Occupied Palestinian Territories: Genocide Risk Assessment

Brian Leishman Excerpts

Thursday 5th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Brian Leishman (Alloa and Grangemouth) (Lab)]

I thank the hon. Member for Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber (Brendan O’Hara) for securing this debate and for so clearly and accurately setting the scene. The awkward truth for many in this Parliament is that genocide has occurred in occupied Palestine for decades, and the silence from the international community has allowed and enabled Israeli Governments to persecute and oppress the Palestinian people. It has emboldened Netanyahu and his murderous regime to commit the genocide that we have all witnessed in Gaza.

Israel commits different types of genocide. Last November I was fortunate enough to be in the west bank, and I heard of the cultural genocide that is taking place, with students and lecturers unable to go to university because of roadblocks and checkpoints. I heard about the universities, colleges and schools that have been flattened throughout Gaza, with lecturers now giving classes in tents as makeshift classrooms. How on earth do we expect Gaza to be rebuilt when Palestinians are unable to be educated?

Netanyahu’s Government have also by design crippled the Palestinian economy by impacting on Palestinians’ ability to trade, making them reliant on Israel for goods, produce and, ultimately, their very survival. Israel uses economic terrorism as a tool of subjugation. With the seizures of Palestinian farms, and by making it almost impossible for those who remain to trade, Israel impoverishes Palestinians. There is a concerted international effort to normalise Palestinians’ reliance on Israel to be the provider of lifesaving aid, while making it near impossible for Palestinians to be self-sufficient, driving Palestinians to starvation.

As well as this collective punishment of Palestinians, another goal of this broader plan is to impose capitalism through the imperial project that the Israeli Government promote. That is all wilfully aided by western democracies. Shame on any Government of any party of any nation who have allowed and been complicit in these awful atrocities.

[Several hon. Members rose—]