ANDY Burnham has been pulled up 50 days into his premiership for continuing in his failure to describe the destruction of Gaza as a genocide.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has written to the Prime Minister demanding that he commit to a “full, independent, public inquiry into British complicity in genocide” and a raft of other measures.
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband is expected to set out a new package of sanctions against Israel later in the day, including limits on trade with illegal settlements in the West Bank.
In his letter to the Prime Minister, Corbyn said: “It has not gone unnoticed that, 50 days into your premiership, you have declined to call ‘the treatment of Gaza’ what it really is: a genocide. As early as January 2024, the [International Court of Justice (ICJ)] recognised a ‘plausible risk’ that Israel's acts could amount to genocide being committed against the Palestinian people.
“Today, human rights experts around the world have attested that what has happened in Gaza constitutes a genocide, including the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and numerous UN officials.
“This is not merely a matter of semantics. This is a matter of international law. Under the Genocide Convention, the UK is obliged to prevent and punish genocide – a duty that was crystallized following the ICJ ruling in January 2024.
“Far from preventing genocide, the British government has facilitated genocide through ongoing military, economic and political cooperation.”
In addition to backing Corbyn’s campaign for a public inquiry into Britain’s assistance to Israel during the genocide, which has included running spy flights over Gaza, the Prime Minister was urged to end the sharing of military intelligence with Tel Aviv.
Burnham also faced calls to impose a total arms embargo on the country, ending the carve out for F-35 fighter jet components, bring in a “widespread” sanctions regime against Israel, support the work of international agencies seeking “accountability for war crimes”, for which Benjamin Netayahu is subject to an international arrest warrant.
Corbyn also called for an end to the proscription of Palestine Action, which was banned under terrorism laws after a number of high-profile raids on a British military base and factories linked to the Israeli military.
