Israel-Gaza Conflict: Arrest Warrants Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Apsana Begum
Main Page: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)Department Debates - View all Apsana Begum's debates with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
(1 month ago)
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Hamish Falconer
The right hon. Member says with dismay that war is ugly. War is ugly and we are doing everything that we can to bring it to a close through all the diplomatic measures we would expect. This is not an issue for grandstanding; this is an issue for diplomacy. That is what the Government are committed to.
Apsana Begum (Poplar and Limehouse) (Ind)
Surely central to the debate today must be the UK’s ongoing political role as Israel’s close ally, and the fact that UK-made weapons, including components, are still being used by Israel. Does the Minister recognise that beyond the commitment to uphold the ICC’s arrest warrants, the UK’s failure to clearly condemn the collective punishment of civilians—an intent explicitly indicated by key Israeli leading figures—and the continued military support for Israel’s ongoing onslaught in Gaza have serious implications for the UK’s own human rights obligations and the fate of millions of innocent men, women and children?
Hamish Falconer
I will not rehearse too much the answers provided on 2 September and on numerous occasions in the Chamber since then. We have suspended, with one exemption—to which I am happy to return—all the arms that we are selling to Israel that could be used in Gaza. That suspension, in our assessment, also covers the west bank and Lebanon. We are taking action in accordance with our commitments under international humanitarian law, and we will continue to do so.