Oral Answers to Questions

Bob Russell Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Ellwood]

As I clarified, that is a different matter from the debate about the occupied Palestinian territories, but nevertheless we want a robust planning process that adequately addresses the needs of the Bedouin communities. We must keep pushing for that dialogue.

[Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD)]

Will the Minister confirm that the displacement of the Bedouin constitutes ethnic cleansing?

[Mr Ellwood]

Again, I reiterate the difference between the two issues: one concerns the illegal settlements, and the other is a planning matter that we have raised concerns about. I visited the E1 area, which is where much of the attention is currently focused, and we have discouraged the growth of settlements in that area. Were the plans to go ahead, we would have a break between the Hebron and Bethlehem conurbations, and that would effectively end the middle east peace process.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bob Russell Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hammond]

That is a piece of legislation before the Israeli Parliament, but I can tell the hon. Gentleman that we are always opposed to discriminatory legislation. Depriving people who are resident within a state of their citizenship and discriminating against them with regard to language will never be conducive to the peaceful co-existence that I think virtually everybody seeks for Israel and Palestine.

[Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD)]

Does the Foreign Secretary agree that public opinion in the UK is moving strongly against Israel because it is morally indefensible to support a state that has policies of ethnic cleansing and apartheid?

[Mr Hammond]

I am not sure that I agree with the hon. Gentleman’s characterisation of the reasons, but I agree that public opinion is moving against Israel in a country that has traditionally been understanding of the Israeli position. We have made the point strongly to Israeli Ministers and politicians that they are losing the argument and public opinion not only in Britain, but in Europe and, perhaps more importantly for them, in the United States.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bob Russell Excerpts

Tuesday 28th October 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hammond]

Specifically on Yemen, we are very concerned about the security situation there and we continue to support the legitimate Government in Sana’a and to work with regional partners. I had a meeting with Gulf Co-operation Council partners the week before last, at which we considered carefully the options for supporting the legitimate regime in Sana’a against the Houthi coup.

[Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD)]

13. When he last raised with the Burmese Government the subject of political prisoners in Burma.

[The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Mr Hugo Swire)]

I last raised the subject of political prisoners with Burma’s Deputy Foreign Minister Thant Kyaw in June. We welcome the release of more than 1,000 political prisoners since 2011, but we are concerned by the recent rise in politically motivated arrests and we continue to lobby for the unconditional release of all political prisoners.

[Sir Bob Russell]

I am grateful to the Minister for that answer. He has confirmed that the number of political prisoners in Burma is going up. Will he tell us how many additional political prisoners have been arrested there this year?

[Mr Swire]

Since 8 October, 3,000 petty criminals have been released, as well as 91 in August and 109 in September, including child soldiers. The answer, however, is that one political prisoner in Burma is one too many, and we will continue to make that point to visiting Ministers, who come here fairly regularly these days.

Palestine and Israel

Bob Russell Excerpts

Monday 13th October 2014 Commons Chamber

[Sir Richard Ottaway (Croydon South) (Con)]

If the rest of the debate follows the tone of the three speeches that we have heard so far, it will be a memorable debate. The next few minutes will be personally rather painful for me. It was inevitable right since the time of the holocaust that Israel clearly had to be a state in its own right, and Attlee accepted the inevitable and relinquished the British mandate. In November 1947, the United Nations supported the partition resolution. What was on the table then was a settlement that the Arabs would die for today. In May 1948, Israel became an independent state and came under attack from all sides within hours. In truth, it has been fighting for its existence ever since.

I was a friend of Israel long before I became a Tory. My wife’s family were instrumental in the creation of the Jewish state. Indeed, some of them were with Weizmann at the Paris conference. The holocaust had a deep impact on me as a young man growing up in the aftermath of the second world war, particularly when I paid a visit as a schoolboy to Belsen.

[Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD)]

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

[Sir Richard Ottaway]

I will not give way if the hon. Gentleman does not mind.

In the six-day war, I became personally involved. There was a major attempt to destroy Israel, and I found myself as a midshipman in the Royal Navy based on board a minesweeper in Aden, sent by Harold Wilson to sweep the straits of Tiran of mines after the Suez canal had been blocked. In the aftermath of that war, which, clearly, the Israelis won, the Arab states refused peace, recognition or negotiation.

Six years later, in the Yom Kippur war in 1973, the same situation happened again. It was an emphatic defeat after a surprise attack. Since then, based on the boundaries that were framed after the Yom Kippur war, we have had three thwarted peace agreements, each one better than the last, and we have had two tragedies: the assassination of Rabin and the stroke suffered by Ariel Sharon.

Throughout all this, I have stood by Israel through thick and thin, through the good years and the bad. I have sat down with Ministers and senior Israeli politicians and urged peaceful negotiations and a proportionate response to prevarication, and I thought that they were listening. But I realise now, in truth, looking back over the past 20 years, that Israel has been slowly drifting away from world public opinion. The annexation of the 950 acres of the west bank just a few months ago has outraged me more than anything else in my political life, mainly because it makes me look a fool, and that is something that I resent.

