Israel/Gaza

Baroness Lawlor Excerpts

Tuesday 24th October 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lawlor (Con)]

My Lords, it is no easy matter to speak after so many noble Lords have spoken so well in today’s telling debate, led by my noble friend the Minister, whose speech was as moving as it was resolute—I thank him for it.

The Hamas attack on Israel, the massacre that followed and the taking of hostages, including babies and young children, marked a new phase in a war. As we have heard again today from the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, and others, Hamas is committed, by its founding charter, to the destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic state in the whole of historic Palestine. Yes, an update in 2017 suggested that Hamas might accept the 1949 to 1967 borders, if this was the result of consensus, but it rejected Zionism and the Zionist project, stating its preference for establishing an Islamist Palestinian state from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea and from the border with Lebanon to the southern Israeli city of Eilat.

The Hamas terrorist war, like its ideology, combines the potency of Palestinian nationalism and the power of Muslim fundamentalism. In this war, ends and means are one: the destruction of Israel from the river to the sea. It is an end financially and militarily backed by Iran, most recently in its supply of rockets and training. As noble Lords have pointed out, Iran is also fighting to establish its own hegemony in the whole region. To that end, it is willing to make a marriage of convenience with the Sunni terrorist group Hamas—the military capabilities of which it has helped to develop—and a marriage of love with the Shiite Hezbollah towards the northern border with Lebanon.

I urge my noble friend the Minister and the Government to remain steadfast, with other western powers, in their support of Israel to defend itself and secure the release of the hostages. Unless Hamas is eliminated, not only can there be no peace for Israel but there can be no peace, prosperity or freedom for the unfortunate Palestinians who have been subject to Hamas rule since 2007. Nor will there be any stability in the Middle East or security in the world.

Few of us will not be moved by the condition of Gaza, but any let-up in Israel’s pursuit of the terrorists would be the wrong course. The destruction of Hamas is a prerequisite for the restoration of stability to the territory and for allowing the people of Gaza to live their lives under democratic rule. It will also show Iran and its proxies that the Middle East is not a fief to be won by terrorist jihad to destroy the state of Israel.

As we have heard, that state was established in 1948 to offer to Jewish people safety within national borders, free of fear of pogroms, concentration camps and murder in the wake of Hitler’s attempt to exterminate them. Although it is often said in debate that one can be against the state of Israel without being anti-Semitic, given history, that cannot be so. Of course, any Israeli Government can be criticised for their policies, but doubting whether the state and its people have a right to exist is an offence to not just Israelis but Jews the world over.

The particular responsibility of the UK Government is not merely to protect their citizens but to allow them to lead their daily lives without fear. I urge my noble friend the Minister to reconsider whether the law is adequate for this purpose—the present Commissioner of the Met raised this point before he was appointed.

The pro-Palestinian demonstrations in London on the night that the news of the massacre broke and over two Saturdays have, to put it mildly, descended into a threatening anti-Semitism. Whatever fine construction the Arabic grammarians of the Metropolitan Police may put on the words, the chant of “Jihad, jihad, jihad” by a crowd waving Palestinian flags is clearly to call a holy war against Israel and to insist that Palestine must stretch from the river to the sea. It is a call for the dispersal of Jews in Israel and the end of that state, if not the murder of present Jewish inhabitants. If that is not anti-Semitism, what is?