Middle East

Lord Palmer of Childs Hill Excerpts

Friday 16th March 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Palmer of Childs Hill]

My Lords, Iran threatens world stability and the very existence of Israel. My noble friend Lady Falkner has given a very professional and detailed analysis of the situation. However, if one can believe Iran’s rhetoric, Israel should be destroyed. However, a large part of the political world appears to say, “Don’t worry, it’s only words”, and the fact that Iran has, or almost has, a nuclear bomb capability is acceptable, and the fact that it is burying its nuclear attack capability underneath an impregnable mountain is purely an innocent desire not to blot the landscape with launching pads—rather like a proliferation of wind-power farms. That is not the case.

Nuclear weapons and the means to deliver a bomb are increasingly spreading around the world. However, the bomb is nowadays seen as a deterrent—again, as my noble friend Lady Falkner said. Only Iran says very clearly that it will destroy the Zionist entity of Israel. So when, in these conditions, Israel, whose very existence is threatened, considers a preventive strike, the world loses its memory of the bad guy being Iran, not Israel. Please do not take this as an argument for bombing Iran, which could have disastrous consequences.

We have spoken about deterrence. We have so far seen many countries acquire nuclear weapons, and there is a “my bomb is bigger than your bomb” attitude. Does Iran have that same attitude? That is the problem. The world needs to be aware of the nature of those who rule Iran. This week, 22 people were arrested in Azerbaijan who were working with Iran to bomb American and Israeli targets there. That follows the Iranian terrorist plots in India, Georgia, Thailand and Singapore.

Returning to Israel and the Palestinians, there are problems nearer to their home. Speaking as someone who wants a secure Palestinian state living alongside a secure state of Israel, I plead with other noble Lords to do everything in their power to further the peace process. The Israelis tell me, despite what some other noble Lords have said, that they say yes to the quartet’s suggestions and are willing and ready to engage with the Palestinians in negotiations without preconditions, but the Palestinians will apparently not go that far. Of course, there are so many obstacles on both sides, two of which are the Palestinian objections to settlement expansion and the Israelis refusing to sit with Hamas because of its belligerent policies.

Despite all that, the solution must be that, prior to formal negotiations, the Israelis say that when they sit down they will announce as a first step the freezing of settlement expansion including, albeit reluctantly, in east Jerusalem. I say that although there was no precondition in the past for there to be no settlements. The Palestinians will, prior to formal negotiations, need to confirm that Hamas and the Palestinian Authority will, when they sit down, accept, albeit reluctantly, the state of Israel and cease rocket attacks on Israeli towns. Both sides must get to the table knowing that those will be the opening announcements. Then peace negotiations will concentrate on fixing the borders between Israel and the new Palestinian state. That will need to involve acceptance of the three large Israeli settlements just on the West Bank side of the 1967 line, with the Palestinian state receiving other Israeli land of equal size to compensate.

All that has been on the table for a long time. At a stroke, the settlements that other noble Lords have deplored, spread throughout the West Bank with connecting roads, will disappear. They will be taken over by the Palestinian state. If we get to that stage, we can forget about history, because it is about the future of a Palestinian state without that spread of settlements, just as Israel moved all its settlers out of Gaza—to get what? More rockets raining on it. Towns such as Sderot and Ashkelon in southern Israel will stop having rockets raining down upon them. The residents of southern Israel can cease to worry about how near the nearest air raid shelter is. In Sderot, every bus stop is an air raid shelter. That is how they and their children live.

I started my contribution to the debate by talking about the threat from Iran. This very week has seen rockets from Gaza into Israel. Many of those rockets originated in Iran. Forget how it all started and why that has happened; rockets have been raining down on those southern Israeli towns for a long time.

My noble friend Lord Eccles, who is not in the Chamber at the moment, talked about water resources. Water is such an important resource in the Middle East. He should read in Hansard the wonderful debate on water that we had in this Chamber, when I and other noble Lords spoke about the progress that has been made in the region. Within two years, Israel will get virtually all its drinking water from desalination plants; and Gaza, with access to the sea, could have exactly that if peace can rein.

For progress to be achieved on all sides, we must answer the question: do we want our people to live under continual threat or are we prepared to compromise for peace? When my noble friend replies, I hope that he will be able to assure us what Her Majesty’s Government will do to influence Iran’s intentions and that, even if it looks a bleak prospect, the future for the Palestinian-Israel dispute is for both sides to sit down at the negotiating table.

