Brendan O'Hara

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair for this hugely important debate, Ms McVey. I begin by thanking everyone from every corner of the UK who signed the petition and forced us into having this debate. It is another perfect example of just how far ahead of the Government and, unfortunately, of this place generally the people of these islands are when it comes to the plight of the beleaguered civilians of Gaza, and demonstrates once again their desire to see peace with justice for the Palestinian people. Never before have I witnessed such a sustained coming together of people and communities who are determined to show solidarity with the victims of what can only be described as one of the greatest injustices of our time. The people have decided that if 70,000 deaths, 200,000 injuries, Gaza being reduced to an uninhabitable wasteland, the population being in the midst of a man-made famine, the medical infrastructure being obliterated and the occupying power using water and electricity as means of coercion and punishment are not enough to make their Government act decisively, they are going to do something themselves. The people can see that, by denying food and medicine to the starving and the dying, and repeatedly forcing the displacement of millions of civilians, Israel is, beyond any dispute, in flagrant breach of the genocide convention. They also see that the UK has failed abysmally in its legal obligation to both prevent and punish the crime of genocide. By their actions, the people from across these islands are saying to their Government, “Not in my name.” I pay tribute to the groups in my constituency of Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber that have organised, petitioned, prayed, raised awareness and raised funds for the people of Gaza over the past two years. Events take place every single week. I thank every one of the individuals involved for their humanitarianism and their determination not to turn a blind eye to the suffering and the injustice, as I fear far too many of us have been persuaded to do. In the past three weeks alone, community-led events have taken place in Oban, Dunoon, the Isle of Bute and the village of Ardentinny. I put on record my appreciation of the astonishing efforts of Kathryn Wilkie, Graham McQueen, Marion Power and Dr Anna Leerssen from Oban Concern for Palestine, who raised more than £11,000 for medical aid for Palestinians at one fundraising event in the town a couple of weeks ago. A population of just 8,000 people raising that amount of money is absolutely remarkable. They are not alone. Last week I spoke at an event organised by Father Roddy McAuley and the parishioners of St Mun’s in Dunoon, where, following a mass for justice and peace and a lively discussion about how we can advance justice and peace in Palestine, a collection was taken for the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund’s Gaza appeal. The same evening, in Rothesay, the Isle of Bute Palestine Solidarity Group held a sold-out music event, raising almost £1,200 for humanitarian projects in Gaza. The following day, in the tiny village of Ardentinny, Dina Macdonald organised an afternoon of music with Rickeera Kaur of the Argyll and Bute Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign where villagers raised funds for humanitarian aid. Those are just the events that I know about; I am sure there have been many others across Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber. People and communities are refusing to sit back and, by their silence and inaction, allow the suffering of the people of Gaza to be conveniently forgotten about. It confirms what I have known for the past two years: when it comes to supporting defenceless civilians from genocide, the people of these islands are miles ahead of the current and the previous Government. They know that, however welcome the arrival of a ceasefire might be, the crisis has not gone away. There are still millions of people suffering who desperately need our help. Given the shameful track record of successive UK Governments over the past two years, they have to be held to account and never be allowed to give up on their moral responsibility to the people of Gaza. The people of these islands recognise that, unlike other one-off appeals made at times of humanitarian crisis, this is not a natural disaster. This is an unnatural disaster being perpetrated by one of the UK’s closest allies while the UK Government continue to provide them with political and military support. It is not that the current Government or the previous Government do not know what Israel is doing. In May the then Foreign Secretary, the right hon. Member for Tottenham (Mr Lammy), openly acknowledged Israeli war crimes against the civilian population when he said, “the Israeli Government’s denial of food to hungry children…is wrong. It is appalling.”—[Official Report, 20 May 2025; Vol. 767, c. 927.] But not, it would appear, appalling enough to stop the supply of weapons and end military co-operation, for the UK to make available the contents of reconnaissance flights over Gaza to anyone bar the Israeli military, or for meaningful sanctions and a co-ordinated effort to end the siege and have aid flood into Gaza free from Israeli control. It is inconceivable that the UK would have allowed any other state to act with the impunity with which it is allowing Israel to act. The UK rightly sanctioned Russia, but now stands rightly accused of allowing a two-tier system of international law to operate. The UK Government’s failure to put significant pressure on Israel to lift the siege is nothing new. Last year, as a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I visited Al-Arish on the Egypt-Gaza border, where I saw warehouses full of donated medical equipment, including wheelchairs, crutches, incubators, individual birthing kits for women in labour, medical cold storage boxes, generators and water storage bladders. They were in warehouses because the Israeli authorities had rejected out of hand the Red Crescent’s application to deliver them to those most in need in Gaza. There were warehouses full of food and miles and miles of lorries parked up waiting for permission from Israel to deliver that food aid. That is what I mean when I say that this is an unnatural disaster—unnatural because it is deliberate. It is a man-made catastrophe in which people are not starving; they are being starved. The Prime Minister recognised that in September when he said, “The Israeli Government are preventing urgently needed aid from getting in, which is why we are now seeing a man-made famine”.—[Official Report, 3 September 2025; Vol. 772, c. 286.] Yet despite recognising that the Israeli Government are responsible for creating this man-made famine by using food as a weapon of war, that same Prime Minister and his Government have steadfastly refused to do anything other than impose performative sanctions against a couple of individual Ministers, while continuing to provide the military and political support the Netanyahu regime needs to continue doing what it wants. That is why the people of the United Kingdom have over the past two years come together to support the civilian population in the way that they have. By signing this petition, people in every corner of the UK, including the great folk of Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber, are demanding that the UK Government do much more to hold Israel to account for its actions, to force Israel to lift the siege, and to assist the United Nations in flooding Gaza with whatever assistance is required to end the appalling suffering. I sincerely thank them, commend them and applaud them for their efforts.