PSC welcomes the report of the UN Commission of Inquiry concluding that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Whilst this had already been asserted by a vast array of legal experts, human rights groups and scholars, this report confirms this conclusion with additional evidence and the authority of an independent investigation made up of a distinguished panel of experts on human rights and genocide.    

The report demonstrates, in excruciating and horrific detail, how Israel has committed genocidal acts outlined in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to which Britain is a signatory. These acts include killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part and imposing measures intended to prevent births.   

The publication of this report marks a watershed moment. It has finally pushed some British politicians to recognise that Israel’s actions over the past two years have constituted genocide. They should understand also that these actions have been possible because of Israel’s decades’ long imposition of apartheid on the Palestinian people, which has been supported and enabled by the British state for as long.   

This report was published on the day that Israel opened the latest phase of its genocidal war, a ground invasion of Gaza City that unleashed new waves of terror upon the one million Palestinians sheltering there, as the Israeli Defense Minister boasted that “Gaza is burning.” 

Far from triggering pushback, after nearly 24 months of live-streamed barbarity from the Israeli military, the British government has distinguished itself in its ongoing support for Israel’s genocide. Its weak statements of condemnation have been rendered meaningless by continued arms trade with Israel, continued trade in settlement goods, and the welcoming of Israeli politicians, including most recently the Israeli President Herzog.  

The report is unequivocal in its calls on UN member states to take action, particularly signatories to the Genocide Convention, like Britain, which are legally obliged to prevent and punish genocide. The report calls for an end to the transfer of arms and other equipment that may be used in the commission of genocide, to ensure that individuals and corporations in their territories are not involved in aiding or assisting the commission or incitement to genocide, and to ensure accountability though investigations and legal proceedings against those who may be so, directly or indirectly.   

This must serve as a wake-up call to all government ministers, as well as their opposition peers, to take immediate action. Had they acted when the International Court of Justice first issued its provisional measures, Israel would not have been able to proceed as it has, and tens of thousands of Palestinians killed in Israel’s brutality would still be alive.  

Despite the British government’s grotesque position, ordinary people in Britain, in our thousands and our millions, have taken action at unprecedented levels. On Saturday 11 October, we will be marching once again in London. Faced with the government’s ongoing complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, we must make this one of the biggest demonstrations in British political history. Join us.