Is it a genocide?

Our esteemed PM and Foreign Secretary have both recently said that what is happening in Gaza is not a genocide. Both men it appears are Human Rights lawyers and much more learned than I.

Genocide Convention.

Article II

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:


(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.


a) this is obvious but there are other indicators which point to the killing being deliberate. Hind Rajab was in a car and talking to the Red Crescent when the IDF opened fire killing her and then went on to kill the people in the ambulance that came to rescue her. Doctors in Gaza have testified that children are being shot in the head on a daily basis and have also testified to incidents where people lying on the ground, injured after a rocket attack are shot by Israeli drones. Journalists, doctors, aid workers and UN staff have been target and killed.

b) 1.7b people are said to have been displaced in Gaza when told to leave their homes by the IDF and have then been attacked whilst passing through 'safe' zones and in 'safe' areas, 55,000 people have suffered amputations in Gaza since Oct. 7th, leaving a mental health timebomb ticking.

c) there has been a siege in Gaza since and before Oct. 7th with all the necessities of life have been either stopped or reduced to a minimal level, schools, places of worship, civilian structures and aid compounds have either been destroyed or so severely damaged that they cannot serve their purpose.

d) hospital destroyed, starvation both contribute to the inability of women to give birth.

e) 1.7m people moved with little or no notice and what notice there is is 'move we are going to bomb here' or forced evacuation.


Article III

The following acts shall be punishable:


(a) Genocide;

(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;

(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;

(d) Attempt to commit genocide;

(e) Complicity in genocide.


c) "Israel has the right to defend itself" is incitement for Israel to 'do it's worst'.


e) complicity includes arming a country, giving it the ability to commit genocide.

Starmer, Lammy and the conservatives before them are all guilty of complicity in genocide.

But then I am not a Human rights Lawyer so what do I know.