{"id":1434,"date":"2026-08-12T19:08:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T19:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=1434"},"modified":"2026-08-12T19:08:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T19:08:57","slug":"gaza-tribunal-co-chairs-call-for-uk-to-end-its-complicity-in-israels-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=1434","title":{"rendered":"Gaza Tribunal Co-Chairs Call for UK to End Its Complicity in Israel\u2019s Genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"
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From London, we revisit the Gaza Tribunal, an independent, nongovernmental inquiry into the United Kingdom\u2019s complicity in the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The tribunal, held nearly one year ago, was chaired by our three guests: former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, Israeli professor of human rights law Neve Gordon and Palestinian legal scholar Shahd Hammouri. Their new book is titled The Gaza Tribunal: Britain\u2019s Complicity in Genocide<\/em>. We discuss the recent apology from Prime Minister Andy Burnham over the Labour Party\u2019s early support for Israel\u2019s assault on Gaza, the United Kingdom\u2019s crackdown on the Palestine Action protest group under counterterrorism laws, and whether British policymakers will face any accountability for participating in \u201cone of the biggest crimes in humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

TRANSCRIPT<\/h2>\n

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.<\/em><\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> This is Democracy Now!<\/em>, democracynow.org. I\u2019m Amy Goodman. We\u2019re broadcasting from London, where tonight the documentary about Democracy Now!<\/em>, Steal This Story, Please!<\/em>, will be at the Curzon theater, Bloomsbury, in the Bertha DocHouse. We\u2019ll talk more about that later.<\/p>\n

But right now the key issue of the day, Britain\u2019s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham recently apologized for the Labour Party\u2019s initial stance on Gaza. On July 20th, Burnham became prime minister, succeeding Keir Starmer, who announced his resignation in June. Burnham is Britain\u2019s seventh prime minister in a decade. He\u2019s the former mayor of Manchester. Shortly before becoming prime minister, Burnham posted this video online.<\/p>\n

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ANDY BURNHAM:<\/strong> I know many people feel that at the start of Israel\u2019s military action in Gaza, my party didn\u2019t get it right, and I am sorry about that. The response has too often not been good enough. We need to do better.<\/p>\n

Yes, we have taken some important steps. These include recognizing the Palestinian state, placing sanctions on Israeli ministers and imposing waves of sanctions on violent settlers and the organizations that support them. I also fully support the restrictions on arms licenses to make sure that no British bombs or bullets can be used by the IDF in Gaza or in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s be honest: The U.K. was too slow to call for a ceasefire, and we must now do more to strengthen our approach. Israel continues to violate the ceasefire agreement, killing innocent Palestinians. We\u2019re seeing a surge in settler violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the continued expansion of illegal settlements, displacing Palestinian communities. And Netanyahu\u2019s government is clearly attempting to make a two-state solution impossible.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why we need to do more, which includes looking at further sanctions, both on those involved in the violence in Gaza, but also looking at measures to ban trade in goods with illegal settlements. I, like many people, feel passionately about Gaza, and I will do everything I can to work with international partners to stop the suffering, to ensure the Israeli government adheres to international law, and to keep the prospect of a two-state solution alive, because this is the only way to lasting peace for both Israelis and Palestinians.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> That was Britain\u2019s new prime minister, Andy Burnham.<\/p>\n

Last year, an independent Gaza Tribunal was held here in London. It featured testimony from 29 witnesses, including journalists, aid workers, doctors and international law experts. The tribunal concluded the British government was complicit in Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza by authorizing military, economic and political support for Israel.<\/p>\n

The tribunal was held amidst an escalating crackdown in Britain targeting pro-Palestinian activists. Since July of last year, British police have arrested over 3,000 people for expressing support for the group Palestine Action. Last year, the British government declared the group to be a terrorist organization, making support for the group punishable by up to 14 years in prison.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re joined right now by the Gaza Tribunal\u2019s three co-chairs. Jeremy Corbyn is a member of the British Parliament who served as Labour Party leader from 2015 to 2020. He has served in the British Parliament since 1983. Neve Gordon is an Israeli political scientist and professor of international law and human rights at Queen Mary University of London, the first director of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel. And Shahd Hammouri is a Palestinian Jordanian lecturer in international law and legal theory at the University of Kent. The three have just published a new book. It\u2019s titled The Gaza Tribunal: Britain\u2019s Complicity in Genocide<\/em>. We\u2019ll spend the hour with them.<\/p>\n

