Michael Connarty MP (Linlithow and East Falkirk) secured and led a Westminster Hall debate on Aid to Gaza on Tuesday 13th September 2011. A summary of the debate is presented below. The full debate can be watched by clicking here (at the 3.30 timing) and read on Parliamentary Hansard by clicking here.
Aid to Gaza
Michael Connarty MP (Linlithow and East Falkirk) secured and led a Westminster Hall debate on Aid to Gaza on Tuesday 13th September 2011. A summary of the debate is presented below. The full debate can be watched by clicking here (at the 3.30 timing) and read on Parliamentary Hansard by clicking here.
During his speech, Michael Connarty MP highlighted the impact of the Israeli blockade on Gaza:
• In September 2009, the IMF directly attributed the continuing restrictions on access to Gaza as a prime reason for the continued high unemployment rate, low growth and high inflation. Gaza could reach growth rates of 7 to 8% if the economic blockade were lifted.
• As for the children of Gaza, one in three is anaemic and one in 10 is malnourished.
• The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN classes 61% of Gazans as “food insecure” and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency reports that 80% of Gazans rely on some form of aid.
• UNRWA state had stated that at the current rebuilding approval rate it will take 78 years to rebuild Gaza.
He went to describe the impact of the Israeli Operation Cast Lead, which resulted in 50% of factories being destroyed and employment falling from 150,000 to 15,000. He went on to highlight the following points:
A report published in January 2011 on the website of the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, “makes it quite clear that the Israeli Government are determined to starve the economy of Gaza to bring it to the point of collapse”. He said “This is about not just starving people of basic materials that the international community would give them or that people would be able to trade, but trying to break the economy in retaliation for people exercising their democratic right, which we are always espousing, to choose a different Government.”
The blockade means that inferior goods are coming in to Gaza, including often hazardous raw materials used in manufacturing. Water is similarly difficult to source as it is diverted to Israeli towns and Jewish settlements. In Gaza, nitrates and chlorine contamination rates are rising fast.
In Gaza’s hospitals, Israeli policies exact a high price; Connarty talked about the impact of Israel’s claims of “dual use” that meant Radiotherapy drugs for cancer patients are banned.
During a recent delegation of British MPs to Gaza, they were informed by doctors that that “in the past year 500 Palestinians have died simply because of a lack of medication; Gazans are simply not being allowed to import medication in adequate quantities”.
Mr Connarty described the absence of improvement in the situation in Gaza as “a great shame on this and my government who should have dealt with it if they were in any way humanitarian, democratic socialists”. Adding “we are condoning and colluding in a situation in Gaza because we did not like the outcome of a democratic election. We haven’t done enough to change this and we continue to see the situation not as a threat, but as something that can be absorbed in to negotiations”.
Jeremy Corbyn MP talked about a brief period of optimism post-Oslo during the late 1990s, when there was an airport ready to function, water supply systems, drainage systems, agriculture was developing, and there was a high level of employment and a real sense of optimism and hope. Corbyn reflected that subsequent visits had become ‘more depressing’ each time, describing its demise from a place of great potential to a prison in which “young people, with a very high standard of education, have no chance to travel or to gain employment”.
Mr Corbyn urged the government to” lift the blockade of Gaza, to recognise the legitimate rights of the people of Palestine, and, above all, to get aid to Gaza as quickly as possible”.
The Under-Secretary of State for International Development, Stephen O’Brien agreed that the “humanitarian situation in Gaza is unacceptable and unsustainable” urging both sides to refrain from violence.
The Minister cited a recent UN report that showed “that the measures have not brought any fundamental change to Gaza, with food insecurity remaining high and economic opportunities scarce”.
The Minister acknowledged that Israel’s commitment on both imports and exports that were agreed with the Quartet in February 2011 had not yet been met. He further stated that “an improved economy and a resurgence of Gaza’s business sector are not only essential for the people of Gaza, but firmly in Israel’s security interests”.
The Minister ended by saying that “we want a new generation of Palestinian to grow up in hope, not despair”. Outlining that the only way to “meet the national aspirations of both Israeli’s and Palestinians” was through negotiations and resumed dialogue between both side.
