MPs have demanded sanctions against Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians and continued building of settlements in the West Bank.

Backbenchers called for the suspension of Israel’s trading agreement with the European Union, which allows it to export goods to EU nations including Britain.

One MP, Jeremy Corbyn (Lab Islington North) launched an angry attack on Israel, accusing it of creating “an apartheid state”.

Others were less outspoken, but called on the Government to take action unless there was a complete freeze on settlements.

Israeli trade with Europe is worth about €25.7 billion, according to the European Union.

Israel dismantled its settlements in Gaza in 2005, but around 480,000 settlers continue to live in the West Bank.

Both the EU and USA support the principle of a two-state solution, allowing the Palestinians to form their own state in the West Bank and Gaza, alongside Israel.

This is based on United Nations resolution 242, approved by the UN in 1967.

But speaking in a Commons debate, a number of London MPs accused Israel of deliberately undermining the peace process.

Andy Slaughter (Lab Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush) said he had witnessed Palestinian homes being demolished, during a visit to the West Bank.

“I was on the west bank in 2007 and I spent a harrowing morning with parliamentary colleagues watching the Israeli security services knocking down the upper floor of a Palestinian home, with bulldozers and cranes that had been brought to the village.

“Less than a kilometre away, across the valley, construction could be seen going on apace on a large Israeli settlement.”

He asked Ministers: “What steps will be taken now to ensure that, in relation to trade, construction and dismantling, the British Government, through the EU or other partners, or directly, can deal with the issue of settlements, without which there will be no peace in the middle east?”

Karen Buck (Lab Regent's Park and Kensington North) said Palestinians in the West Bank were forced to go through “day-to-day humiliations” because of the occupation.

Martin Linton (Lab Battersea) called on the Government to suspend the EU trade agreement, “because the Israelis are in breach of its human rights clauses.”

And Mr Corbyn said: “The world cannot stand by and treat Israel as a normal state and say that it is a normal participant in international affairs. It is not!

“It illegally occupies a large amount of Palestinian land, holds nuclear weapons but has not signed up to any relevant convention, and is flouting the 2004 International Court of Justice judgment concerning the legality of those settlements.”

He added: “If any other country in the world behaved like Israel - in a wholly illegal and abusive manner towards the people whom it occupies - it would face international sanction.

“We should not be buying goods produced in the settlements. We should be imposing economic and military sanctions against Israel. I am not arguing for military action, but for military sanctions, such as the non-supply of weapons and parts for those weapons, a boycott of Israeli trade and, in the European setting, a suspension of the EU-Israel trade agreement.”

Responding to the comments, Foreign Office Minister Ivan Lewis said: “We remain committed to a comprehensive peace in the middle east, based on a two-state solution and a secure Israel alongside a viable Palestinian state.”

He called for a freeze on new settlements and promised that the EU trade agreement did not apply to goods exported from the settlements, but did not directly respond to calls for the agreement to be suspended.

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Chris Perver said:

... Having read the official transcripts, I applaud the Foreign Secretary's efforts at bringing some much needed balance to this debate in the House of Commons. Sadly most of the arguments made by these Labour MPs are biased in the extreme, critizing Israel while neglecting to mention the context of Palestinian terrorism and repeated attempts by Arab states to wipe the Jewish state off the map permanently. But then, that is why the House of Commons gets the name, the 'rogues gallery'.

August 13, 2009

Adam Flude said:

... Chris - how can you talk of Palestinian terrorists when Israel Government are the real terrorists! If Israel had not treated the Palestinians so horrendously from the outset & continuously ever since, they would not have this problem. Had the Israelis opted for equality and honour rather than superiority and disdain, just maybe the Arabs could have accepted them. The issue here is that for Israel, USA, UK & others, we say we dream of world democracy, but only if it's "the right type of democracy"! Whenever it's "the wrong type of people who are elected" (just look at Iran & how we destroyed their democracy to Install the Shah which caused the extremist backlash we see there today), we arm some terrorists (or even commit the terrorism ourselves) to destroy them and usually install a dictator or other unelected regime who will will fit in better with our ideology (hence the US funding & training of Fatah fighters after Hamas were elected), which of course isn't really democracy, it's IMPERIALISM and GLOBAL CAPITALISM. Please see read this extract from William Sieghart's article "We must adjust our distorted image of Hamas" 31 Dec 2008 for the Times. "Gaza is a secular society where people listen to pop music, watch TV and many women walk the streets unveiled. The political leadership of Hamas is probably the most highly qualified in the world. Boasting more than 500 PhDs in its ranks, the majority are middle-class professionals - doctors, dentists, scientists and engineers. Most of its leadership have been educated in our universities and harbour no ideological hatred towards the West. It is a grievance-based movement, dedicated to addressing the injustice done to its people. It has consistently offered a ten-year ceasefire to give breathing space to resolve a conflict that has continued for more than 60 years. The Bush-Blair response to the Hamas victory in 2006 is the key to today's horror. Instead of accepting the democratically elected Government, they funded an attempt to remove it by force; training and arming groups of Fatah fighters to unseat Hamas militarily and impose a new, unelected government on the Palestinians. Further, 45 Hamas MPs are still being held in Israeli jails. Six months ago the Israeli Government agreed to an Egyptian- brokered ceasefire with Hamas. In return for a ceasefire, Israel agreed to open the crossing points and allow a free flow of essential supplies in and out of Gaza. The rocket barrages ended but the crossings never fully opened, and the people of Gaza began to starve. This crippling embargo was no reward for peace. When Westerners ask what is in the mind of Hamas leaders when they order or allow rockets to be fired at Israel they fail to understand the Palestinian position. Two months ago the Israeli Defence Forces broke the ceasefire by entering Gaza and beginning the cycle of killing again. In the Palestinian narrative each round of rocket attacks is a response to Israeli attacks. In the Israeli narrative it is the other way round. But what does it mean when Mr Barak talks of destroying Hamas? Does it mean killing the 42 per cent of Palestinians who voted for it? Does it mean reoccupying the Gaza strip that Israel withdrew from so painfully three years ago? Or does it mean permanently separating the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank, politically and geographically? And for those whose mantra is Israeli security, what sort of threat do the three quarters of a million young people growing up in Gaza with an implacable hatred of those who starve and bomb them pose? It is said that this conflict is impossible to solve. In fact, it is very simple. The top 1,000 people who run Israel - the politicians, generals and security staff - and the top Palestinian Islamists have never met. Genuine peace will require that these two groups sit down together without preconditions. But the events of the past few days seem to have made this more unlikely than ever. That is the challenge for the new administration in Washington and for its European allies."

August 20, 2009

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