I received a number of emails in advance of yesterday asking me to support the SNP's motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and condemning the 'collective punishment' of the Palestinian people by the IDF. In the event the vote was not held because of the behaviour of the Labour leader and the Speaker of the Commons. They used the threats of violence made against Labour MPs as a reason to insert into proceedings a Labour amendment to the SNP motion, which if passed would have cancelled it before it could be voted on. I agree with the SNP that this was an abuse of process by the Speaker.
I have said a little more about the procedural issue in this twitter thread. This is not arcane, but enormously significant. If Parliament is to be influenced by the threat of violence, democracy is at an end. I very much hope we can resolve this matter and restore the independence of Parliament and the impartiality of the Speaker’s office.
It is of course a great shame that an important debate about the Middle East was hijacked in this way. My view on the proposed ceasefire is as follows. I wrote shortly after the attacks on 7 October that I supported Israel's right to defend itself by seeking to remove Hamas from Gaza; that I expected Israel to follow the rules of war; and that I hoped the conflict would be short. All this still applies, though my hope of a short war has not been realised. I share the horror felt around the world at the loss of innocent Palestinian lives; the stories of children trapped, injured, dying in Gaza are unbearable. I expect the IDF to respect human rights in their operations, and though I recognise how hard this principle is to define in the context of urban warfare against an enemy who deliberately hides among civilians, it is important they are held to the highest standards of accountability for their actions.
Everyone wants the fighting to stop. But I don't believe this can be entirely unilateral on Israel's part, and nor can we contemplate a future in which Hamas continues to run Gaza. The last ceasefire was used by Hamas to build up its stockpiles of weapons and to plan the atrocities of 7 October.
The best and most enduring way to end this awful war would be for the Arab countries that host the Hamas leadership in opulent comfort, to hand them over to Israeli justice or at least expel them; and for Iran to desist funding Hamas, Hezbollah and the other entities dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state. This won't happen soon, of course, and so Israel needs to decide on what terms it will stop its own operations. Negotiations continue behind the scenes and I am glad to see our Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, intensely involved in the diplomatic work that supports this. I very much hope we will soon see an end to the war, and the start of the rebuilding of Gaza.
