UK foreign minister tells Sa’ar Labour labeling Gaza war ‘genocide’ doesn’t reflect gov’t policy

UK Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper told Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar in a call earlier today that her Labour Party’s recent decision to recognize Israel’s war in Gaza as a genocide does not “reflect the government’s policy and the government dismissed them,” according to an Israeli readout.

Sa’ar says he thanked Cooper for making this clarification.

The Israeli foreign minister adds that the call came at Cooper’s initiative following yesterday’s terror attack in Manchester targeting a synagogue on Yom Kippur.

“I said that this is a decisive moment in the UK’s own history, for preserving its character, and it requires relentlessly combating the poisonous antisemitic movement,” Sa’ar says he told her. “I raised the need to fight the pro-Palestinian marches and protests, which bear antisemitic traits, and at times include explicit support for terror.”

Just spoke with UK Foreign Secretary @YvetteCooperMP, at her initiative, following the horrific anti-Semitic terror attack in Manchester.
I said that this is a decisive moment in the UK's own history, for preserving its character, and it requires relentlessly combating the… pic.twitter.com/Y58UCtuqd8

— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) October 3, 2025