MP Corbyn, it\u2019s an honor to have you back on Democracy Now!<\/em> Can you respond to the new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, a man you know well over the years, and his apology? What exactly does it mean?<\/p>\n

JEREMY CORBYN:<\/strong> Well, it isn\u2019t really an apology. What it says is we got it wrong, which isn\u2019t quite the same thing, and says we\u2019ve got to do better in the future, then goes on to reiterate what we were told in Parliament, that no weapons being sold to Israel could be used, conceivably, to kill people in Gaza. Well, if that is the case, then we should cease all arms trade with Israel, and we should certainly cease being a very important supplier of parts for the F-35 jets, which are still being used to bomb and kill people in Gaza. And so, it\u2019s not enough. It\u2019s not enough also to say we will sanction settlement goods whilst at the same time not sanctioning those companies that work in and out of settlements and in Israel which are supplying parts for other weapons; likewise, the manufacture of weapons by Israel, by Elbit Systems, at factories in Britain. So, he hasn\u2019t gone, as far as I\u2019m concerned, anything like far enough in this.<\/p>\n

And the point you made, in addition, is that if he is serious about a complete change of policy, if he\u2019s serious \u2014 it\u2019s a big \u201cif\u201d \u2014 then why are we criminalizing people who take part in protest in Britain? A number have already been convicted and face long stretches in prison. These are nonviolent direct action protests. And there are also probably 2,500 to 3,000 people who have been arrested for holding a placard, in contravention of the Terrorism Act 2000, which is basically labeling anyone that holds a placard up saying \u201cI support Palestine Action,\u201d calling them a terrorist. This includes people in their eighties and even nineties, retired Anglican clergy people and many others. It\u2019s an absurd situation.<\/p>\n

If we are going to be serious about supporting the Palestinian people, and the genocide they\u2019re still going through, we would also stop allowing Israel to use the Royal Air Force base in Akrotiri. We\u2019d stop the sharing of security information with Israel. We would isolate Israel\u2019s military actions, all of which are directed against the Palestinian people. It\u2019s simply not enough.<\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> You know, just coming into London overnight, I was looking at the news, and it\u2019s completely inundated with the controversial proposal, the plan now to release many people from prison to be able to fill it with other people. And you\u2019re talking about 3,000 people, not clear they would all go to prison. But that\u2019s who we\u2019re talking about clearing the prisons for?<\/p>\n

JEREMY CORBYN:<\/strong> We\u2019re talking about serious criminals being released early in order to make space for peaceful protesters who have simply said it\u2019s not on their conscience any longer that they can do nothing about the killing of Palestinian people. It is an absurd situation.<\/p>\n

I do think, by the way, there needs to be a reform of our prison system, and prisons should be a place of rehabilitation and education rather than solely of punishment. But then, that\u2019s \u2014 maybe it\u2019s a wider issue. But we\u2019re concentrating on this work that we did, which was \u2014 and it was wonderful working with Shahd and Neve to do this. And the book is selling well.<\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> And I want to talk about the tribunal, but one more thing.<\/p>\n

JEREMY CORBYN:<\/strong> Sure.<\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> With your position as MP, you\u2019ve presented a private member\u2019s bill to Parliament. You did that about a year ago.<\/p>\n

JEREMY CORBYN:<\/strong> Yeah.<\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> Now, for the world, they don\u2019t understand private member\u2019s bill. But is this still relevant? And what did you propose?<\/p>\n

JEREMY CORBYN:<\/strong> It\u2019s extremely relevant and is still very relevant. Because the government had consistently refused to have an open inquiry into the way decisions were made, what information was shared in the bombardment of Gaza, and the use of RAF bases, I then proposed a private member\u2019s bill, which means it\u2019s a backbench bill by an individual MP \u2014 I, myself. It got through its first stage, and so we had the bill printed and published, and the details of the bill very carefully thought out and presented. It was then blocked for the main debate, which is when it would become a live issue within Parliament. We expected that. So, we then set up the independent tribunal, which we\u2019re now talking about.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re now into a new session in Parliament, because Parliament \u2014 each parliamentary session lasts around a year. The new session is underway. I\u2019ve secured a slot for the 11th of September to present the bill again. And hopefully \u2014 I can\u2019t predict for certainty what will happen \u2014 we get a debate on it.<\/p>\n

