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My Lords, I thank the Minister for granting us the opportunity to ask questions on this important Statement. These measures amount to a major change in the UK’s approach to the region, so it is right that we are scrutinising them in your Lordships’ House today.
In the other place, the Foreign Secretary and my right honourable friend the shadow Foreign Secretary rightly noted the consensus across both our parties on the need for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. We agree that the settlements are illegal. We are both firm in our resolve that Israel has a right to defend itself. I welcome the Foreign Secretary’s explicit statement that he is unwavering in his support for the State of Israel. We also agree that His Majesty’s Government were right to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, although I remind the Minister that the Government consistently resisted our amendments to prescribe the IRGC and had to be dragged to this position by noble Lords on all sides of this House.
The question that we must ask ourselves today is whether the Government’s actions have moved us closer to a two-state solution or whether this is a backward step. The Foreign Secretary said a number of times that the UK must not be a bystander. Today we have learned that Israel has ordered the closure of the British consulate. Can the Minister say whether the news will undermine the UK’s ability to influence the future of the region? Have the Government now made the UK a bystander and a weaker influence on Israel as a result of these announcements? Can he also say what the FCDO advice was on the risk of the UK’s influence in the region being weakened as a result of yesterday’s announcement?
Then there is the matter of the timing. Only a matter of weeks ago, Ministers in the previous Government, some of whom now serve in this Government also, were saying in writing that any trade ban targeting settlements would be practically very difficult to enforce. Can the Minister confirm that this ban will in fact need primary legislation that will not be enacted for many months? The Foreign Secretary indicated nine months, but even seems optimistic to me. Can the Minister indicate when we can expect to see this draft legislation?
It has also been said by many that the Government have made a serious mistake by announcing this dramatic change in policy just weeks before an Israeli election. Bloomberg reported yesterday that British Foreign Office officials were quietly reassuring the Trump Administration that these trade sanctions were “largely symbolic”, which perhaps explains the somewhat muted US reaction.
It seems clearer by the day that this announcement has nothing to do with peace in the Middle East but everything to do with peace in the Labour Party. Can the Minister say whether Ministers even considered the risk that these measures would in fact strengthen the hand of extremist politicians in Israel who oppose the two-state solution? Yesterday, my honourable friend the Shadow Foreign Secretary asked him to say what instructions had been given to the Foreign Office on the accreditation of diplomats to the so-called Palestinian Embassy should Hamas win the elections in November and send their envoys here; he did not receive an answer. The Foreign Secretary also refused to answer the same question on Radio 4 this morning. Let me give the Minister another opportunity to do so now.
I have deliberately left the most important issue until last. Whatever His Majesty’s Government’s approach may be to issues across the world, their first duty should be to the British people. We must always stand up for British Jews. Antisemitism has no place in this country. The Chief Rabbi yesterday accused the Government of “mendacious anti-Israel rhetoric” that would put Jewish people in danger. Can the Minister please reassure the House that the Government will do everything in its power to keep British Jews safe? They are our fellow countrymen and women, and no conflict in another part of the world should be allowed to feed hate in this country. It is not just security measures for synagogues, schools and community centres that we need; although these measures are essential in this time of rising antisemitism, we need a much wider approach across our politics and in communities across the country to stamp out antisemitism. May I ask the Minister one final question before I sit down? What more are the Government going to do to end the scourge of antisemitism in the UK?
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My Lords, the choice of who forms the Israeli Government is for the Israeli people and them alone. Our foreign policy is for our Government, and our legislation is for this Parliament. No British Jewish person should be held to account for the actions of another Government—an Israeli Government. Antisemitism, at too high a rate, is utterly repugnant and has no place in our communities. I reiterate what I have said on a number of occasions, and I hope that the Minister might take this forward: there should be the highest-level cross-party talks on increasing measures to tackle this scourge in our country.
That said, I agree with the Foreign Secretary’s comment in his Statement that the Labour Government have not done enough in response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank. Therefore, these Benches welcome the actions taken by 12 countries, including the United Kingdom, to act on ensuring that there is no impunity for the comprehensive disregard for the rule of law in the West Bank.
The Foreign Secretary referred to the time of the Oslo accords and the number of those who resided in the illegal settlements. That number is very high. But I want to go a little bit further back and quote the first speech by Lord Carrington, as Foreign Secretary in the Thatcher Government in 1979, in this Chamber. In this speech, he said of the West Bank that:
“The objective here must be full and genuine autonomy for these areas as a step towards determining their final status. Nothing would do more to help these negotiations, to build trust in the area, and to win the consent of the Palestinians than for Israel to cease the expansion of its settlements in the occupied territories ”.—[Official Report, 22/5/1979; col. 240.]
Then, there were not much more than 15,000 settlers in the illegally occupied areas. Today, there are more than 750,000. The challenges ahead are enormous, but Lord Carrington got the prescription of the problem exactly right.
I have seen the impunity both for those who are in the illegally occupied territory and for those in the outposts. In September 2024, I visited the area and saw part of the destruction and the intimidation by illegal settlers in outposts in the West Bank that are illegal under Israeli law. Our sanctions will not make any difference there. On my return to this House, I called for action and an end to the impunity, because settler violence was the worst on record in the year leading up to 7 October, and it has got worse since.
If the established view across all parties in this House is that outposts are illegal under both Israeli and international law, and that settlements are illegal under international law, surely it is a natural position that UK law should not facilitate trade and investment with those illegal outposts. I do not understand those who are saying that we should not have our law respecting Israeli law.
