Labour MP accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza at foreign policy conference event

Labour MP and Foreign Affairs Select Committee member Alex Ballinger has told a conference fringe event that he believes Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Speaking at a Labour Foreign Policy Group event at the party’s conference the MP for Halesowen in the West Midlands said: “I think what is going on in Gaza right now meets the conditions for being a genocide.

“Whether or not that really changes the approach the government is taking, I don’t know, because we’re already seeing with our own eyes the number of war crimes that are being committed.”

Ballinger, who previously worked as an aid worker in conflict zones, added:
“As someone that used to be an aid worker and has worked in conflict zones, the way we have seen Israel target and kill aid workers in that conflict and then try to hide the evidence, the way we’re seeing hospitals being targeted…”

He also expressed support for Labour leader Keir Starmer’s government implementing further sanctions—this time targeting illegal settlements in the West Bank.

Ballinger emphasized that he was expressing his personal views, not those of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee as a whole.

The government’s official policy is to wait for a genocide judgement to be confirmed in Gaza by legal experts.

Also speaking at the event was His Excellency Shaikh Fawaz bin Mohamed Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s ambassador to the UK. He reiterated Bahrain’s support for “a ceasefire, for the release of all hostages, and for the full delivery of humanitarian and reconstruction aid to Gaza and its people.”

The ambassador also spoke proudly about Bahrain’s small Jewish community:

“They have a working synagogue in Bahrain. So the relationship goes deep and far back,” he said.