LONDON

Britain’s ruling Labour Party on Monday passed a motion declaring that the UN has concluded Israel is committing genocide in Gaza -- a decision that puts the party on a collision course with its leadership.

At a party conference in Liverpool, delegates passed the “Peace in the Middle East 2” motion, which says the UN Commission of Inquiry found that “Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have committed the crime of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”

The motion commits a future Labour government to a series of hard-line measures, including using “all means reasonably available” to prevent the commission of genocide in Gaza, suspending arms trade with Israel, and freezing the UK-Israel trade and partnership agreement.

The motion was proposed by Unison, one of the country's biggest trade unions.

In contrast, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Cabinet ministers have refused to declare that a genocide is taking place in Gaza, insisting the issue is a matter for the courts.

After the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory published its report, the UK government said its position remained that it “has not concluded that Israel is acting with that (genocidal) intent.”

The Sept. 16 report said there were reasonable grounds to find that four of the five acts of genocide defined under international law have been committed since October 2023.

The Israeli army has killed over 66,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023. The relentless bombardment has rendered the enclave uninhabitable and led to starvation and the spread of disease.

In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.