Jeremy Corbyn on Palestine – We continue to campaign because human beings continue to die

“We will continue to campaign for the truth, accountability & justice for the people of Palestine.”

We are delighted to publish below the script upon which Jeremy Corbyn based his Parliamentary speech moving “that leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision for establishing an independent public inquiry into UK involvement in Israeli military operations in Gaza; to require the inquiry to consider any UK military, economic or political cooperation with Israel since October 2023, including the sale, supply or use of weapons, surveillance aircraft and Royal Air Force bases; to provide the inquiry with the power to question Ministers and officials about decisions taken in relation to UK involvement; and for connected purposes.”

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In the aftermath of the Iraq War, several attempts were made to establish an inquiry surrounding the conduct of British military operations. The government of the day spent many years resisting these attempts.

However, they could not prevent the inevitable – and in 2016 we had the publication of the Chilcot inquiry.

The report found serious failings within the British government, which ignored the warnings of millions of ordinary people who were protesting on the streets against the invasion.

I was the leader of the Labour Party when this report came out – and I apologised on behalf of the Party for its catastrophic decision to go to war in Iraq.

History is repeating itself.

Over the past 18 months, human beings have endured a level of horror and inhumanity that should haunt us forever.

Entire families wiped out.

Limbs strewn across the street.

Mothers screaming for their children buried under the rubble.

Human beings torn to pieces.

Doctors performing amputations without anaesthesia. 

Children picking grass and dirt from the ground to find something to eat.

The survivors will face lifelong mental health consequences for generations to come.

Home by home, hospital by hospital, generation by generation. We have not just been witnessing a war. We have been witnessing a genocide, livestreamed before the entire world.

Today, the death toll in Gaza has exceeded 61,000. At least 110,000 – or one in twenty – people have been injured. Two Israeli officials are now wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity.

Britain has played a highly influential role in Israel’s military operations.

First, Britain has been supplying weapons to Israel – weapons that are being used to bomb Palestinians.

This, of course, started with the Conservative government, but it has continued under Labour.

In fact, between October and December 2024 alone, Labour approved more arms exports licences to Israel than the Conservatives approved between the whole of 2020 and 2023.

In September 2023, the government suspended some licences, but continued to allow the supply of F-35 components to the global pool.

The Foreign Secretary has accepted the fact that F-35 jets are being used in violation of international humanitarian law, yet at the very same time admits F-35 parts could still be going to Israel.

They know full well the implication: by justifying the continued licencing of F-35 parts, the government is admitting its complicity in war crimes.

I find it truly astounding that the government is telling us loud and clear that its participation in the F-35 programme is more important than its legal obligations to prevent genocide.

It’s very simple: until this government ends the sale of weapons to Israel, it remains complicit in the mass murder of Palestinians.

Secondly, many of us have repeatedly asked for the truth regarding the role of British military bases in Cyprus.

Since October 2023, military cargo has been airlifted from Akrotiri to Israel. This cargo has often travelled to Cyprus from US military bases in other parts of Europe.

Meanwhile, RAF shadow aircraft have also been conducting nightly surveillance flights over Gaza.

When the Prime Minister visited RAF Akrotiri in December 2024, the Prime Minister was filmed telling troops: “The whole world and everyone back at home is relying on you.” He added: “Quite a bit of what goes on here can’t necessarily be talked about all of the time. We can’t necessarily tell the world what you’re doing.”

In a recent report by the British Palestine Committee reads, it says the UK government is, “engaged in military actions without being subject to parliamentary scrutiny, and that these actions implicate its institutions and officials in the gravest breaches of international law.”

Over the past 18 months, our questions have been met with evasion, obstruction and silence, leaving the public in the dark over the ways in which the responsibilities of government have been discharged.

Transparency and accountability are cornerstones of democracy. The public deserves to know the full scale of the UK’s complicity in these atrocities.

Any meaningful inquiry would require the full co-operation from government ministers – Conservative and Labour – involved in decision-making processes since October 2023.

This inquiry needs to ask:

• What arms have been supplied to Israel? Which of these weapons have been used to kill Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank?

• Is it the government’s position that it cannot – or will not – bring the F-35 programme in line with the UK’s legal obligations?

• What is RAF Akrotiri being used for? Is it being used as a route for weapons to be deployed in Gaza?

• How many US Air Force flights have flown from RAF Akrotiri to Israel since 7 October 2023?

• Have Israeli F-35 jets been stored and/or repaired at RAF bases?

• What video footage does the government have of the war zone from RAF flights? Will it release this footage? What intelligence has been passed to Israel?

• What legal advice has the government received over an assessment of genocide? When will it publish this advice?

I want to finish by reminding the house that in October 2023, many of us in this House called for an immediate ceasefire, for the bombing to stop, and for the release of all hostages.

We condemned the attack on Israel, but expressed alarm over the wholly disproportionate response.

We warned that we were witnessing the beginning of the total annihilation of Gaza, and we pleaded with political leaders on both sides to call for peace.

Today, some politicians have finally started to backtrack. Perhaps they are frightened by the consequences of their inhumanity.

If they had any integrity, they would weep for the 61,000 Palestinians who have been buried under the rubble by their moral and political cowardice.

Today, children are taught about history’s worst crimes against humanity. They are asked to reflect on how these crimes could have possibly occurred. In the future, our history books will shame those who had the opportunity to stop this massacre but chose to enable atrocity after atrocity instead.

I have been calling for an inquiry since March.I am yet to receive a response from any government representative. But this issue is not going away – and we are not going anywhere.

We continue to campaign because human beings continue to die.

Our demonstrations are made up of people of all ages, faiths and backgrounds, united in a desire to end human suffering and bring about peace for all

We will continue to call for an end to all arms sales to Israel. We will continue to demand sanctions.

And we will continue to campaign for the truth, accountability and – most importantly – justice for the people of Palestine.

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• On 4th June, Jeremy Corbyn presented the Gaza (Independent Public Inquiry) Bill to Parliament. This would establish an independent public inquiry into Britain’s involvement in Israeli military operations in Gaza. You can read the debate in Hansard here.
• Jeremy Corbyn is the Member of Parliament for Islington North- you can follow him on Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, and TikTok.
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