Gaza and Humanitarian Aid

Adnan Hussain Excerpts

Thursday 10th October 2024 Westminster Hall

[Mr Adnan Hussain (Blackburn) (Ind)]

I agree that calls for additional aid and safe routes for the delivery of aid into Gaza are vital and encouraged. However, does the hon. Member agree that questions must be raised as to the absurdity of a situation in which we as a country provide both the aid and the weapons to bomb the besieged people of Gaza?

[Ayoub Khan]

I agree, and I am sure there will be many similar contributions throughout this debate.

I welcome the Government’s reinstatement of UNRWA funding, but we must do more. We must address the root cause of the suffering, and an immediate, permanent ceasefire is absolutely essential. Diplomatic calls from Governments of various nations have fallen on deaf ears. The only option available now is to enforce a ceasefire through the prohibition of all arms sales to Israel. If the UK did that, it would send a clear message to others, who would inevitably follow suit, but innocent lives are being lost and the Government have done little to change the course of Israeli aggression. I ask the rhetorical question: how can we send aid with one hand while providing the weapons of destruction with the other? How can we claim to stand for morality and justice when we are complicit in this collective punishment?

Time is of the essence. Every 10 minutes, another child in Gaza dies. This regime of mass murder and destruction is fuelled by the west’s unconditional support and its granting of full impunity for breaches of international humanitarian law. The time for change is now, not later. Will the Minister admit that Israel is actively blocking efforts to distribute humanitarian aid and reach a ceasefire agreement? What will the Government do to encourage Israel to open border crossings for humanitarian aid?

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Adnan Hussain (Blackburn) (Ind)]

I repeat again the absurdity of the situation whereby we give aid with one hand to the besieged population of Gaza and provide weapons with the other, which has created the catastrophic circumstances that have taken the lives of over 40,000. Although the Prime Minister has made his position on the refusal to stop all the arms sales to Israel abundantly clear in Parliament just this week, I will none the less press the matter. Will the Minister assure us, especially in the light of further news today of a school housing displaced civilians in Gaza being bombed? Just weeks ago, a humanitarian safe zone, al-Mawasi, a camp identified by Israel itself, was bombed, with families dissipated in seconds. I therefore ask the Minister once again whether the Government’s position on arms sales to Israel will be revisited. Can he also answer whether, given the abundance of evidence already available, arms sales to a country plausibly accused of committing genocide can be morally or legally justified?

--- Later in debate ---

[Hamish Falconer]

I do not accept that we are facilitating rather than opposing. I could not be clearer in everything I have said this afternoon about the position of the British Government. I have been clear with my colleagues about our frustration that we have not been able to make more progress on the things that we have been calling for. I want to reassure colleagues across the House that the whole ministerial team is working hard day and night on these issues. We recognise the acute nature of the situation before us, and we treat it with the full gravity that it deserves.

[Mr Hussain]

Will the Minister give way?

[Hamish Falconer]

I will try to make a tiny bit more progress, and then I will hand back.