Middle East: Recent Developments

Baroness Blackstone Excerpts

Friday 13th July 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blackstone]

My Lords, I wish to focus on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the continuation of illegal settlement building, as well as the continuing failure to observe human rights in Palestine. I hope that my noble friend Lord Haskel will not accuse me of bigotry. Like him, I, too, admire Israeli science, technology, entrepreneurship and much of their cultural activity. What I will say is based on what I have witnessed and what I have read, and it is not inconsistent to admire Israel for some of the things that the noble Lord, Lord Haskel, described and at the same time be critical of successive Israeli Governments in relation to their policies on the occupation.

The peace process has been stalled for some time with little sign of any movement towards restarting it. It is now 19 years since the Oslo agreement and little progress has been made towards a durable settlement based on a two-state solution. Indeed, in many respects the situation has worsened and such a solution looks increasingly difficult. The international community appears to have given up taking any initiatives to restart it; of course, it has many other preoccupations, some of which we are debating today. The parties themselves seem either to have given up hope or to have decided that the status quo is a better outcome, or they are pursuing an altogether different agenda to buy themselves more long-term advantage.

The status quo cannot be the solution. It is intrinsically unstable and fundamentally without integrity. Central to what is wrong is the continuing construction of Israeli settlements on the West Bank, in spite of the fact that there is complete agreement in the international community that these settlements are illegal and that the Israeli Government have been told so in no uncertain terms. They continue to be built, leading to the displacement of yet more Palestinians. There are now around 500,000 settlers on the West Bank and in east Jerusalem. Does the Minister agree that their continuing expansion poses a grave threat to the two-state solution? What further steps will the UK Government take with our European partners to enforce legality?

There is a growing movement in favour of a boycott of exported goods from these illegal settlements. EU laws prohibit preferential treatment for goods produced in violation of international law, so how is it that the EU allows products made in illegal settlements preferential tariff-free entry into its markets? How is it that Europe has allowed Israel to get away with bundling goods from illegal settlements with those produced inside Israel, which it then ships here and elsewhere in Europe tariff-free? Why are consumer protection laws not enforced properly so that consumers can make informed choices about what they buy through the proper labelling of settlement goods? Surely steps should be taken in Europe to enforce EU laws. Perhaps the Minister could explain why preferential tariffs are continuing when, as far back as far back as 2005, Heads of State in an EU Council called for,

“the abolition of financial and tax incentives and direct and indirect subsidies, and the withdrawal of exemptions benefiting the settlements and their inhabitants”.

Voluntary labelling in supermarket chains is, of course, welcome, but it is inadequate. For example, it does not cover wholesale goods used in ready-prepared food and in the catering industry.

I turn to the issue of construction policies and the highly discriminatory way in which they are operated in the West Bank by the Israeli military so that, between 2000 and 2007, 94% of Palestinians were denied permit applications. In contrast to the near total restrictions on Palestinian construction, settlement housing starts were up by 20% in 2011. How can this help to prepare for a viable Palestinian state? When in desperation Palestinians build without permits, they risk what they have put up being demolished. Hundreds of Palestinian homes were demolished in 2011, displacing more than 1,000 people, 60% of whom live near settlements according to the United Nations. Israel also destroyed latrines, water systems and wells needed by Palestinians because Israelis had refused to connect communities to the water and sewage grids. It is even more scandalous that, according to the UN, more than 25% of the buildings demolished had been internationally funded, notably by European donors. Donors are now very reluctant to invest in expensive development projects and are reduced to giving more and more emergency humanitarian aid rather than the much more beneficial long-term development aid. Will the UK, with our European partners, take some action to object to these violations of Israel’s international obligations as an occupying power?

A related issue to construction policies concerns the state of a Palestinian economy. Any preparation for a two-state solution must include economic development. World Bank estimates indicate that the occupation has led to a large reduction in output so that the Palestinian economy is only about one-fifth of the size of what it would otherwise be. The restrictions imposed range from unacceptable controls on both imports and exports, to lack of access to water for farmers, the allocation of large tracts of the most fertile land to settlers as well as to the denial of fishing rights through curtailed fishing zones. All that increases Palestinian dependence on aid, which Europe and other donors provide at the expense of taxpayers.

The lack of progress towards an independent Palestinian state continues to affect every aspect of Palestinian life, including the daily harassment at checkpoints, where it is not uncommon for people to be detained for two or three hours on their way to or from work; the refusal to allow students from Gaza to attend West Bank universities; housing demolitions in parts of east Jerusalem that border on ethnic cleansing; and the inhumane treatment of children arrested and subsequently tried in many cases by the Israeli military authorities. Since I last raised the issue in this House, an excellent report by a group of distinguished UK lawyers has been published. Its condemnation of the system is very powerful, and I wonder whether the Minister could say what steps the UK will now take since the study was sponsored by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

What I have described are just some of the reasons why the status quo in the Israeli-Palestinian relationship is not acceptable. So is the continual firing of rockets from Gaza into southern Israel, which I unreservedly condemn. Yet to continue the so-called process as it is currently constructed seems doomed to failure. The quartet is widely regarded as a busted flush. It is seemingly impossible to get the two parties in the same room. There is no drive or energy in the international community to try and make progress. Yet the only solution in the end, as the Minister has quite rightly said, is a negotiated one. New leadership in Israel and Palestine might certainly help but that, of course, cannot be imposed from outside. Elections in Palestine are long overdue, which has led to justified questions about the operation of democracy there. The next Israeli election is not now likely until autumn 2013.

A recent report of the International Crisis Group suggests that a new architecture is needed, although it rightly rejects a one-state solution, which would be unacceptable to most Israelis and unworkable anyway. First, a move away from the quartet to a new form of mediation is probably needed. Secondly, the terms of the debate need to be expanded from dealing just with the consequences of the 1967 war. Nothing less than examining some of the issues that emanate from 1948 is likely to lead to a durable settlement. Courage is required to address these bigger issues—such as the character of the state of Israel and the Arab minority within it, Israel’s justified concerns about regional security, and the right of return for Palestinians. There needs to be recognition of both Jewish and Palestinian history—on both sides.

The argument of the International Crisis Group, that a new start is needed, is compelling. Such a new start needs to take into account the wider, profound changes in the Middle East that have been discussed in this debate. Meanwhile, a number of small steps, some of which I have alluded to, need to be taken to help the Palestinian people economically and to restore basic human rights to them.