Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer today declined to call Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip a “genocide”, despite being urged to do so by a Labour backbencher.
During PMQs Labour MP for Bolton South and Walkden Yasmin Qureshi urged Starmer to take more robust action against Israel, including recognising a Palestinian state.
“What we are witnessing in Gaza is indiscriminate, limitless, cruel and criminal killing of civilians. More than 50,000 people have been killed. Children have been shot while queuing for bread”, said Qureshi, who in November 2023 resigned from the Labour front bench to vote for an SNP-backed parliamentary motion calling for an “immediate” ceasefire in Gaza.
“A growing number of genocide scholars, including leading Israeli academics, believe that genocide is taking place under international law. We have a duty to prevent genocide. I served on the UN Mission in Kosovo. We acted to stop mass killing there. What is the difference now?”, she asked, urging Starmer to “intervene immediately to alleviate human suffering and take steps to recognise the state of Palestine”.
Responding to Qureshi, Starmer refused to call Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide, saying:“The humanitarian situation is dreadful and distressing, and scenes that we have witnessed outside aid distribution centres are frankly heartbreaking. More aid is needed of volume and speed into Gaza and Israel's plan for aid delivery is inadequate and insufficient."
“What is needed is for the UN and other agencies to deliver that aid according to well established mechanisms. And Israel must allow this”, he added, saying that the government were “working with allies to do all that we can to make this happen as well, of course, to get the hostages out who have been held for a very long time”.
Between 1998-1999, Nato intervened militarily in Kosovo to prevent further atrocities being carried out by former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic against ethnic Albanians. Kosovo would unilaterally declare independence from Serbia in 2008.
The US State Department described the violence against Kosovar Albanians as “ethnic cleansing”, and despite noting that “at least 6,000 Kosovar Albanians were victims of mass murder”.
However, the mass killings have not been described as genocide by the EU, US or UK, nor by the UN. Milosevic was later charged with genocide as part of his war crimes trial, but this was in relation to mass murder in Bosnia rather than Kosovo.
Elsewhere in the session, the prime minister defended the decision to impose sanctions on far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
“Acting alongside our allies, we've sanctioned individuals responsible for inciting appalling settler violence and expansion”, he said.
“We've done that to uphold human rights and defend the prospect of a two-state solution. We will continue to support all efforts to secure a cease fire the release of all hostages despicably held by Hamas and the humanitarian aid that needs to surge in”, he added.
The measures – which the JC understands constitute the first time Israeli ministers have faced sanctions by the British government – include travel bans and asset freezes.
The Foreign Office said the decision was taken due to the pair’s “repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities” in the West Bank, but that they were sanctioned “in their personal capacity” rather than in their roles as government ministers.
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, said: “Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich have incited extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights. These actions are not acceptable. This is why we have taken action now – to hold those responsible to account.”
The decision was also welcomed by Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, who told MPs that “the settler violence they've incited against innocent Palestinians on the West Bank is intolerable and the government right to act.”
