Ten Britons accused of war crimes in Gaza

A war crimes complaint against ten Britons who serve with the IDF in Gaza has been submitted to the Metropolitan Police.

A team of legal experts, including renowned human rights lawyer Michael Mansfield KC, lodged an extensively researched 240-page report with the War Crimes Team at London’s Metropolitan Police on Monday.

The landmark dossier, the first of its kind, was submitted on behalf of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and the Public Interest Law Centre (PILC), which are representing Palestinians in Gaza and Britain.

Almost 100 legal and human rights experts have also signed a letter of support urging the War Crimes Team to investigate any and all complaints regarding involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It comes as Israel continues to break the ceasefire agreed with Hamas. Last week the UN condemned Israel for the killing of more than 1,000 Palestinians since the ceasefire was agreed.

The ten Britons in the report, including Israeli dual nationals, are suspected of crimes such as murder, extermination, attacking civilians, and deportation or forcible transfer of population.

The report compiles open-source evidence from video footage, social media posts and other forms of publicly available information.

For legal reasons, neither the list of suspects, which includes officer-level individuals, nor the full report are being made public.

In a speech at the submission of the report, Michael Mansfield KC said “after the Second World War […] the United Kingdom was at the forefront of law and principle and institutions to match, in order to prevent the recurrence of the horror that everyone was familiar with during the Second World War […] yet, slowly over the years, the efficacy of the structure which they established at that time through the various conventions, the United Nations charter and so on is slowly falling, and we are standing on the brink of the collapse of the rule of order because certain states, and Israel is not the only one, have taken it upon themselves to act with impunity”.

Referring to the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory which ruled in 2004 that the construction of the Separation Barrier in the West Bank was illegal, Mansfield said: “There are measures which could have been taken in 2004, there are measures that could be taken now, economic embargos and so forth. But one measure that is being taken today is a practical one indicating that as citizens of a country that has held out on this, we can do something about it”.

Paul Heron, legal director of PILC, said that it is “a condemnation of the system that a little law centre has had to galvanise all this pro-bono”.

When asked why the state had not acted of its own accord against British nationals suspected of war crimes he said “the position of the British government is continuing to sell arms to Israel and provide logistical support to Israel” and asked “is there the political will?”.

The submission of the evidence was supported by Iqbal Mohamed, MP for Dewsbury and Batley and Ayoub Khan, MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, two MPs from the independent alliance of pro-Palestine MPs which includes Jeremy Corbyn.

Iqbal Mohamed said, “This country has been founded and been a leader in global and national law and order […] we try and promote and enforce international law and protect people, except when it’s Israel, there’s just this double standard and a complete blanket immunity is given to Israel”.

He added “my constituents don’t want to be living in a country or walking down a street where somebody who’s gone across and participated in a genocide, played target practise with children, shot at pregnant women and killed the unborn child is walking down the street next to them or living next to them, without any accountability”.