Sudan and Eastern DRC

Debate between David Lammy and Melanie Ward

Tuesday 28th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) (Lab)]

The Foreign Secretary spoke movingly about his visit to the Chad-Sudan border, and I commend him for bearing witness. There is no substitute for doing that.

Since April 2023, there have been more than 500 attacks on healthcare facilities in Sudan, and more than 100 healthcare workers have been killed. The Foreign Secretary will know that attacks on hospitals and healthcare are a growing and grotesque phenomenon across the world. Does he think we could use our position on the UN Security Council as the lead on the protection of civilians to bring together countries and drive forward action to protect healthcare and health facilities across the world?

[Mr Lammy]

My hon. Friend raises an important issue. We cannot live in a world where the rules are disregarded and where aid and peace workers are murdered as they go about their business. This has been the most horrendous period for the loss of life of good people doing good work. I will take up the call for a renewed effort, using our position on the UN to marshal that.

Middle East

Debate between David Lammy and Melanie Ward

Thursday 16th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

The hon. Gentleman is right that, over this period, we could see up to 1,500 prisoners released. It will be weighing very heavily on the hearts of many Israelis that among those prisoners will be people who have committed murder, and it will weigh heavily on their hearts that those people are returning to Gaza.

Our view is that we need a political process if we are to undermine seasoned terrorists who, by necessity, are swapped to get these hostages out. This is a delicate process. There is a process within Israel in which some of the affected families can object, but the hon. Gentleman is right to recognise the balance that has been struck to achieve the hostage deal and the necessary ceasefire over the coming days.

[Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) (Lab)]

As a former aid worker, I was in Gaza last April and witnessed the enormity of the horror and destruction for Palestinians there. The scale of the human trauma of the last 15 months is a gaping wound on the conscience of the world—Israeli babies held hostage, some 20,000 Palestinian children killed.

The Foreign Secretary has made it clear that he agrees that it is desperately important that this ceasefire agreement holds and goes ahead, and that the deal is implemented in full, including the reconstruction of Gaza. He is absolutely right. Does he agree that the Palestinians of Gaza, including my friends and former colleagues Mahmoud, Mohammed, Moe, Fikr, Wasim and so many others displaced within and outside Gaza, must have free movement to return to their homes—or what is left of them—and that this must include the reopening of the Rafah crossing?

[Mr Lammy]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend, who, I know, has lost friends and colleagues over the course of the past 15 months. I also pay tribute to her for her work before coming to this place and for her work now. The Rafah crossing with Egypt must open. That is part of this deal, and it will allow 2.3 million displaced civilians to return home on foot via a coastal road. My hon. Friend, I know, recognises the tremendous medical support that is still necessary across the country; there are many, many children without parents. May I say personally that, as a parent of an adopted child, I am particularly concerned about the many orphans and about how we provide for them in the coming days and months.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between David Lammy and Melanie Ward

Tuesday 14th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

Can I just remind the hon. Gentleman that it was our last Foreign Secretary who had a pint with President Xi? The Chancellor of the Exchequer, as she is able to outline, was able to raise all the issues—Jimmy Lai, the security law in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and a whole range of others—but we are only able to do that by engagement.

[Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) (Lab)]

Friends in Gaza and across the middle east, together with many of us here, are all hoping and praying that a ceasefire will happen this time. Does the Secretary of State agree that the Palestinians of Gaza must be able to move freely to return to their homes, or what is left of them, regardless of whether they are currently in Gaza or have fled elsewhere? In the event of a ceasefire, will the UK convene an international meeting on Gaza’s reconstruction?

[Mr Lammy]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for continuing to press these issues. It was very important to be in Israel yesterday to talk about what may come when we get that ceasefire, and about the role that the UK of course wants to play both in ensuring Israel’s security and in working with other partners to ensure reconstruction.

Syria

Debate between David Lammy and Melanie Ward

Monday 9th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) (Lab)]

A few days ago I met Sawsan Abou Zainedin of Madaniya, a Syrian non-governmental organisation. She speaks powerfully of the shared responsibility of Syrians to build an inclusive state governed by law and citizenship. As they do that, will the Foreign Secretary commit himself to increasing UK support for Syrian civil society? Will he also increase support for human rights experts, including the UN, as they document the horrific crimes that have been committed against Syrian civilians and work to bring to justice those responsible?

[Mr Lammy]

The £11 million that I announced earlier does, of course, include further support for civil society, which is vital at this time.

Middle East Update

Debate between David Lammy and Melanie Ward

Monday 2nd September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

I know that the right hon. Gentleman is informed on many aspects of these issues. He must know that our arms exports to Israel amount to about 1% of its arms; in fact, the United States, Germany and others are much more engaged in selling arms to Israel, so when he asks about the effect, he can draw his own conclusions. I am very comfortable with the support that we give to Israel, and as he would expect, I will not comment on operational issues from this Dispatch Box.

[Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) (Lab)]

Israeli military F-16 aircraft have dropped thousands of bombs on civilians in Gaza in the last 11 months. UN weapons inspectors confirmed that this includes bombing the premises of the aid agencies Medical Aid for Palestinians and the International Rescue Committee, which housed Palestinian aid workers, international aid workers and doctors, in January of this year. F- 16s have further killed thousands of Palestinian civilians who had fled their homes to what the Israeli military had designated a safe zone in al-Mawasi. May I ask the Foreign Secretary to confirm that this arms ban will include licences related to the F-16, and if it does, that this is in service of upholding UK and international law and protecting civilian lives?

May I also express extreme concern at the ongoing Israeli military action in the west bank? Earlier this year, I was in Tulkarm refugee camp after a military raid, and last year I was in Jenin refugee camp, days after a military raid. Both those raids were much smaller than what is happening now. The west bank and Jerusalem are at boiling point, and that is alongside the horrors in Gaza. What action is the Foreign Secretary taking to uphold international law there, too?

[Mr Lammy]

My hon. Friend brings tremendous expertise to the House on the issues on the ground, particularly in Gaza and the west bank. I reassure her that we have fully assessed the export licensing regime, and weapons that might be used in the conflict—including those that she mentions—have been excluded. She is right to raise the issues of deconfliction, and the aid workers who have lost their lives. I reassure her that I have raised those issues with the Prime Minister in Israel and other members of the Government, and pressed them hard. When I came into this role, I knew that the former Foreign Secretary had done exactly the same. It is on that basis that we have, sadly and regrettably, come to this assessment today.

Israel and Gaza

Debate between David Lammy and Melanie Ward

Friday 19th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

The hon. Lady will have heard what was just said to my hon. Friend the Member for Hammersmith and Fulham—[Interruption.] The boundaries have changed and he is now my hon. Friend the Member for Hammersmith and Chiswick (Andy Slaughter)—Hammersmith has gone more upmarket! [Interruption.] Members will understand that, as the Member for Tottenham, I think that I can get away with that.

In all seriousness, because this is a very serious point, I will seek to make my decision with full accountability and transparency.

[Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) (Lab)]

I welcome the Foreign Secretary’s announcement on UNRWA, whose work I know well. It saves lives in the face of unbearable horror, and we must be careful about believing any misinformation about its work.

Earlier this year, in one of the only hospitals still functioning in Gaza, I met a mother whose child had been injured by an Israeli airstrike. With almost 40,000 killed, she asked me to tell the world what was being done to the Palestinians of Gaza. She assumed that we did not know, because if we knew, surely we would have acted to stop it. Does the Foreign Secretary agree that, as well as an immediate and lasting ceasefire, accountability is essential in upholding international law, and that the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice are doing vital work on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories that must be supported and acted on? Will he meet me to discuss those issues?