Is Palestine Becoming Mainstream in British Politics?

Asa Winstanley, writing for the Electronic Intifada today asks, Is Palestine going mainstream in British politics?

On Wednesday, 4 July, a public meeting took place in the British Parliament’s Grand Committee room. Speaking on the panel of members of parliament were a Conservative former career soldier, a senior minister in two previous Labor governments, and a member of Labor Friends of Israel. What could they all possibly have had in common?

They had assembled to speak at a meeting about the reality of Palestinian life under Israeli occupation in the West Bank. This followed a trip they had participated in, organized by the Council for Advancing Arab-British Understanding.

Here are some quotes from British MPs who spoke at the event.

“unless the settlements stop, there can be no chance whatever of a two-state solution, and the only alternative … is a one-state solution — one state where Jews and Palestinians recognize one another as equals. Surely that is not totally utopian.” Colonel Bob Stewart MP

The UK and EU should “move beyond the ritual criticism and condemnation that we always make of the Israeli authorities, and sue them for damages” because of their “illegal demolition of [Palestinian] infrastructure that has been built with British, UK, EU or international money.” Ben Bradshaw MP

“If all I am paying for now and all my constituents are paying for now is simply the maintenance of an occupation .. can I keep going back asking them for money? Surely there has to be an impulse for change … we are funding this occupation,”  John Denham MP

“Investigating the legal status of goods that are produced in the occupied territories … the government has actually, I think for the first time, today said something concrete about those types of actions in relation to specifically the occupied territories," Ian Lucas MP

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