Basically, what we\u2019re saying is, after the Iraq War, and complicity of Britain in the war crimes in Iraq became very obvious through Sir John Chilcot\u2019s inquiry, we want another inquiry, but this time with more teeth, to deal with the connivance of people in misleading information, selling weapons which have been used to kill people. If the Foreign Office are really expecting us to believe that none of these weapons that we\u2019re selling to Israel at the moment can be used to kill anybody in Gaza, then we need to know exactly what weapons are being sold. We don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> Professor Neve Gordon, you have \u2014 are getting a number of signatures \u2014 you can tell us how many \u2014 an open letter, what, to the prime minister. Can you explain what you are calling for?<\/p>\n

NEVE GORDON:<\/strong> So, again, the prime minister said that Britain got it wrong. And we are suggesting that if it got it wrong, then this shouldn\u2019t remain on the realm of discourse, but should manifest itself into action. So, we\u2019re raising, of course, the criminalization of the Palestine Action activists, and we can talk a bit more about how they\u2019ve been criminalized maybe later on, and we\u2019re calling to deproscribe the group, which was proscribed as a terrorist group in July 2025.<\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> If you could actually address that right now? Because I think it can be puzzling to many people around the world that these protesters are now called terrorists, and there are a handful who have been sentenced.<\/p>\n

NEVE GORDON:<\/strong> So, there\u2019s two issues here. One is, we have a group of people that decided that protesting and calling on the government to change its actions is no longer viable in terms of bringing about change, and therefore, they have decided to take direct action and to try to stop the transfer of these weapons, that have been used to kill Palestinians in Gaza, to the Israeli military to be used for the destruction of the Gaza Strip. They have been criminalized by the British government in such a way that they have been proscribed not as a radical movement, but as an actual terrorist group. And if they are a terrorist group, that then the sentences they will receive for carrying out what could be really minor property offenses, like writing graffiti on an airplane, as a terrorist act. And anyone that supports them \u2014 and that\u2019s the 3,000 and somewhat retired people that you mentioned \u2014 can also be sentenced to jail.<\/p>\n

Now, what happened? The second issue is that what happened in the trials is that these people were not allowed to explain their motivations. Now, let me give you an example. Let\u2019s say someone wants to attack right here in the studio Jeremy Corbyn, and Shahd jumps up and pushes that person away, and that person sprains their ankle and sues Shahd. She is not allowed to explain in court that, basically, she was trying to defend Corbyn from the attack. So, these people that were sentenced are not allowed to explain their motivation to prevent a much greater harm than the harm that they carried out, which was the destruction of property. That is not allowed in court. And then, the British people \u2014 the legislator also distinguished between the verdict and the sentencing. So, the jury could not hear their motivations, had to decide whether they destroyed some property, decided that they did indeed destroy some property, but then, instead of being tried for a criminal offense of the destruction of property, they were tried as terrorists. So there is a separation between verdict and sentencing. And the judge can decide on that separation and can decide to judge them as terrorists for a crime that actually the whole court case was about the destruction of property.<\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> So, I want to turn to the case of the British lawyer facing contempt charges over his closing speech during a trial of Palestine Action activists. Rajiv Menon KC is accused of misleading the jury and ignoring directions by the judge when representing Charlotte Head, one of the four activists jailed for criminal damage after they broke into an Elbit Systems weapons factory in Filton in August of 2024. At a recent online webinar titled \u201cDescent into Authoritarianism? The Rajiv Menon KC Case,\u201d legal experts spoke about the contempt of court charges being brought against Menon. At the end of the event, Menon himself spoke briefly to thank supporters and spoke about the case of the Filton 24, the activists arrested and charged for their direct action break-in at the Elbit Systems weapons factory. This is what he said.<\/p>\n

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RAJIV MENON KC:<\/strong> It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the Filton 24, the incredible young people who risked everything \u2014 excuse me \u2014 to speak truth to power and to do what they thought was right when they engaged in direct action against the Elbit Systems factory in Filton. It was an enormous privilege for me to represent Charlotte Head, together with Simon and Kate. We fight on for her against the draconian sentence that she received from the very judge who instigated the proceedings against me, and that battle will continue as long as it needs to continue.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> So, that\u2019s Rajiv Menon, who has been held now in contempt of court, the attorney for the Palestine Action activists. Israeli professor Neve Gordon, you cite him directly in this letter, open letter, that scores of people have signed on to, scholars and practitioners of international law. Talk about including him and what exactly you are demanding of Prime Minister Burnham in this open letter.<\/p>\n

