Gaza
Posted by Tom Levitt, MP for High Peak, at 18:55, Tue 30 December 2008:
I have today written to constituents who have contacted me about Palestine, as follows below. You can find more about my work at www.tomlevitt.org.uk or by emailing me directly at tomlevittmp@parliament.uk, where priority is always given to emails from High Peak constituents.
I know from previous correspondence that you will be as disturbed at recent and current events in Gaza as I am. I was moved to receive an email from a constituent who now lives close to Bethlehem. He described local people’s fears. This is part of the reply I have sent to him.
“I am proud to call myself a friend of the Palestinian people and I agree that what is happening in Gaza today is a tragedy. It seems to me that the Israeli Defence Force is taking the opportunity of the political vacuum that exists briefly in US and Israeli electoral cycles and that Israeli politicians are trying to out-hawk Netanyahu. I also believe that Hamas has put the cause of peace backwards by ending the cease fire.
“When I was in Sdterot [an Israeli border town] in April I was told 11 people had been killed by Hamas mortars there in six years; on the next day the Israelis killed 18 in Gaza City. Then I saw boys in Shifa Hospital with their legs blown off by Israeli mortars, with inadequate equipment and drugs to treat them because of the blockade. I also saw the weapons that had been used against Sdterot and even came within 50 yards of a Qassam rocket exploding at Erez. These are anarchic peashooters, pitted against one of the world's most deadly organised fighting forces.
“It is not just the war now effectively declared on Gaza which is illegal: the blockade of Gaza now months old, the occupation of the West Bank, the check points, the settlements, the Wall, the detention of politicians and others without trial and the removal of children for punishment in Israel are all illegal too. I witnessed the aftermath of the latter in Azzun in April. I think a majority of British parliamentarians oppose the Israeli action outright. I am relieved that the response of Gordon Brown and David Miliband on this issue has been more robust than was the UK response to the war in Lebanon. I have spoken to David about Palestinian issues on several occasions and he is sympathetic.
“I have already signed a statement of cross-party MPs which will be in the national press this week and I am pushing for an early opportunity to debate Gaza in the House of Commons after we return on 12 January. By coincidence, I will be at the launch of Labour Friends of Palestine on 13 January. Last June I organised a highly successful public meeting in High Peak with a representative of President Abbas.”
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