Keir Starmer’s role in legitimizing Israel’s siege and attacks on Gaza

In the official UN report titled “Gaza Genocide: A Collective Crime,” presented to the General Assembly on October 20, 2025, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese explicitly discussed the role and complicity of Western governments in the genocide against the people of Gaza.

Among the names mentioned, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is highlighted as a key figure whose statements helped legitimize Israel’s crimes against Palestinians in Gaza.

The report also accuses the UK government of using its bases in Cyprus for military coordination and espionage with Israel, noting that these flights went beyond the stated aim of searching for Israeli hostages.

Starmer’s role in legitimizing the genocide

In paragraph 20, Albanese explains that after October 7, 2023, most Western leaders uncritically repeated Israel’s narrative of the war, effectively erasing the distinction between civilians and fighters.

According to the report, Israelis were presented as “civilian victims,” while Palestinians were labeled “terrorists” or “human shields” — a narrative rooted in colonial and racist discourse revived during the so-called “War on Terror.”

The report states:

“On October 9, 2023, immediately after Israel declared a full siege of Gaza, key Western leaders supported Israel’s ‘right to defend itself,’ a right that was not applicable under Article 51 of the UN Charter in this context. President Biden repeatedly echoed baseless claims about beheadings of infants, while Keir Starmer defended Israel’s right to cut water and electricity to civilians.”

The UN sees such positions — expressed amid heavy bombing and before the humanitarian crisis unfolded — as clear political complicity in genocide. Albanese emphasizes that these statements are not merely political but part of a “discursive cover” to legitimize systematic violence against Palestinians.

UK’s diplomatic role in Gaza crimes

In paragraph 22, Albanese notes that after October 2023, the United States vetoed seven UN Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire.

She adds: “The United States was not acting alone. Western countries, including the UK, provided diplomatic cover through refusals, delays, and weakened resolutions, giving Israel the support needed to continue the genocide. Britain remained fully aligned with US positions until November 2024.”

In other words, the UK not only blocked a ceasefire alongside the US but also, through ambiguous language about “balance” and “legitimate defense,” gave Israel the time and legitimacy to continue its attacks.

Symbolic and ineffective sanctions

In paragraph 23, the Special Rapporteur stresses that limited sanctions against certain extremist Israeli officials in 2024 and 2025 — including by the UK — were largely symbolic and ineffective.

The report notes: “In June 2025, the UK, along with several other countries, sanctioned extremist Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. Yet these scattered measures effectively served to legitimize Israel’s overall government structure.”

According to Albanese, such sanctions provided cover for Western inaction and acted as a performative measure to hide their active role in facilitating ongoing crimes.

UK’s military cooperation with Israel

Paragraph 38 highlights one of the most serious points: the UK’s direct military cooperation in the Gaza war.

The report states: “Despite domestic opposition, the UK played a key role in military cooperation with Israel, using its bases in Cyprus to facilitate the transfer of US equipment and logistics to Tel Aviv, and conducting over 600 reconnaissance and surveillance missions over Gaza.”

The UN notes: “Data from these flights, often concurrent with Israel’s main operations, indicates that the UK’s awareness and cooperation in Gaza’s destruction were highly significant and beyond the stated mission of ‘hostage rescue’.”

This section clearly shows that UK reconnaissance flights were not solely humanitarian or intelligence-gathering operations, but part of operational support for Israeli military attacks.

The UN report presents a clear picture of the UK and Starmer’s active role in normalizing, legitimizing, and even facilitating the genocide in Gaza.

According to the Special Rapporteur, these actions — through political statements and media defenses (like Starmer’s support for the Gaza siege), diplomatic alignment with the US in blocking a ceasefire, and military and intelligence cooperation in Israeli attacks — constitute “international complicity in a collective crime.”

Francesca Albanese concludes the report with a warning: “No country can claim to uphold international law while simultaneously arming, supporting, and backing a genocidal regime.”