Occupied Palestinian Territories: Humanitarian Situation

Debate between John McDonnell and Richard Burgon

Tuesday 19th November 2024 Westminster Hall

[John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington) (Ind)]

I want to make three brief points.

First, my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow West (Patricia Ferguson) raised the issue of the children who have been seriously injured in Gaza and the west bank. I think this is the ninth occasion on which I have raised the same issue, either in debates or in correspondence. It would be helpful to have a response from the Minister, who has looked at the progress on developing the scheme we have been recommending, based on the Ukrainian scheme, to get children here for treatment. There has been a willingness from a number of clinicians in this country to facilitate that.

Secondly, my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry South (Zarah Sultana) may raise this point as well, but members of the Fire Brigades Union have raised funds and provided a fire and rescue vehicle for use in Palestine to enable people to be saved and rescued from the rubble of the bombings. The Israeli Government have prevented that vehicle from being delivered. I urge the Government to intervene to ensure that it is.

Thirdly, the world has changed with the election of Donald Trump. Certainly the direction of travel has changed with regard to Netanyahu and his colleagues in the Cabinet. They believe that they have permission to annex all of Palestine, and that they can act with complete impunity now that Donald Trump has been elected.

The onus therefore falls upon the shoulders of our Government to be the leaders seeking peace in the world. We also recognise that words have not been good enough to protect the Palestinian people or to move the situation towards a ceasefire. That is why I have come to the conclusion that our Government must lead on the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. We have the potential to unite a whole range of countries across the globe—in the global south as well as across Europe—in taking serious action on BDS. We will have a meeting on Saturday morning in my community, where we will look at how we can undertake sanctions locally. Our local shops did a boycott on Israeli goods last time this situation occurred, and that is what we will be developing.

[Richard Burgon (Leeds East) (Ind)]

Last week, a United Nations special committee found that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war, and that Israel’s methods of warfare in Gaza are consistent with genocide. Given that, to put an end to the humanitarian crisis, do we not need to see tough sanctions on Israel—on arms, trade and individuals—until Israel finally stops violating international law?

[John McDonnell]

I can see no other option now. We have tried everything else. We have tried dialogue. We have tried pressure. We have tried to form alliances and to support progressive forces within Israel itself. All of that has failed. I think someone mentioned that every night, we come home and we watch children dying in front of our eyes on television. I think there is nothing else, so I urge the Government to rethink their strategy and become the leaders in the BDS movement across Europe and the global south, because that is the only way we will be able to shift this Israeli Government away from murdering more of the people in Palestine.