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Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/07/25/sadiq-khan-genocide-claim-israel-less-safe/
The Mayor of London Is Wrong to Describe Military Action in Gaza as a War Crime
(Telegraph-UK) Jeff Blackett - Sir Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, boasted to Channel 4 News that he would lobby the prime minister to arrest Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu should he ever step foot in London, adding, "People who commit genocide are not welcome in London." It has become almost taboo to say it, but public figures such as the Mayor of London are wrong. Yes, there might be much suffering in Gaza, but there is certainly no genocide there. For almost two decades I served as the most senior lawyer in the British Armed Forces. War is messy and hellish. Things can, and often do, go badly wrong. Civilian casualties and death are a tragic feature of armed conflict, and they have been since the dawn of time. To pretend otherwise is a fantasy. Genocide is a very serious crime. Those who drafted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948 - against the background of the Nazi Holocaust - defined genocide as the "deliberate destruction of a human group." The definition was explicit that "the infliction of losses, even heavy losses, on the civilian population in the course of operation of war, does not as a rule constitute genocide." There is absolutely no evidence that demonstrates Israeli intent to destroy Palestinians generally or Gazans in particular. Indeed, the precautions they took throughout the war to warn civilians of impending attacks with leaflet drops and phone calls, the facilitation of aid to civilians in Gaza and the Rules of Engagement for their soldiers, all demonstrate the opposite. Israel even facilitated mid-war an emergency polio vaccination program for 640,000 Gazan children under the age of 10 - hardly the action of a country committing genocide. Israel's aim to destroy a terrorist organization intent on its elimination is legitimate. International law is being subverted and redefined by highly ideological campaigners. They abuse it to advance their obsession with the world's only Jewish state, while unforgivably overlooking the clear evidence of Hamas's own genocidal intent. If anyone is guilty of genocide it is Hamas, not Israel. Every time lawful military action is casually described as a war crime, the ability of the UK and its democratic allies to defend their citizens will be eroded. Ultimately that will make us all less safe. The writer served in the Royal Navy for 31 years and then as Judge Advocate General of the Armed Forces between 2004 and 2020.