Zomlot calls for Labour to ‘acknowledge the genocide in Gaza’ at conference event
Head of Palestinian Mission spoke at Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East event
Palestinian diplomat Husam Zomlot has told a Labour fringe event that he welcomed the decision of the UK government to recognise a Palestinian state – but he then called for the to “acknowledge the genocide in Gaza”.
In a speech at the Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East event in Liverpool, Zomlot was loudly cheered by those in the room as he made the genocide claim.
But the cabinet ministers also attending the event – who included David Lammy, Wes Streeting and Lisa Nandy – were clearly afraid to be seen joining the cheers, and remained unmoved by the allegation.
Zomlot said he was deeply grateful for the UK’s formal recognition of Palestine, but it needed “to be followed by, number one, acknowledging the genocide in Gaza”.
He continued that after ending “denial of 108 years of our existence” since the 1917 Balfour Declaration, Labour needed to end the “denial of genocide” as party policy.
The National also reported that Zomlot added Palestinians were “not just merely surviving, we are not just on the defence against erasure, we are also on the offence to build a better future”.
Speaking with emotion, he added: “We want to see our children in playgrounds, in schools, not in graveyards.”
When he spoke Lammy condemned the “unbelievable horrors” of Gaza that “are a stain on the world’s conscience, with tens of thousands of innocent women and children killed”.
The famine in Gaza was “not a natural disaster” but “a cruel result of a blockade” and the Israeli military’s offensive in the territory was “morally wrong”, he added.
Zomlot was appointed Head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK in October 2018. Before his posting to the UK, he served as head of the PLO mission to the United States.
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