Oral Answers to Questions
Miriam Cates Excerpts(2 months, 1 week ago)
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Mr Mitchell
I agree with my right hon. Friend. She will know that the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and Lord Ahmad have all met the families of the hostages. I had the privilege of meeting some of the families last week, the second occasion I have done so within the precincts of this House. She is right. We are doing everything we can to increase the flow of aid and get the hostages home. We will continue to do so.
Miriam Cates (Penistone and Stocksbridge) (Con)
One of the most troubling aspects of the 7 October massacre was the fact that many ordinary Gazans—reports indicate hundreds, or even thousands—followed the Hamas terrorists into Israel and participated in the atrocities. Reports suggest that civilians kidnapped Israelis and sold them to Gaza-based terrorist groups, and committed further unspeakable acts of violence, including sexual violence. Is my right hon. Friend aware of those reports, and does he share my concerns about Hamas’s ongoing indoctrination of ordinary Gazan citizens?
Mr Mitchell
My hon. Friend makes a good point. I am aware of those reports. The fact remains that the appalling events of 7 October were, as I have said in the House before, the worst atrocity and the worst killing of Jewish people since the holocaust and the second world war. We continue to want total accountability for the terrible events that took place on that day.
Ceasefire in Gaza
Miriam Cates Excerpts(2 months, 4 weeks ago)
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Miriam Cates (Penistone and Stocksbridge) (Con)
War is terrible and, as we have heard today, the tragic consequences of all fighting are dreadful. War should be avoided at all costs, but sometimes it cannot be. Sometimes war is necessary, such as when accommodation cannot be made, when there is no possibility of good faith negotiations, or when the cost of allowing the enemy to go unchecked is just too great. The war in Gaza is just such a war: devastating, tragic, appalling, yes, but unavoidable because of the 7 October massacre.
Members have reminded the House of the appalling, depraved and unspeakable crimes that were committed that day against Israeli civilians. Any Government who did not then act to prevent such things from happening again would be failing in their duty to protect their citizens. There simply is no other way to keep Israelis safe than to destroy Hamas. We might wish it were otherwise, but that is the reality of the situation. We are all appalled by the loss of life in both Israel and Gaza, and we are all calling for a pause to the fighting to allow much more humanitarian aid to get through. But to call for an unconditional ceasefire now shows, I am afraid, a naive judgment of the situation on the ground.
There is no moral equivalence between a bunch of murderous terrorists and rapists attacking civilians with glee for the sole purpose of inflicting evil. [Interruption.] I will not give way, as so many want to get in. There is no equivalence between those murderous terrorists and a nation state using conventional forces to root out a dangerous enemy, however much we may criticise their tactics. For Hamas, the civilian deaths, including of Palestinians, are the point of the conflict and were the point of the original attack. We must be clear that Hamas bear responsibility for all the deaths in this conflict. The only outcome that will secure a lasting peace is for Hamas to be destroyed. I ask those calling for an unconditional ceasefire now: do they not want Hamas to be destroyed? Why are they not calling for unconditional ceasefires in other conflicts across the world? Why are they not calling on Egypt to assist refugees, as the Polish did upon the invasion of Ukraine?
I am afraid to say that Benjamin Netanyahu is not listening to this debate. It will not change the outcome on the ground. I understand that MPs are facing extreme pressure. They are facing threats, and I feel particularly for colleagues on the Opposition Benches, but we cannot allow those threats to influence our democracy, our speech in here or parliamentary procedure. Those demanding votes for a ceasefire tonight will not stop at that; they will call for boycotts of Israel, an arms embargo and prosecutions of Israel in the UN. Yet again, Israel is being singled out. As the world’s only Jewish state, it is being exceptionalised. We are seeing the rise in antisemitism here on the streets in the UK. We cannot afford to give into that pressure. We must respect Israel’s right to defend itself and to prevent the most atrocious crimes that have happened in my lifetime from ever happening again.
Palestinian School Textbooks: EU Review
Miriam Cates Excerpts(2 years, 10 months ago)
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Miriam Cates (Penistone and Stocksbridge) (Con) [V]
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Eastbourne (Caroline Ansell) on securing today’s important debate and refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.
Two years ago, I had the privilege of visiting Israel and the west bank, and I can honestly say it was one of the most inspirational weeks of my life. The character of the people and the richness of the culture left a deep and positive impression on me. But despite all that is truly wonderful about both Israelis and Palestinians, one cannot escape the reality of the tensions and conflicts that are ongoing. During the recent escalation of violence in the region, we even saw the consequences of inflammatory rhetoric on the streets of the UK, as the Jewish community faced a deplorable rise in antisemitic attacks as a result of events occurring thousands of miles away in another country.
We must look at what is fuelling the hatred and division between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. Why has this conflict continued for so long, throughout the generations? One does not have to take a particular side in the conflict to see that there are some fairly considerable barriers to a peace settlement, but it need not remain like that if the next generation of children and young people, both Palestinian and Israeli, grow up to believe that peace is possible and desirable. For that shift to happen, it is vital that children in the region are taught about their history and heritage in a way that is truthful and neutral, and does not stoke hatred of the other side.
Yet sadly, we see that the opposite is happening. The findings of the EU review point to what is being taught in schools as a major contributing factor to the ongoing conflict. There cannot possibly be progress when young minds in the Palestinian territories are being infected by poisonous ideology and children are being taught to hate their Israeli neighbours. The review indisputably substantiates the level of extremist ideas in the Palestinian Authority school curriculum, with abhorrent glorification of terrorists and violence.
It does not have to be that way. An independent textbook monitoring organisation has found that textbooks elsewhere in the region have been changing in a positive direction. There has been a move across the middle east and north Africa towards a more progressive, peace-driven narrative, details of which I would set out if I had time. These changes are not perfect, but they are a clear step in the right direction. So why are young Palestinian minds continuing to being poisoned with the rhetoric of violence, division and hatred? This situation is prolonged as long as Governments around the world continue to tolerate it by failing to hold the Palestinian Authority to account. In the UK, it is time to fully recognise this issue and say enough is enough. Wounds do not heal if they are constantly reopened. We must give children the chance of peace.