NEVE GORDON:<\/strong> Well, basically, the judge is not allowing the defense lawyers to defend their clients. It\u2019s not allowing to explain the context in which their actions took place, and is not allowing the lawyer to do his job in this case. And when the lawyer tried to do his job, which is his calling \u2014 I need, to the best of my effort, to defend these people \u2014 he was held in contempt of court. And if it goes through, he might even be debarred. And this is one of the U.K.\u2019s major barristers, and who is well respected, and it is unheard of, this kind of attack, both on the activists, that were not allowed to speak during the trials and explain their motivations, and about the defense team, that were not allowed to carry their jobs.<\/p>\n

And I don\u2019t \u2014 and so, there\u2019s a whole \u2014 what we see here is, again, this, I think, is also part of the complicity of the British government, because as it enhances diplomatic support, inviting the president of Israel to come to meetings here, the one that signed the rockets on the Gaza border that were later being launched against civilians in Gaza, as it\u2019s doing that, it is introducing new legislation that includes what we\u2019ve just discussed, but also includes outlawing speech, like \u201cfrom the river to the sea,\u201d \u201cintifada,\u201d \u201canti-Zionism,\u201d and things like that, to silence any kind of mobilization and collective action against probably the worst crime in the 21st century. And so, we\u2019re seeing this double movement of those that have been supporting the genocide basically being spread a red carpet, while those that take a stance and come out against it being criminalized.<\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> I want to bring in the third author of the new book, The Gaza Tribunal: Britain\u2019s Complicity in Genocide<\/em>, Shahd Hammouri, Palestinian Jordanian lecturer in international law and legal theory at the University of Kent, served as co-chair of the Gaza Tribunal, along with the Israeli professor Neve Gordon and the British MP Jeremy Corbyn. Thanks so much for being with us, Shahd. If you could start off by talking about the awareness within the British populace, the public, how their taxpayer dollars are spent? What is the awareness of Britain\u2019s relationship with Israel?<\/p>\n

SHAHD HAMMOURI:<\/strong> So, to begin with, let\u2019s be very clear: Had it not been for the U.K.\u2019s material support to Israel, we could have saved tens of thousands of lives. And it was very clear for the people who went to the street that if something were to happen by the U.K.\u2019s government, we are able to save those lives. So, an apology coming far too late into the future is almost offensive, rather than anything that would relinquish people or allow us to breathe.<\/p>\n

So, as to the British people\u2019s understanding of what was happening, it is indeed very disturbing to see the distortion that happened through mainstream media, such as the BBC, for example, where representations of Palestinians as less human were not only normalized, but also deep fear of the other was ingrained over and over and over again. Listening to the news, it was as if one is listening to the world saying that their life, and specifically their right to say no to a settler colony that has deprived us of our life for five generations now, is criminalized over and over again. And the sad thing is that not only were the British people not allowed to know what was happening within their money \u2014 with their money, but also they were not allowed to even protest it. And whoever protests it is also demonized within the media space.<\/p>\n

And so, this is \u2014 this was clearly where the edge of the so-called democratic system has reached. We\u2019ve reached the edge of the establishment\u2019s rule and \u2014 or, the establishment\u2019s space, where it allows us to express our opinions, in the sense that the moment that we touch its own interests in West Asia, and Israel being the main factor of that interest in facilitating that, that is where everything stops. That is where an autoimmune reaction happens within the system, so natural within the system that it automatically reacted by blocking out any imagination, any understanding or humanization to stop this bloodshed.<\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> Shahd Hammouri, you\u2019ve talked about what\u2019s happened in the streets, but also the suites and the government offices, that there was a kind of policy to silence and even punish civil servants who dared to speak out.<\/p>\n

SHAHD HAMMOURI:<\/strong> So, as we saw in the testimonies that were presented in front of us, civil servants \u2014 and it must be said, very close to or invoking questions that were discussed in the Nuremberg trials \u2014 were faced with an option of you\u2019re either damned if you speak or damned if you don\u2019t, in the sense that if they were to follow their own consciousness and say no against decisions that would give economic support to Israel \u2014 and let\u2019s be clear, under international law, any support to Israeli war economy, not just to the settlement economy, was a form of supporting the genocide and falls outside of the U.K.\u2019s obligations \u2014 when they try to notify that, and when other civil servants try to note that sending weapons or anything of the like is indeed in violation of Britain\u2019s own law, as well as international law, they are faced with a choice: You either leave your job, or you stay silent.<\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> I wanted to go to Mark Smith. He testified at the Gaza Tribunal. He was a British Foreign Office official who resigned in protest over continued arms sales to Israel. This was back in August 2024. Smith was the lead official on the U.K. arms export licensing report, which assessed whether the U.K. was legally compliant. He chose to only testify by voice. I want to get your response to this, Shahd. This is some of his testimony.<\/p>\n

