London conference speakers link Gaza, Iran and the global crisis of international law
Speakers at the Peace and Justice Project conference argued that Western support for Israel, rising military spending and the erosion of legal accountability are reshaping global politics.
An IRNA report on a London Peace and Justice Project conference records speakers’ claims that the Gaza war, US action against Iran, Western arms policies and rising military spending reveal a crisis of international law and human-rights credibility. Participants called for an arms embargo on Israel, institutional accountability and broader political analysis linking Palestine to regional power struggles. The report presents serious allegations and casualty, medical and financial figures, but provides no independent verification or responses from the governments and institutions criticized.
## Verified facts from the source
A report by Iran’s IRNA news agency describes the fourth annual Peace and Justice Project conference in London. Speakers included Omar Barghouti, Abby Martin, Palestinian lawyer Shahd Hammouri, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Queen Mary University of London law professor Niv Gordon and British reconstructive surgeon Victoria Rose.
The speakers argued that Israel’s conduct in Gaza and US military action against Iran have exposed what they described as the limits of Western claims to defend human rights and international law. They called for stronger international pressure on Israel, including an arms embargo, restrictions on military and dual-use trade, and institutional policies excluding companies alleged to be involved in war crimes or other abuses.
Several speakers connected the Gaza war to wider regional and global trends. Hammouri linked Palestine to developments involving Iran, Lebanon, Yemen and the Gulf states, while Martin described actions in Palestine, Lebanon and Iran as part of a broader pattern of military and economic domination. Corbyn argued that rising military expenditure is occurring alongside reductions in social spending and foreign aid.
The conference also discussed the proposed “Gaza Tribunal,” an independent initiative intended to collect testimony and evidence concerning the UK’s role in arms sales and political support for Israel. Gordon said he had heard testimony from 29 witnesses, including doctors, journalists, academics, lawyers and civil-society figures.
Rose described severe damage to Gaza’s health system. She reported that nearly 5,000 people had undergone amputations, that only eight people were trained to produce prostheses or provide rehabilitation, and that prosthetic-production equipment had not entered Gaza since May 2024. These figures and the reported shipment delays were presented by Rose and are not independently verified in the source.
## Analysis
The conference’s central argument was that Gaza is not an isolated humanitarian crisis but a test of the international legal and political order. The speakers presented Western military support for Israel, arms-industry interests, economic structures and regional power politics as interconnected factors. Their analysis was explicitly critical of the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom and wider European policy.
A second theme was the gap between stated human-rights commitments and government practice. Speakers cited the suppression of pro-Palestinian university protests, continued arms transfers and limited UK measures concerning settlement goods as evidence of that gap. They also argued that increased defence spending could shift costs onto public services and household living standards.
The discussion combined legal, political and economic interpretations rather than offering a neutral assessment of the conflicts. Claims that Israel’s actions constitute genocide, that Western governments are complicit in such crimes, or that military operations against Iran were conducted on Israel’s behalf were presented as speaker positions and should not be treated as independently established findings on the basis of this report alone.
The event also reflected a strategic view of solidarity: speakers urged pro-Palestinian movements to move beyond humanitarian advocacy and address military alliances, supply chains, finance, energy infrastructure and the distribution of power in West Asia. The proposed tribunal and institutional ethical-investment policies were presented as mechanisms for accountability and pressure, while grassroots activism was described as a gradual driver of political change.
## Overall assessment
The source documents a strongly anti-war and pro-Palestinian conference whose participants interpret Gaza, Iran and broader regional conflicts through an anti-imperialist and international-law framework. Its main news value lies in recording the arguments, demands and testimony presented by prominent activists, politicians, academics and medical professionals in London. It does not independently establish the factual or legal claims made by those speakers, and no responses from the governments or institutions criticized are included.