Occupied Palestinian Territories

Wayne David Excerpts

Thursday 24th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Wayne David (Caerphilly) (Lab)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Aberavon (Stephen Kinnock). He said at the start that this is a debate of critical importance and that he had waited a long time for it. I commend him for his patience. The debate has been conducted, by and large, in a very positive spirit. That has been personified by the hon. Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran). She set the tone that we all need to maintain.

Earlier this year, President Trump published his so-called “deal of the century”. It was, as my hon. Friend the Member for Aberavon said, a package of proposals designed in effect to break international law, and in so doing offering little hope to the Palestinian people. Moving the United States embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem has also done absolutely nothing to promote peace. President Trump’s deal was followed by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s proposals to unilaterally annex large parts of the west bank. Again, that was against international law. It placed in jeopardy existing peace treaties and would effectively have brought to an end, if it had been successful, the prospect of a viable two-state solution.

Since the publication of the various permutations of the annexation proposals, there has been widespread international condemnation of annexation. The UAE-Bahrain-Israel agreement has at least halted the move towards annexation, but we should note that Prime Minister Netanyahu said that as far as he is concerned annexation is “still on the table”. I understand that the Foreign Secretary recently visited Israel and the west bank, and had talks with Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas. I would like to know from the Minister if our Foreign Secretary said emphatically that it is not enough for those plans to be halted, but that they should be withdrawn absolutely and irreversibly cancelled. I hope our Foreign Secretary said that.

I know that the Government support a two-state solution, as we in the Labour party do, but we should recognise that it will not just happen. We need to acknowledge that illegal settlements are a real barrier. They are in breach of the fourth Geneva convention. They are a real barrier to peace, an impediment to moving forward. The demolition of houses and the eviction of Palestinian people from their homes in Jerusalem and elsewhere is deplorable—no ifs or buts. The Government also need to recognise that there is a need to support the creation of a new climate in Israel and Palestine, so that people are able to move towards a process of peace. That is why it is important to support coexistence projects. There was funding, provided by the Government, for coexistence projects, but that has now, sadly, come to an end. I believe the Government need to support projects that promote coexistence, because only when Palestinians and Israelis have an ongoing dialogue, when they live and work together and engage in reconciliation, can there be a firm basis for a permanent peace. I also think that we need to recognise that there needs to be the beginning of a meaningful peace process. The Trump plan does not offer the basis for that. I would like to see the Government—I give the Minister the opportunity to do so today—saying loudly and clearly that the Trump plan is unacceptable and does not offer the basis for real negotiations.

Finally, I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Aberavon once again for securing this important debate, and I thank everyone who has contributed. I look forward to the Minister’s reply, which I hope will be positive.