Middle East

Stella Creasy Excerpts

Thursday 21st May 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

It is important to be clear that we are providing no bombs and no bullets to the Israeli Government that could be used against Palestinians. That is the decision that this Government took shortly after entry into government, and we continue to stand by it. We have put in place a range of sanctions—we have talked about Mr Ben-Gvir already this afternoon, but there is also Mr Smotrich. I think any reasonable observer would think that sanctions on both a Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Finance as quite far ranging.

[Ms Stella Creasy (Walthamstow) (Lab/Co-op)]

The challenge for the Minister is that we have come in for a statement on the middle east, but in the last few weeks alone, we have seen the treatment of detainees being flaunted on television by an Israeli Minister, who clearly has no regard for international human law, and that clearly demands a stronger response. We have seen an ongoing restriction on aid to Gaza, which the Minister himself describes as resulting in children being bitten by rats, and we have seen an ongoing escalation in violence on the west bank. How will we make the current Israeli Government understand—as we also wish the current Iranian regime to understand—that we mean business if the Minister keeps coming to the House to tell us that he will not hesitate, but hesitates to set out what he is actually going to do in response to these incidents?

[Mr Falconer]

I have sought to set out the action we are taking in relation to Israel and Palestine, both our publicly announced steps and the diplomatic work going on behind the scenes, and I have tried to do the same in relation to Iran. We are in no doubt about the seriousness of the situation, and we will continue to use our full diplomatic weight to try to improve it.