Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Official Report 901KB pdf

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Nakba 70th Anniversary

The final item of business is a members’ business debate on S5M-11690 in the name of Sandra White on the Nakba 70th anniversary. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.

Motion debated,

That the Parliament acknowledges the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, known by Palestinian people as the “day of catastrophe”, in which the state of Israel was formed after what it understands was the mass eviction of over 750,000 people from historic Palestine land, which included the destruction of over 500 towns and villages; believes that this led to generations of pain for the Palestinian people, who continue to live under a state of occupation; understands that it led to a major crisis in which over four million displaced people were registered by the UN as refugees and unable to return home; condemns what it sees as the deepening of the crisis in the form of illegal settlements, which are unrecognised by the international community; understands that these continue to be built in the occupied territories at a rate of five times that prior to the implementation of the Oslo Accords; believes that, on 15 May 2018, millions of people across Palestine and around the world will mark the anniversary of the Nakba with marches, rallies and vigils; supports Palestinian people, including those in the Glasgow Kelvin constituency, in the commemoration of the Nakba, and notes the calls for a resolution to be sought to what it considers the Palestinian humanitarian crisis and occupation.

17:06  

I thank the many members who signed the motion, giving it cross-party support and enabling the debate to take place.

I also thank the many groups who contacted me and other members about the debate. Some of their representatives are in the gallery tonight and I welcome them to the Scottish Parliament. Thank you for your support.

In the past 48 hours, we have witnessed the killing of over 50 Palestinian people, and thousands being injured by the Israeli army. Members of the international community have condemned the Israeli army’s use of live ammunition and teargas on innocent civilians. I add my voice to that condemnation and stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, who have been denied the right to return to their land and their homes—that is the Nakba. [Applause.]

The debate is to mark the 70th anniversary of the Nakba. In doing so, I want to offer some background, as is the proper thing to do. There is often a great deal of misunderstanding and misrepresentation on Palestine, whether from individuals, the media or Governments, but certain historical facts cannot be altered or dismissed.

After the dissolution of the Ottoman empire in 1914, the British occupied Palestine as part of the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 between Britain and France to carve up the Middle East for imperial interests.

In 1917, before the start of the British Mandate from 1920 to 1947, the British issued the Balfour declaration, promising to help the

“establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”,

essentially vowing to give away a country that was not theirs to give away.

In early 1947, the British Government announced that it would be handing over Palestine to the United Nations and therefore washing its hands of any responsibility for the Palestinian people. On 29 November 1947, the UN adopted resolution 181, recommending the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states with—and this is very important—a special international status for the city of Jerusalem. That is an important point to make, and I hope that Mr Trump and others are listening.

The proposals were not seen as acceptable, as they went against the principles of the right to self-determination and imposed conditions that were seen as unfair and unworkable. This led to the 1948 conflict, which saw Israeli forces take control of a much larger area of land than was proposed in the UN resolution. An estimated 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled, with hundreds of Palestinian towns and villages depopulated and destroyed. That was the Nakba, and those who fled are still waiting to return.

I want to highlight the stories of two people who lived through this and many more atrocities. Abu Arab owns a tiny store in the main thoroughfare of the market in Nazareth’s old city. His shop is a time capsule. On display is a rusting bowl and inside are hundreds of old coins of a currency no longer recognised: that currency is the Palestinian lira. Abu Arab cherishes those relics as keenly as he does his memories of a home and way of life he lost when he was 13 and lived in the village of Saffuriya.

Abu Arab recalls the events of July 1948, as he was attacked. He says:

“They bombed us from the air just as we were breaking the fast for Ramadan—they knew we would all be in our homes.”

His parents fled with the children: three brothers—including the famous poet, the late Taha Muhammad Ali—and a 12-year-old sister. They were forced northwards towards Lebanon. Shortly after they arrived in a refugee camp there, his sister died and his father decided they must make the dangerous journey back home. At the journey’s end, they found that the village was gone. The area had been fenced off and declared a military zone, and anyone entering risked being shot. He says:

“We had nothing. Everything had been taken from us.”

Abu Arab helped to found the main body that represents internal refugees, the Association for the Defence of the Rights of the Internally Displaced—ADRID—which, for the past 30 years, has organised an annual Nakba march.

Umm Omar was only eight when her family was expelled from their home town of Jusayr in 1948 and landed in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza strip. The refugee camp was established by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees for an estimated 35,000 people who were evicted from their area. Today, it is the largest camp in the besieged coastal enclave, with more than 110,000 refugees living there.

The pain of displacement never ended for the family. They have lived through three Israeli military offensives in Gaza since 2009. Like tens of thousands of Palestinians across the narrow coastal enclave, Omar’s home was destroyed by Israeli air strikes during the 51-day offensive in Gaza in 2014.

Several years ago, she and her husband buried the deeds and keys to their home—that is important because the keys to their homes mean a lot to the Palestinian people—in a location that only their children know, in the hope that they would be able to return one day.

“I still hope that I’ll die in my home town. I may be using a walker to move around today. But if they told me I can go back … I’d run all the way.”

