Palestinian Rights: Government Support

Uma Kumaran Excerpts

Tuesday 4th March 2025 Westminster Hall

[Uma Kumaran (Stratford and Bow) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir John. I thank the right hon. Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh) for moving the motion. The remarks we have heard today have been powerful.

Last week, as a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I travelled to the west bank—to the Occupied Palestinian Territories—and passed through area C. We also visited Saudi, where we met leaders to discuss their plans and hopes for peace. We went to Jordan, where we met Ministers, and again discussed their plans and their hopes for peace. Finally, we went to Tel Aviv and to East and West Jerusalem. We went into the heart of the Knesset and met our counterparts on the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee.

It was a sobering trip, but I believe in the invaluable power of diplomacy and the immeasurable importance of seeing places in person, so that we can come back and speak authentically about the reality of what is happening on the ground. As the daughter of a community who have faced persecution and fled armed conflict, I found it a particularly emotional and tough trip. In Israel and Palestine, the depth and strength of feeling on both sides is palpable.

The United Kingdom and our Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office staff on the ground in the region are putting in painstaking and tireless diplomatic efforts; our ambassadors are an unsung testament to Britain’s efforts to find peace. That is why UK politicians must not inflame tensions, and must genuinely commit to working to find a peaceful way forward, while holding people to account for the atrocities we all know are happening.

I have come home determined to redouble my efforts to find peace, as well as to stand up and be a voice for the things I have seen. In Israel, it is evident that the release of the hostages and the return of the bodies is paramount, and the issue seems to be hampering any chance of progress. The nation is in deep collective trauma and grief. Every single person has a story of being touched by the terror of 7 October and Hamas.

I met former hostage families who are themselves calling for peace, and who feel the pain of what is happening on the Palestinian side. Still they want our hand of peace and friendship, and they want us to understand what they are going through. I was there on the day of the Bibas family funerals—a mother and her two young babies, who were killed. Grief permeates that society, which I fear may never recover. We must show that, as global partners, we understand that grief.

The frustrations of people in Israel are palpable, and those frustrations are with their political class. Sitting down with counterparts in the Knesset, I saw no will or desire to push forward for peace. That was sobering and, frankly, quite depressing. Without breaking diplomatic protocol, I will say that some of what was openly said to us—members of the UK Foreign Affairs Committee—was sobering. I certainly would not say things like that in Parliament; it is not acceptable, and we must call it out at every turn.

Some people we talked to are not willing to accept the hand of support from stable regions in the middle east, and I fear that that will hamper their efforts. Normalisation with Saudi is key to finding a way forward. However, I also met brave Israelis working in non-governmental organisations who are putting their lives on the line, pushing for peace and trying to find a path forward. We must remember that they, too, are struggling against a Government that do not seem to be listening to them.

In the Occupied Palestinian Territories, I was the only Member of Parliament who was able to go and meet Bedouin women and their children. I do not care to repeat some of what they showed me on their phones; the Bedouin—particularly the women and children—face unfathomable settler violence, and we must call it out. The community’s wider conditions are stark: their access to electricity is limited, and their access to water is hampered. There is a stream within touching distance, but they are unable to use it: above it there is a sign, with a Star of David, that makes it very clear that they may not drink or even touch the water. It is terrifying and shocking.

I was there as a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee with full diplomatic protection, security and a reinforced 4x4, and we still had guns pointed in our faces. We were still terrified, and our drivers would still not take us any further into area C, for fear of what would happen to us. I was there as a British Member of Parliament. Can you imagine what the Bedouin people face day in, day out? Can you imagine the settler violence they face? The IDF turn up and the police turn up, and they let it happen. It is sanctioned by the state, it is sanctioned by the IDF and it is sanctioned by the police. The intimidation and violation is around the clock. The reality of settler violence is not going away, and we must call it out.

In the Old City, the arbitrary demolishing of family homes from generations past is stark; it was shown to me by a brave Palestinian man and a brave Israeli NGO worker who walked us around, and who told me he expected to get a call from the security services the minute we left because, as we know, this is the most surveilled place on Earth, with cameras at every turn. I walked past the rubble of family homes and of lives once lived, and I felt the fear of those still living. Despite that, their resilience and their determination to stand for their homes and their land is unwavering.

The UK must continue to push for unhindered access to and provision of aid. We must resist the Knesset’s crippling restrictions on NGOs and foreign aid workers. We must resist its ability to block foreign reporters from reporting on what is happening on the ground. We must allow humanitarian aid access into the west bank and, crucially, into Gaza. I ask the Minister what our Government’s response is to the settler violence, and call for them to consider sanctions on settlement goods. We know that Israel is now stopping the entry of all aid into Gaza, and we must condemn that at every level.

Hamas’s military capabilities need to be eliminated. An ideology is much harder to root out, but with time, peace and education it is possible. The Palestinian Authority need political reform, so that they have the confidence of the Palestinian people. It is clear that neither side can do it alone; international allies and allies in the region have a seismic role to play, and so do we in this room.

I will not forget what I have seen for the rest of my life, and I promise that, now that I have come back, I will redouble my efforts to be a strong voice here and to work with partners globally to push forward so that the region finally sees peace, Palestinians have their statehood and Israel can be safe and secure.

[Several hon. Members rose—]