Christians in the Middle East

Lord Palmer of Childs Hill Excerpts

Friday 9th December 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Palmer of Childs Hill]

My Lords, this is a very welcome debate. As a British Jew who enjoys religious freedom in this country, one appreciates the need for religious minorities to enjoy religious freedom in other countries, and obviously that includes Christians in the Middle East.

I pay tribute to the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury who has raised this matter not only in this debate in your Lordships’ House but at conferences in July, where he raised the position of Christians in the Middle East and said to the BBC at that time that Christians were becoming a marginalised minority in Bethlehem.

I was particularly touched by the most reverend Primate’s comments about Christianity being an export from the Middle East, not an import. That was brought home to me when I went with Christian friends to walk the stations of the cross through Jerusalem and realised that you can still do that over beautifully paved roads in the old tradition. My Christian friends were particularly impressed that St Peter’s fish can still be fished—not the same fish, though—in Lake Kinneret. The tradition is there. It is not an import into the Middle East, it is an export from it, and it should remain there.

The noble Lords, Lord Wright—he has left us at the moment—and Lord Turnberg mentioned Bethlehem. Bethlehem is controlled not by Israel but by the Palestinian Authority, which bears the main responsibility for the situation faced by Christians living in Bethlehem and elsewhere on the West Bank, just as Hamas bears responsibility for the predicament of Christians living under its rule in Gaza. Of course, Israel still has control over aspects of life in the West Bank, not to mention East Jerusalem, and it is obviously involved in some ways in the affairs of Gaza. But it is not directly in control of either Gaza or the West Bank and the treatment, good or bad, of Christians in that area.

Taking issue again with the noble Lord, Lord Wright, in Israel itself—what might be called “Israel proper”—the Christian population is not falling but is stable, and there is religious freedom, including in Jerusalem itself. While the noble Lord, Lord Wright, was speaking, I looked up the population of Bethlehem. It is commonly said that there was Christian flight from there but, in fact, while the percentage of Christians in Bethlehem and Bethlehem district has decreased, the total number has increased. In Bethlehem city, the Christian population dropped under Jordanian rule but, since 1967, it has grown by 11 per cent in the city and 56 per cent in the district. Those are percentages; it must be remembered that, with an influx of a mainly Muslim population, percentages are one thing and numbers are another.

Israel's treatment of religious minorities may not be perfect, just as the UK's treatment of minorities is not always perfect, but there is religious freedom and there are full civil rights for Christians living in Israel. There are so many branches of Christianity in Israel. You find every branch of the faith there. It is almost like the Jew on a desert island who builds two synagogues because he wants to resign from one of them; there has to be more than one. The most reverend Primate mentioned politics; in Israeli politics, if you have three Jews, that is three political parties. There are masses of different branches of Christianity in the Middle East, and people forget that.

There is a UK task force on issues facing Arab citizens of Israel, which is doing a lot of good work in Israel, including with Christian Arabs over there, with a lot of practical support from Anglo-Jewish and Anglo-Christian charities. Anyone who cares about Israel must recognise that minority rights are important, and Christians have long had an important role to play in the area, including Israel and Palestine. It is therefore good news that, last year—the last year for which I have statistics—100,000 Christians were in the central square of Bethlehem for Christmas; that is twice as many as the year before and the highest number for a decade. One can only hope that that 100,000 is increased even further this year. This is testimony to the co-operation on West Bank security between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Long may that continue.

The debate is about Christians in the Middle East, not only about Christians in Israel and Palestine, so one must, as some other noble Lords have done, consider the wider region. The so-called Arab spring has brought many issues involving Christians to the fore, but let us not forget long-established issues. For example, we take it for granted that it is simply not possible for Christians to live openly in a country like Saudi Arabia. Why should that be taken for granted? Why should it be acceptable to us? We must continue to put pressure on Saudi Arabia to reform.

In Syria, mentioned by other noble Lords, 1.5 million Christians have had some limited freedom of worship under the deeply unpleasant Assad regime. What future now awaits them, particularly if there might be a civil war, possibly fought on sectarian lines? In Iraq, where British troops fought and died to create the current regime, there have, since the 2003 invasion, been sectarian attacks on at least 54 Christian churches, with hundreds of deaths. As Minority Rights Group International said in a report on Tuesday, a mere 500,000 Christians remain in Iraq, down from the figure of between 800,000 and 1.4 million who were there in 2003.

