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EU: Gaza and the West Bank

My Lords, land is at the heart of the intractable dispute to which the noble Lord, Lord Dykes, has referred. I therefore address my remarks simply to the issue of Israeli settlement policy in Arab-occupied territory post-1967. This is steadily undermining any prospect for longer-term peace. We all know that the Balfour declaration led to the creation of a Jewish homeland, but we also know that the declaration said that, "““nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine””." Ever since, particularly since the Second World War, there has been a steady erosion of those rights. We know from the United Nations Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs in occupied Palestine that there are now 500,000 settlers in this area and 250,000 of them live illegally in eastern Jerusalem. As the noble Baroness, Lady Tonge, said, 40 per cent of the West Bank is now made inaccessible and unusable for residential, agricultural, commercial and municipal development. The settlements began in this area in the 1970s, and have grown relentlessly ever since. We have a kind of fragmented Palestine—a kind of Middle Eastern Bantustan—which, ominously, was welcomed, according to a report in the Financial Times last week, by the leader of the Likud party, Mr Netanyahu. Being deprived of land and homeland breeds despair and, in turn, violence, making the long-term peace settlement even more difficult to achieve. We all know that this policy contravenes international law. Article 49 of the fourth Geneva Convention prohibits an occupying power from transferring, "““parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies””." It contravenes numerous Security Council resolutions and endless appeals from the European Union and the international community; indeed, the road-map process in 2003 demanded a cessation of settlements. Above all, the Americans give something like $3 billion a year, yet fail to stop this settlement policy. James Baker, the Secretary of State in the early 1990s, said: "““I don’t think that there is any bigger obstacle to peace than the settlement activity that continues not only unabated but at an enhanced pace””." I am a great believer in the wonderful aspects of the Jewish faith that its people offer to the world. I greatly admire the inspiring leadership of the Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks. In a lecture last week, he pointed out that Jews believe that what we possess, we hold in trust for future generations. The people of Israel must ask themselves how that admirable belief can be reconciled with taking other people’s land. In the past few years we have seen a deplorable increase in anti-Semitism which I utterly condemn, as will everyone in this Chamber. Racism is despicable, but Israelis must be careful not to give an excuse to racists to foment anti-Semitism by their land settlement policy in Arab-occupied territory. I hope that the Minister will say what the Government and the European Union are doing about this.