Israel/Gaza

Lord Stone of Blackheath Excerpts

Tuesday 24th October 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stone of Blackheath (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, rather than take sides in this debate, I should like to offer suggestions as to how to move forward positively, peacefully and with compassion and respect for all.

First, we need to arrive at a position where the nations of the world, including the United Kingdom, are ready to acknowledge and recognise the state of Palestine alongside Israel. We can find inspiration in the words of empathetic leaders who have comprehended the gravity of this situation. One particular speech by Barack Obama comes to mind in which he eloquently articulated the need for hope and respect for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank without resorting to aggression, but rather with a sincere call for empathy and understanding.

Secondly, it is time for us to take action, extend compassion and earnestly work towards a peaceful resolution for both sides. We cannot permit the continuation of the suffering faced by the citizens of Israel under the existing status quo. Let us begin to strive for a future where Israel and Palestine can coexist in peace and prosperity.

Thirdly, and constructively, to alleviate the short-term terror, we should agree to create a long-term plan along the lines that I suggested a few weeks ago in this House and for which I have had high-level endorsement. If we have a positive plan, which I will explain in one minute, of a future where everyone benefits, we can work towards it as partners for peace.

So, Saudi Arabia—Mohammed bin Salman—should work with Egypt, Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians to build a huge port in Gaza, linked to Cyprus, so that Palestine becomes the Hong Kong of the region and its citizens become wealthy. Together, these countries—Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Jordan—having become partners in this huge, positive construction project, can all develop the Sinai peninsula as a huge solar energy park as a source of clean energy for the planet, moving the region from oil and gas income to solar power.

This partnership would build peace, co-operation and green energy on the vast scale that the world needs. My friend Samir Takla in Egypt is in close contact with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and they would like this to happen. Perhaps the Minister, who has been so helpful in all of this, might invite the parties here to discuss this in a positive, constructive way, with the UK playing a co-ordinating role. Several organisations with which I am involved would be happy to help organise and facilitate such a conference and project.

Abraham Accords

Lord Stone of Blackheath Excerpts

Thursday 14th September 2023 Grand Committee

[Lord Stone of Blackheath (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, ever since I spent a year in the Middle East in 1967 as a volunteer in the Six Day War, I have been involved with schemes trying to bring nations there together for peace. The Abraham accords are exactly what my old company, Marks & Spencer, was trying to do in the region for decades—on a smaller scale, of course. In 1977, we started deliberately buying goods in volume from Egypt, as we already were from Israel; we hoped this would persuade President Sadat to visit Israel and make peace, and he did.

In the 1980s, we persuaded our Israeli manufacturers to manufacture Marks & Spencer goods in Egypt, Jordan and Morocco. Delta Galil set up a factory in Cairo, employing 12,500 people making socks and underwear using the best Egyptian cotton, and another factory in Jordan, thus developing warm relations. Then, in the 1990s, Tony Blair asked if I would go to the West Bank and Gaza to do the same for the Palestinians. We did that successfully.

Why do I mention all this? It is because there is now a great opportunity, on a much larger scale, for the countries of the Gulf and north Africa to use their wealth and assets to include Israel in a massive transformation of the region, to move from oil and gas-producing industries to wind, solar and other clean forms of energy and greener technologies. By using the brilliant science, ingenuity and advanced technology in Israel, this can make them all very wealthy and create close partnerships, at the same time as saving the planet.

Specifically, to enhance the Abraham accords, Saudi Arabia can perhaps join in. It wants to recognise Israel but, at the same time, support Palestine. It can do this by combining recognition of Israel with a major, game-changing investment in Palestine—something spectacular that is not easy for Israel to agree to but doable. It needs to be something that Saudi Arabia can deliver, and be seen to have been delivered on the back of a recognition of Israel and benefits for Palestine.

Nabil Shaath had a plan for the redevelopment of Gaza Port with a “linked” port in Cyprus. This would mean Saudi recognition of both Israel and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Although the costs of such a dramatic gesture of this kind would be immense, there would be private sector investment and other Governments might contribute—perhaps the USA—but Saudi Arabia would be the main shareholder.

As the UK has expertise in all this, possesses great diplomatic skills and has good relations with countries across the region, we could play a vital role. Perhaps the Minister could suggest to His Majesty’s Government that we could host a series of meetings here and discuss all this with these parties in this very House.

Israel and Palestine

Lord Stone of Blackheath Excerpts

Tuesday 7th March 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stone of Blackheath (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, all these problems in the Middle East are my fault. In 1967, I was a volunteer in the Six Day War, so I started all this mess. However, in the following decades, I have been trying to help make peace. At Marks & Spencer, we encouraged Israeli manufacturers to work with Egyptian, Jordanian and Lebanese companies and become partners with one another. With the help of Tony Blair, I got Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s and Tesco to buy homegrown foods and textiles from the West Bank and Gaza to help them to grow. But those and many other projects did not create peace either, so I am still to blame.

