London Sudan Conference

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Thursday 24th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

I am not familiar with the case. I will discuss it with the Minister for Africa and ensure that the hon. Member gets a proper response.

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

I thank the right hon. Member for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale (David Mundell) for securing the urgent question. Despite the barbarity of Sudan, it seems to be the forgotten conflict. What steps are being taken to investigate and prevent the transfer of arms to Sudan via third countries who may have been present at the conference over the weekend and are allies of the UK?

[Mr Falconer]

We were clear in the co-chairs’ statement, as we have been in many other places, that we do not want external interference in this conflict. We are taking every step we can to try to ensure that we get back to a diplomatic solution and back to a civilian transfer towards civilian rule, which is what the Sudanese so desperately need.

Gaza: Israeli Military Operations

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

I am grateful for the opportunity to comment on particular cases involving constituents in Gaza. My hon. Friend works incredibly hard for her constituents, as do many other Members. Where I am in direct correspondence with Members about the fate of constituents and their relatives in Gaza, I will not provide a running commentary from the Dispatch Box, but the Foreign Office will do everything it can to ensure that British nationals in distress, and their loved ones, including in Gaza, are able to get to safety. I can confirm to her that we have raised the urgency of these matters with the Israeli Government.

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

Another day, another statement, another day of predictable and depressing answers. Nothing is more predictable and depressing than the statement, “We are doing everything we can.” Are we really doing everything we can when we do not call out genocide and ethnic cleansing as we see it happening in real time? Are we doing everything we can when we have not imposed bilateral economic sanctions? Are we doing everything we can when we have not even called in the ambassador to express our concerns? If we are indeed doing everything we can, why have the Government just sold £9 million-worth of technology for Israeli submarines that are being built to house nuclear weapons?

[Mr Falconer]

We are doing everything we can. I recognise from the commentary of many Members how unbearably frustrating they and their constituents find this situation. I have been calling for a ceasefire ever since I have been a Minister. It is also deeply depressing for me to be in this situation today, as I have been so many times in the House. We will continue to do everything, in accordance with the measures I have laid out this afternoon, to bring the conflict back to a ceasefire.

Oral Answers to Questions

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Tuesday 1st April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

I thank my hon. Friend for her question; I know how attentive to these issues she has been. The Foreign Secretary has condemned in this Chamber the comments of Defence Minister Katz, and this Government are clear what the path to reconstruction in Gaza must be. We have engaged closely with our partners in the Arab world, we welcome their plan for reconstructing Gaza, and we will continue to do all we can to see that as the path to reconstruction, with dignity for the Palestinian people of Gaza.

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

Today is the anniversary of the killing of the 33-year-old ex-Royal Marine James Henderson, who was killed by the Israelis among seven aid workers with the World Central Kitchen. A year later, as the hon. Member for Glasgow South West (Dr Ahmed) has mentioned, mass graves have been found with eight bodies of those who worked for the Red Crescent and the Red Cross. That comes two weeks after eight aid workers from the Al-Khair Foundation were killed. It is believed that 1,500 aid workers have been killed. Does the Minister believe that it is illegal under international law to kill aid workers and, if so, what is he prepared to do about it?

[Mr Falconer]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving me the opportunity to comment. Today is indeed the one-year anniversary of the appalling strike on the World Central Kitchen convoy, which killed seven people, including British citizens John Chapman, James Henderson and James Kirby. I would like to pay tribute to their bravery and remember again the appalling tragedy of that day. I, alongside the Foreign Secretary, met their families in November. They are determined to see justice for their family members, and I know that the whole Chamber will be united in that determination. Israel’s Military Advocate General must quickly and thoroughly conclude their consideration of the strike, including determining whether criminal proceedings should be initiated. As the hon. Gentleman has said, Gaza is now the most dangerous place in the world to be an aid worker. This cannot continue.

Conflict in Gaza

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Thursday 20th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising the issue of recognition, which I know is dear to him and others in this House. It is a serious issue. He knows that recognition, in and of itself, does not deliver a two-state solution. He knows that we want a two-state solution and the recognition of a Palestinian state, but that is best done as part of a process that actually gets us to two states. He will recognise that the decision by other partners to move to recognition has not alleviated the suffering before our eyes, which is why there must be a careful balance. I recognise that different Governments and Members will come to different judgments, but I am holding out for two states—including an actual state for the Palestinian people, which is a just cause—and not just for a symbolic act.

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

Along with a billion Muslims around the world, I began my fast on Tuesday morning, having taken some food and water, with the screams of 400 innocent men, women and children ringing in my ears, as they were burned alive in their makeshift tents. I object to the resumption of the conflict and the cessation of the peace deal. The Israelis have continued to kill hundreds of people, including freezing babies, and to proceed with the Gazafication of the west bank through the removal of 40,000 people.