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MARK SMITH:<\/strong> What I witnessed while working on that report was profoundly concerning. While I was working on the report, I was routinely changed \u2014 asked to change the report. This was not to correct mistakes or to ensure accuracy, as would normally be the case with a Civil Service report. But I was actually asked to alter the wording, placement of paragraphs, and to omit key information, so that it, quote-unquote, \u201csounded less bad.\u201d So, this is absolutely counter to what we are trained to do as civil servants, and it\u2019s something that I have never witnessed in my career, either prior to or following working on this particular report. \u2026<\/p>\n

It was also fully understood in the department that we would have these conversations in person and not want those conversations to be requested by a court. So, for anybody listening here, there have been hundreds, if not thousands, of conversations within the walls of the Foreign Office on the most controversial aspects of our arms sales policy, which will never be seen by the public, which will never be put into a court, even a closed court, because we have them in person.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> So, that was Mark Smith testifying at the Gaza Tribunal last year in London, chaired by our three guests today. He was a British Foreign Office official who resigned in protest. And this is Fran Heathcote, a British trade unionist and general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union.<\/p>\n

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FRAN HEATHCOTE:<\/strong> We further believe that across some areas of the Civil Service and its related areas, the Civil Service code is being used to prevent our members\u2019 engaging in activity to help the people of Gaza.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> Fran Heathcote, British trade unionist; Mark Smith. Shahd Hammouri, talk about the significance of this testimony and also where this tribunal led.<\/p>\n

SHAHD HAMMOURI:<\/strong> So, indeed \u2014 so, as I said, when we teach students about the Nuremberg trials, we ask them: How were civil servants that were put in such positions \u2014 what is their moral responsibility? What we have with Mark Smith is someone who is clear that signing this paper is to have not only blood on his hand, but to be complicit in the most atrocious crimes of which we cannot speak.<\/p>\n

And the fact that we see this reaction at all levels of the U.K.\u2019s government tells us how deeply ingrained is the establishment in establishing the borders of how far can British rule of law, as well as British democracy, go. And within spaces where we\u2019re not allowed to speak, to speak when you see these things, these people were deprived of their human rights to say no to being complicit in a genocide. And indeed, this is one of the most dangerous red lights that we could see in any government, whereby it is absolutely normalized to hide away one of the biggest crimes in humanity, even if it\u2019s just through signing papers and saying yes to cooperation with the Israeli military.<\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> We\u2019re going to break and then come back to this discussion. Shahd Hammouri is a Palestinian Jordanian lecturer in international law and legal theory at the University of Kent. Neve Gordon is a professor here in London. And Jeremy Corbyn is a British MP. They are co-chairs of the Gaza Tribunal, that has led to a new book, The Gaza Tribunal: Britain\u2019s Complicity in Genocide<\/em>. We\u2019ll be back with them in a minute here in London.<\/p>\n

[break]<\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> \u201cDarawish\u201d by the Palestinian oud musician Huda Asfour, performing in our Democracy Now!<\/em> studio. This is Democracy Now!<\/em>, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report<\/em>. I\u2019m Amy Goodman. We\u2019re broadcasting from London today and tomorrow, on Thursday.<\/p>\n

As we go back to the Gaza Tribunal, one of the witnesses was plastic surgeon Dr. Victoria Rose. She first joined missions to Gaza through the charity IDEALS in 2019, where she contributed to the development and training of limb reconstruction specialists in Gaza. Since 2024, she\u2019s undertaken multiple humanitarian missions in Gaza. In her testimony, she spoke about operating on children each and every day and shared her operating history from one single day in May of 2025.<\/p>\n