I have three questions for the Minister. First, will the UK Government recognise the state of Palestine? This would then mean that rather than a recognised state—Israel—trying to negotiate with a disparate people, the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza, you would have two states negotiating about their borders and citizenship et cetera, and it would make it more fair and viable. It could change everything if our country, that issued the Balfour Declaration and was a mandate authority, would agree to extend recognition to a Palestinian state.

Secondly, will the UK make good on its commitment as the first country on earth to endorse the concept of creating an international fund for Israeli-Palestinian peace, which can engage a new generation, at scale, in the project of peacebuilding rather than allowing them to fall into their current despair and enmity, as the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Harries, described?

Thirdly, will the UK signal its strong opposition to any legislation that taxes, chills or delegitimises the work of Israeli-Palestinian civil society, which this Israeli Government are threatening to do? Also, in May at the G7 leaders’ communique in Japan, let us please push for language that clearly shows to the governing authorities in the region that civil society is a “red line” for the international community.

Finally, I suggest that the Minister meets John Lyndon of the Alliance for Middle East Peace—ALLMEP—who is doing great work in the field; Gershon Baskin, who has been talking with both sides for decades, and Tony Klug, who has written many wise briefs on how to resolve these issues.

I close by mentioning the late Rabbi David Geffen, who died this weekend and was the founder of Loving Classroom, a project that is teaching children in Arabic, Hebrew and English in schools across the world to love, respect and befriend children on all sides. Can we support this project by adopting Loving Classroom in all schools in the UK, where it is already making a difference in several schools?

Israel and Palestine: United States’ Proposals for Peace

Lord Stone of Blackheath Excerpts

Thursday 27th February 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stone of Blackheath (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, in 1967 I was a volunteer in the June Six Day War in Israel. I went there to help the war and then to work to help repair the country the following year. Just after the war in that same June, the eloquent Israeli Foreign Minister, Abba Eban, spoke at the UN. He said:

“In the institutions of scientific research and higher education of both sides of the frontiers, young Israelis and Arabs could join in a mutual discourse of learning. The old prejudices could be replaced by a new comprehension and respect born of a reciprocal dialogue in the intellectual domain. In such a Middle East, military budgets would spontaneously find a less exacting point of equilibrium. Excessive sums devoted to security could be diverted to development projects. Thus, in full respect of the region’s diversity, an entirely new story, never known or told before, would unfold across the Eastern Mediterranean … The challenge now is to use this freedom for creative growth. There is only one road to that end. It is the road of recognition, of direct contact, of true cooperation. It is the road of peaceful co-existence.”


He went on to say, “Let us be an active part in the constructive solution of peaceful and economic prosperity for all people in the region.” I was 25 then, and this has inspired me ever since to try to bring the people there together in peace.

It is self-evident that peace between the Israelis and Palestinians is only possible if the basic aspirations of both peoples are met. Both peoples aspire to self-determination in their own sovereign, independent state. Nothing in the past 50 years has altered this, regardless of other changes. In 1993, under the Oslo accords, the Palestinians finally dropped their demand for 100% of the land and agreed to accept a state alongside Israel in 22% of the land, meaning the West Bank and Gaza, subject to land swaps. There is an overwhelming international consensus on this framework. Any proposal that significantly deviates from it cannot be taken seriously, however powerful the proponents.

This Trump plan, as a strategy to firm up right-wing domestic support in an election year in both the US and Israel, makes a lot of sense. However, as a strategy to bring peace between Israelis and Palestinians, it falls short in its current form. It is time now to recognise a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem alongside the Israeli state with its capital in West Jerusalem in the hope that the two neighbouring states will eventually form some sort of confederation. Then, something good could come out of the Trump plan.

Since 1967, I have worked to build bridges: through my work at Marks & Spencer with its suppliers in the region; as the chairman of the British Overseas Trade Group for Israel; with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Egypt; with Palestinian and Jordanian farmers, textile workers, high-tech incubators—the noble Lord, Lord Young was a mentor to me all the way through that—and universities and educationalists; and with sensitive, dedicated NGOs across the divide. I have worked to build bridges and show what could be a better future life for the 125 million citizens of Egypt, Jordan, Israel and Palestine if they spent the same time, effort, money and resources on building peace and co-operation with compassion rather than squandering all that on war and enmity.

As we heard in today’s Statement, we in the UK will soon be separated from the EU and will begin to develop a new chapter in our international relations. With our historic association with Egypt, Israel, Palestine and Jordan, which are in key positions in the Mediterranean, Africa and, of course, the Middle East, I suggest to the Minister that we form a group here in the United Kingdom that brings together the many experts that we have in this country to discuss how we might help. It would not be seeking to argue the rights or wrongs of either side but to suggest how, perhaps after a long, thoughtful, positive discussion, we might then invite the parties in the region to come here and discuss a workable plan that might be attractive to all sides. Britain was, after all, the mandatory power and the issuer of the Balfour Declaration. We have an historical responsibility that no European country—or any other country for that matter—has. We were instrumental at the start of the separation and thence discord; now, with our new place in the world, let us try to heal it for the benefit of all peoples.