Israel/Gaza

Baroness Smith of Newnham Excerpts

Tuesday 24th October 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Newnham (LD)]

My Lords, like everyone in your Lordships’ House and across the country and world, I heard the news on 7 October with horror. I was in Turkey at the time, flying back that morning. I woke to the news of the attacks on Israel. As soon as we had landed at Stansted, I heard people in the row behind me on the plane saying, “Oh no, they’ve taken hostages”. I do not know, but my sense was that it was a Jewish family behind me, who were concerned already about hostage taking.

The attack on Israel was an atrocity, the likes of which we have not seen since the Holocaust. It is the worst attack since 9/11, but the worst loss of life for Jewish people since the Holocaust. Israel has a right to defend itself and we must support Israel in defending itself. However, it is absolutely the case that Israel must abide by international law. We should also be looking for a temporary cessation of hostilities at the very least to allow humanitarian aid to get into Gaza.

Whoever the perpetrators might be—Hamas is a terrorist organisation—the majority of people in Gaza are under 18. They are not the perpetrators of the crimes of 7 October. The premature babies lying in incubators in hospitals in Gaza are innocent victims of what is happening. Food, energy and clean water need to get into Gaza, and we need to be looking to support that. Could the Minister tell the House what His Majesty’s Government are doing to work, behind the scenes perhaps, with Israel and other countries to try to bring about a temporary cessation of hostilities for humanitarian reasons? Eventually, a permanent ceasefire is desirable, but the immediate requirement is a cessation of hostilities coupled with, obviously, the release of the 200 hostages, as so many noble Lords have called for.

Apart from the situation in Israel and Gaza at the moment, there are three things I would like to raise: first, the domestic consequences in the United Kingdom of the conflict; secondly, the regional implications; and, thirdly, the wider, global situation. I am not going quite as far as my noble friend Lord Alderdice in suggesting that this is going to be the third global conflict, but there are clearly very serious consequences we need to be aware of and where His Majesty’s Government hopefully have some thoughts.

The noble Baroness, Lady Deech, raised concerns about a lack of education about Judaism and the Holocaust. In particular, she raised concerns about two universities, one of which is my university—the University of Cambridge. I apologise if anybody feels that there is anti-Semitism stemming from the University of Cambridge. Clearly, anti-Semitism must be condemned. The spillover of anti-Semitism into this country, the rise of anti-Semitic crime, and the concerns as raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Altmann, of Jewish children going to school and university, is something that we really need to be looking to. We need to overcome anti- Semitism in this country, but we also need to avoid a spillover into Islamophobia. Both of those things are vital.

On regional spillover, we have heard reference to Iran this evening but we have not heard much more about the wider regional consequences that could come about from the current situation in Israel and Gaza. Could the Minister tell us what assessment His Majesty’s Government are making of the situation with Lebanon and the role of Hezbollah, and how far Iran is involved in this conflict? In particular, will His Majesty’s Government look again at proscribing the Iranian revolutionary guard?

Finally, I turn to the wider consequences. Already we have heard that President Erdoğan of Turkey, a NATO partner, has close links with Hamas—there has been reference in the media to that situation—though he is possibly pulling back slightly. Have His Majesty’s Government talked to President Erdoğan? Beyond that, what about other partner nations and countries that have seen support for Hamas—not just Qatar but further afield?

At present the United States and the United Kingdom have been stalwart in their support of Israel, but many countries have not been so stalwart in that support. There are competing rhetorics, quite apart from the fake news that has been talked about this evening. What assessment are His Majesty’s Government making around some of the wider challenges for the global situation and for relations between Christians, Jews and Muslims?

As my noble friend Lord Alderdice reminded us, in Palestine it is not just Muslims who are being killed but also Christians. We talk about the Holy Land. Jerusalem is a city that is prized by Christians, Muslims and Jews. We can only join with the Minister when he recited earlier the Muslim prayer, “To God we belong and to God we return”. Let us hope that that sees us returning not just to God but to peace and reconciliation in the Middle East.