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DR. VICTORIA ROSE:<\/strong> I looked at one day\u2019s operating in May, and we operated on six children. We started with an 18-month-old child \u2014 that\u2019s not the youngest child I treated \u2014 with a 15% burn. We then went on to a 3-year-old boy with a 35% burn. In the U.K., that is a 50-50 survival burn, and it would go to probably one of only two units that would be able to look after that child. I then operated on a 5-year-old girl who had had her arm blown off. She was down for an amputation, but we managed to salvage half of her hand and most of her forearm and shoulder. I then operated on her sister, whilst my colleagues operated on her mother in the theater next door. Her sister had had her left cheek and shoulder blown off. I then operated on a 7-year-old girl who had had her knee blown off. And my final case was a 13-year-old boy who had had his left ankle blown off, and his brother was being operated in the theater next door.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> Dr. Victoria Rose testifying at the Gaza Tribunal in London last year. Again, we are joined by the co-chairs of the Gaza Tribunal \u2014 Shahd Hammouri, who teaches at the University of Kent; Neve Gordon, here in London, a professor; and British MP Jeremy Corbyn \u2014 who ended up co-authoring a book together, The Gaza Tribunal: Britain\u2019s Complicity in Genocide<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Neve Gordon, we just listened to what happened in a hospital. You are formerly the first director of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel. I\u2019m wondering if you can talk about Israel\u2019s systematic attacks on hospitals and healthcare workers in Gaza, not to mention journalists right now, and also how \u2014 how Britain has dealt with the issue of international law, the U.K. questioning the ICC\u2019s jurisdiction, to protect Israel.<\/p>\n

NEVE GORDON:<\/strong> So, we heard from Victoria Rose about one day operating on children. In the testimony itself, we also heard about the conditions under which she was operating. And these are conditions where all the hospitals, all 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip, were bombed, a lot of them damaged, but many of them completely destroyed, and where there was no med \u2014 Israel did not allow access to medicine, did not allow access to fuel that you need for electricity to run these hospitals, and basically systematically and deliberately decimated the medical field in the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n

And I would say, we need \u2014 the listener needs to understand that when you\u2019re attacking a hospital that serves a large population, it\u2019s not only the harm that is generated through the immediate attack, but it is the reverberating harm. And that reverberating harm, I would suggest, is equal to weapons of mass destruction, because the amount of people that are going to be killed from these attacks is today unknown, but it\u2019s in thousands.<\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> And Dr. Abu Safiya, the head of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, is still imprisoned.<\/p>\n

NEVE GORDON:<\/strong> So, we have 1,700 health workers that were killed in the Gaza Strip. And that is about three times the \u2014 more than the level of civilians, so you\u2019re three times more likely to be killed in the Gaza Strip if you\u2019re a health worker than if you are a civilian. And then we have scores of doctors and healthcare workers that were disappeared or taken into Israeli jails. And we know that in these jails they have been tortured, and some of them have been raped.<\/p>\n

So, there is a systematic assault on the lifesaving and life-sustaining situation in the Gaza Strip. And the English government is, instead of looking at this pattern of assault where we have over 900 attacks on medical units in Gaza, instead of looking at it and seeing there\u2019s a pattern here, it\u2019s systematic and deliberate, is looking at each and every single attack and saying maybe there was a reason to attack it, because maybe combatants were hiding in the hospitals. And what we see is only trees, and we\u2019ve lost sight of the forest. And the forest is the destruction of the health system in Gaza.<\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> British MP Jeremy Corbyn, in the United States, the majority of those who voted in the Democratic Caucus \u2014 we have not seen this before \u2014 people like Congressmember Ro Khanna and others, voted to end military support for Israel. Talk about the shift, if there is one in the British Parliament, and also, coming back to your new prime minister, Andy Burnham, where he was on this, and the space you feel protest \u2014 what role protest plays in moving this forward.<\/p>\n

JEREMY CORBYN:<\/strong> I want to say a big \u201cthank you\u201d to all those in the United States that have protested and marched for Gaza, marched for the Palestinian people, because I know the hardship they faced, and I know the number of students that lost positions because of the encampments and so much else. So, I want to say a big \u201cthank you\u201d to all our friends in the U.S. for what they\u2019ve done and continue to do on this, and it\u2019s clearly making a difference. Look at the election results in the Democrat primaries. Look at the change that\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n