What a woman.

It is estimated that there are about 7.98 million Palestinian refugees and displaced people who cannot go back to their houses. The Gaza strip, where some 2 million Palestinians live, has been under Israeli siege for more than a decade. Israel controls the air space, sea and borders. The strip has also witnessed three Israeli assaults that have made the area close to uninhabitable.

Many people are quick to criticise nations that violate UN resolutions or do not abide by international law. That is quite right. If we fail to acknowledge what Israel has been doing in Palestine, we fail to present the situation honestly and we fail to be taken seriously by the rest of the world. I notice that, about 10 minutes ago, the United Kingdom Government issued a statement calling for greater restraint from Israel. That is an insult to every Palestinian who has been killed and injured not only in the past 48 hours but over the years. We must ensure that our voices are heard.

Let us be clear: regardless of the history, the way forward and the only way to achieve a lasting peace is to recognise a Palestinian state alongside an Israeli one. That was not possible in 1947 but, for me and many others, it is the only viable option. Let us be clear that the time is now—not tomorrow, next year or some point in the future. People are dying every day. We cannot continue to bury our heads in the sand.

It is time for the UK to join other UN member states and recognise the state of Palestine. It is morally incumbent on the UK to take that step, given its involvement and its resulting culpability for the current situation. From the time when Britain administered Palestine after the first world war until it abandoned it in 1948, resulting in the Nakba, our involvement in Palestine has been shameful. From the promises of an independent Palestinian state, to refusing to support UN efforts for a two-state solution, which led to the 1948 war and the subsequent loss of Palestinian land, our actions have loomed large over the history of Palestine. It is time for them to loom large over the future of Palestine. [Applause.]

I call Ivan McKee to be followed by Maurice Golden. Mr McKee, please. [Interruption.] We thought that he had pressed his button, but we have misread the display. [Interruption.] He has pressed his button. Where is Mr McKee? He is not here.

Members: He is here.

Oh, sorry. I have called you, Mr McKee.

Sorry. You need to shout louder, Presiding Officer.

I was beginning to think that I was taking a wee turn, Mr McKee. I did call him, did I not?

Members: No.

I did not?

Members: You did.

Thank you. I have some allies. I call Ivan McKee to be followed by Maurice Golden.

17:14  

Thank you, Presiding Officer. I also thank Sandra White for bringing this hugely important debate to the chamber this evening. Of course, our thoughts today are with the families of the people who have been killed by Israeli forces over the past few days, and with those who are affected by the tragic situation that is developing in Gaza.

The Nakba—or catastrophe—as it is called by the Palestinians, was, as Sandra White explained, a series of events that happened 70 years ago, when more than 700,000 Palestinians were evicted and forced from their land and their homes. More than 500 villages and towns were destroyed. The descendants of those Palestinians still live in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and all round the globe.

Although the events took place 70 years ago, they are still very much alive today, as the tragic events of yesterday and the past few weeks have demonstrated, with the Palestinian people making clear their determination to return one day to the homes from which they were expelled. Gaza is very much a consequence of the Nakba; more than 50 per cent of the population of Gaza are refugees from the events of 70 years ago.

Let us be clear: the ethnic cleansing that happened 70 years ago has continued every day through to the present. I took my first trip to Palestine recently and witnessed first hand the events that continue to unfold day by day. I was taken to the south Hebron hills by Breaking the Silence, which is an organisation that is formed of veterans of the Israeli army who are making a stand to state that the things that they were asked to do when they were in the army were unacceptable, and making it public to the population in Israel and internationally what unacceptable acts the Israeli army is expected to carry out in the occupied territories daily.

We visited the village of Susya, the residents of which have on no fewer than six occasions in the past 70 years had their homes destroyed and been moved on, only for them to return, to rebuild and to try to carry on with their lives. It is in what is called area C of the West Bank—the area that is under Israeli military control. Right next to the Palestinian villages there are, of course, the illegal Israeli settlements. The Israeli army is there not to police the situation, but is there with the clear intention to protect the settlers and to do whatever is required to make life as difficult as possible for the Palestinians who live there. We witnessed Palestinians who were trying to farm the land and plant trees being thrown off that land by the army in front of our eyes. The army creates so-called military zones with the specific purpose of preventing Palestinian villagers from farming on them by throwing them off their land and destroying the water system so that the villagers cannot continue their agricultural business on the land that they own.

I met representatives of Medical Aid for Palestinians, who are here today. They explained the situation with the Israeli checkpoints, at which 57 Palestinians have died in the past year trying to get to hospital, but were stopped by the Israeli army from doing so. I also met representatives of B’Tselem, which is an effective and brave Israeli human rights organisation that documents the human rights abuses that are carried out by the occupying forces across the occupied territories.

It is clear that the situation is getting worse. The actions by the Trump Administration are disgraceful: identifying Jerusalem as the capital of Israel will only make the situation worse. Now is the time, as Sandra White said, for a message to go out from the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government, from the United Kingdom Government, from the European Union and from others internationally that the time has come to end the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and to move towards a just peace in the region.

