Gaza Crisis Speech at the Pakistan Community Centre 06/01/09

By Martin Salter MP

Introduction

What is happening in the Gaza Strip is an outrage and the indiscriminate bombings, shelling and killings, together with the invasion by Israeli troops must stop - as must the rocket attacks.

I welcome the initiative of the Reading Muslim Council and the Pakistan Community Centre in calling this meeting and I promise to convey the concerns of my constituents and of the people here today to Parliament and government ministers when the Commons returns next week.

In common with over 90 MPs of all parties I have already made my position absolutely clear and have condemned the Israeli assault on the people of Gaza, and in particular the targeting of civilians, ambulance drivers and medical facilities as a breach of international and humanitarian law. A copy of our statement ‘STOP THE SLAUGHTER IN GAZA’ was published in the Guardian on 31^st December and has been circulated tonight for your information. I have also written in similar terms to the Foreign Secretary David Miliband and will be supporting further political action to put pressure on Israel when parliament returns next week.

Humanitarian Crisis

The Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has made herself an international laughing stock with her claims that “there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza”. But what was happening inside the Gaza Strip - the world’s biggest prison camp - is no laughing matter. Thanks to Israel’s 18 month-long blockade, it was a humanitarian crisis even before the December 27^th assault - it is now a thousand times worse.

Now I don’t pretend to be neutral on the issue of Palestine. I am a supporter of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and a founder member of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East. I oppose the occupation by force of Palestine in breech of UN Resolutions. I oppose the blockade of Gaza and I have publicly condemned the Israeli assault as inhumane, excessive and disproportionate. It is also counter-productive to the search for peace in the Middle East based on an independent and secure two state solution-as of course are the rocket attacks on Israeli towns and villages.

However, it is possible-despite not being neutral on the issue of Palestine - to be fair minded and truthful in the arguments that we make and positions we hold.

So let me tell the Israeli Foreign Minister why Gaza is a humanitarian outrage - not in my words, not in the words of the Palestinians but by quoting directly from yesterday’s situation report by the United Nations Office for the co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

“Situation Report 05/01/09

“Gaza is now divided into two sections with internal movement within the Strip extremely dangerous. It is increasingly difficult for humanitarian staff to distribute aid or reach casualties. More than a million Gazans still have no electricity or water, and thousands of people have fled their homes for safe shelter. In addition to the destruction of essential infrastructure including electricity, water and waste water, communications and roads, hospitals are unable to provide adequate intensive care to the high number of casualties.

“MoH figures as of 1500 hours are 534 dead and at least 2470 injured since 27 December. However, the danger to medical staff and the difficulty of extracting the injured from collapsed buildings makes proper evacuation and estimation of casualties difficult.

“VIOLENCE

“The number of casualties since the beginning of the ground operation on 3 January has risen to approximately 94 Palestinians killed and many more injured. Many of the recent fatalities are women and children with entire families among the dead. This morning, an Israeli shell killed seven members of a Palestinian family (five children and their parents) in their home in the Beach refugee camp. Since this morning until 1500 hours, 25 Palestinians have been killed. The main premises of the Union of Health Care Committees in Gaza City was hit, damaging three mobile clinics and a vehicle. On 4 January, a shell struck Gaza City’s main vegetable market, resulting in five fatalities and 40 wounded. A paramedic working for the UHWC, an Oxfam-funded organisation, was killed when an Israeli shell struck an ambulance trying to evacuate an injured person in the Beit Lahiya area; another paramedic lost his foot and a driver was injured in the same incident.

“FUEL / ELECTRICITY

“75% of Gaza’s electricity has been cut off. Since the ground operation, all Gaza governorate and most of North Gaza and the Middle Area are without electricity and there is limited electricity in Rafah, following attacks which damaged 6 of 10 power lines from Israel and one of two power lines from Egypt. The Gaza Strip is currently receiving just 25% of its total electricity need.

