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International Affairs

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Ilford, South (Mike Gapes), with whom I worked closely when we both served on the Westminster Foundation for Democracy. He, along with the Select Committee, is doing excellent work. I join him and others in welcoming this afternoon’s debate and especially the Foreign Secretary’s commitment. There are honestly and strongly held differences of opinion in the House about the reasons for the conflict and the nature of our response to it. Given everything else that the Foreign Secretary has on her plate, her willingness to meet a group of hon. Members the other day to discuss the matter and to be here this afternoon is welcome. I am sure that the House is grateful to her for that. Our television screens, newspapers and websites are full of the sickening images of carnage and destruction from the middle east, on a scale we hoped never to see again. We are now beginning to hear some of the personal accounts of the violence, destruction and fear in the region from the first of those mercifully evacuated in the past couple of days. Our immediate attention is understandably focused on the safety of British citizens and their families who are seeking to leave and those who judge that they need to stay. We all welcome the speedy evacuation of those British nationals so far and applaud the efforts of the Royal Navy, the rest of the armed forces and especially the diplomatic services for their tireless efforts in truly shocking and difficult conditions. We also welcome the information about the continued efforts to provide additional resources to them as they go about their difficult and dangerous work. Like others, I acknowledge that the situation is changing fast. I, too, hope that other means will be used to keep the House and the country informed about what happens in the days ahead. The tragic mess that British citizens and others wish to leave behind is getting worse by the day. Although our immediate focus is on the events in Lebanon, we must not forget what is happening in Gaza. I shall revert to that briefly later. The origins of the unfolding disaster in Lebanon are clear. The unprovoked attack by Hezbollah on Israeli territory and the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers was the trigger, and should rightly be condemned. The return of those soldiers is essential to the prospects for peace. Israel has a moral and legal right to live in peace within recognised and secure borders, and a right to act in self-defence. Let us not forget that at least 29 Israelis, including 15 civilians, have been killed by rockets fired by Hezbollah into Israel, and that thousands now live in terror. But, as the shadow Foreign Secretary highlighted, the Lebanese Prime Minister has estimated that as many as 300 people have now been killed in his country, and about 500,000 have been displaced by the violence. They too live in terror. The scale and aggression of the Israeli military action is clearly disproportionate. It amounts to collective punishment and is therefore illegal under international law. Whatever the Israelis’ objectives, their actions are destroying a country only recently rebuilt after decades of war. As others have said, they are undermining the fragile political state of Lebanon, and all but guaranteeing the radicalisation of swathes of people in the middle east and around the world. We need an urgent ceasefire and collective world action to prevent this crisis from spiralling into other parts of the region.