Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza, government concludes.
A letter from David Lammy, sent when he was foreign secretary, says the war does not meet the criteria, though he calls Israeli bombing ‘utterly appalling.’
David Lammy, who was the foreign secretary at the time, met Isaac Herzog, the president of Israel, in Jerusalem last year
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The UK does not consider Israel’s actions in Gaza to be genocide, David Lammy has said in a significant shift in position on the issue.Until last week the UK government had maintained that the question of whether Israel had committed genocide was a matter for the courts and not for national governments to determine.However, in a letter to the chair of the international development committee last week Lammy said that an assessment carried out by the Foreign Office had concluded that Israel’s actions did not constitute genocide.• Spain PM Pedro Sánchez issues arms embargo on Israel for ‘genocide’The letter, sent before he was replaced as foreign secretary in the cabinet reshuffle, said: “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.” Times.
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