The Minister will be aware of the peace deal that was available in May 2024. According to President Biden, the hostages are not a priority for the Israelis—a sentiment that was echoed just the other day by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which accused Mr Netanyahu of “complete deception”, and said that

“the Israeli Government has chosen to abandon the hostages.”

The fact is that the Foreign Secretary is aware of all this, as we continue to provide Israel with military support and the use of our air base in Cyprus, and to give it moral, economic and political support. I hope that he takes my sincere question as it is meant. He has spoken passionately about his heritage and his ancestors, who were shackled in the chains of slavery. To unshackle his own chains, will he immediately cease all arms licences? Despite the £6.1 billion-worth of economic ties between Israel and the UK, will he impose economic sanctions, and put in place a viable process for recognising the state of Palestine?

[Mr Lammy]

The hon. Gentleman brings powerful rhetoric to the House this afternoon. Notwithstanding the horrors of the conflict that has begun, we are three days into it. In the end, it is the ceasefire that will alleviate the suffering. It is my job to use all endeavours to get back to that ceasefire. That is my job, and that is what I intend to do.

Israeli-Palestinian Peace: International Fund

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Tuesday 11th March 2025 Westminster Hall

[Wendy Morton (Aldridge-Brownhills) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg.

I congratulate the hon. Member for Mansfield (Steve Yemm) on securing this debate. I start by acknowledging the incredibly fragile ceasefire, which I think everyone in this House wants to see endure. In aid of that, we need to see the return of each and every hostage taken by Hamas during the barbaric acts of 7 October 2023.

We are all appalled by Hamas’s cynical move to continue holding hostages as human bargaining chips. Those individuals, their families and loved ones have all experienced unimaginable pain over the last 500 days and more. The world has been watching as the hostages released so far have returned to their homes and loved ones. Of course, many have not returned alive. We continue to call on Hamas to immediately release the remaining hostages, who have already suffered so deeply. That is key to a sustainable end to the conflict.

I would be grateful if the Minister could update us on his latest discussions with Israel, the US, the UAE and other regional players to help the parties reach agreement on phase 2 of the ceasefire. I also ask what he is doing to ensure that the UK is a proactive contributor to these discussions and is doing its bit to keep the fragile peace together and to support the deal.

The Prime Minister has pledged his support for establishing an international fund for Israeli-Palestinian peace, and for the plans to hold an inaugural meeting in London. We all aspire to peace in the region, and the fund was first endorsed by the Conservative Government in 2018. When will the inaugural meeting take place, and who will be a party to those discussions?

On peace more broadly, we understand that the Government share our view that Hamas can have no role in the future governance of Gaza, but we have had very little detail on how they plan to help achieve a post-Hamas Gaza. Hamas have been shown to have a callous disregard for human life through their appalling actions on 7 October, their persistent use of Palestinians as human shields, and their murder and mistreatment of hostages. Hamas have extensively repressed civil society in Gaza, stamped out political opposition and arbitrarily arrested journalists. What discussions has the Minister had with Israeli and regional partners on the future governance of Gaza?

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

Will the shadow Minister give way?

[Wendy Morton]

I will make progress because I am very short on time. Promoting peace in the region is an aim that we all aspire to in this House. The Abraham accords signed in 2020 were a welcome step that normalised relations between Israel and the other regional actors. We celebrate the success of the accords and encourage more countries to normalise relations with Israel as a potential route to a broader peace. Building on the accords presents an opportunity for greater shared prosperity, which we want and hope will mean real, tangible benefits for the Palestinian people too.

During our time in government, we took steps to try to preserve stability in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Between 2021 and 2023, the UK’s conflict, stability and security fund helped over 18,000 Palestinians at risk of eviction to protect their property rights. We strengthened economic opportunity by funding key water infrastructure and we launched the UK-Palestinian tech hub. Between 2015 and 2020, UK official development assistance supported 70,000 children to gain a decent education, and it also supported the middle east peace process, a £30 million programme that ran between 2015 and 2019. The UK is a party outside the region, but it is an important player with key historical links that act as a connector. What is the Minister doing to ensure that we continue our role as a trusted partner, supporting normalised relations and a greater peace in the region?

The most pressing task is ensuring that the fragile peace holds, and we must shift our eyes to the reconstruction of Gaza once we meet the subsequent stages of the ceasefire agreement. What role does the Minister envisage the UK playing in the reconstruction of Gaza? How will we work together with regional allies? What is his response to the paper produced by the Cairo summit? We must also understand what the ODA changes mean in practice for programmes in the region. Will the Minister see funding for the OPTs drop following the announcement? For a lasting peace, Palestinians need the same liberties that their neighbours enjoy in Israel. That involves reforming the Palestinian Authority. We want reforms to continue, including on transparency, fighting corruption and improving public sector efficiency, which we supported last year in government.

