Ukraine (Flight MH17) and Gaza

Lyn Brown Excerpts

Monday 21st July 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call Jim Dowd.

[Lyn Brown (West Ham) (Lab)]

Thank you, Mr Speaker—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The hon. Lady must have been renamed; or perhaps I was not clear enough. I called Jim Dowd.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Speaker]

I am sorry about the identity crisis. I call Lyn Brown.

[Lyn Brown]

A reported 12,000-plus rockets have been fired into Gaza over the past 13 days, with more than 500 deaths and more than 80,000 Gazans displaced. May I simply ask the Prime Minister what pressure he is prepared to apply, if he will not pursue economic sanctions against Israel, to ensure that Israel complies with international humanitarian law and exercises the restraint that he says he wants to see?

[The Prime Minister]

The pressure we bring to bear, as a friend of Israel, is to be very clear in our interactions with it about what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. The hon. Lady has got to consider—the figure she cites is actually now out of date; 1,850 rockets have been fired into Israel—that if we want a ceasefire, we have to ask ourselves this question: why has Hamas not accepted a ceasefire, when Israel repeatedly has?