Gaza: Humanitarian Obligations Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Jamie Stone
Main Page: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)Department Debates - View all Jamie Stone's debates with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
(1 day, 6 hours ago)
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Jeremy Corbyn
The hon. Gentleman is a lawyer himself and far better qualified than me on these matters. I absolutely agree that justice requires us to act, otherwise we undermine the whole principle of international law. The long arm of international law might even reach to us—yes, to Britain—because we knowingly supplied weapons. We did that knowing that a genocide was going on, which makes us complicit in that genocide.
Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD)
This issue has a huge reach. Here we are in London discussing it, but I know that since I was re-elected in the summer of last year, every week a vigil has been held for the people of Gaza by concerned, decent people in Ullapool in Wester Ross, very far from here. The milk of human kindness still flows, and we should take courage from that.
Jeremy Corbyn
I welcome the hon. Member being returned to the House, as well as the comments that he has just made. The support for Gaza has been incredible, despite the denunciations of all the national demonstrations, which were called “hate marches” by the then Home Secretary. I have been on all 36 of them; I have spoken at every single one and I will continue to do that.
I also recognise that all over the country, small and medium-sized demonstrations are being held in often very small communities. I think that well over 2 million people in this country have shown some degree of support for the Palestinian people through meetings, marches, demonstrations, emails, petitions, letters—a whole lot of things. This issue has moved people deeply, and those demonstrations have made a difference. The rhetoric by both the Conservative and Labour Governments started to change as the demonstrations got bigger; things have begun to change, and people have begun to understand the horror of the life of the Palestinian people.
I will finish with this point, because other Members wish to speak. It is becoming winter in Gaza and the west bank, and despite their latitude, it is actually very cold there in winter. Long before the current bombardment, I recall once being an election observer in Gaza in January, and the weather was bitterly cold and horrible—I thought it was terrible then, but it is a thousand times worse now. People will be dying of cold and hypothermia when there are stacks of tents on the other side of the border in Israel that are not being allowed in. People will be dying because of operations conducted without anaesthetic when plenty of anaesthetics are available just across the border, waiting to get in from Egypt.
This is an abominable situation. Can we not as a House say quite bluntly to Israel, “You’re wrong. What you’re doing is illegal and immoral. History will judge you for being the people who committed genocide against the Palestinian people”?