Nick Timothy, a Conservative MP, asked Lammy to clarify that “there is not a genocide occurring in the Middle East”, adding that words like “genocide” in connection with Gaza were “not appropriate” and “repeated by protesters and lawbreakers”.
Lammy’s answer began well: “These are, quite properly, legal terms that must be determined by international courts.”
Lammy might have noted that experts, such as the Israeli scholar Omer Bartov and the Lemkin Institute, founded by Raphael Lemkin, who in 1942 invented the term genocide, have already described Israel’s action in Gaza as exactly that. Neither can remotely be described as protesters or lawbreakers.
Instead, Lammy got chummy with Timothy. This should not come as a surprise since Keir Starmer’s Labour has a habit of siding with Tories rather than its own MPs over Gaza.
“I do agree with the honourable gentleman,” said Lammy, before redefining the term genocide in a way that no expert would recognise, let alone accept. The word, the foreign secretary told the House of Commons, was “largely used when millions of people lost their lives in crises like Rwanda, the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the way that they are used now undermines the seriousness of that term”.
We shouldn’t be surprised. Lammy is a cabinet minister in a UK government. You’re not going to get a different answer on this topic. Deselect him if you feel strongly otherwise. These people don’t listen to anything else.
He’s also a hardcore Christian. Listen to his views on assisted dying for example. Whilst still in opposition he was asked about this on Question Time not that long ago. When the topic via Esther Rantzen first came up. He said he would seek council from his constituency and then made it clear that it was his church constituency that he was referring to. Forget about the electorate. His head and heart is firmly aligned with what his congregation wants. I suspect on this matter it is much the same.
Deselect him if you feel strongly otherwise
PLP keep overriding the selection process around me to ignore local candidates or skip the process completely. If you want to be serious about politics in the current climate you need to be serious about inflicting permanent harm on politicians.
you need to be serious about inflicting permanent harm on politicians
I don’t think you phrased that in the best way… I hope you mean punish them at the ballot box
and that’s why you will never see change in your lifetime
Going round harming or killing MPs that you disagree with wouldn’t bring any positive change at all. MPs on all sides and the public have absolutely no tolerance for it and would rally together against anyone doing this. You’d look like deranged extremists no matter your position.
It excuses the other sides to also use violence to achieve their aims and it would be utter carnage, making the government crack down extremely hard and probably bring in even more draconian police powers.
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It must be easy to fantasize like this from your armchair while you profit off the refugee crisis as it washes up in the imperial core. When do you plan on actually doing something other than thriving in a fascist state though? Are you trying to delegate this task to other people? How does this work?
I mean if I know anything about your industry, the Lebanese refugee crisis is doing to be a huge windfall.
Hey Voight, you made it to Vietnam yet? Or are you still here because I was right about them not wanting to be friends with you either?
Don’t bother, the guy is a legit weirdo. He got banned from a comm and then got pissy at me in dms, only to follow me into the mega
He’s done similar to me twice before, I just wanted to confirm it’s him before reporting this account as an alt too. The first name I knew him under was @Voight, so he’s obviously not super inventive with usernames.
Yes and they didn’t even bring up my unusually dismissed case, which I was worried about. Nobody at immigration tried to make friends with me. They also didn’t seem to know what Chapo Trap House is for some reason. 😒 Gonna talk to those guys a lot more though so there is hope for you that I fail the Voight-Kampff Test and prove you Right Online.
So I take it you accept the L? Fine with me, take it as constructive criticism. Or it can just be another narcissistic injury that twists your personality further until you die.
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largely used when millions of people lost their lives in crises like Rwanda, the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the way that they are used now undermines the seriousness of that term
Nitpick, but Lammy said “the Second Word War and the Holocaust”, the ways they’ve transribed it implies Lammy was saying the Second World War itself was a genocide.
Last summer, he referred to Azerbaijan’s bloody conquest of Nagorno-Karabakh, with the exodus of a terrified Armenian population, as “liberation”.
Excuse me? That’s actually disgraceful.
Longtime ago I had hope for Lammy, but he turned out to be duplicitous and fake .
I once watched him talk to a group of 16-19 yr old students. When asked why he wasn’t backing Corbyn he said he wouldn’t back an ‘old white guy’. Discriminating based on three protected characteristics is no way to talk politics with young people, I found him disappointing.
That captures it nicely. Prepared to hitch a ride on popular issues, but equally bigoted come crunch time.
Because there isn’t a genocide.
It’s trendy to think there is (because it’s the pesky Jews), but there isn’t.
Have you considered immigrating to occupied Palestine then? Useful reminder, since you seem confused: anti-genocide ≠ anti-semitism
Have you considered immigrating to occupied Palestine then?
Lol. What kind of argument is that? I don’t want to move to the USA either. Does that mean a genocide is ongoing there?
Useful reminder, since you seem confused: anti-genocide ≠ anti-semitism
No confusion here. But there is no genocide. And if Israel were hoping for a genocide, they’re not really doing a very good job of it, are they?
2-5% of the population of Gaza has been killed in the last year, close to the entire population is homeless, Israeli military leaders are openly saying, in English, that their goal is for all the Palestinians to leave to other countries.
What definition of genocide are you using where the current situation does not count?
Lammy might have noted that experts, such as the Israeli scholar Omer Bartov and the Lemkin Institute, founded by Raphael Lemkin, who in 1942 invented the term genocide have already described Israel’s action in Gaza as exactly that.