17:18  

Let me begin by paying my respects to the many people who have tragically been killed and injured during the protests in Jerusalem. It is important that we remember such events, lest they become lost in the cycle of violence that sadly plagues the region. The latest violent clashes serve as a reminder of how volatile the middle east is. Centuries of anger and conflict have led us to a present in which Israelis and Palestinians share an uneasy co-existence. It is that legacy of conflict and strife that we are here to debate today, but we must also look to the future and the hope for rapprochement.

I do not have time in such a short speech to recount the entire history of conflict and dispute between Israelis and Palestinians. Nor, in this particular debate, would it be appropriate to do so. However, it is important to recognise that the two peoples share an intertwined history. To recognise only one aspect of that history, whether it be from a pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian viewpoint, would do both a disservice.

Just as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced from their homes in the 1948 war, so did hundreds of thousands of Jews flee from Arab states to the newly created state of Israel. Both occurred against a backdrop of war that claimed thousands of lives. I will not attempt to draw equivalence between suffering and loss, but I point out that Israelis and Palestinians are two peoples who are linked by the same tragic events. If we want to see the cycle of anger and violence broken, we must acknowledge that link—that shared tragedy.

In that light, we must recognise that the motion tells only half the story. It refers to the

“generations of pain for the Palestinian people”,

and so do I, but we should also recognise the generations of fear for the Israelis, who have also found themselves under attack. The United Kingdom rightly favours a two-state solution. If we are seriously to champion the cause of the Palestinian people to live in their own state in peace and security, we must also champion the right of Israel to exist and be free from attack. Both causes are equally valid.

Israel was born amidst war, but it has come through adversity as an established democracy in the middle east. Of course, Israel is not perfect, nor should we defend every action of the Israeli government. Israel does, however, show the world that a free and democratic society, governed by the rule of law, is possible in the middle east. It is important that we remember the suffering and loss on both sides, but we cannot be bound by the darkness of the past, if we want a brighter future for both Israel and Palestine.

17:22  

I was not intending to speak in the debate, only to listen to it, because I was sure that I would support everything that Sandra White—and many others—would speak about. I congratulate her on bringing the motion to Parliament for debate. However, I have been so struck emotionally by what I have seen in recent days that I feel angry, helpless and broken. I know that that feeling is shared by millions of people in our country, and by tens of millions of people around the world.

The events of the past few days will have lasting consequences. The opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem is a direct and deliberate threat to any chance of peace. It is a deliberate attempt to kill any hope of a peace process or a genuine two-state solution. It is a deliberate act to inflame and escalate—not de-escalate—tensions. The events in Gaza prove that. Fifty people have been killed, including women and children, and more than 2,000 people have been injured. That is not an isolated incident on one day—it is an on-going crisis every single day.

To give a stark contrast, I ask members to imagine the city of Glasgow surrounded by a wall, with limits on the people and supplies allowed in and no one allowed out, and with intermittent firing of missiles and rockets into the city. What would be the reaction of fellow Scots or the international community? That is what is happening to the people of Gaza every single day.

The death of humanity is what happening in Gaza and on the West Bank, and we have to stand up and speak out about it. The reality is that Donald Trump is not an honest broker for peace. He has broken that chance of peace.

Where is the so-called international community? We all say that the international community needs to send out condemnation, to come together and to start a peace process. There is no such thing as the international community when we see such horrific international incidents.

We talk about the peace process, but there is no peace process to revive: there is no peace, and there is no process. Every single day that we waste makes the chance of achieving a two-state solution less likely. Shame on us: shame on all of us, and shame on every single person right across the international community who has allowed this tragedy to go on, day after day. Innocent people are denied basic rights of access to clean water, food and employment, and they are denied access to any kind of peace, justice or democracy—things that we take for granted every day.

I have been to the Gaza strip. Two thirds of the population eat only because of UN food programmes. One third of the medicines that are listed by the World Health Organization as essential are not available to the people of Gaza. That is a tragedy in our world, on our watch, and we should all, collectively, be ashamed of ourselves. I am sick of condemnation when bad events happen. Condemnation is no longer enough. We need to wake up as a genuine international community and act. If we do not, the legacy that we will leave behind is one of shame on the entire global family that we say we live in.

17:26  

I thank my co-convener of the Parliament’s cross-party group on Palestine, Sandra White, for ensuring that we are able to mark the Nakba in the Scottish Parliament today.

When we discussed preparations for today at the CPG, little did we realise that the debate would prove so tragically timely, although Israel’s barbarities are no surprise to anyone with even a passing understanding of how its state came into being or its actions in each and every year since. Many of us had hoped that, with the world’s eyes on it yesterday, Israel might show some restraint, even if for nothing more than public relations purposes. In hindsight, it was stupid to expect as much from an Israeli state that has not for years seen Palestinian people as people and which places no value on their lives.

