Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy MP
Responding for the Labour party to today’s House of Commons statement on the situation in Gaza, shadow foreign secretary and LFI parliamentary supporter David Lammy reiterated Labour’s position of condemnation of Hamas and expressed the party’s desire to see a renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
With regard to Hamas, Lammy said: “Hamas’s stated aim is to wipe Israel off the map. They committed the most brutal attack on Jews since the holocaust and now they are using innocent Palestinians as human shields. I would like to register my shock that not every Member of this House can say this truth: Hamas are terrorists.”
On the need for a peace process, he continued: “We must not give up on the narrow openings that keep the prospect of peace alive. That means preventing escalation, condemning violence from settlers in the west bank, condemning rocket attacks on Israel from Iran’s proxies in Lebanon and elsewhere, and creating a future where Gaza is not subject to occupation. Meanwhile, international diplomacy evolves and the facts on the ground are changing day to day, in relation to both hostages being rescued and Hamas’s capability to carry out attacks such as we saw on 7 October. As the Leader of the Opposition set out to Chatham House, we must move to a full “cessation of fighting as quickly as possible…the reality is that neither the long-term security of Israel nor long-term justice for Palestine can be delivered by bombs and bullets.” We must seek a path to a political process that leads to two states, a secure Israel and an independent Palestine.”
Read the full statement here.