“HEALTH

“Hospitals are struggling to function under 24-hour per day power outages. Hospital electricity is still being provided by back-up generators and fuel for generators is precariously low. Today, generators at MoH ambulance stations, vaccine stores, labs and warehouses shut down due to lack of fuel,

“WATER AND SANITATION

“Gaza’s water and sewage system is on the verge of collapse due to the lack of power and fuel.

“The sewage situation is highly dangerous, posing serious risks of the spread of water-borne disease. Sewage is flooding into Beit Lahiya, farmland, and the sea, after five of Gaza’s 37 waste water pumping stations shut down due to lack of electricity. The remaining 32 stations are operating only partially and will shut down within 3-4 days unless they receive more diesel.”

And only today we hear of 40 people killed whilst sheltering at a school of all places and the UN now saying that there were now no safe places left in Gaza for civilians.

In the light of all this how could anyone deny there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza at the moment?

There are 1.5 million Palestinians living as prisoners in a strip of land 25 miles long by 7 miles wide under sustained military assault without access to food, power, water and sanitation or proper medical facilities.

This is not just an humanitarian crisis my friends, it is an international outrage.

Israeli Tactics

Does Israel seriously think that the Palestinians will blame Hamas for food and other shortages caused by their blockade since June 2007?

Does Israel seriously think that political support for Hamas and extremist groups will weaken in Gaza as its citizens tear through the rubble of bombed-out buildings looking for the bodies of their loved ones?

Hamas is committed to violence and has a military wing but also an electoral mandate following the 2006 elections in Gaza. It does not accept the ‘road map’ nor a two state solution and seeks the destruction of Israel. Some of its leaders have publicly stated their intention to engage Israeli troops in a ground war in the hope of provoking a wider conflict in the region. Hamas is an extremist group at odds with its Arab neighbours and in conflict with the Palestinian Authority in West Bank. However, it will inevitably grow stronger over time as a result of the carnage being visited upon the people of Gaza. The loss of loved ones and the bombing of neighbourhoods, schools, mosques and hospitals will only serve as recruiting sergeants for the next generations of militants, fighters and potential suicide bombers.

We British learnt this to our cost in Northern Ireland in the 70s and 80s. Every person interned, beaten, shot or brutalised by the British State drove scores of others into the hands of the IRA. Eventually the politicians woke up and smelt the coffee. It was only by being prepared to talk to your enemy that the process of conflict resolution can begin and the violence and killing can stop. We did not like the electoral success of Sinn Fein but we had to acknowledge it and work with elected politicians, yes, including those with blood on their hands, to find a way forward. And this is what must happen in Gaza and in the whole of Palestine. You cannot use military force to punish people for voting for those you hate. The alternative risks seeing the region engulfed in flames and conflict for another generation with appalling consequences for the world.

The position of America is crucial and the pressure that we can bring to bear through the European Union and United Nations on both Israel and America is where we should concentrate our efforts. In military terms Israel is little more than a client state of the USA and responds primarily to pressure from Washington. Both the Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Foreign Secretary David Miliband are pressing the USA to lift its veto on a UN Resolution and to agree a ceasefire, a truce and new border arrangements. The British Government is working through the EU, the UN and the Quartet to secure

• An urgent and immediate ceasefire
• Delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza
• A new political process

However, let me make this clear - the Israeli government has been cynical in the extreme in the timing of their assault on Gaza. They have been preparing for this invasion for the last 3 months and scheduled it for the dying days of the Bush administration safe in the knowledge that the ultra-conservative neo-cons in the Republican Party would resist any attempt to rein in the Israeli military.

All eyes now turn to President Elect Obama whose victory in November offered the prospect of a more humane and consensual foreign policy. What shame then that he has chosen to stay silent while the people of Gaza cower in their homes trying to escape death of injury by American weapons fired by Israeli troops and pilots. What a shame that Barak Obama has hidden behind the convention that in-coming presidents do not comment on foreign affairs - a convention he was happy to ignore when it came to terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

Now is the time for all our political leaders to stand up and be counted, as some of us did over the disastrous invasion of Lebanon in 2006. The bombings and the killings must stop -and stop now.