Yesterday, Israeli soldiers gunned down more than 60 Palestinians who were protesting their right to exist on their land, and injured thousands more. They killed six children and at least one paramedic. In the weeks since the great march of return protest began, they have killed almost 100 demonstrators. Ibrahim Abu Thuraya, who lost both his legs in a previous Israeli air strike, was shot dead in his wheelchair. Photojournalist Yaser Murtaja was shot wearing a protective vest that clearly marked him out as press. After murdering him, the Israeli Government propaganda machine spun into place to claim that he was a high-ranking member of Hamas. Before concocting that story, the Israelis had not bothered to find out the first thing about him. If they had, they would have known that he was previously arrested and beaten by Hamas. He had cleared American Government vetting to receive grants from an aid agency. He was no threat or extremist; he was a journalist doing his job. They have no hesitation in lying or spreading misinformation in attempts to get away with their crimes.

It is our year of young people in Scotland, and I take this opportunity to show our solidarity with the children and young people of Palestine, especially those in Gaza, who were born long after the Nakba and who are still suffering its consequences. Half of Gaza’s population is under the age of 18. More than a decade into the siege, the UN estimates that more than 300,000 of them need psychological support, because they are so traumatised by the atrocities that have been inflicted on them.

During the 2014 assault on Gaza, more than 500 children were killed by Israel. That included four boys from one family who were playing football on the beach when they were shelled by the Israeli navy. They were clearly children and clearly not a threat. They were not hit by a single stray shell; they were deliberately attacked. As they fled across the beach, the Israeli ship adjusted its aim and fired a second shell that killed them all. Their names were Ismail Mohammed Bakr, who was 9; Zakaria Ahed Bakr, who was 10; Ahed Atef Bakr, who was 10; and Mohamed Ramez Bakr, who was 11. Their deaths were recorded by the world’s media, 200 metres away in a hotel. Many of those journalists put themselves at risk and did all that they could to save the children and two others who were wounded with them. The Israeli Government spokesperson sent out to spin it all away was, of course, Mark Regev, who is now the Israeli ambassador to the UK. From what I can tell, no war crime is too heinous for Mr Regev to spin.

Israel is the only country in the world to summarily prosecute children in a military court system—not Israeli children, of course; just Palestinian children. Those who object to Israel being labelled an apartheid state should look no further than the situation on the West Bank, where two legal systems exist. Maurice Golden talked about Israel being a country under the rule of law, but there are two legal systems that rule it. The legal system that someone is subject to depends on nothing more than their nationality and ethnicity. A Palestinian living in the Palestinian territory will be subject to Israeli military court systems that deny Palestinians their basic and fundamental rights. An illegal Israeli settler will fall under Israel’s civilian legal system. Israel’s apartheid system goes far beyond the walls that it builds. Just ask the 500 to 700 Palestinian children who are arrested and prosecuted under the military court system every year. Three in four of them are physically abused by their captors, and one in four is forced to sign documents that are written in Hebrew, a language that they do not speak.

Israel is not a beacon of decency and democracy. It is a colonial occupier. It is an apartheid state. It is an abuser of children. We must reject the false equivalence of those who try to obscure Israel’s crimes by framing the conflict as a conflict between equal sides. Palestine has no army, no navy and no air force. For much of the day, Gaza does not even have electricity, and it has barely any running water. While Israel relies on massive economic and military aid packages from the US and the UK, Palestinians rely on our international solidarity and that of those inside Israel, such as Breaking the Silence, which Ivan McKee mentioned, whose work should be admired.

That is why the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign is so important. Just as apartheid South Africa became an international pariah, so must apartheid Israel. We cannot stand by and allow these crimes to go unanswered. We must put pressure on every business and organisation that supports the occupation until they withdraw. The people of Palestine deserve to be free and, here in Scotland, we must do all we can to help them achieve that.

Because of the number of members who still wish to speak in the debate, I am minded to accept a motion without notice, under rule 8.14.3, to extend the debate by up to 30 minutes. I invite Sandra White to move such a motion.

Motion moved,

That, under Rule 8.14.3, the debate be extended by up to 30 minutes.—[Sandra White]

Motion agreed to.

17:32  

I begin by thanking Sandra White for securing the debate to ensure that this day does not go unmarked.

Al Nakba—the catastrophe—is a crime that the world should never forget. It was not just an event; it was the point in history that caused the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It was a crime against humanity and against the Palestinians. There are two sides, but it should be taught to our children in history lessons in our schools, for that reason

The world has remained largely silent and certainly ineffective in challenging Israel, which is the only party in the conflict that can make the necessary concessions to the Palestinians. The events on 15 May 1948 included systematic and violent removal of Palestinians from their homelands. Israel expelled them, colonised their land and annexed their territory. Yaroun in Bint Jbeil, Haifa, Jaffa and Lubya are the names of just some of the Palestinian villages that were taken by force. We know that there were more than 500.

The refugees who ended up in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and dispersed around the world live in the worst conditions. I know that many colleagues have been to see that for themselves. In Shatila camp in Beirut, which I visited last year, young men and women can only dream of a future. Such people have no rights in the countries in which they are refugees. I spoke to a young woman who is desperate to be a doctor, but she cannot achieve her dream because she has no rights in Lebanon, where she lives in a refugee camp.

