UK was an 'active participant' in Israeli war crimes, Corbyn tribunal finds
Britain was an active participant in some Israeli war crimes in Gaza, a tribunal chaired by Your Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and two international law specialists has found.
The highly publicised Gaza Tribunal was held last September and its findings were published in a report on Monday.
It was held after the Labour government blocked a bill put forward by former Labour leader Corbyn for a public Chilcot-style inquiry into Britain's military cooperation with Israel.
The Gaza Tribunal took evidence from eyewitnesses, UN rapporteurs, journalists, medics and academics.
Monday's report concludes that Britain has "failed in its fundamental obligation to prevent genocide, has been complicit in atrocity crimes, and in some instances has even been an active participant in these crimes".
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Corbyn said that it "will help cement the government’s legacy as an active participant in one of the greatest crimes of our time".
The report says that the "violation of international law could implicate individual ministers and officials, including those who have authorised the continuation of economic ties with Israel, as well as the commission of arms trades, arm transfers and intelligence exchange".
Surveillance flights over Gaza
According to the report, the Labour government should have stopped sharing intelligence with Israel and reviewed its trade relations with the country.
Britain operated hundreds of surveillance flights over Gaza during Israel's genocide and shared intelligence with Israel, which the government insisted was for "hostage rescue" purposes.
The UK must "provide the ICC and ICJ with all surveillance footage it has collected during RAF overflights of Gaza," the report says.
The report also finds that the British government should have imposed a full, rather than partial, arms embargo on Israel.
The report says the International Court of Justice's January 2024 ruling on genocide placed a duty on states to prevent genocide.
It further notes that the ICJ's advisory opinion that summer that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory was illegal placed a legal duty on states not to enter trade dealings with Israel concerning the occupied territories.
The report cites Middle East Eye's reporting last June that, as foreign secretary under the Conservative government, David Cameron threatened the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor with Britain's withdrawal from the court if it pursued arrest warrants against Israeli officials.
The report urges the government to impose economic sanctions on Israel, end military cooperation with the country, investigate "British citizens who participated in Israel’s war crimes" and cooperate with "a full, official, independent public inquiry into any cooperation between the UK and Israel since October 2023".
"This inquiry must have the power to question ministers and officials involved in decision-making processes."
Corbyn said he hoped "the Gaza Tribunal serves as a landmark contribution to the campaign for justice, and as a historical repository of evidence for generations to come".
The tribunal's two other co-chairs were Dr Shahd Hammouri, a lecturer in international law at the University of Kent, and Neve Gordon, a professor of human rights law at Queen Mary University of London.
Hammouri said: "We hereby accuse top UK officials of complicity in the genocide in Gaza.
"They lied, manipulated the law, denied the reality on the ground, and prosecuted those who spoke truth to power."
Gordon added: "The government’s complicity in the genocide in Gaza has created a very dangerous precedent for our current moment.
'We hereby accuse top UK officials of complicity in the genocide in Gaza'
- Dr Shahd Hammouri
"Indeed, we are already witnessing the fallout with Keir Stammer’s immoral response to the illegal war of aggression in Iran."
The US has in the past few weeks allowed the US to use British military bases for bombers en route to targeting Iranian missile sites.
"To ensure that ‘Never Again’ does not become entirely meaningless," Gordon continued, "we must hold ministers and officials accountable for the government’s complicity in the destruction of Gaza."
The Foreign Office has said it has imposed three sets of sanctions in response to settler violence in the occupied West Bank and opposes forced displacement.
Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer said earlier this month that there "must be accountability and justice for all crimes committed right across Palestinian and Israeli territory".
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