A Foreign Office minister newly appointed by Andy Burnham recently said that the Palestinians were facing a “system of legal apartheid”.
The department has, as yet, refused to say whether Uma Kumaran will be the minister responsible for the Middle East.
The Labour MP for Bow and Stratford, made the comments during a session of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee on July 7.
She was questioning then-Middle East minister Hamish Falconer about the detention of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza arrested by Israel in late 2024 on the suspicion that he was “a Hamas terrorist operative”.
Kumaran said: “He has been in Israeli detention for 18 months, held without charge. His lawyer has said that there is a tangible danger to life.”
She added: “We know that his case is not isolated. UN experts have told us detention and torture of Gaza’s medics is part of an ongoing destruction of its healthcare system.
"I read this morning they are using the term medicide, which is a feature of genocide. You said you have raised the case again with Israeli authorities. What exactly has been their response?”
The minister responded by criticising Israel’s actions, saying that he had repeatedly raised Dr Abu Safiya’s case, among other cases, but had received “no satisfactory update or answer”.
Falconer continued: “That gives rise to a wider worry for us. When I first became the Middle East minister two years ago, I believed that the Israeli justice system was sufficiently rigorous and independent from Israeli politics that steps could be taken to ensure, in most cases, that justice and accountability could be seen.
"That has obviously been a concern now, not just for Palestinians but for others as well. Three British nationals were killed in the World Central Kitchen incident.
“I have repeatedly raised, at every single available level and on every available opportunity, justice and accountability for British aid workers killed in the course of their duties having coordinated extensively with the IDF before doing so.
"Whether it is in relation to Dr Safiya or the World Central Kitchen case, there is an obvious and growing concern that the independence of the accountability mechanisms in Israel is proving to be woeful.”
In a later question, the East London Labour MP then made the claim of apartheid.
She asked Falconer: “Earlier this year I wrote to you about the Israeli death penalty law and the system of legal apartheid that Palestinians are facing.
"You said in your response to me that the Government are ‘deeply concerned by the reports of mistreatment of detainees’ and you went on to talk about the 1949 Geneva conventions. Since 7 October 2023, the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] has not been able to visit any Palestinian detainees in Israeli places of detention.
"That includes detainees like Dr Abu Safiya.
“Do you agree that in its treatment of detainees, Israel is very clearly violating international humanitarian law?”
Falconer did not make a determination that Israel had breached international law.
He did reiterate the government’s position, and its rationale for imposing a partial ban on arms sales back in September 2024, saying: “There was a real risk that the Israeli Government were in breach of international humanitarian law.
"That risk has not got any better over the last two years.”
He also urged the Israelis to “provide access to the ICRC”, something he said the government had done “repeatedly”.
Kumaran repeated the claims she made at the select committee on her own social media the following day, when she posted a clip of the exchange.
In the text accompanying the video she said that she had written “to the Minister earlier this year raising the concerns of my constituents about Israel's death penalty law and the system of legal apartheid facing Palestinians” and further claimed that Israel was guilty of “clear violations of international humanitarian law”.
Her comments were robustly criticised following confirmation of her appointment as a Foreign Office minister.
One Labour MP told the JC: "Unfortunately the casual use of inflammatory and false labels like apartheid and genocide to describe the situations in the West Bank and Gaza is so widespread among MPs that it makes it difficult for any PM to recruit FCDO ministers who haven't used this kind of ignorant language."
Her comments come amid increasing concern from Jewish communal organisations about the language used about Israel by Britain’s new prime minister.
The Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council said they had “significant concerns” about a video he posted in which he apologised for Labour’s previous stance on the conflict in Gaza, said that Britain was too slow to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Though Burnham has not claimed that Israel has committed “genocide”, one of his key allies, newly appointed chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, Louise Haigh, has.
Former Middle East minister Falconer was promoted in the reshuffle to become minister for intergovernmental relations and European relations and will now attend cabinet.
Ed Miliband was confirmed as the new foreign secretary on Monday, but the foreign office has yet to confirm the departmental responsibilities of junior ministers and who officially holds the portfolio of Middle East minister.
Chris Ellmore and Stephen Doughty, who served in ministerial roles in the government of Sir Keir Starmer, are set to continue in the department.
As well as Kumaran, they are joined by Kirsty McNeil, a former adviser to Gordon Brown, elected at the 2024 general election and who recently served as Scotland minister.
Uma Kumaran and the Foreign Office have been contacted for comment.
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