Israel: Royal College of Defence Studies

Baroness Goldie Excerpts

Wednesday 17th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

The straight- forward answer to that is no; we do not operate such a list.

[Baroness Goldie (Con)]

My Lords, the Royal College of Defence Studies enjoys an enviable global reputation, and the summary ban on attendance at the college by defence personnel of an ally is, as far as I am aware, unprecedented, which makes it extraordinary. Although she is not speaking for the Ministry of Defence, which is unfortunate, can the Minister still clarify to this Chamber whether this decision was made by the Secretary of State for Defence? Why was there no ministerial Statement to accompany it, given the significance of what was being decided?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

The noble Baroness is right: this is an unusual situation. It is a decision that has been made. I accept, to an extent, that this is in some way symbolic, but it is a reflection of the frustration and the deep concern that we have about the plight of people in Gaza, the decisions made by the Government of Israel about Gaza City, the withholding of sufficient quantities of aid and the designation of famine that we now find in Gaza. We are doing everything we can to try to persuade the Government of Israel to change course. This is part of that effort. We are not requiring students who are currently at the RCDS to return, nor their families; that would be unnecessarily disruptive to them and their lives. This is a situation that we want to see resolved. We want the Government of Israel to change course. We want to be able to reinstate the arrangements that, as she quite rightly says, matter a huge deal to us and to our allies.