Paul Laverty: Why I'm wearing this T-shirt to my Edinburgh events
Firstly Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich (below, right) said: 'We are leaving Gaza as piles of rubble with total destruction. This has no precedent. And the world isn't stopping us.'
He taunts us all. And he's right. Nobody is stopping them.
Secondly: The prestigious medical journal The Lancet has pointed out that the deaths in Gaza are likely to massively underestimated.
They say that in conflicts like this, there should be a multiplier of between three and 16 of direct deaths (now at 61,599) to cover the indirect deaths too. Edinburgh University Professor Devi Sridhar estimated there could have been over 335,500 direct and indirect deaths, and that was at the end of 2024. We may never know because the Israeli state bans investigators, bans international journalists, and so far has targeted 237 journalists inside Gaza.
Now to the first three words of the infamous T-shirt: 'Genocide in Palestine'. At least three UN bodies, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Medicins Sans Frontier, the brilliant report by Forensic Architecture and many more including Israeli Holocaust expert Amos Goldberg have all said the Israeli state is carrying out genocide.
Now to the next four words: 'Time to Take Action'. The Genocide Convention came into force in 1951. It was signed by 153 States, including our own. Article 1 states that all signatory states must actively prevent and punish genocide. It states that individuals can be punished as private individuals or as public officials.
'Complicity in Genocide' is explicitly addressed in Article III (e) which includes 'direct assistance' (weapons or arms) and 'indirect assistance' (political and diplomatic support) and crucially 'failure to act'.
The demand to take action is not just a a political and moral position, it is an international obligation.
READ MORE: Questions on UK spy plane 'over Gaza as Israel killed journalists'
There must be an argument that 22 members of the British Cabinet, who have collective responsibility for the great decisions of state (including our own Secretary of State for Scotland, Edinburgh MP Ian Murray) have colluded with genocide in terms of Article 3.
No doubt they will have teams of legal experts to argue otherwise. But in the court of public opinion who will ever forget Starmer's very first interview justifying the cutting off food and water to the entire population of Gaza? Who will forget Foreign Secretary Lammy at the despatch box denying that genocide was happening in Gaza, and Starmer too?
It is vital to remember that the Labour Government did not revoke any arms licences to Israel until September of 24, long after tens of thousands of innocents had been bombed.
Now you can see the Cabinet scramble for cover as the full horror unfolds in front of our eyes. Ian Murray's letter to his constituents is a case in point. Of course he refers to the revocation of some arms licenses, but he also justifies the exception to the F-35 components which go to a 'global pool'. It takes some untangling from his convoluted explanations but it seems that some UK parts for the F-35s go to Nato and also Israel. He states in his letter of August 11: 'I understand it is not possible to suspend all F-35 licenses to the global pool without undermining the global F-35 supply chain that is crucial for the security of the UK and our allies.'
'I understand', you say? In the face of genocide, and the obligations under Article III, what due diligence did you carry out, what independent investigation did you ask for? Where did you get your understanding Mr Murray – from the arms manufacturers, military figures, the head of Leonardo's arms factory in Edinburgh? I suspect a semi-competent monk administrator in the middle ages could organise a system where one recipient did not receive materials from a pool if the will was there. And here we are in the 21st century with AI and barcodes and sophistication beyond our wildest dreams and you can't separate Israel from a global pool?
Murray's letter reveals that the RAF fly over Gaza – not to spy, but to help find the hostages. Murray can swallow that, but a full=grown crocodile would struggle. I see no word of looking for the tens of thousands of starving children. He reveals the UK is still training IDF, but it is an insignificant amount of just 10. Remember Clinton's quote: 'It's the economy, stupid.' We could draw a parallel here of the UK to the Israeli state: 'It's the approval, stupid.' Starmer knew how to give a nod and a wink from the very beginning that they would have the Israeli state's back, and the Cabinet has fallen into line.
In another letter Murray lists their great achievements to challenge Netanyahu. It would be comic if it were not so tragic, from their summoning of the Israeli ambassador for a ticking off, to an 'unprecedented joint statement' with other countries 'to express our strong opposition ..."
How Smotrich and Netanyahu must be trembling.
READ MORE: Israel must be banned from World Cup, says Ross Greer
Anything with bite is missing. Nothing this UK Government does, even with its revocation of arms licences, impinges on the genocide machine as it continues to murder the starving. Critically, there is no mention of support for the Boycott and Divestment Campaign which could make a difference.
And shamefully, not one UK Cabinet member can say seven simple words: 'Genocide in Palestine, time to Take Action.'
One day, when it all comes out, as it will, we will look back in horror and ask how it all unfolded. Western collusion will haunt us.
The conscience is on the streets.
Paul Laverty is an award-winning Scottish screenwriter
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