UK complicit in desecration of international law in Gaza, says Corbyn-led tribunal
The Labour government has been complicit in crimes committed by Israel in Gaza and in the desecration of international law, according to an unoffical tribunal on Gaza chaired by the former party leader Jeremy Corbyn and two specialists in international law,The tribunal’s findings to be published on Monday are likely to be cited in May’s local elections, in which Labour faces a rearguard action to beat off challenges from the Greens and Your Party, in part driven by anger that the government has not done enough to back the Palestinian cause,The tribunal took evidence from lawyers, medical professionals, former Foreign Office officials and Palestinians, and focused largely on whether the UK should have done more to end its cooperation with Israel to avoid being accused of failing to meet its duty to prevent a genocide,It finds that the government should have ended all arms exports to Israel, stopped sharing intelligence and reviewed its trade relations with the country, especially after the international court of justice (ICJ) said in a July 2024 advisory opinion that Israel was occupying Palestine unlawfully,The tribunal’s report reads: “Britain’s failure to meet its legal obligations has contributed to the mass killing of Palestinian civilians and the wholesale destruction of civilian objects, the desecration of international law and the further erosion of Britain’s status as a nation committed to the rule of law in the international arena.
”It says the UK not only failed to meet its duty to seek to prevent a genocide, but in some instances actively participated in such acts.The Foreign Office says it has imposed three sets of sanctions in response to settler violence in the West Bank and opposes all forms of forced displacement.The Middle East minister, Hamish Falconer, told MPs earlier this month that the government “was due to update parliament on the wider issues posed by the ICJ advisory opinion”.“There must be accountability and justice for all crimes committed right across Palestinian and Israeli territory,” he said.The ICJ has not yet had a full hearing on whether a genocide was committed in Gaza, but it said in January 2024 that there was a real and imminent risk of irreparable prejudice to Palestinians’ rights to be protected from acts of genocide.
The two co-chairs of the tribunal were Dr Shahd Hammouri, a lecturer in international law at the University of Kent, and Neve Gordon, a professor of human rights law at Queen Mary University of London.Much of the report focuses on the legal duties that the ICJ rulings placed on the government.It concludes that the January 2024 finding placed all states on clear notice that their duty under the Geneva conventions to prevent genocide had been engaged, and doing so required “more than expressions of concern”.The fundamental duty should not be superseded by contractual obligations to US arms manufacturers, or by stating that no definitive conclusion had been reached by international courts, it says.The 112-page report also claims the ICJ advisory opinion on the unlawfulness of the Israeli occupation of Palestine placed a legal duty on the UK and other states to abstain from entering into trade dealings with Israel concerning the occupied territories, especially if the trade might entrench its “unlawful presence”.
In his preface, Corbyn says the report “will help cement Labour’s legacy as an active participant in one of the great crimes of our time”,The tribunal, drawing on evidence compiled in a UN domestic court case brought by the Global Legal Action Network, found the government had imposed a requirement on itself to ask Israel for justification of specific attacks in Gaza, leading it to conclude that a breach of international humanitarian law had definitively occurred in only one of the 413 cases examined,The report says its perverse self-imposed methodology “required the government to examine the impact of an individual strike on a hospital, but not the lawfulness of the decimation of the whole healthcare system”,In evidence cited by the tribunal, Falconer told MPs that reaching a conclusion about individual incidents required specific sensitive information “such as the intended targets, anticipated military advantage and anticipated civilian harm, which is often not available to us”,The tribunal recommends the government release all licensing data, publish all legal advice concerning its obligation to prevent genocide, set up a full public inquiry and provide the ICJ with all the surveillance footage it compiled during RAF overflights of Gaza.
The tribunal’s findings are likely to be used by the left to attack Labour in the local elections.A Vote Palestine 2026 campaign backed by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) is calling for Gaza to be on the ballot paper given that local councils invest billions in Israel.So far 1,200 council candidates have signed the PSC’s commitment to Palestine.Local pacts are being encouraged in which independents and local Green parties cooperate to target Labour councillors.Your Party, of which Corbyn is the parliamentary leader, said it would be “campaigning loudly on Gaza and Palestine including by calling on councils to divest from Israel”.
