Gaza

Lord Leigh of Hurley Excerpts

Monday 14th July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Warsi]

The noble Lord is probably referring to what I said in response to my noble friend—that Israel is a liberal democracy and we therefore hold it to account against liberal democratic standards. There is no doubt that Israel would like to be held accountable against liberal democratic standards because those are the values that it upholds and stands for. It would be wrong for us to try to compare the conduct of Israel as a liberal democratic state with that of a potentially designated terrorist organisation.

[Lord Leigh of Hurley (Con)]

Does my noble friend not agree that the tragedy of Gaza is that, following the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, there was a golden opportunity to give Israel the confidence that she could subsequently withdraw from the West Bank but, instead, Hamas took over from Fatah? Rather than building infrastructure and creating a tolerant society, Hamas acquired and fired some 11,000 rockets from 2005, mainly, as my noble friend Lord Pannick said, from densely populated civilian areas, which led to terrible human tragedy. Because they were fired from densely populated human centres, the inevitable action, which had to be taken, led to those terrible deaths, whether they were of Israelis or Palestinians. I do not think it is meaningful to compare one with another; any death in that area is a tragedy. Does the Minister not agree that international pressure on Iran is now needed to stop it supplying these rockets and to stop it supplying funding to the terrorist organisation that Hamas now is?

[Baroness Warsi]

My noble friend makes an important point. This is a matter that has border connotations. The discussion that we are currently having with Iran about its nuclear ambitions and its wish to be part of the international family will also involve discussions with it in relation to its support for terrorist organisations.