Middle East

Louise Sandher-Jones Excerpts

Monday 1st September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

It is axiomatic that the hon. Gentleman is wrong. I made an assessment back in September that there was a clear risk—that was based on IHL assessments —and for that reason we suspended arms sales to Gaza. The machinery of government is working very well in the assessments we are able to make, notwithstanding how difficult it of course is to get all the evidence that is necessary.

[Louise Sandher-Jones (North East Derbyshire) (Lab)]

The famine in Gaza is clearly man-made and it is abominable. That tens of thousands of civilians have been brutally killed is abominable. The retention of the hostages by Hamas, and even the retention of the bodies of those who have passed away, is equally abominable. We can all see what is happening in Gaza and what is happening in the west bank, and this cannot be allowed to continue. What more messages can we send to Netanyahu and the Israeli Government to say that the two-state solution is the only way forward? It is the only way to guarantee peace and security in the middle east, which every single innocent civilian deserves, and to stop the increased illegal settlements in the west bank.

[Mr Lammy]

I want to associate myself with the remarks of my hon. Friend, and I congratulate her on her recent wedding. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”] She is absolutely right because there seem to be those in the Israeli Government who either want to see one state, in which case it is incumbent on them to be clear about how everyone in that one state has equality before the law, or want to see no state perpetuated forever. We must stand against that because it is not in the interests of Israel being safe and secure, and it is fundamentally against the interests of the Palestinian people, because the desire for two states is a just cause and one that we must stand behind.