Sir Keir Starmer says there must be an investigation into the killing of 15 humanitarian workers in Gaza and insisted that international law “underpins everything we do bilaterally and multilaterally”. Report by Faragt. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00It feels to many that Israel is acting without any accountability towards international law.
00:05You are a lawyer and our Prime Minister, so can you please tell us how the UK will comply with
00:10the International Court of Justice's legal opinion on Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine?
00:16And can you outline how the UK will implement our legal obligations under the UN General Assembly
00:21resolution? Yeah, look, I mean, I was an international lawyer. I think that marks me down or up.
00:30But of course I believe in international law, and I accept it underpins everything we do bilaterally
00:37and multilaterally. So what are we doing to hold countries to account?
00:41Sorry? What are we doing to hold countries to account?
00:42Well, we are members of various courts and institutions, and that is one way of holding countries to
00:49account. But we also hold countries to account bilaterally in the discussions that we have
00:53at whatever level, whether that's leader to leader, whether that's foreign secretary to
00:57foreign secretary. But we are critical of Russia as the aggressor in Ukraine because it's in breach
01:08of the UN charter. That is a rules-based system. It is the basis of our criticism. It's the reason
01:14that almost all allies across the world, particularly in Europe, are putting in the amount of money
01:20they are, because Russia is the aggressor. And it's a rules-based system.
01:25And Israel and the occupation of Palestine?
01:27Well, again, I think the occupation is unlawful. We've said that. That's been longstanding government
01:32policy. In fact, in fairness, the last government as well. And we are members of the international
01:40institutions.
01:41I've spoken to many humanitarian workers around the world who feel that Israel isn't
01:47being held to account, particularly when it comes to international humanitarian law.
01:50So will we be pushing for an inquiry into the 15 humanitarian workers that were killed on
01:55the 23rd?
01:56Oh, I mean, there's got to be an investigation into that. And we have to be absolutely clear
02:04that we're not just talking about that isolated incident. There hasn't been enough aid getting
02:10in to Gaza at speed and at pace for a very long time. The resumption of hostilities is
02:16the wrong thing, in my view. We need to get back to a ceasefire. We need to get aid in.
02:22We need to get hostages out. And we need to put our foot in the door for a process, however
02:28remote it may seem today, towards a two state solution, which is, to my view, the only way
02:35of guaranteeing peace in the long term.