The great work of Canon Andrew White has been mentioned by two noble Lords. He has and does work with the Jews living in Iraq. Baghdad had a vast Jewish population. The number of Jews living in Iraq, according to Canon Andrew White, is now only six or seven. The noble Lord, Lord Sacks, knows far more about it; the problem with speaking before him is that I have to get my statistics right.

Archbishop Louis Sako of Iraq's Chaldean Catholic Church has warned of a haemorrhage, and said that Iraq could be emptied of Christians. In Egypt, the situation remains deeply uncertain for Christians, as the results of elections continue to emerge. In October, a peaceful march protesting against the destruction of a church in upper Egypt was broken up by police and troops in central Cairo: 27 people were killed, some of them run over by military vehicles, and more than 300 people were injured. So it is hard to be optimistic about the future for Egypt’s ancient, Coptic Christian communities. This makes it even more important that we recognise, as the noble Lord, Lord Patten, said, that the UK coalition Government have committed £110 million over four years to the task of bolstering democracy, human rights and pluralism across the countries affected by the Arab spring, and this is vital for minorities, including Jews and Christians.

Protesters in Libya recently waved placards saying: “There is no place for the Jew in Libya”. It is equally deplorable to suggest that there might be no place for Christians in the Middle East, the region that gave birth to Christianity, and in which Christians have lived for more than 2,000 years.

This is a most welcome and urgent debate. The fate of Christians across the Middle East must, and I hope will, remain a priority for the UK Government.

Libya

Lord Palmer of Childs Hill Excerpts

Friday 1st April 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Palmer of Childs Hill]

My Lords, first, I thank the Minister for his valued introduction. I will draw the attention of the House to one of the unsung heroes of the conflict in Libya. We have heard about the actions of the United Kingdom, France, NATO and the United States. The Minister spoke of 17 contributing nations. However, little attention has been given to the valiant George Cross island of Malta. Last weekend I was in Valletta in Malta. I spoke to the Prime Minister, Dr Lawrence Gonzi, who was accompanied by Malta's excellent High Commissioner in London, Joseph Zammit Tabona. Noble Lords will know that Dr Gonzi’s party has a majority of one in the Maltese Parliament.

During this crisis, more than 16,000 people have been evacuated from Libya via Malta. Malta has helped more than 100 countries evacuate people from Libya. Valletta harbour and the international airport were fully geared up for the operation—we should bear in mind that this is a very small country—and dozens of persons who required medical assistance were treated. Malta's police and civil protection workers worked round the clock for three weeks to deal with the crisis.

Malta has played an active role in protecting Libyan citizens since the start of the crisis, even as it projected a neutral stance and kept such a low profile that very few people noticed what it was doing. An official in the office of the Prime Minister of Malta was appointed as a liaison officer to facilitate the sending of aid to Libya's worst-hit cities. He dealt with a group of Libyans living in Malta, and with Maltese businessmen—there are many Maltese businessmen in Libya, as the noble Lord, Lord Selsdon, will know—who are liaising with Libyan rebel forces. The Maltese Government helped to relay to the international military forces distress calls from the aid vessel sent from Malta that came under attack from Libyan patrol boats off Misrata. So far, three ships have arrived from Malta, enabling almost €2 million-worth of food and medicines to reach rebel-held cities.

Noble Lords should bear in mind that Malta is 93 kilometres south of Sicily and only 288 kilometres east of Tunisia. Its land area is a magnificent 300 square kilometres and it is one of the world’s smallest countries, with a population of less than 400,000—the same size as many local authorities in this country. Once again, these George Cross islands—there are three of them—have risen to the occasion. I hope that, in replying to the debate, the Minister will find time to acknowledge our gratitude to Malta and that the thanks of your Lordships can be conveyed to Dr Gonzi, its Prime Minister, when he visits London on 10 May.

Turning to the wider issue, the noble Lord, Lord Selsdon, asked whether anyone had been to Libya. I was in Libya last year. I was there not as an exalted interlocutor, as the noble Lord was, but was visiting a number of the ancient sites. What impressed me—perhaps “impress” is the wrong word—was the complete emptiness of the streets, barring the arms, the security, the police and the soldiers. The wonderful beaches have not a single beach umbrella on them and there are virtually no tourist hotels. The Libyans to whom I spoke said, “We don’t get any tourists”. The point is that they do not welcome them. This is a very inward-looking state.