Further, it is surely a natural position that, for those who facilitate settlements and outposts that are illegal under Israeli law, our law should ensure that both finance and violence by intimidation should also be illegal. My first-hand sight of the intimidation was on a particular occasion where the settler was South African and had secured and formalised his Israeli citizenship on the flight from South Africa.
Unfortunately, actions to ensure that there is no peace in Gaza and the West Bank are happening through a systematic approach by some of those outpost communities. Lord Carrington was right that the outposts and settlements were a hindrance and block to peace.
I ask the Minister how we in the United Kingdom will ensure that Hamas gangsters are prevented from being part of governance. We called for the IRGC to be proscribed and were, on occasions, frustrated that the previous Government refused to do so. We welcome this Government’s proscription of it.
We have also been supportive of the recognition of the state of Palestine. But, on the balance of ensuring that Hamas is not part of the governance, we need to ensure that there is good governance for Palestine, and that is why we were critical of the Government cutting development partnership support for the very governance and transparency for Palestine that we will need in the future.
The previous Government perpetuated a cut of 80% to ODA for Palestine, which this Government are continuing. I hope that the Minister might review this, to ensure that the UK’s support for good governance increases and does not continue to fall. The travesty of the Trump Administration’s failed humanitarian agency shows the need for there to be clarity, law and order, and good governance.
Finally, I hope that the Minister will be able to confirm that the sanctions regime that will be put in place will ensure that all those involved in circumvention of the sanctions regime will be caught within it, so that there is no impunity for those within this country, under our law, to continue to support the expansion of outposts that are illegal under Israeli law.
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I thank the noble Lords, Lord Callanan and Lord Purvis, for their comments. I will answer their questions in a minute, but I think it might be helpful to give a little bit of context that will help me provide some of the answers they are looking for.
This Government think that the situation in Palestine is a moral emergency. We all know—we can see with our eyes—what the Israeli Government have inflicted on the people of Gaza. It is an outrage. There is increasing evidence that war crimes appear to have been committed in Gaza, and we are witnessing unprecedented violence, including settler terrorism, in the West Bank.
What the Foreign Secretary announced yesterday was a decision not to stand by and let this happen. We are going to be stronger in standing up for what is right and bolder in the action we take.
What is striking is that all parties—the Liberal Democrats, Conservative and Labour, at the very least, but others as well—support the two-state solution, as the noble Lord, Lord Callanan, eloquently stated at the outset of his remarks: freedom, security and self-determination for both Palestinian and Israeli people.
This action is designed to defend this policy at a time when the already diminishing prospects for that solution are under serious threat. That is why we have concluded that Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestinian territory is unlawful, in line with the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion in 2024. That is why we have brought in the various sanctions regime measures that the Foreign Secretary talked about yesterday. I am happy to talk about those in more detail in a minute in response to some of these questions.
Turning to the questions from the noble Lord, Lord Callanan, it is striking that he started his remarks by supporting our policy but is unwilling to support the means by which we prosecute our policy at a time when it is needed most. He asked whether our actions would undermine influence. How Israel responds is a matter for Israel, just as our foreign policy is a matter for us. We have very strong and continuing security co-operation with Israel. That will continue. It is in the interests of our country, Israel, the wider region and the West in general.
The noble Lord also asked about support. We have support most notably from the Palestinian representatives of the people whom these measures affect most. We also have support directly from France and Canada, which aligned their policies yesterday, the day that the Foreign Secretary announced our new approach, and 12 other countries, as the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, said, which are going to support economic measures to pursue the same goal.
The noble Lord asked about legislation for sanctions. It is a good question. There is a series of separate things. We are taking immediate action under existing legislation to target individual settlers—an action that the Conservative Government also took against individual settlers a few years ago. We are going to extend the global human rights regime to include violations of humanitarian law. We expect that to be brought into force in the next few weeks. In the longer term, as the noble Lord said, it will take six months or more to develop a new, targeted approach to companies that assist or profit from the expansion of settlements. There are challenges in bringing that about. There is no doubt about it. There will be tough cases, particularly as we are committed to protecting the integrity of trade with green-line Israel. But we are confident that we have a sophisticated sanctions regime, with various institutions that have played a part in applying sanctions elsewhere. I have taken decisions in my short time in this job with regard to Russia, for example. We have sophisticated co-ordination between HMRC, OTSI, OFSI and other bodies that we are confident can deliver a manageable regime.
The noble Lord asked about timing in advance of the elections. The elections, as the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, said more eloquently than I could, are a matter for the Israeli people. Our responsibility is to our country and to advance a policy that defends the commitments that are shared not just across parties but, we believe, across the country.
On Hamas, let me be absolutely clear that there should be no place for Hamas in the future governance of Palestine. We have taken strong action on the proscription of Hamas. We will continue to take strong action against Hamas in funding and also against individuals. At the moment, the priority is to support the United States’ 20-point plan. That is a crucial plank for achieving the restoration of order and peace in the region. However, we will not hesitate to use the powers we have to target Hamas individually and collectively in the future.
The noble Lord asked about the Chief Rabbi’s comments. I have huge respect for the Chief Rabbi, but I disagree with his conclusion. Antisemitism is a scourge not just in our country but elsewhere. It is something that everyone should take hugely seriously and do the utmost to stamp out, but the Government have to be able to take decisions about the foreign policy of another Government. They have to have the freedom to do that. As the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, again eloquently said, we should all condemn eliding the distinction between British Jews and the responsibilities they have and the Israeli Government and the responsibilities they have. We should deny that connection.