As I conclude, and I am very conscious of time, it is important to recognise that, if the Palestinian Authority is to have an expanded role, it needs to implement very significant reforms on welfare and education, and it must demonstrate a commitment to democratic processes. We have an incredibly fragile ceasefire agreement that we must all work to protect. The Government must redouble their efforts to preserve the viability of the two-state solution and ensure that the UK plays its part in helping to lift the people’s eyes to a brighter future—

--- Later in debate ---

[Jim Shannon]

rose—

[Shockat Adam]

rose—

[Mr Falconer]

I will give way first to the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon).

Syria

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Monday 10th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

As I said before, we condemn any sectarian attacks and any actions to stoke intercommunal tensions within Syria. Syria has long benefited from its many minorities and its great diversity, and that is what we want to see in its future. We have given £62 million since the fall of Assad. We monitor that closely to ensure that it goes, as the hon. Gentleman says, through reliable channels with proper controls to ensure that there is no misuse.

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

An Arab proverb goes, “Better a hundred days of tyranny than one day of anarchy.” We saw the result of that anarchy over the weekend with potentially over 1,500 civilians killed. Would the Government support a well-resourced, integrated United Nations group with a beefed-up mandate, and potentially a new Syrian envoy familiar with the country and who speaks Arabic, to help resolve the issue?

[Mr Falconer]

As I said in response to a previous question, we are in discussions about what a UN role could be in a future Syria. I will not comment too much on what personnel might staff it.

Palestinian Rights: Government Support

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Tuesday 4th March 2025 Westminster Hall

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Sir John. I want to say a special thank you to the Father of the House, the right hon. Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh), for his compassionate and humane speech. It was extremely touching.

I want to speak about a certain aspect of this conflict. Last Monday, 24 February, a piercing shrill broke the silence of the night. It was a mother crying because her two-month-old baby, Sham, had frozen to death. These are the real human costs of this conflict. Sham joins five other children who have frozen to death in the past month, joining the 116 other Palestinians who have been killed since the ceasefire began. Like many other Members here, I have spoken about this issue countless times here in Westminster Hall and in the main Chamber, and nothing seems to change. We sit here and discuss the rights and wrongs, but as the Father of the House said, this conflict keeps nobody safe, including the Israelis.

I want to be a little more forthright than the hon. Member for Stratford and Bow (Uma Kumaran), who could not repeat what she heard in the Knesset. There are sentiments that have been openly declared and that, unlike any BBC show, require no translation. Let us take a glimpse into the minds of many Israeli Ministers. Nissim Vaturi, who is the Deputy Speaker of the House, said that Palestinians are “scoundrels” and “subhumans”, and that Israel must

“separate the children and women and kill the adults in Gaza. We are being too considerate.”

He has previously called for the complete erasure of the Gaza strip. The Israeli Heritage Minister, Amichai Eliyahu, openly suggested that Israel drop a nuclear bomb on Gaza and said that there were no “uninvolved civilians in Gaza”. The then Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, who announced a “complete siege” of Gaza, said Israel was fighting “human animals”. And, of course, we have Benjamin Netanyahu himself, who—reciting the Hebrew Bible—said:

“Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.”

We rightly ask about the impartiality of the BBC, but I do not recall the same level of hysteria about the open sentiments expressed by Israeli Ministers that demonise, dehumanise and destroy two-month-old babies. The BBC’s infamous documentary merely gives us a glimpse into the blighted lives of Palestinian children, at a time when no independent journalist is allowed into Gaza and over 160 journalists have been killed.

All I ask the Minister is this: when will the Government call out the atrocities as war crimes and as genocide, and when will they do that with the same conviction as we call out other conflicts? Or are Palestinian lives simply not as important?

Gaza

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Tuesday 4th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Catherine West]

The UK Government have been a supporter of the work of UNRWA throughout this conflict and before it. We have been supporting UNRWA financially, as have all international organisations and countries. There have been problems with certain challenges to individuals who have been employed by UNRWA, but we have consistently joined with allies in expressing our concerns about the role of UNRWA being curtailed. At the UN Security Council sessions on 6 November, 11 December, 3 January, 28 January and 25 February, and in a joint statement with partners on 27 October, we urged that the important work of UNRWA can continue.

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

The blockade of aid is just the last line in a long list of activities that Israelis have committed against the Palestinian people. Now that we have cut our overseas aid to a mere 0.3% of GDP—the lowest in real terms in 20 years—does the Minister still agree with the Labour party manifesto that international aid makes the world

“a safer, more prosperous place”?

Does she agree that, with this move, the UK’s historic role in the middle east is dead and over?

