Israel and Palestine

Michael Ellis Excerpts

Tuesday 11th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mark Hendrick]

The hon. Gentleman talks about giving land for peace, but the land Israel has given did not belong to it in the first place. The only land of any size that has been given is Gaza, but the Israelis have made it plain that they do not want Gaza; they want as much of the west bank as they can take. While the building of settlements by stealth is going on, Israel claims to want peace but in the meantime does everything it can to build these settlements, which we know will be an obstacle to peace.

[Michael Ellis (Northampton North) (Con)]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Mark Hendrick]

I will not, because I want the Minister to have time to respond and I still have quite a bit to say.

Despite vigorous efforts to win over European countries, only the Czech Republic supported Israel on 29 November. The move signals a widening gulf, not just between Israel and Europe but between Europe and the United States. Israel’s response might well be a bluff, given that bellicose rhetoric will play well with the settlement wing of Likud ahead of the elections on the 22 January. It has been reported that President Obama secured a commitment from Israel not to construct any units in E1 back in May 2009. However, whether or not this announcement is sabre rattling, it remains another chapter in an intractable dispute that is at the heart of geopolitical instability in the region. It is also a further clear sign that Israel is not committed to securing a two-state solution. Israel is continually changing the facts on the ground, which is an obstacle to peace, and at the same time blames the Palestinians for not entering into talks.

Let us remember that settlements are not residential enclaves, but virtual military barracks—fortified castles that separate Palestinians from their schools, places of business and extended communities. They threaten the safety of Palestinians who venture near, consume the lion’s share of the region’s water and prevent normal movement of people and goods. The result is ethnic segregation and discrimination, with Palestinians treated as second-class citizens in the occupied territories that belong to them. There are also more than 1.25 million forgotten non-Jewish citizens of Israel—principally Muslims and Christians—who are treated as third-class citizens. Indeed, both Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela have compared Israel’s segregation of Palestine to apartheid.

[Michael Ellis]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Mark Hendrick]

I will not, because I have very little time.

[Michael Ellis]

Just me.

[Mark Hendrick]

Everybody says that, but then there are lots of people.

According to the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Israeli settlers in the west bank consume approximately six times the water used by Palestinians. There has been a threefold increase in the number of settler housing units in 2012 compared with 2011. The settler population was estimated at more than 520,000 last year. When I first visited Palestine in 2002 the population was 50,000, so there has been a tenfold increase. The UN also estimates that there are around 540 internal checkpoints, roadblocks and other physical obstacles that impede Palestinian movement in the west bank. The demolition of Palestinian structures is on the rise, displacing more than 1,000 people in 2011. The Palestinian economy is also severely constrained by Israeli restrictions on access to markets and natural resources. The annual cost of this has been estimated at €5.2 billion, or 85% of total Palestinian GDP, which has led to the Palestinian Authority being dependent on large amounts of funds from the EU and other foreign donors. Between 1994 and 2011, the EU gave €5 billion to Palestine. However, the impact of Israel’s paralysing constraints on Palestinian access to markets and resources is too great to be covered by aid alone. The PA currently faces an acute budget crisis.

The real tragedy of this tit-for-tat conflict is the human collateral. The continued loss of lives on both sides is truly appalling. I am concerned that inertia has set in and that the international community has become an observer of a tragedy that is regularly broadcast across the world, with hope of finding a viable resolution lost. Last month Israel launched a major offensive on Gaza —Operation Pillar of Defence, so-called—killing the military commander of Hamas in an air strike. After continuous bombardment, a ceasefire was negotiated between the two sides. The UN confirmed that 158 Palestinians and six Israelis were killed. The fatalities included a pregnant woman carrying twins, an 11-month-old boy and two infants. The reality of these statistics on the ground is truly appalling. The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported:

“On 4 November, Israeli forces stationed in an observatory tower shot and killed a 23 year-old mentally-challenged Palestinian…It was not until two hours later, following coordination with the Israeli military, that a Palestinian ambulance was permitted to reach the area”.

