Palestine: United Nations General Assembly Resolution

Lord Janner of Braunstone Excerpts

Monday 3rd December 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Janner of Braunstone]

First, my Lords, I apologise: I did not realise that the debate was going to start so very early. However, I am honoured and delighted to be here.

During my career and personal life I am proud to have worked, and continue to work, for both Jews and Arabs who are in Israel and the neighbouring countries. I have spent much of my time building bridges between their communities—working together on our similarities and differences, discussing how we live, and, more importantly, discussing how they can live happily together. That is why I believe it is essential that we work to support both Israel and Palestine to reach a two-state solution where the Jewish have their state—Israel—and the Arabs have their own state: Palestine. The Palestinians’ win at the United Nations General Assembly shows how many countries also agree that they deserve to have their own state. However, the remaining number of noes and abstentions demonstrates how the resolution still needs to be both discussed and developed.

Our Government did not vote yes. Last Thursday in the United Nations they abstained, showing how we in Britain do not completely dismiss the Palestinians’ rights but acknowledge that there are a number of issues that must be spoken about in order for our Government to agree wholly to the increase in Palestine’s status at the United Nations.

The shadow Foreign Minister, Douglas Alexander, spoke in the other place in a debate last Wednesday before the UN vote. He said:

“what I believe will be an overwhelming majority of the 193 members of the UN General Assembly in voting for enhanced observer status for the Palestinians. That vote can, and must, send a powerful signal to the Palestinians that diplomatic efforts and the path of politics, not the path of rockets and violence, offer the route to a negotiated two-state solution”.—[Official Report, Commons, 28/11/12; col. 230.]

That is what we must all hope will occur.

As this House knows, only a week before this vote, Gaza and Israel were in conflict with rockets flying from both sides, and, sadly, there were casualties on both sides. Since Israel left Gaza in 2005 countless rockets have been fired from Hamas-run Gaza, and Hamas uses innocent citizens to hide behind. We must all acknowledge Israel’s right to defend its own country. We cannot ignore that Israel, like Palestine, has a right to exist. Hamas saw the results on 29 November as a victory. It is important for the Palestinian people but Hamas is not there to benefit its people. It is not the Government; it is a terrorist group that uses its own citizens as shields to hide its operations. It is a group which publicly announces the annihilation—the annihilation—of the State of Israel.

Whether you say shalom or salaam, it is this word—which means peace—to which we must always return. We must all work together for peace in that area. How do the Government consider the UN results on the status of Palestine will encourage them to go back to the negotiations when they have refused to take part in the past two years?

Before I finish, I would like to tell a fable of a London man who once went to a law society and asked to be recommended to a one-armed solicitor. “Why one-armed?”, asked the official. “Because,” the man replied, “I am sick to death of lawyers saying, on the one hand this, and on the other hand that”. That was a perfectly good reason for wanting somebody with one hand. On the one hand, if you do not recognise that others have a case, you will lose yours. On the other hand, if you do not put your case firmly, then you will not be an advocate for long. And without any hands, you certainly cannot clap. One Hand Alone Cannot Clap is the name of a book that I wrote some years ago about Israel and the Middle East. It is important that we acknowledge that you cannot base arguments or work for peace with only one side. No one would argue against the rights for the Palestinian people to have their own home, and this is also so true for Israel. We must all learn to clap together and to live happily and peacefully side by side.