Occupied Palestinian Territories: Genocide Risk Assessment

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi Excerpts

Thursday 5th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington) (Lab)]

The reason we are here is that there is a profound responsibility on us, as Members of Parliament in particular, to ensure that our Government act in accordance with international humanitarian law. There are two questions that we need to pose time and again. First, what evidence would it take to convince the Government that there is a risk of genocide? That means evidence not that there is genocide, but that there is a risk of genocide. Secondly, what process should the Government use to determine that?

On the first question, I am absolutely perplexed as to why the evidential methods that we have used in the past, when we have determined that there have been genocides, are not simply being accepted by the Government at the moment, given the loss of life—the 70,000, as has been said—and the way in which the genocide has been perpetrated. There are the attacks on health workers and doctors, with 1,700 killed that we know about, and at least 100 who have been imprisoned, tortured, denied access to medical facilities, and even to their own families.

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

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

[John McDonnell]

No, I cannot accept any interventions.

There is also the number of journalists killed—more than 300—because part of this genocide is to prevent the reporting of the genocide. And, yes, there is the forced movement of people, with 9,000 prisoners in Israeli prisons, 100 of whom have died in the past two years. That is the evidence we present time and again. It is the same kind of evidence we have used in the past to determine genocide, so why is it not acceptable now?

The second question is about the process. I will just say to the Minister that time and again we have had these debates. People have lost confidence in the process that the Government are using to arrive at their determination of whether there is a risk of genocide. I am afraid that not only have Members of this House and the wider public lost confidence in the internal processes, but that is what is forcing people out on to the streets and into forms of direct action, because they have lost confidence in the Government’s own objective assessment.

I therefore suggest this to the Minister: why not establish an independent commission? Use people such as Philippe Sands and others, and let the House determine who sits on that commission, so that they can report back to the Minister on the evidence available. I think that the Government, once they see the evidence, will have to accept that there is at least a risk of genocide, and that will have to determine their actions. Some of those have been set out today: the end of trade, the end of the arms sales, and the prevention role that we have to play in securing peace and justice for the Palestinian people—and yes, for the Israeli people—for the long term.

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[Florence Eshalomi (Vauxhall and Camberwell Green) (Lab/Co-op)]

I thank the hon. Member for Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber (Brendan O’Hara) for securing this important debate. Like many Members, I have received many emails from my constituents, and I speak today to give a voice to their concerns.

It is difficult to put into context the sheer scale of death and destruction that we have seen in Gaza over the last two years. We all know the figures: one in every 33 people has died since the start of the assault, and over 90% of homes have been damaged. As the hon. Member for Leicester South (Shockat Adam) highlighted, behind the statistics are real human stories. We have heard from doctors in Gaza who have been operating without anaesthetic and performing emergency C-sections on women without painkillers, and there has been a rapid increase in child mortality. We have heard of children who have been shot by snipers not once, but twice. It is sometimes easy for us to become desensitised to what we are seeing, but we must not stop calling it out.

The world-respected peace charity Doctors Without Borders has been banned from operating in Gaza and the occupied west bank following its refusal to hand over a list of its staff. What does it mean if lifesaving organisations that carry out work in war zones are being banned? The UK must be very clear about this. As a signatory to the genocide convention, we have a legal obligation to call out and prevent genocide, as do the other 153 states that ratified the treaty. For the treaty to be effective, and for us to stop not just this but future genocides, we must speak with one voice. We must listen when the United Nations tells us that

“Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, namely killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.”

[Mr Dhesi]

I thank my hon. Friend, who is a Select Committee Chair, for giving way in this important debate. As she points out, one in every 33 people in Gaza has been killed and one in every 14 has been injured. Does she agree that the sheer colossal scale of the assault on the Palestinian people demonstrates the mass and indiscriminate nature of the action, and indicates a clear risk of international law violation and genocide?

[Florence Eshalomi]

I thank my hon. Friend for making that important intervention. I think that is what we are all trying to get at, and Members from right across the House want answers on that.

It is imperative to listen and act when such respected bodies speak with one voice. It is vital to our ability to stop future genocides. Genocide is not something we can recognise only when it is politically convenient; we must call it out, without fear or favour, whenever and wherever it is occurring. What we are seeing in plain sight in Gaza meets the definition of genocide. I urge the Minister to listen to the powerful voices from across the House—in the way he has listened to us on the many occasions when he meets us to hear about our constituents’ concerns—because there must be a reckoning for what is happening before our eyes, and history will judge us for anything less.