How Britain's contempt for the UN enables Gaza genocide
How Britain's contempt for the UN enables Gaza genocide
Several days have now passed since the United Nations issued its historic verdict that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
There’s been no reaction from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The reason is blindingly obvious: he disagrees. His government has been clear all along - reiterated as recently as this month - that Israel is not committing genocide.
More than that, Starmer’s government does not accuse Israel of committing war crimes.
This is more than wilful blindness to reality. It’s part of a pattern of systematic contempt for the UN - so blatant that it leaves Britain open to the charge of complicity in genocide.
It’s a position that dates back to well before Starmer became prime minister. When the principal judicial organ of the UN, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in January 2024 warned Israel against committing acts of genocide, the Sunak government trashed the case, declaring: “Israel’s actions in Gaza cannot be described as a genocide.”
The British government has never condemned Israel for the slaughter of UN Relief and Works Agency staff. Unrwa is (or was) the largest aid organisation operating in Gaza, providing a humanitarian lifeline for Palestinians.
The most recent data shows that 367 Unrwa employees have been killed by Israel since October 2023. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called it “the highest staff death toll in United Nations history”.
Pattern of silence
Instead of condemning Israel for this slaughter, the British government has said at the UN: “Israel must do much more to ensure civilians, medical personnel and humanitarian workers are protected, and to ensure compliance with international humanitarian law.”
But it did not venture to denounce the large-scale killing of aid workers as a violation of international law.
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Britain made no attempt to defend Guterres after Israel’s former foreign minister, Israel Katz, outrageously declared that the UN had become an “antisemitic and anti-Israeli body that shelters and emboldens terror”.
Nor did it lift a finger in his defence after Katz declared the UN secretary general “persona non grata in Israel”.
This is all part of a pattern of British silence in the face of Israeli atrocities. When three British aid workers, all of them veterans, were killed in the April 2024 World Central Kitchen bombing, British government indifference was astonishing, with the Tory government authorising the continuation of arms sales to Israel mere days later.
In its determination to protect Netanyahu's Israel, Britain is prepared to smash the rules based international order
It thus comes as no surprise that the Starmer government turned a blind eye to a second international court ruling. In July 2024, the ICJ - the highest court in the world - issued its historic advisory opinion declaring that the Israeli occupation of Palestine was illegal, and calling for it to end swiftly.
The court devoted a section of its ruling to consequences for other states - which includes Britain. It noted: “All states are … under an obligation not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
States also have a duty “to take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.
Britain said on the day that the advisory opinion was published that it was “considering it carefully before responding”. Since then, nothing.
Coordinated action
As of June 2025, almost a full year after the opinion was published, the government said: “We continue to consider the ICJ’s advisory opinion with the seriousness that it deserves.”
I have not found any such response since. The reason for the delay is not hard to see: Britain clearly fears the consequences of this legal opinion. It would obligate the government to take decisive action to push Israel to quit the occupied territories.
This type of action was set out in the UN General Assembly’s resolution last year - supported by 124 states and opposed by 14, with 43 abstentions, including the UK - which demanded that Israel end “its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” without delay.
Crucially, it said that Israel must do so “no later than 12 months from the adoption of the present resolution”. Thursday - 18 September 2025 - marked the end of that deadline.
The resolution urged Israel and other states to comply with their obligations under international law, calling on states to cease “the provision or transfer of arms, munitions and related equipment to Israel, the occupying Power, in all cases where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they may be used in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.
It further urged them “to implement sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against natural and legal persons engaged in the maintenance of Israel’s unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in relation to settler violence”.
This is the kind of coordinated action, involving a military embargo and sanctions, that would send a real message that the world intends to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
There is, of course, no suggestion that Britain intends to take notice of the UN resolution. Instead, it is reported that Britain means to recognise a Palestinian state as early as Friday or this weekend. While welcome, such a move comes far too late, and in practice means little.
The UN is right to demand far more robust action. It is shameful that, in another snub, Britain refuses to support it. It's yet another sign that, in its determination to protect Netanyahu's Israel, Britain is prepared to smash the rules-based international order.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
