Three dozen UK NGOs call on David Lammy to clarify his position on genocide

Over three dozen British human rights and aid groups have called on Foreign Secretary David Lammy to clarify his understanding of genocide and Britain’s related legal obligations as pressure mounts over comments he made in relation to Israel's war in Gaza.

Last week, a Conservative MP asked the foreign secretary to clarify that "there is not a genocide occuring in the Middle East" and said that that terminology like "genocide" referring to Gaza was "not appropriate".

Lammy said he agreed and added: “Those terms were largely used when millions of people lost their lives in crises like Rwanda, the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the way that they are used now undermines the seriousness of that term."

On Tuesday, the 37 organisations, which include Christian Aid, Action Aid UK, the Council for Arab-British Understanding, and Medical Aid for Palestine, said Lammy’s focus on death tolls appeared to show “a dangerously misguided understanding of the crime”. The Genocide Convention does not use numerical thresholds to define the crime.

In an open letter, they said his comments “injected a deeply troubling ambiguity… in light of the mass atrocities perpetrated against civilians in Gaza”.

David Lammy Labour party conference — British Foreign Secretary David Lammy speaks on the first day of the Labour Party conference In Liverpool in September (Oli Scarff/AFP)