I watch on TV the UK Parliament's debate yesterday (04.06.2025) on Gaza. Every Israeli and Palestinian needs to know the strength of feelings in the chamber.

Parliament unanimously authorised first step for an independent Public Inquiry

I watched yesterday (04.06.2025) for 90-minutes a live television BBC Parliament broadcast of a debate in the Houses of Parliament on the daily horror in Gaza.

Voice after voice from all sides of the House expressed their outrage at the UK government for failing to take major steps to withdraw support for Israel.

Parliamentarians made they clear they were tired of hearing from the British goverment words of criticism and only an occasional slight change of policy while continuing to provide Israel with the weapons for genocide.

One Member of Parliament after another got up demanding answers and immediate action from the government to halt the ongoing bombing, shelling and shooting of the people of Gaza.

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, Hamish Falconer made an opening statement. An Under Secretary is a junior minister to the Foreign Secretary. Hamish Falconer said in his opening sentences:

We are appalled by repeated reports of mass casualty incidents in which Palestinians have been killed when trying to access aid sites in Gaza. Desperate civilians who have endured 20 months of war should never face the risk of death or injury to simply feed themselves and their families. We call for an immediate and independent investigation into these events, and for the perpetrators to be held to account.

It is deeply disturbing that these incidents happened near the new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution sites. They highlight the utterly desperate need to get aid in. The Israeli Government say they have opened up aid access with their new system, but the warnings raised by the UK, the United Nations, aid partners and the international community about these operations have materialised, and the results are agonising.

Israel’s newly introduced measures for aid delivery are inhumane, foster desperation and endanger civilians. Israel’s unjustified block on aid into Gaza needs to end. It is inhumane. Israel must immediately allow the UN and aid partners to safely deliver all types of aid at scale, to save lives, reduce suffering and maintain dignity.

The junior Minister then faced some 24 statement/questions from Members of Parliament of different parties.

Here are extracts from what four Members of Parliament stated and asked the junior Minister.

I have selected one statement/question from a member of Parliament, representing the Labour Party, Conservative Party, Liberal Democrat Party and Independent Party.

Paula Barker, Labour, Liverpool Wavertree Constituency

I thank the Minister for his statement, but we have been here countless times before. Last week, Israel approved 22 further settlements in the west bank. Israeli Defence Minister Katz claimed it was:

“A strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

What more evidence do we need to call this exactly what it is: a deliberate policy of annexation and genocide? Will the Government now take the long overdue steps that we have all been calling for years—namely, the recognition of Palestine, sanctions on extremist Israeli Government Ministers, suspension of all arms sales and suspension of all trade?

If we want to see a Palestinian state, we must do something now to prevent its erasure. The history books will not be kind to this Government unless we use every form of leverage at our disposal, and our grandchildren will ask why we effectively stood by while a people were eradicated by bombs, bullets, starvation and, no doubt, the further ethnic cleansing that is still to come. This should shame us all.

Response from the junior Minister

I thank my Hon. Friend for her question; of course, it was her request for an urgent question this morning that led to this statement. I do not agree with the whole premise of her question, but I assure her that we will continue to convene international partners, to increase pressure and to take further steps, as long as this catastrophic situation remains.

Kit Malthouse. Northwest Hampshire Constituency. Conservative

It feels like the whole House is being played. He (the Minister) shows up and mouths the words, full of condemnation and saying he is appalled, and very occasionally the Government leak out just enough sanctions in order, frankly—I am afraid to say this, colleagues—to keep the Labour Benches from open revolt.

And yet, since the Minister last appeared here, as others have mentioned, 22 new settlements have been announced, and the Israeli Government have replaced the United Nations Relief and Works Agency distribution system with a shooting gallery—an abattoir, where starving people are lured out through combat zones to be shot at.

If the situation were reversed, we would now, quite rightly, be mobilising the British armed forces as part of an international protection force, so here is my question: what is the difference?

Junior Minister

I hope the right hon. Member will forgive me; he talks of theatrics, whereby I come to the House and provide an update and he delivers a speech saying that we should do more. I remind him and the House that the Labour Government have a profoundly different position towards these issues than the Conservative Government before us. We have taken a series of steps, most recently on 20 May…

Kit Malthouse

Not a single thing has changed—nothing! They are ignoring you now. I am sorry, but they are killing dozens every day.

Caroline Voaden. South Devon Constituency. Liberal Democrat

Hundreds of my constituents have written to me expressing their desperation and horror at the hellish scenes coming out of Gaza, so I speak here on their behalf. It is clear that the Israeli Government aspire to wipe Palestine off the map, as they expand their settlement ambitions with impunity.

They do not care that Ministers in Whitehall are watching their statements. Until Palestine is recognised as a state, the dispossession of land and homes by Israel will continue. Why will the Government not stand up now and, alongside our allies Spain, Norway and Ireland, recognise Palestine as a state?

Totnes is the main town in the South Devon Constituency. Many residents in Totnes and surrounding areas campaign week after week to stop the genocide in Gaza.

Response from the Junior Minister

I recognise the concern of many constituents across the country, including in the Hon. Lady’s constituency. I recognise the desire right across this House, I think, for further steps in that area. In everything we do, we are focused on trying to make an impact on the scenes that our constituents are seeing. We are considering these matters, but we are focused on trying to reduce the suffering in Gaza today.