There can be no settlement without a solution based on the rights of refugees to return to their homeland. More than 80 percent of the Palestinian population lost their homeland, which was expropriated without compensation. They have still not received justice.

As we have heard, Gaza is described as a prison, and is now in its 11th year of blockade. It is unliveable and has only a few hours of electricity every day. It is now being said that Gaza will not be viable by 2021.

If we want to ask why Palestinians are peacefully protesting on the border between Gaza and Israel, it is because they live in a prison and are blockaded by land and by sea, which the world does nothing about. In the West Bank, Palestinians live under occupation, with no rights and daily suffering. As Ross Greer said, there is no equal treatment for Palestinians: they do not have citizenship. Any Jewish person from anywhere in the world can come to the West Bank—occupied territory—and claim citizenship, but my friends from Jerusalem, whose families come from Jerusalem, cannot get citizenship. There is no equality.

UN resolutions are continually ignored by Israel, and no state actor stands up to Israel. To name but one, resolution 194 on the right to return says that no person will be subject to arrest, detention or exile. In fact, the first Israeli Cabinet passed an emergency regulation one day after the adoption of resolution 194 to legalise the confiscation of all property of Palestinian people who were absent and had fled the violence in 1948. Sadly, that is the character of the state of Israel. The question is not about the right of the state of Israel to exist, but about the character of Israel and how it has evolved in the past 70 years.

While addressing the UN, Noam Chomsky, whom I admire, said that many of the world’s problems are “intractable”, but that the Palestine-Israel conflict is one of the world’s solvable problems. He was the first person to observe, as Anas Sarwar rightly said, that the peace talks were never meant to reach a destination; they were to perpetuate a situation in which there is no solution. It is very important to understand that point.

We have witnessed some dreadful scenes in Gaza in the past few days—58 Palestinians have been killed. I say to Maurice Golden and others that I appreciate that we do not have the same view, but surely as a human being he can see that the protesters are unarmed and that the actions of Israel and its army should be condemned outright. The Gaza hospitals do not have enough operating theatres to attend to the injured.

I am struck by the number of young Israelis of all ages who are appalled by the actions of their own state—a state that they love and believe in. The only way to ensure that there is peace in the middle east is for a third party—not the United States—to be an interlocutor to provide for an independent Palestinian state alongside the state of Israel. If no state actor is prepared to challenge Israel’s behaviour and how it conducts its business—it makes no concessions to Palestinians in the peace process—the conflict will, unfortunately, go on for another 70 years. Shame on the international community for doing nothing to stand up to Israel.

17:38  

I congratulate my colleague Sandra White on securing the debate, and thank her for her long-standing and unwavering commitment in highlighting the injustices that are suffered by the Palestinian people at the hands of Israel.

We are here to mark the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, but the Nakba—the catastrophe—did not really start or end in 1948. There was the mass eviction of more than 750,000 men, women and children from historically Palestinian land, and the destruction of more than 500 towns and villages. The Palestinian people were being forcibly removed from their land before 15 May and, today, 70 years later, generations still know the pain of displacement, the pain of protracted conflict and the pain of a prolonged and vicious Israeli occupation, punctuated by frequent incidents of calculated and cowardly violence. We all witnessed such incidents again yesterday. State-sponsored violence is carried out against children as well as adults. Shame on those who describe it as “clashes”; not a single one of us is fooled by the term “clashes” when it is describing what has happened over the past few days. Quite simply, it is a massacre for which there is no justification.

I fear that the actions of the so-called superpowers and the UK’s impotent response simply mean that we have never been further from justice and peace. I cannot have been the only one who was sickened by the grotesque pictures of the decadent back-slapping celebration of US dignitaries as they opened their embassy in Jerusalem as snipers fired at unarmed civilians, maiming and killing. It was a massacre.

Medical Aid for Palestine states that Palestinians who are living under occupation or blockade in the occupied Palestinian territories, or as refugees in Lebanon, are subjected to intolerable stress in every aspect of their daily lives. Lack of access to health services, settler violence, threat of home demolition, unemployment and trauma that is caused by conflict and displacement are all facts of daily life.

More than 4 million displaced people have been registered by the UN as refugees and are unable to return home. A constituent of mine has Palestinian family in Jordan; he tells me that the children have asked their grandpa there many times why he did not stay and he tells them that it was because they were so worried. They knew what was being done and they fled in all directions. There was a mass eviction of more than 750,000 men, women and children and the destruction of more than 500 towns and villages. He believed that it was only temporary and that they would be home soon. Four generations have passed and they are still exiled. Still, there is no justice and still, we are far from peace.

I almost cannot bring myself to imagine how despairing the seeming absence of any prospect of peace, freedom or justice must be. It is absolutely heartbreaking. The old are still alive and the young will never forget. We will not forget here in Scotland either; there are many local organisations campaigning for justice for Palestine, such as the Ayrshire Palestine forum, which this month marched with the trades councils on May day to raise awareness, and which holds regular stalls and events. People should find their local group and support it.