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Seth Meyers on Pete Hegseth: ‘The face of a man war-fighting with his colon’
Late-night hosts dug into the Trump administration’s vague intentions for the war in Iran, the conflict’s oil-price effect and a Maga rally in Kentucky with Jake Paul.On Late Night, Seth Meyers checked in on Donald Trump’s now two-week-old war in Iran. “The president is maybe sort of threatening/teasing that he might put boots on the ground in Iran? But Republicans can’t seem to agree on whether they support that idea, or for how long, or why,” he explained.The confusion comes from the top: Pete Hegseth, the “defense secretary/morning show host/fifth-year senior who just found out that yeah, he’s gonna need to do a sixth year” who made a big deal about turning the defense department into “the department of war” and “refocusing on the core mission: war fighting”.“And before we go any further: was there a problem with the term ‘warfare’?” Meyers wondered
Sydney Biennale 2026: politics is everywhere – but with nuance, beauty and heart
According to its critics, this year’s Biennale of Sydney, under the leadership of Emirati artistic director Hoor Al Qasimi (the first Arab appointed to the role in the festival’s 53-year history) was destined to be a “hate Israel jamboree” at worst; a hotbed of pro-Palestinian politics at best. These fears – which appear to have originated from pro-Palestine statements Al Qasimi and her parents made in the past – are not borne out by the festival itself, which opens this weekend across five key venues, spanning from the inner city out to Penrith and Campbelltown.In an unusual move for the biennale, Al Qasimi wasn’t present at the vernissage – but with or without her, the resulting festival, the event’s 25th, is complex and nuanced. It’s light on spectacle and slogans; not a political chant but rather a polyphony of voices – more than 80 artists from 37 countries – singing their own songs. The theme, “Rememory” – taken from Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved – is reflected in works that look to the past to find answers to present dilemmas and envision better futures
Naples museum to allow visually impaired visitors to experience art through touch
The Sansevero Chapel Museum in Naples will allow dozens of visually impaired visitors to take part in a rare tactile experience, letting them touch celebrated works of art including the Veiled Christ, which is widely regarded as one of the most striking masterpieces in the history of sculpture.On 17 March, the museum will host an initiative called La meraviglia a portata di mano – Wonder within reach – organised in partnership with the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired of Naples, offering about 80 blind and partially sighted visitors a chance to encounter the marble masterpieces.Visitors will be guided through the chapel by guides who are also visually impaired in a programme designed to place accessibility at the centre of the museum experience.The protective barrier surrounding the sculptures will be removed, allowing participants, wearing latex gloves, to explore by touch the intricate marble surface of the sculptures including Giuseppe Sanmartino’s Veiled Christ, which depicts Jesus covered by a transparent shroud made from the same block as the statue. The tactile route will also extend to the reliefs at the feet of the sculptures La Pudicizia and Il Disinganno
Jimmy Kimmel on Pentagon splurging on doughnuts: ‘Is this My 600lb Defense Department?’
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Stephen Colbert on US war in Iran: ‘We’re still no closer to learning what the goal is’
Late-night hosts looked into the murky goals, economic impact and disrespect for military protocol of Donald Trump’s war in Iran.“We’re on day 10 of the Iran war,” said Stephen Colbert on Monday evening, “and we’re still no closer to learning what the goal is. Is it regime change? Is it ending a nuclear program? Is it changing the name to Donald Trump’s Iran-a-Lago?”“But we are learning more about the cost,” he noted, as the first week of the war alone is estimated to have cost about $6bn. “Do you know what you could buy with $6bn? Twenty-seven Kristi Noem horsey commercials!” he joked before clips of the very expensive, controversial ad campaign that likely ended Noem’s tenure as secretary of homeland security.Despite the exorbitant cost, Trump said over the weekend that this new surprise war would stop only after Iran’s “unconditional surrender”, to which Iran replied: “That’s a dream that they should take to their grave
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