UK complicit in desecration of international law in Gaza, says Corbyn-led tribunal

UK complicit in desecration of international law in Gaza, says Corbyn-led tribunal Unofficial body co-chaired by ex-Labour leader says Britain failed to meet its duty to seek to prevent a genocide The Labour government has been complicit in crimes committed by Israel in Gaza and in the desecration of international law, according to an unoffical tribunal on Gaza chaired by the former party leader Jeremy Corbyn and two specialists in international law. The tribunal’s findings to be published on Monday are likely to be cited in May’s local elections, in which Labour faces a rearguard action to beat off challenges from the Greens and Your Party, in part driven by anger that the government has not done enough to back the Palestinian cause. The tribunal took evidence from lawyers, medical professionals, former Foreign Office officials and Palestinians, and focused largely on whether the UK should have done more to end its cooperation with Israel to avoid being accused of failing to meet its duty to prevent a genocide. It finds that the government should have ended all arms exports to Israel, stopped sharing intelligence and reviewed its trade relations with the country, especially after the international court of justice said in a July 2024 advisory opinion that Israel was occupying Palestine unlawfully. The tribunal’s report reads: “Britain’s failure to meet its legal obligations has contributed to the mass killing of Palestinian civilians and the wholesale destruction of civilian objects, the desecration of international law and the further erosion of Britain’s status as a nation committed to the rule of law in the international arena.” It says the UK not only failed to meet its duty to seek to prevent a genocide, but in some instances actively participated in such acts. The Foreign Office says it has imposed three sets of sanctions in response to settler violence in the West Bank and opposes all forms of forced displacement. The Middle East minister, Hamish Falconer, t...