There will be national demonstrations taking place this weekend. People in the west of Scotland might like to join me on 19 May in Glasgow. If people cannot join a group or a demo, they can take action as individuals. Boycott, divestment and sanctions are legitimate peaceful actions to take. They have worked before against apartheid and can work again. Boycott Israeli goods, encourage divestment from Israeli companies and contact MPs and the UK Government to urge sanctions against the racist apartheid state. We have to build a wave of support for Palestine that cannot be ignored.

Finally, I encourage everyone who cares about peace and justice to take action and to do all that they can.

17:42  

I, too, congratulate my friend and colleague Sandra White on all her efforts on behalf of the Palestinian people and on bringing the debate to the chamber. It is important that we remember, 70 years on. Every day has been a day of misery for people there. It is important that we do not forget the role that the UK played. We cannot rewrite history and, of course, history will show us that a bullying state will remove a group of people from their own homes and land; it will seize those homes and land and put its own people in; and it will imprison and abuse the original occupants.

That is what the Nazis did; that is what happened under Stalin in the Soviet Union; and that is what is happening on a daily basis in the apartheid state of Israel. That is an appropriate term. The gentleman who compiled that term in a UN report was hounded around this planet for evidencing the fact that Israel is an apartheid state—that is an example of the bullying that goes on. I condemn unreservedly that inhumanity and I am surprised that a group of people are prepared to condemn only two of those three examples that I mentioned.

I also condemn violence. I think that everyone has a right to defend themselves; I condemn violence. However, the underlying causes of that conflict must be recognised and must be looked at.

Most of all, in this chamber, I have the opportunity to condemn apologists. Mr Golden told us that he came here to debate; he did not come to debate. He could have taken the opportunity to engage in debate; instead, he has kept his head down and read his pre-prepared speech. I do not know who wrote it for him.

In August 2016, while many of us were looking after our constituents—who were concerned about issues around the planet—a group from the Conservative intake to Parliament went to Israel. I will tell members what their leader, John Lamont, said:

“I look forward to exploring ways we can further these political, cultural and economic ties with the Jewish state.”

I have to tell members that I am not alone in finding that term offensive.

When they were there, they took the opportunity to do a bit of sightseeing. I know that you do not like props, Presiding Officer, so I will not hold up the picture, but I can describe it. It shows Messrs Mundell, Ross, Lamont, McInnes, Thomson and Greene, along with Ms Wells, Ms Hamilton and Mr Maurice Golden, at the West Bank wall, which was erected in 2007, in violation of international law, according to the International Court of Justice. They are all standing there grinning profusely with the military officer who built the wall. What a tremendous propaganda success for that vile regime, handed to it on a plate.

I respect international law—it is evident that the Conservatives do not—and I am also prepared to condemn anyone who is involved in violence. There is a lot of concern about state media control that emanates from Russia, and the killing of journalists is a factor there. Of course, we know that that is exactly the same in Israel, and people who are prepared to condemn Russia on that basis should be prepared to condemn Israel. We have heard from many speakers that there has been an intentional targeting of people who have tried to record what is going on and that innocent people with press vests on have been shot.

There are many fine people in Israel. In previous speeches, I have mentioned the respected war correspondent Gideon Levy, who was vilified for documenting in an analytical form what he saw in Gaza, just as he had done in Chechnya and in the Balkan conflict.

Like others, I have visited Gaza—I was there in 2012 with my colleague, Claudia Beamish. It is a human prison. I find it particularly galling that the Conservative Party will condemn a Government providing a baby box to a family but has nothing to say about babies in Gaza being denied electricity, food, sustenance, shelter and, most of all, a future. It is to their eternal shame.

Of course, what we know about Gaza is that it is a successful live test ground for the munitions of Israel’s very successful arms industry.

I want to be positive. I think that justice will prevail. I see that those on the Conservative benches find that amusing, but I do not think that there is anything amusing about justice prevailing. Justice catches up in full. It caught up with the Nazis and it will catch up with the present regime in Israel. People will be put on trial and will be able to say their bit and be defended.

The keys that people have talked about are a wonderful symbol. I think that they will be used to gain access to houses.

I say again that history will judge harshly those who have colluded, promoted, appeased and denied.

People who have spoken today will be subject to online bullying at the conclusion of the debate. That is the way that things work: people come out of the woodwork, or very nice, mild-mannered wee women want to come and see people and harass them. That is the way that it works. That is how it worked with Nazi Germany. That is how it worked with Stalin. That is how it worked with Pol Pot. That is how it works with this regime.

There are many things that could be said, but I am sure that the Presiding Officer is about to tell me to sit down. Let us not forget, what is required—what I want—is the fulfilment of international law in the interests of something approaching humanitarian norms.

I hope that I am allowing members a generous amount of time in this debate, whoever is speaking.

17:48  

I congratulate Sandra White on bringing this motion to the chamber. As Ross Greer said, the timing could not have been more horrifically apt.

A lot has been said about the Nakba. I will not go over that except to say that, if that happened today, we would not be calling it a catastrophe; we would be calling it ethnic cleansing. That is exactly what happened: the Israelis ethnically cleansed the area.