[Catherine West]

The hon. Member is right to talk about the ongoing need for aid in the region, and the Prime Minister was very careful in his speech at the end of last week—I think he has mentioned it since then in the press—to say that humanitarian aid must continue. Gaza was specifically mentioned, because it is one of our top priorities. The hon. Member is aware that the decision to divert some of our aid spending into the defence of Europe is only a week old, but he must also be aware that we will come forward with the detail of that. I reassure him and his constituents that Gaza was specifically mentioned in this House by the Prime Minister, because it remains one of our top priorities in the Foreign Office.

Oral Answers to Questions

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Tuesday 25th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

My hon. Friend raises a serious issue. As I have said repeatedly from the Dispatch Box, I condemn the expansion and the violence that we have seen over the last period, and I reject the calls for the annexation of the west bank. I met Tom Fletcher of the UN recently to discuss these very same issues, and renewed our commitment to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs—that humanitarian work is important. Of course, at this time I have been in touch with the Israelis and with Prime Minister Mustafa as we discuss these issues together.

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

Back on 17 October 2023, when the first hospital in Palestine was bombed, the al-Ahli Arab hospital, much conversation was had about who could have committed such a heinous crime. Since then, the Israeli army has destroyed all medical facilities in Gaza, and now we have a President of the United States using gangster-style intimidation to forcibly remove Palestinian people from their land. Will the Foreign Secretary—who has repeatedly refused to call out the Israeli Government for the war crimes they are committing, refused to ban all arms sales, refused to acknowledge that a genocide is happening and refused even to consider economic sanctions, because £6.1 billion is too high a price to pay—accept the reality of the situation and accept that Trump and Netanyahu’s plan proposes ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people in Gaza?

[Mr Speaker]

We are well under time, but I just need to get other Members in.

Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Wednesday 12th February 2025 Westminster Hall

[Brian Leishman]

I thank my hon. Friend; I wholeheartedly agree. Again, that is something that I will turn to later in my contribution, when we look at a variety of actions that the UK Government could undertake.

I also ask the Minister to defend the words, and lack of action, from our Government, which have enabled the Israeli blockades to continue—blockades that stopped lifesaving aid, food, water and medicine from reaching besieged Palestinians who were starving and in the most dire need.

Historical context is vital because the persecution Palestinians suffer is not recent. That treatment did not start in October 2023. For Palestinians, the Nakba began many decades ago. From the mass dispossession of the Palestinian people in 1947 and 1948 to the present day, ethnic cleansing has been a constant.

The seizure of land and homes, the forced displacement, the destruction of civic, educational, cultural and religious infrastructure, which are all protected by international conventions and treaties, to which this country is a committed signatory, are all examples of settler colonialism and Israeli Government-authorised apartheid, that sees removal of the local population through ethnic cleansing. For decades, the international community has looked away and ignored the suffering of the Palestinian people.

I put it to the Government, through the Minister, that the time for the UK to show international and moral leadership is long overdue, especially regarding Palestine. Our nation’s role as the former colonial power in Palestine, issuing and implementing the Balfour declaration of 1917, presiding over the dispossession and disfranchisement of the Palestinian people, has imposed an historical debt, which continues to grow the longer we refuse to stand up for the inalienable rights of Palestinians.

Will the Minister commit the UK Government to undertaking a thorough review of their diplomatic, political, trade, economic and military relations with Israel, to identify any aspects that assist and empower Israel’s illegal occupation, and to stop those aspects? Will the UK Government suspend trade privileges, agreements and negotiations with Israel, pending the outcome of that thorough review?

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

I thank the hon. Member for securing this important debate. He is making a passionate speech about the situation in Gaza. One of the biggest arguments made against the abolition of slavery was the financial cost to our country, so does he agree that the Foreign Secretary’s statement that we will not have economic sanctions against Israel because we have a £6.1 billion trade deal is abhorrent, and that we should reverse that statement as soon as possible?

[Brian Leishman]

I thank the hon. Member for his contribution. My answer is quite simply yes, I agree. That was an appalling statement. I would like to think that our country is frankly better than putting a pound and pence figure on the cost of a humanitarian disaster and genocide.

I put this to the Minister. Will the UK Government ban the importation of goods from illegal Israeli settlements, which facilitate and give credibility to their existence? Banning the importation of goods from Israel’s illegal settlements brings into line our commitment to international law and human rights. The ICJ is clear that all states have an obligation not to recognise, aid or assist in maintaining the illegal situation of occupation, and to stop providing assistance that sustains occupation and to ensure compliance with international law, through diplomatic and economic measures.

In conclusion, the UK Government have a very simple choice to make. Do we side with an apartheid state that has seized territory; displaced and contained people into an open-air prison; eradicated communities and centuries of culture; ethnically cleansed a people and committed genocide? Or do we join the call that many in the international community have already made for full compliance with international law, recognition of the state of Palestine and justice for its indomitable people?