WEDNESDAY 15 MAY 2013
1. Jeremy Corbyn: How many Palestinians from Gaza and the WB applied to travel to the UK in each of the last three years; how many applications were accepted, how many declined?
Commons Written Answers
2. Baroness Tonge (in debate on Developing Countries): Given that HMG want value for money, will they consider stopping aid to the Palestinians in the WB and Gaza, and “persuading, if not forcing, Israel to pay for its illegal occupation of those territories?”
Lords Debates
3. Debate on the Queen’s Speech:
– Baroness Northover: This is a critical year for MEPP; need to return to “credible negotiations” and support US efforts; “Our upgraded crisis centre helped us to provide a comprehensive response to crises such as those in Algeria, Gaza and the Egypt balloon crash”.
– Lord Triesman: Two-state solution hangs by a thread; UK largely absent as a force for progress; we deplore rocket assaults and threats to eradicate Israel; “We tell our Israeli friends that seizure and construction on Palestinian land and the line of the wall breaches international law and is morally wrong.”
– Bishop of Bath and Wells: Agrees with Baroness Northover and Lord Triesman about urgency in MEPP.
– Lord King: Was interested to see China’s invitation to Messrs Netanyahu and Abbas, to see if it might help break logjam.
– Lord Ramsbotham: Asks if peace in ME would not be better maintained by letting Iran develop a nuclear weapon to balance Israel’s?
– Lord Alderdice: European network not all that useful in foreign affairs: “It is, I regret to say, still impossible to get our German colleagues to say anything that might be viewed as critical of any policy of the Israeli Government.” Israel-Palestine can only be resolved regionally; need to respond to retabled Arab peace initiative.
– Lord Stirrup: Some settlements would almost certainly remain on Israeli side under any land swap deal; “The Palestinians, for their part, will have to acknowledge that there can be no right of return.”
– Lord Anderson: Pleased with Senator Kerry’s visit; Qatar modified Arab peace initiative; PA has delayed taking Israel to ICC;
Netanyahu fears a bi-national state as well as international isolation; “The Palestinians refuse to abandon the illusion of some vast right of return to Israel proper, and Israel refuses to educate its constituency about the future of Jerusalem. Of course we have to understand Israel’s need for solid security arrangements, for regional recognition of its legitimacy and to avoid silly gestures, such as that by Professor Hawking.”
– Lord Hylton: The so-called war on terror has gone badly wrong; “In the United States Mr Robert Grenier…..said that the US would have to open paths to justice for those long denied it, whether in Kashmir, Chechnya or Palestine.”
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201314/ldhansrd/text/130515-0002.htm
– Lord Weidenfeld: US ministerial visits may be a flicker of hope in resumption of bilateral talks; enemies of two-state solution in the Arab world have gained ground; “restive forces” on WB reluctant to drop “sweeping preconditions”; Livni and Lapid “passionately committed to an honourable agreement”; PA should reinstate Fayyad; regrets Stephen Hawking boycott.
– Lord Dobbs: Weapons have found their way from Libya to other hotspots such as Gaza.
– Lord Palmer of Childs Hill: A Palestinian state and a secure Israel will not be possible unless both parties come to the negotiating table without any preconditions.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201314/ldhansrd/text/130515-0003.htm
Lords Debates
4. Baroness Tonge: What discussions have HMG held with European partners regarding right to security of Palestinian children in Gaza?
5. Baroness Tonge: What assessment have HMG made of the legality of the weapons used by Israeli soldiers against civilians in Gaza?
Nos 4-5 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201314/ldhansrd/text/130515w0001.htm#13051536000025
6. Baroness Tonge: What discussions have HMG had with European partners concerning suitability of Israel to host UEFA U-21 final?
Lords Written Answers