I have not been to Palestine yet—we hoped to arrange a trip once, but it had to be cancelled late on—but I have been to areas that have gone through similar things, such as Uganda and South Sudan. I have also been to Serbia, where I met Syrian refugees—obviously, there are connections there with the Bosnian conflict. I am going to Srebrenica shortly. When I go to such places, I wonder how people can get into a position where such things can happen. People cannot get into that position if they see the other people as being the same as them. What we see in Israel is what has happened in other countries across the world, in that the Israeli Government does not perceive the Palestinian people as being equal to the Israeli people. If it did, it could not possibly treat them in the way that it is treating them just now.

I watched some of those scenes, which were just heartbreaking. Today, a baby died from the effects of tear gas. Members will correct me if I am wrong, but I am fairly confident that—just like the guy in the wheelchair who was mentioned by Ross Greer—that child had not been trying to climb over the wall or go through the wires. Those people are not trying to invade Israel or putting others at risk; they are innocent people, who are being murdered, slaughtered and massacred by the Israeli state. I do not think that it is incumbent on anyone in this Parliament to come here and—to be fair to Maurice Golden, who admittedly did so a bit shamefacedly—get up and defend the Israeli state. It should not be defended.

Mr Golden spoke about there being two sides to the issue, which there are. Some terrible things have happened to the people of Israel. However, in the past year, we could count on the fingers of one hand the number of people who have died through the conflict—although that would be five too many, if that were to be the case. In the time that I have been making this speech, the same number of people have probably been killed in the current conflict. There has to be moral and legal equivalence. The Tories are meant to be the party of the rule of law, but it seems that when it comes to Israel they turn a blind eye to it—just as they do with Trump and the other major forces in this world.

We have heard powerful contributions today from Anas Sarwar and many others. If they are to mean anything at all, we need to make sure that the international community stands up to the bully boys of Israel and tells Trump to get out of his box, go back and build another hotel and leave the world to grow in peace. What he did yesterday was quite shameful and, as was said earlier, it was deliberate. Members might not know that, yesterday, the Israeli Government asked the mosque near the new American embassy whether it could tone down the call to prayer during the celebrations. I am being serious: that shows how insignificant it sees the Palestinian and Muslim populations of Israel as being.

I urge members to think about this issue. The Conservatives and everyone else in this place should think about how we can move forward together, to make this life better for everybody and not as it is just now—which is that some people are treated as though they are higher up and therefore count, but a big swathe of others are treated as though they are down there and do not count. That is not how we should think in this Parliament; the world in general should not be like that. Let us get behind the people of Palestine and get the two-state solution sorted—and let us do so as soon as we possibly can.

17:52  

I declare an interest in that, along with Sandra White and Ross Greer, I am a co-convener of the cross-party group on Palestine.

I thank Sandra White for lodging her motion and for giving us the opportunity for debate today, on the 70th anniversary of the Nakba—although I do so with a very heavy heart, because the motion recognises a day of mourning that should not be happening. It is also a shameful day for the Israeli state, whose actions over all this time have caused untold suffering and have broken the tenets of international law.

For me and for many others across the world, it is also a day of disbelief that the United States President has shown total disrespect for a whole displaced, persecuted and imprisoned people—yes, they are imprisoned in what should be their own land—by moving the American embassy from the capital, Tel Aviv, to Jerusalem, which is a holy city for Christians, Muslims and Jews alike and is thus totally inappropriate as a capital city for anybody. As was reported in The New York Times of 7 December 2017,

“All but two of 11 former United States ambassadors to Israel contacted by The New York Times after President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital thought the plan was wrongheaded, dangerous or deeply flawed.”

Today is also a day to recognise that many Jewish people in Israel and across the world support a just solution for Palestinians. For me, that is symbolised by the handing out of flowers to Arab and Palestinian residents by some 200 activists in the old city of Jerusalem ahead of the flag march, as it is now known, which is a massed rally of thousands of Jewish nationalists that has been criticised as being—and, in my view, is—provocative.

Today is also a day of deplorable déjà vu for me and for many others. When I lived in London as a child, I grew up knowing Palestinian exiles, and I visited Lebanon with my father, who was then a politician, when I was aged 15 and saw the refugee camps. That was 40 years ago. Today, the Nakba, or mourning, recognises 70 years since the start of this shameful story.

As many in the chamber and beyond will know, 5 million Palestinian exiles have been forced out of their lands into camps and other countries across our planet. We have heard about Gaza city, which John Finnie and I—as well as many other members—have visited over the years. I signed his recent motion about Israel being an apartheid state. When we visited the occupied territories in 2012, we witnessed schools and homes that had been bombed in totally disproportionate attacks by the Israeli state. There were desperate shortages of medical supplies in the hospitals. There was also heavy dependence on UN food aid and bottled water because of the Israeli blockade of Gaza. The members’ business debate that I led on the issue when my friend and colleague John Finnie and I came back was entitled “Thirsting for Justice”. There is still no justice.

As was reflected in Sandra White’s previous motion about land day, 17 unarmed Palestinian protesters were killed by Israeli forces as they tried to show their frustration and fury at the illegal occupation of their intergenerational homeland, and more have been injured since that day.

