Occupied Palestinian Territories: Humanitarian Access Debate
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Jas Athwal
Main Page: Jas Athwal (Labour - Ilford South)Department Debates - View all Jas Athwal's debates with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Occupied Palestinian Territories: Humanitarian Access
Jas Athwal Excerpts(1 day, 20 hours ago)
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Jas Athwal (Ilford South) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer.
It was deemed irrefutable by the UN-backed agencies that this is a man-made famine. That man-made famine becomes a genocide if it can be proven that it was used as a tool to destroy a specific group of people—and I believe that there is only one group of people there. Journalists and international monitors, who we rely on for all our information—for reality on the ground—have been banned from entering Gaza, leaving brave Palestinians to tell us their story.
Even though there is a growing consensus among genocide scholars that Israel’s actions in Gaza do meet the legal definition of a genocide, without access to information on what is happening, and until mainstream journalists are allowed in, we are left in the dark over the true extent of the horrors on the ground. How will we gather the evidence needed to assess that Israel is committing genocide? How much more slaughter will the Palestinians have to suffer in the meantime?
On all fronts, entry into the occupied Palestinian territories for journalists, monitors and aid workers has been shut. Food and essentials for Palestinians have been banned, blocked, barricaded and destroyed.
Baggy Shanker (Derby South) (Lab/Co-op)
As a parent, I cannot imagine the agony of seeing your children starve and not being able to do anything about it, but that is the daily experience of families in Palestine. Does my hon. Friend agree that Israel’s man-made catastrophe must be put to an end and that aid must be allowed into Gaza immediately?
Jas Athwal
I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend that this has to come to an end straight away. While I welcome the Government’s decision to recognise the state of Palestine and to condemn the Israeli Government’s dehumanisation of Palestinians, we must face up to the unfortunate truth that this is simply not enough, as it has not stopped the violence. Instead, every day the reports grow bleaker, the suffering is deeper and the need for intervention grows more urgent.
Ayoub Khan (Birmingham Perry Barr) (Ind)
We have all witnessed what can only be described as genocide and ethnic cleansing, mass starvation, and the intentional murder of aid workers and people who want doctors and so forth. This Government’s approach, in saying that there is not a genocide, further emboldens Israel in what it is doing. Does the hon. Member agree that military intervention is an option that should not be off the table?
Jas Athwal
What I agree with is that we must never give up the diplomatic option, because that is the way that we will get across. We must avoid more bloodshed at any cost, and we must work harder for the diplomatic solution.
Mr Stringer, I will not abuse my position; having had two interventions, I will relinquish the floor for my colleagues to contribute.