Zarah Sultana Coventry South Constituency. Independent

It is a disgrace that the Foreign Secretary is not here, but it is unsurprising. The majority of the British public support a full arms embargo on Israel, yet this Labour Government have continued to supply arms exports, including components for lethal F-35 fighter jets, thereby enabling genocide. Those jets are not used in Ukraine, so Ministers need to stop saying that at the Dispatch Box.

The Government have also defended this indefensible policy in court, claiming they have seen “no evidence” of genocide. The evidence is overwhelming—we know it, the Minister knows it and the Government know it.

Does the Minister understand that through the decisions he makes every single day, he is personally complicit in genocide?

Response from the Junior Minister

I would like to address the point about F-35s not being used in Ukraine. The importance of the F-35 programme to Ukraine is that the deployment of F-35s allows a redeployment of F-15s, which are used in the defence of Ukraine.

Independent Public Inquiry

At the end of the debate, former Labour Party Leader (2015 - 2020), Jeremy Corbyn, now an Independent in Parliament, called for a bill to establish an independent Public Inquiry into UK involvement in Israeli military operations in Gaza and to consider any UK military, economic or political cooperation with Israel since October 2023, including the sale, supply or use of weapons, surveillance aircraft and Royal Air Force bases.

An independent public inquiry is a formal investigation established by the government to examine matters of public concern. These inquiries are conducted by an independent body, often a judge. The judge has the power to compel witness testimony, regardless of their position in government, and the release of evidence. He received a unanimous vote of approval to take the bill to the next stage.

Jeremy Corbyn. Islington North Constituency said:

In the aftermath of the Iraq war, several attempts were made to establish an inquiry surrounding the conduct of British military operations. The Government of the day spent many years resisting those attempts and demands for an inquiry. However, they could not prevent the inevitable, and in 2016 we had the publication of the Chilcot inquiry, which Sir John Chilcot had undertaken over several years.

The report found serious failings within the British Government, who ignored the warnings of millions of ordinary people who had been protesting on the streets against the invasion. I was the leader of the Labour party when the report came out, and I apologised on behalf of the Labour party for the catastrophic decision to go to war in Iraq.

History is now repeating itself. Over the past 18 months, human beings have endured a level of horror and inhumanity that should haunt us all forever:

• Entire families wiped out

• Limbs strewn across the street

• Mothers screaming for their children buried under the rubble

• Human beings torn to pieces

• Doctors performing amputations without anaesthetic

• Children picking grass and dirt from the ground, thinking that they might find something edible.

• The survivors will face lifelong mental health consequences that will go on for generations.

• Home by home, hospital by hospital and generation by generation, we are not just witnessing a war; we are witnessing a genocide—this time being livestreamed all over the world.

Today, the death toll in Gaza exceeds 61,000, and at least 110,000 people—one in 20 of the entire population—have been severely injured.

Two Israeli officials are now wanted by the international criminal court for crimes against humanity.

Britain has played a highly influential role in Israel’s military operations. First, Britain has been supplying weapons to Israel that are being used to bomb the people of Palestine. This, of course, started with the previous Conservative Government, but it has continued with the current Labour Government.

In fact, between October and December 2024 alone, more arms export licences were granted than were approved by the previous Government for the whole of 2020 and 2023.

In September ’23, the Government suspended some licences but continued to allow the supply of F-35 components to the global pool. The Foreign Secretary has accepted the fact that F-35 jets are being used in violation of international humanitarian law, yet at the same time he admits that those parts go into the global supply chain and could therefore go to Israel.

The Government know full well the implications. By justifying the continued licensing of those parts, our Government are admitting their complicity in what are, quite clearly, war crimes.

I find it truly astounding that they are telling us loud and clear that their participation in this programme is more important than upholding international law and the convention on genocide. It is very simple: until this Government end the sale of weapons to Israel, they will remain complicit in the mass murder of Palestinians in Gaza at the present time.

We warned that we were witnessing the beginning of the total annihilation of Gaza and we pleaded with political leaders on both sides to call for peace. Today, some politicians have finally begun to backtrack a bit—perhaps they are frightened of the consequences and of their own inhumanity.

If there was any integrity in this, all those who support the operation of the military there would weep for the 61,000 Palestinian lives lost, buried under the rubble, and the moral cowardice of politicians in this country and others who have allowed it to go on.

Today, we teach children about history’s worst war crimes against humanity. They are asked to reflect about how those crimes ever came about. Our future history books will report with shame those who had the opportunity to stop the carnage but failed to act to achieve it.

We will continue our campaigns in the House and outside because we are appalled at what is happening. Our demonstrations and the huge demonstrations in this country and all around the world are made up of people of all ages and all faiths, and actually quite a wide range of political opinion.

They are united with the simple human request that we stop the bombing and save lives, and we will do that by no longer supplying weapons. We will continue to campaign for truth, for accountability and, most importantly, for peace and justice for the Palestinian people, who have been denied all that for far too long.

If the Bill is agreed to—I hope that it will be—this will be a step forward in opening up the murky history of what has gone on, with murky arms sales and complicity in appalling acts of genocide.

Above extracts from Hansard, which publishes the official records of debates in the Houses of Parliament in the UK.

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May all beings live in peace and harmony

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