Lammy, until then the UK’s Foreign Secretary, now promoted to Deputy Prime Minister, had signed a letter insisting his government had not reached that conclusion.
The UN says Israel has committed four of the five genocidal acts defined in international law:
The only act missed out is forcible transfer of children from one group to another group.
The UN also cites statements from senior Israeli leaders – President Isaac Herzog (who was welcomed to the UK by PM Keir Starmer only last week), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former defence minister Yoav Gallant – alongside the destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure, famine, and forced displacement, as evidence of genocidal intent.
Navi Pillay, who chaired the Commission, told the BBC that the only reasonable conclusion from the pattern of conduct was genocide. The acts and the intent both matched the legal definition.
That is clear, blunt – and devastating.
Lammy’s denial
But Lammy’s letter – exposed by The Guardian – insisted the UK had not concluded genocide was being committed.
It was written in the face of more than 64,000 Palestinian deaths, overwhelmingly of women and children.
It was written after repeated warnings from the International Court of Justice that there is a plausible case of genocide.
And it was written despite Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups such as B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights declaring it to be a genocide, months ago.
Lammy claimed the government had not found “specific intent” to destroy the Palestinian people.
But that bar is far higher than the law requires.
Under the Genocide Convention, the UK is obliged to act when there is a serious risk of genocide – not only once it has been proven in court beyond doubt.
The UN’s experts analysed the same statements from Gallant, Herzog, and others that Lammy dismissed. They reached the opposite conclusion.
So the question is not whether the evidence exists – it does.
The question is why the UK government refuses to see it.
Politics, not law
The answer lies in politics, not in law or fact:
The UK follows the lead of the United States, which continues to shield Israel diplomatically and arm it militarily.
The arms industry profits directly from weapons sales – and the government admits UK-made components go into the F-35 jets bombing Gaza.
And both Tory and Labour leaders remain afraid of upsetting pro-Israel lobby groups, even at the cost of complicity in atrocity.
This is why Lammy’s Foreign Office raised the evidentiary bar and pretended not to see what UN lawyers, judges at The Hague, and human rights groups around the world already acknowledge.
Complicity by omission
By denying genocide, the government evades its obligations under international law.
By continuing arms exports, it profits from the slaughter.
By welcoming Israeli president Isaac Herzog – a man accused of inciting genocide – to address Parliament, it displays open contempt for justice.
And while the Foreign Office plays word games, children are buried under rubble, patients die on operating tables without power or medicine, and entire families starve in camps.
These are not accidents of war.
They are the predictable outcomes of policies pursued with genocidal intent.
The wrong side of history
Other nations are acting:
The United Kingdom is doing the opposite.
Lammy’s letter, Starmer’s silence, and the continuation of arms sales all show a country determined to stand on the wrong side of the law and the wrong side of history.
History will record that when genocide was unfolding in Gaza, the UN recognised it – and the UK government denied it.
The only question now is whether the public will forgive the betrayal.
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