LAUNCH a full public inquiry into Britain’s complicity in the Gaza genocide, left MP Jeremy Corbyn has told the government.

The former Labour leader has written to Keir Starmer warning that he will be working with colleagues to “pursue all avenues to establish a public, independent inquiry into the UK’s involvement in Israel’s military assault in Gaza.”

This probe should “establish exactly what decisions have been taken, how these decisions have been made, and what consequences they have had,” he said.

Mr Corbyn’s move comes as pro-Palestine campaigners face a growing police clampdown, with several summoned for police interview over purported offences at January’s Gaza demonstration.

 The letter to the Prime Minister cites the precedent of the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war which, though protracted, eventually laid bare the sheer extent of deception undertaken by the Blair government regarding the 2003 aggression.

When Labour leader, Mr Corbyn issued a full public apology for the part played by his party in the war, much to the rage of the Labour right.  

Warning that “history is repeating itself,” Mr Corbyn points out that “many people believe that the government has taken decisions that have implicated officials in the gravest breaches of international law. These charges will not go away until there is a comprehensive inquiry with the legal power to establish the truth.

“Britain has played a highly influential role in Israel’s military operations,” Mr Corbyn writes, “including the sale of weapons, the supply of intelligence and the use of RAF bases” in Cyprus.

“Many of us have repeatedly raised objections over the continued sale of F-35 components. We have repeatedly asked for the truth regarding the role of British military bases.

“And we have repeatedly requested the publication of legal advice behind the government’s currently unknown definition of genocide. Our requests have been met evasion, obstruction and silence, leaving the public in the dark,” he added.

The authorities are, however, more interested in keeping the public off the streets as well as in the dark, with the summoning of eight leading activists in the solidarity movement for interview regarding the January demonstration.

Two have already been charged with public order offences, which they deny, and two MPs — Mr Corbyn and John McDonnell — have been interviewed under caution but without charge.

Those now summoned include leading actor Khalid Abdallah and 87-year-old Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos.

A statement by the coalition of organisations behind the Gaza protests, including Palestine Solidarity and Stop the War, warned that the movement would not be backing down.

“This apparently co-ordinated attack against the Palestine solidarity movement is endeavouring to halt public protest on the issue, through harassment of those involved in the movement, and through increasingly draconian restrictions on demonstrations.

“That a Holocaust survivor is called in by the police for the alleged offence of carrying a bunch of flowers into Trafalgar Square underlines the unjustifiable extremes to which the Metropolitan Police are prepared to go to restrict the right to public protest and silence the Palestine solidarity movement,” the statement said.

“Our cause is to mobilise support for the Palestinian people suffering a genocidal onslaught by the Israeli state, backed by the British government. To pursue this just cause, we must also defend the right to protest — alongside many others who face similar restrictions. We will not be cowed by these attacks on our rights.

“We demand that the Metropolitan Police halt any prosecutions or proceedings against those involved in this entirely peaceful protest.

“We further insist that the Metropolitan Police respects the right to protest and that it ceases to take instruction from those who are determined to back Israel’s genocidal actions, to maintain British state support for them, and to drive our movement off the streets,” it said, adding that the force “will not succeed under any circumstances.”