In Britain, it\u2019s been a more complicated process, because the British government\u2019s relationship with Israel is incredibly close. It is security cooperation. And there is a huge Israeli influence on the British political system. And it\u2019s very hard to hit back against that in support of the Palestinian people. But nevertheless, we\u2019ve had enormous demonstrations in Britain. The biggest was almost a million who marched on the U.S. Embassy. And I think my estimation is almost 2 million people in Britain have done something in support of the Palestinian cause. Parliament is way behind the curve in all this, but it\u2019s beginning to change, way behind the curve, but change is happening before my very eyes. One night, there was a maneuver in Parliament to prevent a vote on a ceasefire. The reaction, the public reaction, was so huge on that, a week later, you couldn\u2019t move for Labour MPs using the word \u201cceasefire\u201d in their speeches in Parliament. Things have changed.<\/p>\n

Now, Andy Burnham said what he said. I think it\u2019s inadequate. I think it\u2019s very late. I think it\u2019s very unclear. But nevertheless, he only said that for a reason. And that was \u2014 the reason was the electoral pushback against the Labour Party because of its complicity in genocide and because of the findings and what this book is about.<\/p>\n

And so, my message is this: Protest works. It can be very frustrating going on a march. You think, \u201cWell, what have I done? I\u2019ve just been on a march, whereas the Palestinian people are losing everything as a result.\u201d If it\u2019s all we can do, it\u2019s an act of solidarity. It does change things. But the points that Neve was making, the points that Shahd was making, Palestinian kids are dying of starvation, of dehydration, of operations that can\u2019t succeed because of a lack of anesthetic and even antiseptic. And within a few kilometers, everything is available. This is a human-made murder of Palestinian children. It is an act of genocide. Protest, please. Do all you can. Our book is part of that protest, and we sent copies to Andy Burnham and to Ed Miliband and invited them to meet us to discuss the findings of our tribunal and have the courage to set up a government-sponsored public inquiry into Britain\u2019s complicity.<\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> And, Shahd Hammouri, from Palestine to Iran, your final thoughts?<\/p>\n

SHAHD HAMMOURI:<\/strong> Well, they\u2019re all a very \u2014 they\u2019re all the same part of what needs to happen, in the sense if the U.K. regrets its position in relation to Palestine, then the U.K. needs to stop supporting the U.S. in its attacks, against Israel, further destabilization, as well as taking it away against the sovereignty of nations within West Asia. The U.S., U.K. should have never been in West Asia. It\u2019s an area for its people, not for the plunder and exploitation of foreigners.<\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> And do you feel that Andy Burnham is listening?<\/p>\n

SHAHD HAMMOURI:<\/strong> I highly doubt it, to be honest. However, we shall try with every single point that we have to bring forward the paradoxes of what has happened to the English legal system, as well as the English democratic system, in order to put a mirror in front of them, so that they can no longer claim any moral superiority after their hands are full of blood. And we\u2019re hoping that with that, we can bring forward change little by little, as per the fact that the British people are more than ever, as per the American people, aware of what is happening and aware of a very simple fact, and that is the people of the region should never be controlled by foreign entities, and they have every right to live equally, like everyone else.<\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> I want to thank you all for being with us, Shahd Hammouri, Palestinian Jordanian lecturer in international law and legal theory at University of Kent; Neve Gordon, Israeli political scientist, professor of international law and human rights at Queen Mary University of London; and British MP Jeremy Corbyn. The three co-chaired the Gaza Tribunal and co-authored the new book, just out, The Gaza Tribunal: Britain\u2019s Complicity in Genocide<\/em>.<\/p>\n

That does it for our show. I hope you all have glasses to see the total eclipse tonight, or 90% here in London.<\/p>\n

JEREMY CORBYN:<\/strong> Or you can watch it through a colander.<\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> Oh, or through a colander. That\u2019s the new one that I\u2019ve been hearing. And tonight at that same time, I\u2019ll be at the Bertha DocHouse at the Curzon Cinema in Bloomsbury for two screenings, at 6:20 and 9:00, of Steal This Story, Please!<\/em> Special thanks to Denis Moynihan. I\u2019m Amy Goodman. Thanks so much for joining us. I\u2019m in London.<\/p>\n

Read more White House Reportedly Asks DOJ to Revive Reflecting Pool Vandalism Charges<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn criticizes Prime Minister Andy\u2019s Burnham\u2019s apology: \u201cIt\u2019s simply not enough.\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nGaza Tribunal Co-Chairs Call for UK to End Its Complicity in Israel\u2019s Genocide - Smart Moving Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=1434\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gaza Tribunal Co-Chairs Call for UK to End Its Complicity in Israel\u2019s Genocide - 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