That brings us to yesterday. At least 58 Palestinian protesters are dead and more than 2,000 have been injured. The motion that Anas Sarwar has lodged today notes that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has stated:

“Those responsible for outrageous human rights violations must be held to account.”

I thank Ivan McKee, because Medical Aid for Palestine was at today’s drop-in here in the Scottish Parliament. I ask everyone in the chamber and beyond to consider supporting that charity, which, in deplorable conditions, carries out robust medical work on women’s health and a range of other medical issues and is trying to save the lives of those who were injured yesterday.

In 2018, there is undoubtedly a sense of international community, but where is the sense of global responsibility that will help to find a solution to a 70-year-old injustice? Scotland and Britain must play their part. I ask the Scottish Government to consider protesting about the present deplorable and disproportionate actions of the Israeli state and to demand in the strongest terms that Israel recommences negotiations with the Palestinians on the creation of a Palestinian state and a fair and secure solution for all those affected, wherever they may be.

My colleague and friend Pauline McNeill has just highlighted to me that the UN Security Council is currently holding an emergency meeting to discuss the Gaza protests. The indomitable Palestinian people will not give up the keys, which must not be passed on to another generation. It is time for them to go home. The international community and everyone in the chamber and throughout Scotland and Britain must help to make sure that we play our part in making that happen.

17:58  

I welcome this evening’s debate to recognise the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, which, as we have heard, is known by the Palestinian people as the day of catastrophe. I thank all the members who have taken part in the debate. In particular—as others have done—I thank Sandra White for bringing her motion to Parliament for debate.

It is as well to remember the horrors that we commemorate. In 1948, there were 750,000 evictions and 4 million refugees. Many members have eloquently made the point that we can hardly ignore the horrors of this week, either. It is true, as Mr Golden said, that there has been violence on both sides in the history of this conflict, but this week there has been an escalation of violence by the Israeli Government and we have had the highest death rates in the region since 2014.

Following the recent protests along the Gaza border, there has been appalling, state-sponsored violence leading to large-scale loss of life and thousands of injured, including, as we have heard, children. The Scottish Government urges—as does the Scottish Parliament—that every effort be made to prevent further escalation of the situation. In particular, all possible steps must be taken to protect children along the border. I say to anyone who wishes to be more equivocal about that: we either specifically condemn the killing of children or we do not. I hope that that is the message that leaves this Parliament today.

I echo the First Minister’s words of yesterday in condemning the appalling violence and in urging international law to be upheld and human rights to be respected. I also reiterate the words of the Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop, who last night condemned the Israeli Government’s absolutely excessive use of force against civilians. The use of force on that scale against civilians has to be unjustifiable. I add my own condemnation of the Israeli Government’s actions to the condemnation that has been heard from around this chamber and from around the world.

The cabinet secretary is writing to the UK Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, to express the Scottish Government’s shock over the loss of life and her own dismay over the totally disproportionate response of the Israeli Government. She is also asking the UK Government to do all that it can to urge an immediate solution to the violence and to play a full role in re-establishing a meaningful peace process. To pick up on a point made by a number of members in the debate, the cabinet secretary will seek confirmation from the UK Government that it certainly does not intend to move its own embassy to Jerusalem.

Yesterday alone, 58 Palestinians were killed and thousands more were injured. Protesters streamed to the frontier for the climax of a six-week demonstration, which coincided with the US preparing, as we have heard, to open its embassy in Jerusalem. The decision that the US President took on Jerusalem was, by any reasonable assessment, reckless, wrong and a direct threat to the peace process in the Middle East. That is why the decision was rightly condemned across the international community. To bring us back to where Sandra White began this debate, I state that the status of Jerusalem can be determined only in a negotiated settlement between Israelis and Palestinians and that, ultimately, Jerusalem should be the shared capital of the Israeli and Palestinian states. That is an important principle and the starting point in any quest for peace.

The Scottish Government strongly encourages the Israeli Government and the Palestinian Authority to work with the international community to secure long-term peace and end the heartbreaking cycle of violence that continues to affect both Palestinians and Israelis. Above all, as a Parliament, we must take this opportunity to call directly on the Israeli Government to stop the wildly excessive and totally unjustifiable use of force against civilians. We condemn the reckless decision to open the US Embassy in Jerusalem at the very height of tensions on the Israel-Gaza border. The region needs a considered, balanced and strategic approach to building trust and peace, and the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem has served only to increase distrust and make a long-term peaceful solution less likely.

The Scottish Government, like many others, supports the EU position of a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders and firmly encourages both Israel and Palestine to reach a sustainable, negotiated settlement under international law that has as its foundation mutual recognition and the determination to co-exist peacefully. As we mark the Nakba, with the distressing scenes that we witnessed this week, it is worth reflecting that peace can come only when human rights are respected, international law is upheld and all parties join in a genuine peace process that puts the rights of all at its heart. That very basic respect for human rights is not what happened to the people of Palestine in 1948 and—let us be in no doubt—it is not what is happening to them this week.

Meeting closed at 18:04.