The fact remains that this is an uneven conflict. Some 1,377 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza war from 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009, while 13 Israelis died in the same period. More recently, statistics from the OCHA for casualties and fatalities prior to 6 November show that 71 Palestinians were killed by Israel in the Gaza strip in 2012, with 291 injured. In the same period, 19 Israelis were injured by Palestinian fire from Gaza and none were killed.

I call on the Minister to press the European Union and the Israelis to secure an end to the siege of Gaza. Even our Prime Minister once described Gaza as a prison, so it is incumbent on our Government to demand the freedom of the prisoners who are being subjected to collective punishment because of the sins of a minority. When I questioned the Foreign Secretary on a statement last month, he refused to comment on what he regarded as proportionate. I can only take from that the embarrassment that he might feel if he tried to explain away Israel’s grossly disproportionate response to terrorist rockets fired from Gaza.

I should like briefly to talk about the Quartet’s road map for peace, which was first announced in 2002. My first visit to Israel and Palestine was in 2002, when the road map was a source of hope for peace. At that time there were 50,000 settlers in the Palestine territories; there are now more than 500,000, and peace seems much further away. Ten foreign ministers of the European Union’s Mediterranean states—Bulgaria, Cyprus, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Romania and Slovenia—sent an open letter to the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, in 2007, in which they stated unequivocally and without any diplomatic nuance that they believed the road map had failed. The letter stated:

“We might as well admit it straight away”.

It went on to say that this was

“the recognition of a shared failure we can no longer ignore: the ‘road map’ has failed.”

It is clear that there is no credible plan on the table to achieve a two-state solution or peace, and I believe that the UK has a responsibility to work with our European partners to create a credible plan and to use all the instruments at our disposal to bring pressure to bear on Israel. The settlements are illegal under international law, specifically article 49 of the fourth Geneva convention and United Nations Security Council resolutions 242 and 338. The United Nations, the International Court of Justice and the overwhelming majority of states share this view. Israel controls the borders, airspace and coastline and has overwhelming control of life in the area.

The establishment of settlements has created a discriminatory two-tier system in the west bank, with settlers enjoying the rights and benefits of Israeli citizenship while the Palestinians are subjected to Israeli military law. This year, I had an opportunity to visit a prison in the west bank, where I observed children as young as 14 being tried by a military court for throwing stones at an Israeli defence force vehicle. One of the children received a two-year prison sentence from military officers who should not have been in a court in Palestine; indeed, that court should not have been on Palestinian land in the west bank.

In a recent report, the former EU Commissioner for External Relations, Hans van den Broek, gives evidence of how EU member states have helped to sustain the Israeli settlements. He stated:

“As settlement construction has continued and accelerated, however, we Europeans have failed to move from words to action. So far we have refrained from deploying our considerable political and economic leverage”.

Will the Minister tell us what the UK Government are doing to apply pressure on Israel to cease settlement building, either bilaterally or multilaterally through the European Union? The Foreign Secretary has made it plain that it is impossible for an EU of 27 countries unanimously to agree to economic sanctions against Israel, but he has yet to say whether he would be in favour of sanctions against Israel in principle if agreement on sanctions could be found across the EU at some stage in the future. I invite the Minister to comment on that point.

The most recent estimate of the value of EU imports from the settlements, provided by the Israeli Government to the World Bank, is €230 million a year. That is approximately 15 times the annual value of EU imports from Palestinians. With more than 4 million Palestinians and over 500,000 Israeli settlers living in the occupied territory, that means that the EU imports over 100 times more per settler than per Palestinian. The most common settlement products sold in Europe are agricultural products such as dates, citrus fruits and herbs, and manufactured products including cosmetics, carbonation devices, plastics, textile products and toys. Despite its firm position that the settlements are not part of Israel, Europe has been accepting imports of those settlements’ products with the origin designated as Israel. I believe that the UK Government should lobby the EU member states to adopt our own policy of consumer labelling for all settlement products and also for manufactured goods. Beyond the trade in settlement goods, some European-owned companies have invested in settlements and related infrastructure or are providing services to them. Examples that have been reported include G4S.

