IMAGE: حسني صلاح | Hosny Salah
This of course includes the UK, something which will come as no surprise to anyone paying attention, but it is nonetheless a landmark moment: a UN official laying out the evidence in unequivocal black and white.
‘The ongoing genocide in Gaza is a collective crime, sustained by the complicity of influential Third States that have enabled longstanding systemic violations of international law by Israel,’ Albanese says.
‘The United Kingdom has […] played a key role in military collaboration with Israel, despite internal opposition. From its bases in Cyprus, the UK has enabled a crucial US supply line to Tel Aviv and flown over 600 surveillance missions over Gaza throughout the genocide, sharing intelligence with Israel.
‘Flight numbers and durations, often coinciding with major Israeli operations, suggest detailed knowledge and co-operation in the destruction of Gaza, extending beyond “hostage rescue”.’
The F-35 ‘indirect transfers’
Albanese points too to what she labels ‘indirect transfers’ — the supply of components then used by Israel in the occupied territories. The UK is unsurprisingly among the countries she lists.
The F-35 stealth strike fighter programme, key to the Israeli military assault in Gaza, involves 19 states — including the UK — supplying components and parts to Israel. Of these 19 countries, 17 have ratified the Arms Trade Treaty, among them the UK which did so in 2014.
‘Despite litigation in the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, Denmark, and the United Kingdom — all of which defended their roles — and some cancellation of direct exports, states continue to transfer F-35 parts, heavily used in the genocidal destruction of Gaza,’ says Albanese.
Genocide in disguise
Turning to what she labels ‘genocide under the guise of diplomatic and political actions’, she points to repeated ‘absentions, delays, watered-down draft resolutions, and a simplistic rhetoric of “balance”’ within the UN Security Council.
She says: ‘A bloc of Western states – Australia, New Zealand and Canada, sometimes joined by the UK, Germany or the Netherlands – appeared at times ready to pressurise Israel, such as in December 2023, when their statements added momentum for a ceasefire. Yet their introduction of the term “sustained ceasefire” produced a diluted Security Council resolution that delayed action.
‘In February 2024, they criticised the planned invasion of Rafah while simultaneously withdrawing United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) funding. Such diplomacy created an illusion of progress while concrete actions were repeatedly stymied.’
Sanctions ‘served a similar function’, she says: ‘In 2024, Australia, Canada, the EU, New Zealand and the UK sanctioned some extremist settlers and organizations, and in June 2025, Israeli Ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich were sanctioned by Australia, Canada, Norway and the UK. Yet such isolated actions effectively condone the Israeli state system and structures as a whole.’
And, of course, the UK has been among those states that have failed to engage with the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court. Albanese says: ‘While only 13 states have supported South Africa before the ICJ, most western states have persistently denied genocide. None have joined Nicaragua against Germany at the ICJ, or invoked domestic laws against complicit corporations or individuals.
‘Only seven referred the situation to the ICC … the United States imposed sanctions to paralyse the Court; the United Kingdom threatened its funding, while [Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu travelled freely across European airspace.’
‘A system of global complicity’
In a damning conclusion, Albanese says: ‘The genocide in Gaza was not committed in isolation, but as part of a system of global complicity.
‘Rather than ensuring that Israel respects the basic human rights and self-determination of the Palestinian people, powerful Third States — perpetuating colonial and racial-capitalist practices that should have long been consigned to history — have allowed violent practices to become an everyday reality.
‘Even as the genocidal violence became visible, states, mostly Western ones, have provided, and continue to provide, Israel with military, diplomatic, economic, and ideological support, even as it weaponised famine and humanitarian aid.
‘The horrors of the past two years are not an aberration, but the culmination of a long history of complicity.’
For us in the UK, Albanese’s report further underlines not only the UK’s clear complicity in the war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide that we have seen unfold in Gaza, but our personal complicity under international and domestic law as taxpayers.
There is no longer any possible choice: we must take action now.
