Gaza

Lord Ahmed Excerpts

Monday 6th July 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmed (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I too would like to thank the noble Baroness, Lady Tonge, for providing us with the opportunity to discuss Gaza and the plight of Palestinian people, who currently live in the largest prison in the world.

I had the pleasure of travelling with the noble Baroness, Lady Tonge, a few years ago on a boat from Cyprus to Gaza. During that trip we were harassed by the Israeli navy in the international waters like pirates. Despite this setback, we made it to Gaza and saw for ourselves how the Palestinian people had been suffering for many years.

Just this past week, Israeli Navy forces intercepted a ship carrying international activists who hoped to breach the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. The vessel, which contained humanitarian aid including medicines and solar panels, was prevented from entering. That incident is nothing new. As your Lordships’ will remember, in 2010 Israeli forces raided a Gaza-bound flotilla and violently attacked the activists on board. Some nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed as a result. Do Her Majesty’s Government believe that intercepting and attacking boats in international waters carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza is illegal under international law? Have Her Majesty’s Government advised the Israeli Government on this matter?

Today, we can see with our eyes and through facts that Israel severely damaged the stability of Palestine. As we heard from the noble Baroness, Lady Tonge, last year, Israeli Operation Protective Edge either severely damaged or destroyed 17 hospitals, 56 primary healthcare facilities and 45 ambulances. Sixteen healthcare workers were killed and 83 were injured, most of them ambulance drivers and volunteers. In total, as we have heard again and again, more than 2,200 Palestinians were killed, at least 500 of them children. More than 10,000 were wounded. Over 160,000 homes were affected, with 2,400 housing units completely destroyed and 6,600 severely damaged. Some 17,500 families—some 100,000 individuals—are still homeless. An estimated 7,000 explosive remnants of war are buried in debris. At least 10 people have been killed and 36 injured due to ERW. According to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions—ICAHD—since 1967 Israeli authorities have demolished more than 27,000 structures in the Occupied State of Palestine. Furthermore, according to the Norwegian NGO, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, the number of internally displaced people among the Palestinian population is at least 263,000.

Israel’s colonial and prolonged military occupation of the Occupied State of Palestine, including its eight-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, is the root cause of recurring violence and ongoing violations of the human rights of Palestinians. Poverty, deprivation and lack of education are all factors increasing crime and signs of extremism. This increase in extremism paves the way for Daesh to expand its influence to Palestine. Several reports by UN bodies and independent fact-finding missions have now accused Israel of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. The lack of accountability for these crimes has led to the recurrence of such crimes and to the latest aggression against the Palestinian people living in the Gaza Strip—the deadliest offensive against the Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories since 1967.

There is an Israeli contempt for Palestinian life and international law. The international community has an obligation to ensure respect for civilian lives and international law. The only way to do that is to bring perpetrators of crimes to justice and to hold the occupying power accountable. Finally, would Her Majesty’s Government support any UN initiative to bring all those responsible for war crimes to justice, whether Israeli or Palestinian?