But no reply at all,
I spoke too soon. This dropped through my letter box today
Thank you for writing to me regarding Gaza and for your kind words about my speech to the rally in Wharf Green. I warmly welcome the suggestions you have made to me regarding future courses of action. I will consider these, but as you might understand I want to coordinate the action I take with Labour Friends of Palestine and likeminded colleagues in Parliament.
In November, before the current conflict began, I spoke in the House of Commons chamber asking David Miliband about Egypt's role in the middle east peace process and what discussions has he had with the Egyptian Government on negotiating an extension to the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Now, of course, it is even more pressing that a lasting ceasefire is brokered, and that aid be allowed into Gaza - that is my priority.
In the mean time I enclose a letter from Douglas Alexander which you are welcome to circulate.
Decidedly non-committal I think you'll agree. I wonder how much of this is because she is member of both Labour Friends of Palestine and Labour Friends of Israel, and how much is because she's probably expecting me to reproduce her letter here on TS.
Anyway, her priority is that aid be allowed into Gaza? Yes, that's very important at the moment, but IMHO it's more important in the long term to bring about a situation whereby Gaza doesn't need any aid, and Ms Snelgrove doesn't mention this at all. More about this in a bit.
But first, at risk of being taken for an unpaid press officer for Little London Street, here is the enclosed letter.
Dear Colleague,
I wanted to make sure that you have the information that you need on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, as I know many of you will be meeting with community leaders and speaking at mosques in your constituencies over the weekend.
Today I met with charities and Non-Governmental Organisations to brief them on the current situation and to discuss their plans for providing on-going humanitarian relief. The meeting included the British Red Cross, CARE International UK, Christian Aid, CAFOD, the Disasters and Emergencies Committee, Islamic Relief Worldwide, Islamic Relief UK, Medical Aid for Palestinians, the Mines Advisory Group, Mercy Corps, Merlin, Muslim Aid, Oxfam GB, Save the Children UK, the Welfare Association and World Vision UK. I hope that I will soon be able to allocate funding to those charities and NGOs which have the most effective plans to deliver humanitarian assistance on the ground.
I have also taken this opportunity to express the continuing concerns of the UK Government in media interviews with Al-Jazeera, Muslim News, Al Arabiya MBC TV, ARY One World, Islamic Republic News Agency, Asharq al-Aswat, Al-Quds al-Arabi, Nahdat Mist and the Jewish Chronicle.
I explained that our relief at the ceasefire is matched by our distress that it has taken so long to achieve. The death of over a thousand people stand testament to the scale and duration of the conflict. Our position has been unequivocal in calling for an immediate, permanent and fully respected ceasefire. We all hope that the ceasefire will hold and that a political solution will be found, but in the meantime, it is clear that the humanitarian situation will be dire for some time to come. Around 100,000 people have left their homes, and over 50,000 people are sheltering in 50 UN emergency shelters.
I know that many of your constituents will want to provide help towards the humanitarian situation in Gaza. The booklet 'Disasters and Emergencies Overseas: How You Can Help', published by DFID in partnership with the Disasters and Emergencies Committee (DEC), informs the public how DFID and other organisations respond to major disasters and what they can do to help save the lives of people in an international emergency. The booklet can be accessed at http://www.dfid.gov.uk/emergencies/default.asp
DEC have today launched a fundraising appeal at http://www.dec.org.uk
On Sunday, I announced £20 million to fund humanitarian assistance, in addition to the $6.8 million I committed on 31st December. Since my announcement on Sunday, funding has already been allocated as follows:
- £4 million has been allocated to the International Committee for the Red Cross to help deliver medical supplies, and support evacuation of the wounded to Egypt.
- £1 million has been allocated to the World Food Programme to coordinate the relief effort - setting up staging areas in Egypt and Israel and negotiating transfer of humanitarian goods into Gaza with the Egyptian / Israeli authorities.
- £1 million has been allocated for the UN's Humanitarian Emergency Response Fund to enable the UN's local Humanitarian Coordinator to quickly allocate funds to emerging priorities.
- £4 milion has been allocated for the UNRWA's Gaza appeal. The appeal will help UNWRA feed 550,000 people, provide shelter for those who have been displaced, provide cash assistance for up to 2,500 families, and provide fuel to maintain essential public services.
Preparations are also underway for three UK armoured vehicles to be airlifted to Israel to be used by UN agencies for initial assessments and delivery of aid.
As well as organising support to hospitals, we are funding the International Committee for the Red Cross to help ensure co-ordination of ambulance movement to evacuate wounded children to Egypt.
We are also funding the UN Mines Advisory Service to start this week on work to clear unexploded ordinance.
I will ensure that the DIFD website is kept updated with the latest information, available at www.difd.co.uk and I will continue to provide updates through the PLP. If you need any additional information or advice please contact my PPS Kerry McCarthy or my office on 020 7023 1602.
I can't really fault any of the actions outlined by Mr Alexander (although airlifting armoured vehicles to Israel rings a few alarm bells, even if they are for the UN to use).
But where I do find fault is in what is missing.
It's all very well spending £20 million on trying to fix the things that have been broken by an act of war, but that sort of pales into insignificance when compared to the nearly
£1 billion spent annually on subsidising the export of weapons of war, with Israel being one of the customers. Funny the way that when the government in Gaza (yes, that's Hamas, they were elected fair and square, regardless of what you or I might think of them) takes delivery of weapons the media calls it "smuggling" but when the Israeli government takes delivery of weapons they call it "international trade". So...
Will you be calling for an embargo on arms exports to Israel?
No answer
Consider for a moment Northern Ireland. This has been a disputed land since long before I was born, and since the Irish Republic became independent from the UK early in the 20th century, the six counties of Northern Ireland have been the subject of a heated, and often violent, struggle between two groups; those who consider it to be part of Ireland and those who consider it to be part of the UK. During this time, paramilitaries / terrorists on both sides killed a lot of innocent people, and the UK armed forces also killed people whose guilt was at best questionable.
I'm not going to go into the Northern Ireland situation in depth, except to say that in the last decade the situation there has improved considerably. I'm not saying that all is rosy in Northern Ireland, there are still many issues to be resolved. But most of the paramilitary / terrorist groups have put down their weapons and their causes are being argued in a NI Assembly chamber instead, and no innocents are being killed or injured in the process. And (IMHO) the simple reason for this change is that the protagonists started talking to each other, instead of killing each other and anyone else who happened to be in the way. Jaw-jaw instead of war-war. Much more preferable
Apply this logic to the Israel / Palestine situation. The Israeli government refuses to acknowledge Hamas as a genuine political entity and elected representative of the Palestinian people, preferring instead to call them a terrorist group. Likewise, I gather that Hamas refuses to acknowledge the existence of Israel. This is what needs to change in order to bring about a lasting peace - the opposing sides need to talk to each other, and in order to do that, they need to recognise each other as being someone to talk to.
There is a small nugget of hope in my heart that Anne Snelgrove might prove to be the key to this solution, being a member of both Labour Friends of Israel and Labour Friends of Palestine, that she might be able to get the two sides talking to each other. But seeing as she doesn't really have a track record for deviating from the proscribed government line of the moment, it's only a very small nugget.
Will you be calling for the Israeli government and all other governments (including the UK) to recognise Hamas as a democratically elected government, and to include them in negotiations for a peaceful and just settlement to the Israel/Palestine issue?
No answer
