Gaza

Lord Ahmed Excerpts

Wednesday 8th February 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmed]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Warner for providing this opportunity, even though we have only 120 seconds. The right honourable David Miliband, the former Foreign Secretary, wrote recently that,

“Gaza has become the land that time—and the wider international community—forgot”.

I do not want to mention the UNRWA figures of high unemployment and poverty. My noble friend has already mentioned the 300,000 people who live on less than $1 a day. While Israel put forward proposals to ease the blockade, it was estimated that only two trucks per day were allowed to leave Gaza between November 2010 and May 2011, which was nowhere near Israel’s commitment of nearly 400 trucks per day. It was worse still between May and November 2011 when no trucks left the Gaza Strip to export any goods from the territory.

The crux of the matter is that, while we can hope for the prosperity and peace of the Palestinian people, this will remain an impossible target if the blockade continues to imprison the Gazan population. The UK Government pledged £26.8 million after Operation Cast Lead; yet three years later there has been little improvement in the lives of the Gazan people who struggle to find employment, rebuild their houses and export their goods. Simple day-to-day tasks, such as the quality of schooling, remain impossible and the population is still reliant on the UN for so many of its needs. However, these problems can be alleviated if the illegal blockade is removed and people could develop naturally into prosperous partners in the Middle East. Without its removal the blockade will continue to ensure that all life is suffocated out of the territory and its inhabitants.