Israel/Gaza

Baroness Janke Excerpts

Tuesday 24th October 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Janke (LD)]

My Lords, it is a great privilege to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Warsi, and I thank the Minister for his measured introduction and constructive remarks.

The horrific events of recent weeks have shocked the world and I join others in condemning the violent attack on Israeli citizens and the taking of hostages. It is a savage violation of the right to protection of innocent civilians. I send my heartfelt sympathy to the families who have lost loved ones and to those who wait in an agony of anxiety, fearing for the fate of family and friends who are still hostages. I welcome today’s release of the two hostages and call for the immediate release of the remaining ones—and, as others have said, for an immediate ceasefire.

Israel of course deserves support and sympathy across the world in seeking to obtain the release of the hostages, but it must be asked how likely this is to be achieved by the bombardments and siege of Gaza. Is the killing of more than 5,000 Palestinians, and 15,000 casualties, likely to achieve this and the declared objective of destroying Hamas? The noble Lord, Lord Reid, was very graphic in his description of the potential consequences of escalation of this conflict. We need to bear those in mind.

The scenes of carnage as Israeli troops continue the deadly war in Gaza and drive its people from their homes—people who have no other refuge or escape—risk causing public sympathy to ebb away. The refusal of the British Government to condemn the killings of innocent civilians in Gaza and their reluctance to join in action with the humanitarian agencies in stopping this devastation are other decisions that will have widespread consequences in the region and worldwide.

How, we must ask, will mass retribution and collective punishment of civilians in Gaza provide any resolution to the issue of Israeli security? The five preceding bombardments since 2005 have manifestly failed to achieve this. Indeed, violence and oppression add fuel to the flames of conflict and bolster the positions of extremists on both sides. The present 2.3 million people who live in Gaza are civilians. Half of them are children. They have had no part in the fighting and are powerless to affect it, yet they have no way of escaping the bombardments. Deprived of food, shelter and water, families are gathering “to die together” and children are writing their names on their note pads “so that when they are killed, people will know who they are”—this is a result of the endless unidentified victims of the fighting. The threat of disease continues to grow through the withholding of clean water and resultant poor sanitation as bodies pile up in the streets and hospitals become morgues through the withholding of electricity. One child is dying in Gaza every 15 minutes.

Long before the events of 7 October, the humanitarian situation in Gaza was in crisis. Many agencies, including the UN, have been trying to draw the attention of the world to the desperate situation caused by the aggressive Israeli-Egyptian blockade of 16 years. Gaza is known as the largest open-air prison in the world. In 2012, the UN produced a report saying that Gaza would be unliveable by 2020 unless there was significant improvement to basic conditions. The reprisal bombardments are the sixth major war against Gaza since 2005. The impact has been traumatic, particularly on children, yet the world has stayed silent and nothing has been done to change this. A recent report found that four out of five children in Gaza had contemplated suicide. The agreed passage of lorries of aid through the Rafah crossing are a welcome sign but nothing like enough to save the people from a catastrophe. Before the crisis, 450 lorries per day were needed to support the needs of the population under blockade.

Sixteen years of forced containment of the citizens of Palestine under occupation have not achieved security for Israel. As many noble Lords today have said, justice is needed in place of oppression, and certainly the citizens of Gaza and the Occupied Territories must be part of any resolution plan. The forced evacuation of Gaza, the violent driving of people from their villages and the demolition of their homes and facilities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories by settlers with the support of the Government are not the way to peace. The circumstances are increasingly toxic and international leadership is needed to find a way forward as well as, as others have said, leadership from Palestinians and Israelis. It is heart-breaking to see the suffering and how little progress has been made in this deadly conflict over so many years. It is easy to see how many believe that the West has turned its back on the Palestinian people. I very much support the comments of the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, on the future needs to resolve this conflict.

I hope that our message today will be one, as the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Harries of Pentregarth, said, to restore the will for peace and to call for a cease to the mass killings, bombardment and siege in Gaza, for the safe release of the hostages and for renewed leadership on all sides to restart the dialogue towards long-term justice, peace and security in the region.