Lord Purvis of Tweed
Main Page: Lord Purvis of Tweed (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)Israel: Royal College of Defence Studies
Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts(2 days, 20 hours ago)
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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.
Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)
My Lords, there is a case for overseas military students to be exposed to British military training on the protection of civilians in military doctrine. But will the Minister agree with me, in supporting the Government, that the real challenge is the political leadership, not only of the IDF but of Israel? The Israeli Defence Minister said yesterday—he was almost crowing—that Gaza is burning. Will the Minister please outline to the House what action we are taking at a political level, to Netanyahu’s Cabinet, regarding those who are perpetrating war crimes?
Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)
We are taking all the measures that we have discussed on many occasions in this place, including sanctions on members of the Israeli Cabinet. Noble Lords will know that the United Nations General Assembly meets next week, and it has been the announced intention of the United Kingdom Government to consider recognising the state of Palestine at that event.