Some Lords Speak Out for Israel

On 21^st July 2016 the House of Lords debated the situation of children in what is called Palestine.

Lord Warner opened the debate saying that: “this House takes note of the conditions in which Palestinian children are living and the impact on their health and wellbeing.”

Appalling Conditions
“My Lords, I am pleased to have this opportunity to put on the parliamentary record the appalling conditions under which Palestine’s children are living in both the blockaded collective prison of Gaza and the 50-year military occupation in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.”

Quoting a comment from a book about Israel’s attitude, he then said: “This sentiment produces the sense of outrage one feels when seeing at first-hand how Palestine’s children live day by day—day in and day out.”

Thus the debate seemed poised for much extreme criticism of Israel.

Concerns over Ideology
But several Lords raised appropriate concerns. First, about the radicalisation of Palestinian children, Lord Polak stated clearly that: “we must not continue to profess Israel’s sole responsibility for the health and well-being of Palestinian children … The suffering of Palestinian children is a tragic consequence of the extremist ideology that has been allowed to flourish in the Palestinian territories; we must recognise this in order to better the conditions in which they live.”

Brainwashing of Children
Having given examples of UK-backed Palestinian NGOs that promote violence against Israelis on their social media pages, Lord Polak emphasised: “this brainwashing of Palestinian children to hatred and violence is a form of child abuse. The Palestinians must be condemned for denying their own children a better future”.

“Surely,” he continued, “UK aid to such NGOs, which in the vast majority of cases undoubtedly carry out good and important work, must be made conditional on the renouncement of all violence and incitement.”

Value of Vetting
Later in the debate, Lord Hamilton raised a crucial question about the vetting of PA civil servants who receive aid money: “When my noble friend the Minister winds up the debate, can she tell us what that vetting means? Does it mean that people working for the Palestinian Authority have no responsibility for the videos being put out of young people saying that they are determined to kill Jews?”

Beliefs of Hamas
And later still it was Lord Sterling who noted that: “Hamas believes in one thing only and wants to wipe out Israel.”

See the Hansard record of the debate.