LONDON: Campaigners have condemned a claim by the UK’s outgoing foreign secretary that there does not appear to be a genocide taking place in Gaza.
David Lammy was responding to Sarah Champion MP, chair of the international development committee, who had asked him how the UK’s policy on supplying F-35 fighter jet parts complies with a duty to prevent genocide, given that the planes are used by the Israeli military.
In a letter, Lammy replied: “As per the Genocide Convention, the crime of genocide occurs only where there is specific ‘intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.’ The government has not concluded that Israel is acting with that intent.”
He said the war has been “utterly appalling,” but the government has “carefully considered” the question of whether genocide is taking place.
Lammy condemned the actions of the Israeli military, and said it “must do much more to prevent and alleviate the suffering that this conflict is causing.”
