Post by borgr0 on Nov 16, 2024 4:14:10 GMT
THE Labour UK Government is going beyond genocide denial and attempting to revise its definition in its refusal to accept Israel is committing such an act in Gaza, a Middle East expert has said.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he does not believe a genocide is being committed in the region despite being “well aware” of its definition.
In response to a question from MP Ayoub Khan in the Commons about atrocities being committed in Gaza, Starmer said: “I'm well aware of the definition of genocide, and that is why I've never described this as and referred to it as genocide.”
Richard McNeil-Willson, who lectures in the Islamic and Middle Eastern studies department at Edinburgh University, said Starmer’s position on Gaza is becoming “politically untenable” after a UN special committee report said the policies and practices carried out by Israel are “consistent with the characteristics of genocide”.
READ MORE: Humanitarian aid entering Gaza reaches historic low
The committee, set up in 1968 to monitor Israel’s occupation said in its annual report that there were serious concerns that Israel was “using starvation as a weapon of war” and was running an “apartheid system” in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
A report by Human Rights Watch also accused Israel of “crimes against humanity” in causing the massive, deliberate forced displacement of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy last month claimed that the term genocide referred to “when millions of people lost their lives in crises like Rwanda, the Second World War in the Holocaust” and that using it to describe Gaza “now undermines [its] seriousness”.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he does not believe a genocide is being committed in the region despite being “well aware” of its definition.
In response to a question from MP Ayoub Khan in the Commons about atrocities being committed in Gaza, Starmer said: “I'm well aware of the definition of genocide, and that is why I've never described this as and referred to it as genocide.”
Richard McNeil-Willson, who lectures in the Islamic and Middle Eastern studies department at Edinburgh University, said Starmer’s position on Gaza is becoming “politically untenable” after a UN special committee report said the policies and practices carried out by Israel are “consistent with the characteristics of genocide”.
READ MORE: Humanitarian aid entering Gaza reaches historic low
The committee, set up in 1968 to monitor Israel’s occupation said in its annual report that there were serious concerns that Israel was “using starvation as a weapon of war” and was running an “apartheid system” in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
A report by Human Rights Watch also accused Israel of “crimes against humanity” in causing the massive, deliberate forced displacement of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy last month claimed that the term genocide referred to “when millions of people lost their lives in crises like Rwanda, the Second World War in the Holocaust” and that using it to describe Gaza “now undermines [its] seriousness”.
archive.ph/uoxu0#selection-1735.3-1823.3https://archive.ph/uoxu0#selection-1735.3-1823.3
