A UN special rapporteur will contribute to a two-day “tribunal” being held by Jeremy Corbyn into Britain’s “role in war crimes perpetrated in Gaza”, the former Labour leader has said.
Corbyn, who is campaigning for a new political entity with the working title Your Party, said the event would take place in early September. His private member’s bill for an official inquiry into UK involvement in the Israel-Gaza war was blocked by the government at its second reading in July.
Instead, the Peace and Justice Project, founded by Corbyn, is holding a two-day event called the “Gaza tribunal”. A website dedicated to the event says it will “examine Britain’s role in war crimes perpetrated in Gaza” by “hearing from experts and witnesses”, and “establish the full scale of our government’s complicity in the genocide against the Palestinian people”.
On Saturday, Corbyn told an audience at the Edinburgh festival fringe that Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, would be offering her views to the hearings. He told the event that his “tribunal” would seek answers on the use of the RAF Akrotiri airbase around the war in Gaza, as well as other issues.
Corbyn, interviewed on stage by the musician Calum Baird, said: “What we’ve done through the Peace and Justice Project is set up a two-day open public inquiry on 4 and 5 September in Church House in Westminster.
“We’ve invited people to make submissions – lawyers and others and voices from Gaza and the West Bank and other places – in order to put forward their view on the policy. And Francesca Albanese has agreed to take part and put forward her view on the legality of it.”
He said Albanese was “very keen to support it and get involved”, comparing his event to the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war.
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Last month, 22 NGOs, including Action Aid, supported Corbyn’s call for an inquiry and said they would consider setting up an independent “tribunal” if the bill was blocked by the government, which it eventually was.
