Middle East

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi Excerpts

Monday 21st July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

I say to the right hon. Gentleman that we have suspended sales of arms that could be used in Gaza. He should look closely at our export licensing regime, because much of it is not about arms. It is about, for example, equipment that we send to support non-governmental organisations and others in the area. Of course, I am happy to look, with the Home Secretary, at what more we can do for children who are suffering.

[Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) (Lab)]

Ministers say it is for the courts to decide whether genocide has occurred in Gaza, but the genocide convention is aimed primarily at prevention, and the International Court of Justice has already found that there is a plausible risk of genocide and advised that all states must act collectively to prevent it. While the occupying Israeli forces are accelerating the building of illegal settlements in the west bank, the scenes in Gaza are horrific, with almost 1,000 people killed by the IDF while just seeking aid. We are seeing starvation being used as a weapon, the forced displacement of Gazans and mass civilian death, and senior Israeli officials are using dehumanising language while proposing to concentrate Gazans into a mass detention camp. So I ask the Foreign Secretary: when will the Government take decisive action, with international partners, to prevent genocide?

[Mr Lammy]

My hon. Friend prays in aid the law in terms of plausibility in breach of international humanitarian law. If he looks at my statement back in September, he will see that I assessed that there was a clear risk of breaching international humanitarian law. It is for that reason that I suspended arms sales.