{"id":120311,"date":"2025-09-07T07:24:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T07:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/120311\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T07:24:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T07:24:09","slug":"keir-starmer-has-legal-duty-to-stop-gaza-genocide-says-greta-thunberg-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/120311\/","title":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer has \u2018legal duty to stop Gaza genocide\u2019, says Greta Thunberg | Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keir Starmer must obey his \u201clegal duty to act to prevent a genocide\u201d, Greta Thunberg<\/a> has told the Guardian while travelling aboard an aid flotilla heading for Gaza.<\/p>\n

The Swedish activist said there was a \u201chuge absence of those whose legal responsibility it is to step up\u201d under international law, and called out the UK prime minister before a potential meeting this week with Israel\u2019s president, Isaac Herzog.<\/p>\n

In a message to Starmer, who has been urged by his own MPs<\/a> not to meet the Israeli head of state on Wednesday, Thunberg said: \u201cThe words we will use to describe people who are standing on the wrong side of history, supporting or committing war crimes, those words do not exist yet, those slurs do not exist yet, but we will be using them towards people like [Starmer].\u201d<\/p>\n

She said people around the world were \u201cwaking up\u201d to what is happening to the Palestinian people and refusing to \u201cwatch a livestream genocide\u201d take place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen civilians all over the world stepping up but there is a huge absence of those whose legal responsibility it is to step up,\u201d she said. \u201cThese governments, these people in power, have a legal duty to act to prevent a genocide and to not support an apartheid regime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Palestinians move toward central Gaza through Al-Rashid Street as intensified Israeli attacks in the north of the strip force them to flee. Photograph: Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

No 10 has refused to confirm whether the prime minister intends to meet Herzog, who was highlighted by international court of justice judges<\/a> in a case after he blamed the \u201centire nation\u201d of Palestine for the attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, when Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Downing Street has been contacted for a response.<\/p>\n

Thunberg is joined by hundreds of activists making up the Global Sumud Flotilla on a legal aid mission to Gaza, where civilians were facing \u201cstarvation, pure and simple\u201d, the UN warned last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is the second aid mission she has joined, after she was abducted from international waters alongside the rest of the 12-strong crew of the Madleen by Israeli authorities in June, about a day before they were due to reach Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The flotilla, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which has been sending aid boats to the territory since 2008, aims to deliver items such as food packages, baby formula and medical supplies, as well as to draw public attention to Gaza, where at least 63,633 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since the start of the war.<\/p>\n

Their safety is not guaranteed as at least 10 activists have been killed and many more injured on previous missions.<\/p>\n

Yasemin Acar, a German activist who was aboard the Madleen with Thunberg and is part of the current mission, said: \u201cMany people around the world may say that this is a suicide mission and we are going to the belly of the beast, which is true. We are seeing what they\u2019re doing to Palestinians.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the question should be, why should we fear for our life while we are carrying nothing but humanitarian aid to a population that is being starved, a manmade starvation supported by so many governments and states around the world?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GretaGreta Thunberg: aid flotilla ‘even stronger’ as dozens of boats to head for Gaza \u2013\u00a0video<\/p>\n

Thunberg agreed there was a possibility they might be killed, saying Israel had been empowered to act illegally by the lack of repercussions from the international community.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cIf we would base our logic on international law and common sense, and even the most basic humanitarian values, then there is absolutely no reason for Israel to attack us. But again, we have seen that Israel sees themselves as an exemption from international law, and the world to a large extent allows them to act however they want without any major consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thiago \u00c1vila, a Brazilian activist who was also aboard the Madleen and is part of the current flotilla, said the missions were not getting safer but that the eyes of the international community were what was keeping them from being killed. \u201cThe reason why we ask people to share the mission [on social media], it\u2019s because this brings us visibility, not because Israel does not want to kill us \u2013 because they want to do with us the same thing that they do to Palestinians \u2013 but because they cannot afford to pay the political cost of that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe right now see that the world is paying attention to this mission because we know the sense of urgency that they are facing in Gaza, but also the world is sick of seeing children being starved to death, sick of seeing hospitals being bombed, shelters being bombed, schools being bombed, homes being bombed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thunberg, who in 2019 became the youngest Time Person of the Year and has been nominated five times for the Nobel Peace prize for her climate activism, said: \u201cI think it\u2019s been very clear in the words and actions of people all over the world that there is worldwide support for this [movement].<\/p>\n

The UN warned last month that Palestinians were facing \u2018starvation, pure and simple\u2019. Photograph: Jehad Alshrafi\/AP<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that the world does not stand with war criminals. And we know that by every day when we see more footage coming out of Gaza, we see the incredibly brave journalists who are risking their lives to report the atrocities happening. People are waking up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Numerous accusations of war crimes have been made against Israel, such as the starvation and wilful killing of civilians, including aid workers and medics. In addition, at least 248 journalists have been killed in Gaza in the last 22 months.<\/p>\n

Thunberg said some people had not known what was happening in Gaza previously but that \u201cwe no longer have the privilege to say that we weren\u2019t aware because we are seeing this coming out of Gaza every single day of children being starved, parents looking for missed body parts of their children under the rubble\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who has any sense of humanity and common sense can see that there is absolutely, absolutely no justification for any of this, no matter what absurdly fabricated arguments Israel is using,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut as they are escalating the genocide, we are also escalating the resistance. We are not able to just sit and watch a livestream genocide take place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel does not accept accusations of genocide and says its deadly actions against civilians in Gaza are an attempt to destroy Hamas and rescue Israeli hostages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer must obey his \u201clegal duty to act to prevent a genocide\u201d, Greta Thunberg has told the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-120311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}