Palestine Statehood (Recognition) Bill [HL]

Lord Swire Excerpts

Friday 14th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Swire (Con)]

My Lords, I am most grateful to have been given the privilege of being able to say a few words during the gap, and I will try not to abuse that indulgence. I add my congratulations to the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, for instigating this debate, and I support her in everything that she said. I believe that the recognition of Palestine should be imminent. We should have done it already. It should not be the prize at the end of a process; that approach has not worked, nor will it. However, I do not understand why on the one hand we say that Palestinian statehood is conditional when at the same time we are turning a blind eye to the illegal expansion of Israel, building out the possibility of a two-state solution.

At the risk of repeating everything we have heard today, let me say that more than 146 members of the United Nations have already recognised Palestine. I pay tribute to the leadership that has been shown by our Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, particularly in relation to what is going on in Ukraine. We would now like to see some of that leadership in relation to what is going on in Israel.

Regardless of what has been said about the Balfour Declaration, that declaration was a British initiative, and we have an enduring responsibility to ensure that all parts of it are upheld. I listened closely to what the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, said about the conditions needed under international law to create a state. I have to say that he is a brilliant lawyer, but his approach was somewhat selective. For instance, some of the things that he spoke about are not achievable because of what is going on in the West Bank and in Gaza itself. He also failed to mention anything about the right of return for those descendants of Palestinians around the world—there are almost 5 million of them—who have had to leave what is now Israel.

I have a question for the Minister. The encylopedia definition of ethnic cleansing states that it is

“the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, or religious groups from a given area … it also includes indirect methods aimed at forced migration by coercing the victim group to flee and”—

critically—“preventing its return”. I am mindful of the use of language in dealing with this issue, having been a former chairman of the Conservative Middle East Council, of which my noble friend Lord Soames is the president, but, in the Government’s opinion, would the forcible removal of the population of Gaza constitute a crime against humanity?

I want a strong Israel—we need a stronger Israel now more than at almost any time—but it has to win international support, and it is losing that support. If it is involved in the forcible eviction of the population of Gaza, we have not seen the likes of what will ensue, nor do we wish to.