Occupied Palestinian Territories: Genocide Risk Assessment

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Thursday 5th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

Since the beginning of this latest catastrophe, following the horrors of 7 October, those of us who have been asking for balance, respect and nothing more radical than a justice-based international order have been castigated, and some of us have even been criminalised. We are now 26 months into this horror, and we are still asking for the same thing. We are pleading for the principles on which we as a country agreed following two wars—after humanity confronted its own capacity for evil and promised, “Never again.” We built structures to ensure that this would never happen again, yet Gaza has stripped away any remaining illusion that this rules-based order still exists.

Let us be clear about what we are discussing today. As defined in international law, genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction of a people because of who they are. Measured against this definition, the Government’s position on Gaza is not cautious; it is morally incoherent. At least 71,000 Palestinian men, women and children have been murdered. We have witnessed this in real time, yet we are told to wait and not to jump to conclusions. Where were the systems that were meant to guide us when humanity crossed the line once more?

Let us start with the media, the purveyors of the truth. Foreign media are not allowed into Israel, so what has happened? Three hundred Palestinian journalists have been killed. One of them was Anas Al-Sharif. Before he was murdered, he said:

“I never once hesitated to convey the truth exactly as it is…hoping that God would bear witness against those who stayed silent in this world”.

Staying silent is precisely what too many people have done.

What of the international rules-based order? The International Court of Justice is hearing a genocide case. Advisory opinions have been issued, and the law is trying to work, yet when the International Criminal Court seeks accountability, which is what it has done before, the response is not support but hostility. Sanctions are imposed, and threats are made. In fact, our Foreign Secretary allegedly threatened the ICC’s chief prosecutor by saying that accountability would be like dropping a hydrogen bomb. I ask plainly: are international courts only legitimate when the accused are Africans?

Journalists have been killed, courts have been intimidated and international law has been subverted to feed a genocide. More than 1,500 aid workers have been killed. Surgeons have been crying in front of the children they are trying to save. If they were in this country, they would be able to save those children, who are dying right in front of them. This is just daily life in Gaza, and we have no political will.

I will end with this. This weekend I watched “The Voice of Hind Rajab”, which is about a six-year-old who became the voice of the children of Gaza. She was trapped in a car with her family. She cried out to the world that night, “It’s getting dark. Please come and save me.” Nobody came for her. It is getting dark for the world, and we must lighten up the world for them.