Sir Keir Starmer has faced a significant challenge at the Labour party conference after activists successfully pushed through a motion demanding the Government act to prevent “the commission of a genocide in Gaza”.
The emergency motion, tabled by the Unison trade union on Monday, also urged Labour’s leadership in Westminster to implement a “ban trade with illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank” and apply “comprehensive sanctions”, including a full arms embargo, on Israel.
Delegates in Liverpool voted in favour of the motion by a show of hands, ensuring its passage.
Responding to the motion, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy stated that his adherence to a “rules-based order” dictates that courts, not politicians, are the appropriate bodies to rule on whether a genocide is taking place.
Moving the motion, Unison general secretary Christina McAnea asserted: “This is genocide. But if we wait for this to be confirmed by a court, it will be too late, because it’s already happening as we sit here.”
Meanwhile, a separate emergency motion, titled “Peace in the Middle East” and put forward by Hackney North and Stoke Newington Constituency Labour Party (CLP), failed to pass.
That motion called on the Government to “fully suspend arms trade with Israel that could be used in the conflict”, reflecting the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s decision last year to suspend about 30 licences for items used in the current conflict in Gaza which go to the Israel Defence Forces.
It also called on the Government to continue its efforts to “do everything in its power to secure an immediate ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli military forces from Gaza and the unrestricted provision of humanitarian assistance”.
Mr Lammy, who was foreign secretary until earlier this month, said he believed in “the rules-based order”, when asked about the vote.
He continued: “That means that it must be for the ICJ with their judges and judiciary, and for the ICC, to determine the issue of genocide in relation to the convention, it is not for politicians like me to do that.
“But it is for the public to look at what they see and come to their own judgments about what they see.”
He added that last year he had decided that he “did see a clear risk that Israel was breaching international humanitarian law”.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign director Ben Jamal said: “This is a huge defeat for the Government, with the Labour Party finally accepting that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
“This historic vote must now become Government policy: imposing comprehensive sanctions on Israel and a full arms embargo.
“After almost two years of complicity in Israel’s genocide, the movement in solidarity with Palestine is turning the tide.
“People across this country are standing side by side with the Palestinian people, demanding their liberation.
“If the Government tries to ignore this momentous vote, it would not only be in denial of the facts, against public opinion, increasingly globally isolated, but also at war with its own party.”
Green Party co-deputy leader Mothin Ali said: “Keir Starmer and his ministers must not waste another second in calling out this act of genocide, end immediately the supply of all arms to Israel and impose strict sanctions on the country.
“It is clear from today’s motion, passed by a majority of Labour members, that conference would be the right time and place to do this.”
