(Non-Afl): ...This coming
Saturday, this global movement of 1 million women will rise and
coalesce alongside hundreds of thousands of men and women of
every background, creed, colour and faith, or none. They will
stand in solidarity with all the oppressed, occupied and violated
women of our world, and in opposition to the killing of women and
children in their thousands. They will call for an immediate halt
to the killing fields of Palestine, where 30,000 women, children
and their families have been murdered, tens of thousands buried
under tons of rubble, with bombs more horrific than Hiroshima,
while 70,000 more have been injured, maimed or burned with
phosphorus, or are starving—women and children—without water,
basic food or medicine.
We must hold the perpetrators to account. Until that time,
together with many hundreds of thousands, I shall march in peace
and solidarity, giving voice to those who cannot. In honour of
the Palestinian mothers, daughters and granddaughters who have
been slaughtered, I will walk in the tradition of my country—this
country—and shout out to demand that our Government must stop
their support for the Israeli occupying force
and its brutal warfare on the Palestinian people. The PM should
rest assured that such marches will not stop until that slaughter
stops...
...I hope that these marchers will continue to oppose the actions
of our Government, who are so complicit with
Israel’s breaking of international laws and
breaching the international norms of war. The PM standing and
declaring war on protestors may provide temporary cover over his
conscience. Allying them with extremist behaviour will do nothing
to dissuade me, my neighbours, my children or my grandchildren
from marching in the tradition of the Suffragettes, and for all
those who march today for freedom and justice, as they have done
for hundreds of years. Yes, to call for freedom and justice
across all the rivers and the seas, and all the continents, until
all women in all nations are free and triumph over occupation,
oppression, wars and genocide...
(Lab):..Can you imagine
never being able to go out, week after week, nor let your
children out? Similarly, women on both sides of the
Israel-Palestine conflict are advocating for
peace amid bloodshed...
(Lab):
My Lords, before I move on to the substantive part of my speech,
I want to touch on the impact on women of war, of which we have
seen too many examples in the past 12 months, in Ukraine, Gaza
and Israel We have seen
graphic examples of the use of sexual violence as a weapon of
war, in Israel on 7
October; the horror faced by mothers in the war in Gaza; and the
fear faced by yet more mothers and women, terrified at the fate
of the hostages taken by Hamas and the children stolen by Putin.
As always, it is the women who are desperately seeking to protect
and hold their families together in the face of horror...
...There is Halima Idris Salim, a Sudanese journalist who was run
down while covering the conflict by the paramilitary Rapid
Support Forces. Mossamat Sahara, a photographer for the daily
Alor Jagat in Bangladesh, was killed while documenting a
smuggling operation. Farah Omar, a Lebanese correspondent, was
killed in a rocket strike in southern Lebanon, near the
Israeli border, while reporting on hostilities
in the region..
(LD):...This century has
seen an increase in the intensity and impact of conflict and
violence on civilians globally, with Afghanistan, Ukraine, the
conflict in Israel
Gaza and the West Bank, and Sudan. The Mines Action Group reports
that about 80% of the victims of small arms and light weapons are
women and children. Our development budget and strategy should
not just say that it recognises this but translate that into the
necessary actions....
