Israel and Gaza

Richard Burgon Excerpts

Tuesday 27th February 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Mitchell]

It is hard to overestimate the offence caused by the extraordinary rhetoric of accusing Israel of being guilty of genocide, given the antecedents and events that took place in the holocaust during the war and the fact that more Jewish people were murdered on that one day of 7 October than at any time since the end of the second world war.

[Richard Burgon (Leeds East) (Lab)]

It is now one month since the International Court of Justice ruled that there is a plausible risk that Israel’s actions in Gaza are in breach of the genocide convention. Since then, 3,000 more Palestinians have been killed, food and essential aid is still being prevented from getting into Gaza, and now Israel is threatening to invade Rafah. Given Israel’s obvious breaches of the Court’s legally binding ruling, what conversations has the Foreign Office had with the Trade Secretary about suspending arms sales to Israel, and should that not now be what is happening?

[Mr Mitchell]

Whether right or wrong, the analysis that the hon. Gentleman puts before the House underlines the importance of the initiatives that Britain has taken, and the work that is being done both regionally and internationally at the United Nations, to try to secure a sustainable ceasefire through a pause so that we can get the hostages out and also get necessary support and humanitarian aid in. I hope that he will share with me a common view that, on driving forward those initiatives, the five-point plan that has been set out so clearly by the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary is the right way to address the very serious difficulties to which he alludes.