Former Tory minister Kit Malthouse has accused Israel of having replaced the previous aid distribution system in Gaza with “a shooting gallery, an abattoir, where starving people are lured out through combat zones to be shot at.”
In his latest anti-Israel outburst the former education minister berated foreign office minister Hamish Falconer saying:”We’re all frankly getting a bit fed up with the theatrics in this chamber.
“If I’m honest with the minister, it feels like the whole House is being played. He shows up, he mouths the words full of condemnation and being appalled, and very occasionally, the government leaks out just enough sanctions. Frankly, I’m afraid, colleagues, to keep the Labour benches from open revolt.”
Malthouse said since the minister had last given a statement, Israel had announced 22 new West Bank settlements.
He then claimed the Israeli government has replaced the UNRWA Palestinian relief agency’s aid distribution system “with a shooting gallery, an abattoir, where starving people are lured out through combat zones to be shot at.”
Malthouse has long been an outspoken critic of Israel, and was joined in the Commons by Tory MPs Jeremy Wright and Roger Gale who both issued their own condemnation of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Gale claimed he and three Tory MPs had attempted to deliver a letter calling for Palestinian state recognition to Keir Starmer, but they where not allowed to do so.
Sir Jeremy Wright, who served as attorney general during David Cameron and Theresa May’s Conservative governments, said Israel’s actions meant he thought the recognition of Palestine should be brought forward.
He said: “The policy of successive UK governments has been that the United Kingdom will recognise the state of Palestine when it’s conducive to the peace process, and to the ultimate realisation of the two-state solution. Up to this point I have accepted the argument that the minister and his predecessors have made, that that moment has not yet come.
“But hasn’t the balance shifted decisively? With the succession of moves to greater territorial change in the West Bank by increased settlement activity and by increasingly blunt and very frequent statements by members of the Israeli government that we are going to restrict Palestinians to a subset of Gaza, or restrict Palestinians from Gaza altogether.
“That’s what has changed my mind, such that I now believe it’s necessary for the UK, hopefully in conjunction with others, to recognise the state of Palestine urgently. Why has it not yet changed the Government’s mind?”