Meeting of the Parliament 21 November 2023
I am glad that we have this opportunity to properly debate and vote on one of the most critical issues facing the world today—an issue that, for millions of people, is a daily horror that is lived out over and over again. As others have said, it is right that we, as elected members of the Scottish Parliament, add our voices to the overwhelming majority of aid agencies, human rights organisations and Parliaments across the world that have condemned the violence and seek an immediate ceasefire.
I have searched my soul: I now ask those who have continued to refuse calls for a ceasefire to do the same. Is there a number of dead children that we will accept before something is done? Are more babies to die through lack of clean water and fuel? Is there a number of sick and injured people being left to die due to lack of treatment whose deaths we are happy to cast off as a consequence of war?
Pauses are not enough; there is nothing humanitarian about a pause in these dire times. A pause in the fighting might save lives, but let us be clear that all the aid agencies on the ground agree that a pause suggests that bombardment can resume and carry on once people are fed and have had some water. A pause is no good for people who are fearing imminent death.
I have asked myself so many times why there is, among those who are in power, such indifference to a country that is quite literally being erased as we look on. The rhetoric from the UK Government does not represent the view of ordinary people. In ignoring the extent of this human tragedy, Sunak is not living up to his responsibilities.