Adding to the contradictions at the heart of the EU’s policy towards Israel’s illegal settlements, the EU has failed fully to exclude settlements from the benefits of its co-operation programmes and bilateral agreements with Israel. In several cases, EU public funds for research and development have been used directly to support activities in settlements. The newly ratified EU-Israel agreement on conformity assessment and acceptance of industrial products is an example of the EU’s failure to insist on a firm distinction between Israel and the illegal settlements. The Government need to raise this with the European Commission. At the heart of the UK’s policy towards Israel is the contradiction between recognising that the settlements are illegal, running counter to achieving a two-state solution, and our continuing to trade with the region through the EU. I would be grateful if the Minister could share with the House any updates on recent developments in the political situation in Israel and Palestine.

I also want to press the Minister to assure me that his Department will consider the following proposals for action against inertia: the suspension of appropriate strategic dialogue meetings with Israel to show that the UK is prepared to act in opposition to Israel’s settlement policy; the use of Government advice to discourage businesses from purchasing settlement goods and from all other commercial and investment links with settlements; a ban on the imports of settlement products, as called for by Ireland; the championing of the exclusion of all settlement products in the EU and European Free Trade Association from preferential market access by insisting that Israel starts designating the origin of settlement products other than by “Israel”; the exclusion of settlements from bilateral agreements and co-operation instruments with Israel by means of explicit legal provisions and safeguards; the removal of organisations’ funding settlements from tax deduction systems, as happens in Norway; the prevention of financial transactions to settlements and related activities by means of applying restrictive measures as a more comprehensive approach; the issuing of guidelines for European tour operators to prevent support for settlement businesses; and no longer selling UK-supplied components that can be used in the conflict.

As I have said, there is tragic complacency in the international community and the UK about the latest developments in the Palestine-Israel conflict and an observable lack of commitment from the key players towards securing a two-state solution. I believe that the UK has an important role to play and we should not underestimate our influence, particularly in Europe, in leveraging more political and, more important, economic pressure on Israel. That will require moral and political leadership and action, but we should not shy away from that and I urge the Minister to use his office to promote peace in the region by pushing for a two-state solution.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mark Simmonds]

If the hon. Gentleman will be patient, I will come on, time permitting, to exactly what we are doing to try to stimulate, encourage and facilitate the peace process and get it back on track. It is not true, however, to say that nothing is happening. There are, for example, ongoing talks chaired by the Egyptians between the Palestinians and the Israelis, albeit not directly as the two sides are in separate rooms. The two key elements coming out of that are, first, the need for Israel to ease the restrictions on Gaza, particularly so that economic activity can take place; and, secondly, the need for Egypt to tackle the arms smuggling into the Sinai, which is Israel’s main concern about the rockets that are going into it.

We engaged intensively with the Palestinians before the vote in the General Assembly, and in advance of it we urged Israel to avoid reacting in a way that would undermine the peace process and to return to the negotiations. We made it absolutely clear that we would not support a reaction that sidelined President Abbas or risked the collapse of the Palestinian Authority. We have made it very clear to the Israeli Government that their decision to build 3,000 new housing units on the west bank and in East Jerusalem, to unfreeze the development of the area known as E1 on the west bank and to withhold tax revenue from the Palestinian Authority is not acceptable. The settlements plan in particular has the potential to alter the situation on the ground on a scale that threatens the viability of a two-state solution.

[Michael Ellis]

Does the Minister agree with me that provocative actions on both sides is unhelpful in such a volatile situation, and that it is particularly provocative of the Palestinians to have involved or threatened to involve the ICC in this context because that is clearly not going to advance peace on both sides? Does he agree that Israel has a right to protect its citizens?

[Mark Simmonds]

I certainly agree that Israel has a right to peace and security, and a right to protect its citizens from rocket attacks, which were extremely prevalent during the fortnight leading up to the escalation of the conflict in Gaza. However, what the international community and the House need to focus on is how we are to get the Palestinians and the Israelis back around the negotiating table, without preconditions, to find a satisfactory, lasting solution to the conflict that has dogged that part of the world for so many years.