Turning to the substantive motion, to be a friend of Israel is not to be an enemy of Palestine. I want them to find a way through, and I am delighted by yesterday’s reconstruction package for Gaza, but with a country that is fractured by internal rivalries, that shows such naked hostility to its neighbour, that attacks Israel by firing thousands of rockets indiscriminately, that risks the lives of its citizens through its strategic placing of weapons and that uses the little building material that it is allowed to bring in to build tunnels, rather than homes, I am not yet convinced that it is fit to be a state; it should be recognised only when there is a peace agreement. Under normal circumstances, I would oppose the motion tonight; but such is my anger over Israel’s behaviour in recent months that I will not oppose the motion. I have to say to the Government of Israel that if they are losing people like me, they will be losing a lot of people.

Afghanistan

Bob Russell Excerpts

Tuesday 9th September 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hammond]

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are involved in that process, and the London conference in November will of course be a further opportunity to co-ordinate the actions of the donors.

[Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD)]

Six years ago, 16th Air Assault Brigade, with personnel from all four battalions of the Parachute Regiment, undertook an extremely dangerous mission in transporting a huge turbine through hazardous terrain to the Kajaki dam. Will the Foreign Secretary tell us how much electricity it is generating?

[Mr Hammond]

As the hon. Gentleman well knows, the turbine has still not been installed. However, the last time I was in Afghanistan, a US team was looking at what could be done to bring it into operational use, because doing so could satisfy the electricity deficit in Kandahar.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bob Russell Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd July 2014 Commons Chamber

[Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab)]

11. What recent discussions he has had with his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts and others on the continuing violence and loss of life in Gaza.

[Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD)]

12. What plans he has to visit Israel to discuss the current situation in that region.

[Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough) (Lab)]

15. What recent discussions he has had with his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts on progress towards peace in that region.

--- Later in debate ---

[Sir Bob Russell]

Will the Minister confirm that if the Foreign Secretary last week, when he was Defence Secretary, had ordered British troops to fire on civilian communities in the way the Israelis have, he would be guilty of a war crime?

[Mr Ellwood]

I am not going to get drawn into that. I think the hon. Gentleman raised the same issue with the Prime Minister yesterday and I will leave my comments there.

Gaza

Bob Russell Excerpts

Monday 14th July 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

The hon. Lady will appreciate that we do not at the moment have enough detailed information to be able to assess that ourselves. Those accusations are made against Israel. Equally, as I have mentioned, Israelis allege that Hamas stations military headquarters, facilities or weapons in the proximity of civilian infrastructure and homes. Accusations are made on both sides and we cannot conclusively distinguish between them, which is why we must concentrate on what I have set out.

[Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD)]

Will the Foreign Secretary confirm that the actions of Israeli political and military leaders constitute war crimes?

Ukraine, Syria and Iran

Bob Russell Excerpts

Monday 24th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

As my hon. Friend knows, and as I said to the right hon. Member for Blackburn (Mr Straw), there are explicit exemptions, but he is well aware of that point. As he and the right hon. Gentleman have raised it, I will certainly look at it again.

[Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD)]

When the Foreign Secretary refers to democracy, human rights and the rule of law, I trust that that applies to all peoples and nations. In the concluding paragraph of his statement, he referred to

“intensive diplomatic activity… to ensure a more peaceful and stable world”

and he specifically mentioned the middle east. Why, then, does Britain have double standards when it comes to the Palestinians?

[Mr Hague]

That is not the focus of today’s statement. However, respecting the hon. Gentleman’s question, he will know that we give strong support to the middle east peace process and to the negotiations now taking place between Israelis and Palestinians. We want to see a viable and sovereign Palestinian state as part of a two- state solution. That is not double standards; it is trying to bring about peace and stability for everyone in the middle east.

Iran and Syria

Bob Russell Excerpts

Monday 11th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

We are working hard to get resources to them, and DFID is succeeding in getting resources and help to all 14 governorates of Syria, so aid is reaching all parts of Syria. In those siege conditions, however, aid is effectively being blocked, predominately by the Assad regime, so we need political pressure to be applied on it, including by Russia and other countries in the region. We will keep up the demand for that pressure, as well as supporting the effort to meet the needs of children that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Development announced and the work of the World Health Organisation in, for instance, vaccinating against polio.

[Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD)]

How many nuclear weapons does Israel have?

[Mr Hague]

Three years ago, it was my initiative to declare for the first time the number of nuclear warheads possessed by the United Kingdom, but I am not in a position to declare the number possessed by any other country.

[Sir Bob Russell]

Go on, have a guess!

[Mr Speaker]

There is no obligation on the Foreign Secretary to have a guess, especially as the statement is about Iran and Syria, so the hon. Member for Colchester (Sir Bob Russell), even by his own standards, has been exceptionally cheeky.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bob Russell Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd September 2013 Commons Chamber

[Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD)]

As the Foreign Secretary was silent about the ethnic cleansing of the Bedouin Arabs and the illegal building of yet more settlements on the occupied west bank, will the Minister confirm that those actions do nothing to foster co-existence between the Israelis and the Palestinians?

[Alistair Burt]

We are never silent in relation to issues affecting the growth of settlements. We make statements about that and the Israelis are well aware of our situation. With respect to the internal situation affecting the Bedouin, I have been in contact over a period of time with Ministers responsible. It is a difficult internal issue in Israel and much attention is being paid to it on both the Bedouin side and the Israeli side.