Foreign Office Minister Chris Bryant MP yesterday labelled Israel's siege of Gaza "morally indefensible", in a parliamentary debate on the Goldstone Report.
Responding to comparison's made by Jeremy Corbyn MP of Israel's policy towards Gaza and the UK police tactic of "kettling" protestors via mass detentions, Bryant stated that it was "morally indefensible to 'kettle' the Palestinian people."
Israel has blockaded the Gaza Strip since the summer of 2007, preventing freedom of movement for the Palestinian people and allowing the delivery of only the most basic of humanitarian goods. Reconstruction materials, desperately needed in the wake of a conflict that damaged or destroyed 50,000 homes, have largely been prevented from entering the territory.
The Goldstone Report, commissioned to investigate the December to January fighting between the Israeli military and Palestinian groups, labelled the siege "collective punishment" and a potential war crime.
Bryant was offering the government's response to a 90-minute Westminster Hall debate on the publication of the report, secured by Martin Linton MP.
Linton, Chair of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East, cited a number of the atrocities documented in the report, such as the Israeli bombing of al-Fakhoura Street with mortar shells that killed twenty-four people, attacks upon private industry and the apparently deliberate shooting of civilians. He called upon the UK government, as a signatory of the Fourth Geneva Convention, to bring the culprits to justice.
"The inadequacy of Israel's own investigations has meant that the report attaches enormous importance to the principle of universal jurisdiction," said Linton. "If soldiers are not punished for such casual cruelty, if generals do not investigate, if the Israeli Government spokesman, Mark Regev, simply denies on television that anything of this kind ever occurred, it eats away at the moral fibre."
Bob Marshall Andrews MP defended the Goldstone Report from criticisms that it was one-sided in its focus upon Israeli actions. Demanding that the evidence of the UN Mission be brought before a UK or international court, he dismissed allegations of bias.
"The Goldstone Report centres on Israel and the actions of the Israeli army because 1,440 people have been injured and killed-including 400 children-by that army," said the MP for Medway. "It is hardly surprising that Goldstone concentrates on such matters. Do I not accept that some of the evidence in Goldstone is questionable? Of course I do. I have been a criminal barrister for a long time. Of course I know that all evidence needs to be tested. That is why the report needs to be tested in a proper arena; it needs to be tested in a British court. Brought before such a judicial test, it may well be that some parts of the report will be found wanting. Frankly, I disagree -the report is a devastating indictment, in its form, its content and the nature and background of the man who wrote it."
Marshall-Andrews also joined demands from numerous MPs that the government does not seek to reverse UK legislation that currently allows courts to issue arrest warrants for individuals suspected of war crimes. Following the much-publicised case of former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who cancelled a recent trip to London over fears of arrest, the government has suggested that it plans to change the procedure through which warrants are issued.
Chair of the Britain-Palestine All Party Parliamentary Group, Richard Burden MP, said that government messages in support of Israeli politicians had already effectively vetoed the issuing of such warrants under a re-designed system. Addressing calls from Andrew Dismore MP for the Attorney General to have to approve the issuing of warrants, Burden stated:
"My Honourable Friend is saying that a better way of operating the law of universal jurisdiction would be to involve the Attorney-General at an earlier stage in determining whether there should be an arrest, does he think it was wise for that same post-holder-the Attorney-General-to go to Israel and give a guarantee in advance that, as far as the British Government are concerned, no Israeli leader would be arrested if they came to the UK? Is not that rather prejudicing her office?"
In response Bryant said that the government remained committed to the idea of universal jurisdiction, but admitted that colleagues were examining how it was applied in the UK.
Responding to the debate for the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey MP referred to a delegation to Gaza organised by the Council for Arab British Understanding which he joined in the immediate aftermath of Israel's invasion. The Foreign Affairs Spokesman said that he was struck by the price paid by the civilians of Gaza, in the businesses that were destroyed and the homes that were levelled.
"If anyone tells me that they think this was correct action, fair action and along the lines of international law, I cannot accept it," Davey said.
Conservative spokesman Brooks Newmark MP said that Operation Cast Lead had caused "an immense and continuing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip."
Bryant, the Minister for Europe, said in response that Israel could not justify any action in the terms of defence.
"Israel has an absolute right to protect itself," said the Minister. "However, that does not give it carte blanche to use any means that it wants, and nor does it allow it to stray beyond the bounds of what is morally right or what is legally right under international law-or, for that matter, under its own law."
CAABU's Parliamentary Officer Graham Bambrough welcomed the comments made in Westminster Hall.
"Tuesday's debate allowed a number of MPs to demonstrate their feelings over the Goldstone Report and the actions of Israel during Operation Cast Lead. I only hope that the UK government will act upon the report's key findings and help bring an end to the culture of impunity that has existed within the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for far too long. If those parties named by the UN Mission refuse to carry out their own credible inquiries into alleged abuses of international law, then the global community, led by countries such as the United Kingdom, must take concerted action."
The full transcript for the House of Commons debate is at: http://www.publications.
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