I believe that at the root of the problems in many parts of the world is our acceptance of despots and dictators, as my noble friend Lord Alderdice mentioned earlier. I always think of the words of Dr Kissinger. When talking about despots, he said, “That’s all right. They’re our despots”. The trouble is that we have adopted too many despots and dictators. We have dealt with them and treated them as equals. However, they are not equals, due to the way that they treat their citizens. The noble Lord, Lord West, described Colonel Gaddafi as a “murderous, deranged thug”. I presume that that was one of the kinder expressions that he might have used. However, these are the people we were dealing with.

Other noble Lords have spoken about the people in these turbulent regions being concerned with democracy, justice, law and human rights. However, many of the people in these turbulent countries are concerned about food, goods and natural freedoms that we take for granted. They are not so interested in the wider world. They are perhaps not interested in democracy as we know it, but they want a standard of life which these dictators and despots have not given them.

We have spoken of an Arab spring, but I am looking forward to a Middle East summer in which the citizens who have lived under these despots will have more democratic regimes, more food and more freedoms. Within that Middle East summer, as was mentioned by my noble friend Lord Alderdice, we also hope that there will be peace between Israel and the Palestinians. In my view—this has always been my view—the first step towards that is both sides sitting down at the table without preconditions of any sort so that, in this Middle East summer which we hope for, there will be peace in that part of the region as well.

Israel and Palestine

Lord Palmer of Childs Hill Excerpts

Thursday 3rd March 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

I strongly agree and I am very pleased to hear the noble Lord, whose views I greatly respect and who has stood up often as a somewhat lone voice in public affairs in these matters, say what he has just said. It is an extremely valuable contribution.

[Lord Palmer of Childs Hill]

Does the Minister agree that the civil unrest referred to in the Question was started in Tunisia by an unemployed guy being refused a licence to sell vegetables and that the people in countries with unrest at the moment are more concerned with their civil and economic rights than with the Israel-Palestine issue?

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

The noble Lord is right to say that the effects of civil unrest are rippling through the entire region, both north Africa and the Levant, and even touching the Gulf states. These are very important matters, but I do not think that he would disagree that one problem is the continuous poison, as it were, of the Israeli-Palestine dispute and that, if that could be settled, we would at least be on the way forward.

Israel

Lord Palmer of Childs Hill Excerpts

Monday 28th February 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Palmer of Childs Hill]

My Lords, I compliment my noble friend Lord Dykes on securing this short debate. I know that he, like me, seeks a lasting peace in the region based on a two-state solution with a secure state of Israel alongside a very viable Palestinian state. Of course, it is helpful if United Nations resolutions are complied with but, as my noble friend Lord Dykes pointed out, they are resolutions of the General Assembly, not of the Security Council. Israel has complied with every resolution of the Security Council, with all its faults. In fact, it complied with only one, on Lebanon. There have been no others.

However, my view is that, contrary to the name of this debate, trying to solve the long-standing conflict by United Nations resolutions is not the way forward. As my noble friend Lord Dykes suggests, Her Majesty's Government and the United States could have a role, but I am certain that the first step must be, as the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, said, to get the Israelis and the Palestinians to the negotiating table. I would add to that “without preconditions”. That is the problem. The Palestinians say they will not go to the negotiating table unless something happens—for example, no settlements. The Israelis say they will not go unless they are recognised by everyone. My view is that the United States, the United Kingdom and others should ensure that they sit down at that negotiating table without any preconditions whatever. Once they are there at that table, I believe that things can be solved. For those who study the region—I am a former chairman of the Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel and I have studied it deeply—there is a desire for a solution. Most people know what that solution will be—where roughly the border will be. Once there is a border, the settlements that are on the non-Israeli side of the border will no longer be there as settlements. You solve it at a stroke. At the same time, we have to ensure that there is no psychological and practical warfare on Israel, where the towns of Sderot and Ashkelon in Israel are bombarded by rockets, producing a psychological and practical fear in Israel; it is this that produces some of the attitudes of the Israeli Government, of which many in this House might disapprove.

I ask noble Lords to think about the fact that our duty as a country is to get these people to the negotiating table and to bear in mind that this is not only about Palestinian refugees; 800,000 Jews fled Arab lands, of which 600,000 found a home in Israel. Refugees, sadly, are part of life. Many of us have been refugees or have parents who were so.