The genocide prevention group of MPs that you’ve never heard of.

Right, so genocide prevention, we have such a thing in parliament, but I bet you had no idea and now that I’ve mentioned it you might be thinking, well why do I know nothing of this group, what are they doing, why is this not being broadcast more loudly? You might also be thinking, well how toothless and weak they must be to not be making lots and lots of noise regarding the events in Israel and Gaza, my goodness me, these have been going on for seven months now, where have they been? Well there’s a very good reason why you might not have heard of them and a very good reason why they’ve been so quiet, and in no small part is that to do with the chair of this group, being a Labour Friend of Israel…
Right so, All Party Parliamentary Groups, or APPGs, there’s quite a few of them, the words all party at the beginning indicating that these are cross party groups working towards a common aim, the purpose of whatever the APPG group is about and they can be about anything, air pollution, breast cancer, classical music, they can be about quite serious issues and they can be quite inane, does there really need to be an APPG for stamp collecting? It’s true there is, the chair of that one is Tory MP Andrew Rossindell, go figure, but another that right now you’d really think ought to be far more vocal than they are is the APPG, for Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, which states that it’s purpose is:
‘Providing parliamentarians with the information to act together to prevent genocides and crimes against humanity; learning from past genocides; supporting victims of genocides and crimes against humanity; promoting active peace building.’
So why has hardly anybody ever heard of you? Frankly APPGs themselves are not widely known of and actually they’ve come in for a bit of criticism where they are known about, since they have been alleged to provide a vehicle to bypass lobbying registration rules. As far as declarable interests go, the APPG received in the last financial year a donation from the Aegis Trust of a sum between £22,500 and £24,000, the records only provide a range, but the Aegis Trust formed in 2000,a British NGO, a Non Governmental Organisation, which is based at the Holocaust Memorial Centre, the Holocaust obviously being the most famous genocide there is, though certainly not the only one, the instigation for Aegis to form separately from the Holocaust Memorial Trust was what happened in Kosovo and they have been vocal concerning the genocide in Rwanda as well as another example. So given the fund this Genocide APPG, what have they said about Gaza then?
Having checked their website, I found two articles, the first entitled ‘Humanity needed to defeat terror in Gaza’ written by Aegis Trust and Holocaust Memorial Centre founder James Smith, which basically attacks Hamas as the genocidalists, making the claim that Hamas needed a war with Israel to further it’s own cause. What? Ending occupation? You might not agree with their methods, goodness knows we shouldn’t any more than we do Israel, but this is a very one sided piece. Here’s a particularly on the nose short excerpt:
‘When people accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza, media organizations do a disservice to peace not to inform them about the nature of Hamas, who advocate a policy of genocide against Israelis and Jews. Some protestors must know this already, as they chant in streets of London “From the River to the Sea” meaning the land of Israel, between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, will be emptied of Jews.’
Oh that old chestnut again? This article was also reproduced in Jewish News, so it seems a side has been taken and they are funding the genocide APPG. The second article also reproduced in The Atlantic, concerned South Africa’s case against Israel in the ICJ, again penned by James Smith and this asked why South Africa had brought a case against Israel – he didn’t dispute their atrocious actions it must be noted – but the crux of his argument was why not Hamas too? You have a one night incursion, which still needs independent investigation, which Israel are blocking, which Hamas as well as Israel need to answer for, because more and more as Israel block this, it looks like they themselves have something to hid, but equally the response by Israel on Gaza for that one night incursion, being 7 months of genocide, razing Gaza to the ground, tens of thousands of people dead, mostly women and children and you write an article trying to both sides this? Genocide when it gets committed is always done by one side against the other and both these articles, damn Hamas, fine, but don’t exactly do likewise with Israel. So if these are the money people behind the APPG, perhaps this is one part of why they are seemingly so silent.
But then the APPG has to be made up of parliamentarians to be an All Party Palriamentary Group so as much as digging into the Aegis Trust is revealing, I checked out their Twitter Account too, I couldn’t find any mention of Gaza at all, so read into that what you will, happy to be corrected if I missed it, but genuinely I found nothing.
Equally silent seemingly is that APPG Groups’ Twitter incidentally, the Genocide APPG account having tweeted nothing since the 26th February, but lets get into who is involved parliament wise and again the as always excellent investigative journalism of Declassified UK has done the legwork.
Right now the Genocide APPG has a chair, a co-chair and 2 vice chairs, it’s not a big group right now. The chair is Labour MP for Putney Fleur Anderson and this is ostensibly on the face of things one reason why perhaps this group is silent on Gaza, not least because of who funds them, but because Anderson is listed as a Labour Friend of Israel. How can this APPG be committed to ending genocide, when it’s chair is a friend of the genocidal state of Israel? It’s impossible. Her co-chair is Tory peer Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth and the vice chairs are Brendan O’Hara of the SNP and Labour Peer Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws. Here’s an excerpt from Declassified, detailing some of the hypocrisy of these individuals involved in this group:
‘A closer inspection of Anderson’s work is revealing. In November, during parliament’s vote for an immediate ceasefire, 56 Labour MPs defied the party whip and voted for it.
Anderson was not one of them.
Less than a month later, she spoke in the House of Commons about the importance of parliamentarians doing more to ensure genocides never happen.
Ostensibly, this degree of dissonance appears to be a running theme among the other officers at the APPG.
Brendan O’Hara MP, the Scottish National Party’s foreign affairs spokesperson has been fervently calling for a ceasefire.
However, he attended a reception hosted by ADS Group, which represents arms companies directly linked to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, like Elbit Systems.
Another officer listed on the website is distinguished human rights barrister Baroness Helena Kennedy KC.
In an interview with Prospect magazine in late October, she argued unwaveringly that Israel has a right to self-defence.
Two days after the publishing of that article, as Israel’s violence in Gaza intensified, an open letter was signed by more than 1,000 UK lawyers.
They called on the government to fulfil its international obligations and ensure de-escalation.
Kennedy was not among the signatories.
In April, another open letter to the prime minister was signed by hundreds of lawyers, including three former supreme court judges.
They called for a permanent ceasefire, sanctions against Israeli officials and a suspension of arms sales to Israel.
Kennedy again did not sign it.’
With people involved in an APPG for genocide picking and choosing it seems which genocides to oppose, possibly tied to their other group affiliations, such as LFI, possibly tied to their funding from the Aegis Trust given their apparent bias from those two articles I read, what exactly are you spending this cash on?
I think there are questions to answer about what they think right now, they are doing to oppose one of the worst examples of genocide we’ve ever witnessed in our living memory, or more to the point, why they seem to be burying their heads in the sand as it happens.
Meanwhile at least, other countries are getting their acts together, as Egypt have now joined South Africa at the ICJ, I wonder what the Aegis Trust chap will have to say about that then? Well I had plenty, check that out in this video recommendation here and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.