Jeremy Corbyn leads hearing examining UK’s role in Gaza war

A public hearing examining the UK’s complicity in the Gaza war opened in London on September 4th, according to The New Arab.

The hearing, which is called the “Gaza tribunal” was scheduled to last for two days. It aims to examine the UK’s role in the war on Gaza led by Israel, as well as the Foreign Office’s conduct concerning the crisis.

It is co-chaired by former Labour leader and independent MP Jeremy Corbyn, and includes testimonies from ex-diplomats, UN experts, international law specialists, journalists, doctors, as well as others. On June 4th, the parliament passed the Gaza (Independent Public Inquiry) Bill, which was introduced by Corbyn.

The UK government previously blocked a public inquiry into its response to the Gaza conflict. The inquiry intended to mirror the Iraq Inquiry, led by John Chilcot, which examined Britain’s role in the Iraq war. 

Corbyn had stated that “just like Iraq, the government is doing everything it can to protect itself from scrutiny. Just like Iraq, it will not succeed in its attempts to suffocate the truth. We will uncover the full scale of British complicity in genocide.”

The hearing has been broadcasted live and comes amid heightened domestic pressure in the UK, for the government to stop the the war. 

The tribunal discussion includes the legal obligations of the UK, whether the UK has given secret support to Israel, and how it has fulfilled its responsibility to stop genocide.  

Sessions would cover events in Gaza over the past two years, Britain’s legal responsibilities, whether the UK has provided covert support to Israel, and how it has met its international obligations to prevent genocide.

It will also closely examine the ties between the UK Ministry of Defence and Israel’s arms industry.

There are several witnesses participating, including Mark Smith, a former Foreign Office official who resigned over arms export policies, as well as the lawyer that is representing the family of Jim Henderson, an aid worker who was killed in April 1st last year. 

Other participants include Israeli historian Raz Segal, who has referred to Israel’s actions as “a textbook case of genocide.” Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine, is also a participant.

On September 4th, Dr Victoria Rose, a consultant plastic surgeon who has worked in Gaza multiple times since the beginning of the conflict, told the panel that the amount of children injured during the war was “unacceptable.” She said: “UNICEF have recently estimated 50,000 in Gaza, and when you compare that to 2,400 in Ukraine, you start to get a picture of what’s going on.”

Israeli-American author and anthropologist Jeff Halper spoke about Zionism to the panel, stating that the purpose of it “is to Judaize Palestine; to transform an Arab country into a Jewish country, to take its land, displace its population, replace its population with a Jewish one, and then normalise.”

Organisers hope that this inquiry will boost pressure for an official state-backed investigation into the UK’s involvement in the war. The tribunal continues on September 5th.

The New Arab, Al Jazeera, Maghrebi.org