Jeremy Corbyn MP: "Has the Government received any legal advice on the definition of genocide?"

Jeremy Corbyn MP, together with other Independent Alliance MPs, has written to the Prime Minister to ask if the Government has received any legal advice on the definition of genocide.

Jeremy Corbyn posted to X: "Has the Prime Minister received any legal advice over the definition of genocide? A letter from the Independent Alliance, following Keir Starmer's refusal to recognise the genocide in Gaza."

The Independent Alliance's letter to Keir Starmer in full:

The Rt Hon Keir Starmer MP Prime Minister's Office

10 Downing Street

London

SW1A 2AA

18/11/2024

Dear Prime Minister,

We are writing to ask whether you have received any legal advice over the definition of genocide in relation to the situation in Gaza.

During Prime Minister's Questions last week, you were asked if you could share your definition of genocide and to outline what action you are taking to save the lives of desperate men, women and children in Gaza.

In your response, you said you were "well aware of the definition of genocide" and that this explains why you "have never described or referred to this as genocide". This follows recent comments made by the Foreign Secretary, who said that adopting this description "undermines the seriousness of that term".

You will be aware of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling in January, which determined that the right of the Palestinians to be protected from genocide was at "real and imminent risk of irreparable prejudice". Since then, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories has said there are "reasonable grounds" to believe Israel is committing genocide.

Last week, the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices concluded that "the policies and practices of Israel during the reporting period are consistent with the characteristics of genocide." Those practices include "the targeting of Palestinians as a group" and the use of "starvation as a weapon of war."

Your flippant denial of genocide egregiously downplays the suffering of Palestinians and shows blatant disregard for international law. You will know that the legal definition of genocide is not dependent on the numbers killed, but on "the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethic, racial or religious group", as laid out in article 2 of the Genocide Convention.

If the government is relying on its own definition, we ask that you share this definition and explain why the horrors in Gaza do not qualify. Please could you also answer the following questions:

1. Have you sought or received any legal advice from the Attorney General over the definition of genocide and its applicability to the situation in Gaza? Have you received any other legal advice on this matter? When will this advice be made public?

2. What is the government doing to fulfil its obligations, under the Genocide Convention, to prevent genocide?

3. Is it the government's view that UN officials are undermining the seriousness of the term genocide? If so, is it still the belief of the Foreign Secretary that "the United Nations is the bedrock of international law"?

4. What words would you advise Palestinians to use to describe the mass slaughter of their people?

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that your denial of the genocide in Gaza is rooted in the knowledge that, if you accepted the true scale of what is happening, you would be admitting your government's ongoing complicity in crimes against humanity. We re-iterate our calls for your government to stop enabling genocide, end all arms sales to Israel, and start treating Palestinians as human beings with equal worth.

Signed,

The Independent Alliance

Adnan Hussain MP

Jeremy Corbyn MP

Ayoub Khan MP

Iqbal Mohamed MP

Shockat Adam MP

https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/1858488169005543921