Meeting of the Parliament 17 June 2025
I thank Bill Kidd for bringing this debate to the chamber.
Presiding Officer, I will not stand here and give you some polished parliamentary line. I rarely do—I tend to speak from the heart and tell you how I feel. This is not about grandstanding on this issue; it is about doing what is right.
What is happening in Gaza just now is a humanitarian disaster and we cannot just turn away from it. Since last October, as Bill Kidd has already said, more than 55,000 Palestinians have been killed—and I say “killed”, because the vast majority are civilians. Tens of thousands of them are women and children. Just think about that for a second: mums, babies and toddlers gone and whole families wiped out, and still, every single day, people die.
In 2025 alone, on average,10 children have been killed every single day. Just this past week, 40 more people were shot dead at distribution sites for aid—again, many of them were women and children. That is not accidental, and it is not collateral. It is collective punishment and it has to stop. This genocide has to stop.
Back home in Paisley, we have seen the strength of our community as it comes together, and I have been proud to speak at just about every single Paisley for Palestine demonstration. People from all walks of life have come together—families, faith groups, young people—to stand for humanity, for justice and for peace. Let me say this loud and clear: these are not fringe voices. These are not the usual suspects—the individuals who turn up at the various campaigns that we all turn up at. These are the values of the people I represent in Paisley, and these are the values of the people we represent in our communities—and they are saying that we should all be saying, “Enough is enough.”
We need a full and immediate ceasefire, we need all hostages to be released safely and we need humanitarian aid—food, water, fuel and medicine—to be allowed in without delay, without conditions and without political gains. Let us not kid ourselves that this will just fix itself. There is no future and no peace without justice, and that justice means recognising the right of the Palestinian people to live in safety, with dignity and with self-determination. It means recognising a sovereign Palestinian state not as some token gesture but as a foundation for lasting peace.
I am standing here today because I have seen pain. I have heard from my constituents and I know what they expect from this Parliament. They want us to care and to act. They want us to speak up, not just in sympathy for but in solidarity with those who are suffering in Gaza.
We cannot regain the lives that have been lost, but we can stand up now and make sure that we do everything in our power to stop any more being taken.
Let us be on the right side of history, let us be human and let us be bold. We must provide support and stop the suffering of those in Gaza. This cannot be allowed to continue.
18:35