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?

Sudan and Eastern DRC

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Tuesday 28th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for continuing to raise these issues from the Back Benches and pressing me on them whenever he sees me in the Lobby. Let me be clear—I should have made this point—that we are of course working with the African Union. New leadership is about to take up post in the African Union in the coming weeks, and we will continue to push these issues with it. We will work with a range of partners including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, African and European countries who are taking an interest, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the United Nations and the African Union. I reassure him of that.

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

I also thank the Foreign Secretary for his statement, for Sudan is indeed the forgotten conflict, despite 8 million internally displaced people and 24.5 million people on the verge of famine. I lend my sentiments and honour the three United Nations peacekeepers from Uruguay, South Africa and Malawi, the country of my birth. In the Foreign Secretary’s statement, he mentioned more deadly weapons entering the conflict. Who is providing those arms and weapons? What vested interests do they have in Sudan—are they in its natural resources, its gold or its port? What leverage are we using with those countries with whom we have good diplomatic relations who may be supplying those weapons?

[Mr Lammy]

I met African ambassadors yesterday to discuss those very issues. We talked about the security and resilience of the African continent and of how, after a relatively peaceful period a decade or so ago when most of the discussion was about development, they are now concerned about those who are fighting proxy wars in different ways. That is not to say that regional powers will not have different interests, but when we see the behaviour of mercenaries and we look at the problems of arms sales in Africa and the damage that does to civilian life, we have to hold out for a political solution. We have to get back to dialogue and we have to get back to diplomacy. That is what I am seeking to emphasise in the statement.

UK-Ukraine 100-year Partnership

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Monday 20th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

This is incredibly dangerous, as we see the Euro-Atlantic theatre and the Indo-Pacific theatre coalesce. It is important to emphasise that our assessment is that those troops are being used in Kursk. We see that, we recognise it and we will use all means necessary to deal with that issue with the tools we have as best we can in the coming days.

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

While the worst of humanity was being demonstrated with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, our nation was showing the best of humanity, in our rich tradition, by opening our doors to those displaced by war. One of those families is that of my constituent Professor Ivan Waddington, who has adopted a Ukrainian refugee family, whom he sees as his own. He has asked me to ask the Government whether they are planning to continue with the scheme, and will those Ukrainians who have assimilated and are making a positive contribution to our country have the right to remain in this country when the war ends?

[Mr Lammy]

I recognise why hon. Members have raised this issue, but that must rightly be a determination for the Home Secretary at the appropriate time. However, I want to strongly indicate our support for those families in this country, and our recognition, as the war continues and may go on for some time, of the huge contribution they continue to make. I hope that the 100-year partnership that we have signed is an indication of the inextricable link that we think now exists between Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

Middle East

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Thursday 16th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for the way she has championed these issues, pressing them again and again, on behalf of her constituents. There is a real dilemma on Palestinian recognition. There are some who want recognition essentially because they believe that two states is years away and will never be achieved, and they want the UK Government to say, “We will do it now”—to put a marker in the sand, despite the fact that it is years away and will never be achieved. There are others who recognise the importance of the UK’s role in relation to our responsibilities as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and therefore understand that we will do that, but we will do it when we know that it will happen and it is in sight. This is one of those critical moments, and believe me, I will play my part.

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

Yesterday on the streets of Gaza, mothers came out to celebrate the news of the impending peace deal. Today, many of those mothers were crouching over loved ones, as news came in of a further 73 Palestinians having been killed. That is 73 added on to the thousands and thousands who have already been killed, but when it comes to the number of Palestinians dead, that is all it seems to be—a number. Does the Foreign Secretary agree that no justice and no meaningful peace can be achieved if we continue to allow the cries of the oppressed to go unheard? I ask this not as a political rival, but as a fellow human being. The Palestinian people and, indeed, the families of the hostages have no more time for rhetoric, platitudes and words. What are we going to do to ensure that this peace deal goes ahead and justice is given beyond words, so that no more innocent blood is shed?

[Mr Lammy]

The Palestinian cause is a just cause, which is why we recommit to two states. You can hold in your heart the pain of the Israeli people and the plight of those hostages and their families, and at the same time, you can hold in your heart the awful damage, pain and suffering that this has wrought on Gaza, with well over 45,000 Palestinian people having lost their lives. You can hold those two things at the same time, which of course is what the UK Government attempt to do as they try to bring about conciliation and uphold international humanitarian law. Ultimately, we want to get to a process that brings about genuine peace, where these two countries can live side by side with security and peace.

Oral Answers to Questions

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Tuesday 14th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Anneliese Dodds]

We remain directly in contact with Israel, with UN agencies and with other partners in the region. That is obviously at ministerial level and also with our special representative for humanitarian issues in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The issues of crossings and their openness and safety have been raised repeatedly by the special representative and by members of this Government. That also covers attacks by the terrorists Hamas on those crossings.

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

While Gaza stands on the verge of absolute annihilation, the Israeli ambassador to the UK has repeatedly expressed opposition to a two-state solution, emphasising that that is not a feasible solution. Given that the UK has consistently expressed support for a two-state solution but does not yet recognise one of the states, will the Minister clarify any discussions she has had with the Israeli ambassador?

[Mr Speaker]

Order. This question is about humanitarian aid, but I am sure the Minister will be able to answer.

Israel and Palestine

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Monday 16th December 2024 Westminster Hall

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Harris. I thank the hon. Member for South Cotswolds (Dr Savage) for securing this vital debate. I also thank Sandra Downs for her e-petition and the thousands of people who signed it, including in my constituency of Leicester South. The hon. Member for South Cotswolds mentioned the Balfour declaration, which indeed promised a Jewish land for a Jewish people, but there was a caveat to that statement: “Nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine”.

[Patricia Ferguson]

I thank the hon. Member for taking an intervention. Does he share my fear that the statements of Israeli officials suggest that they intend to have a long-term presence in Gaza? Will he join me in condemning the de facto annexation of parts of Gaza that is going on at the moment?

[Shockat Adam]

I certainly agree, and I fear that too.

We of course welcome the cessation of 9% of arms licences to Israel, but that falls woefully short of what is required. Thirty out of 350 is too low, especially given that equipment made in this country is used for the killing machines that are F-35 fighter jets.

Many hon. Members have spoken about the massacre that is taking place. More than 16,000 children have been murdered and 10,000 women have been killed; they were not all hiding behind the skirts of Hamas. Palestinians have been killed since 1948—before the invention of Hamas. Just overnight, 10 Palestinians were killed, including a family—two parents and two children—in a tent in northern Gaza City. They were not hiding behind the skirts of Hamas.

We as a nation have a moral, political and legal duty to uphold international law and the rules of engagement in times of conflict. Under the genocide convention, we have a duty not only to prevent and punish genocide, but to avoid actions that might assist or enable a genocide. With that in mind, I want to raise an important and pressing issue with the Minister: the US Air Force’s use of British sovereign airspace in Cyprus. According to Declassified UK, at least 13 US planes used by the special forces, nearly all of them unmarked, have gone from Britain’s sprawling air base in Cyprus to Israel since Labour took office on 5 July and 10 October. Most flights stayed in Israel for about two hours before returning to Cyprus. Are we providing a base for the delivery of weapons to Israel? That would make us complicit in any war crimes and/or genocide that is happening there.