Meeting of the Parliament 17 June 2025
I, too, pay tribute to Bill Kidd for his commitment to this issue and thank him for providing the opportunity for a debate. However inadequate words might feel in light of the horrific events that we are debating this evening, the debate is an important one.
Since the barbaric attacks and terror that were inflicted on innocent Israeli citizens by Hamas on 7 October 2023, the situation in Gaza has lurched from one indescribable horror to another. Israel’s blockade of aid into Gaza, which began more than 100 days ago and which is yet to be properly lifted, is, however, causing truly unconscionable levels of suffering. Men, women and children are being slowly starved while Israel’s military offensive continues.
In that context, debates and votes in this or, indeed, the UK Parliament will not trigger the action that is required to end the humanitarian atrocities that we are seeing unfold. Yet, we need to be clear in our condemnation, clear in our determination to use what levers we have to exert pressure, and clear about the fact that there is no military route to resolving this long-standing and bloody conflict and to achieving a lasting peace for Palestinians as well as for Israelis, only a diplomatic one.
Those are insufficient but nonetheless important signals that we can and must continue to send to the Netanyahu regime. That regime seems increasingly out of control, impervious to the pleas of allies, unfettered by international law and hell bent on escalation, driven by the most extreme elements in that Government.
Of course, we must continue to condemn the 7 October attacks, but we must also continue to condemn the violence and inhumanity unleashed on innocent Gazans at the cost of more than 55,000 lives and the devastation of hundreds of thousands more. The UN has made it clear that the entire population of Gaza is at critical risk of famine while the blockade continues. Meanwhile, Palestinians are being killed as they attempt to collect food. The UN is right to say that
“Hunger must never be met with bullets.”
Targeting aid distribution centres and humanitarian workers not only deprives Gazans of access to the basic means of survival; it is undeniably inhumane.
As media and political attention, inevitably perhaps, turns to the blows Israel and Iran rain down on each other, what is happening in Gaza cannot be allowed to fade from public view or consciousness in the face of famine and what many argue is genocide. In response, Liberal Democrats believe that the export of arms to Israel must be halted, the state of Palestine must be recognised and sanctions should be applied more rigorously. Amnesty International points to the role that the Scottish Government can play. Scottish Enterprise funding, for example, must be subject to robust human rights checks, with no links to the on-going conflict in Gaza.
It is often too easy to be numbed to the human aspect amid the headlines of this war, but, as it rages on, the children of Gaza are dying in their thousands, homes are being destroyed and families are being torn apart. As a nation, we must remain resolute in our commitment to support and facilitate efforts to bring an end to this grotesque suffering. Anything less would be to accept our own complicity.
18:55