(Brigg and Goole) (Con):...I
also want to thank other teams I have worked with, including
Conservative Friends of Israel particularly
James Gurd, the political director, who is now a close friend of
mine; the European Leadership Network; and the Antisemitism
Policy Trust, which I have worked very closely with, including
with Danny Stone, who is also in the Gallery today. I also thank
SurrogacyUK, which I worked with on my all-party parliamentary
group on surrogacy.
I am so proud to have served in this place. It is an amazing
privilege to get that opportunity, but I am sad to be leaving at
a time when a couple of issues particularly close to my heart are
in the news and are of such concern. The first is the appalling
rise in Jew hate—antisemitism—in this country. It breaks my heart
to see Jewish people in this country frightened and afraid to go
about their business, showing their faith. It is a stain on our
democracy and our country, and it is happening across the west.
Antisemitism is the canary in the coalmine...
Dr (Hendon) (Con):...My hon.
Friend the Member for Brigg and Goole has seen other things as
well. A particular issue of concern to my constituents is that
of Israel which is
understandable. My hon. Friend and I visited Israel a few weeks
after the 7 October attacks. We visited Kfar Aza, and I only wish
that each and every Member here in Parliament could experience
what we did. I have not said this before, but my hon. Friend said
to me that he could not take pictures during that day, and I told
him that we must. Just as Bert Hardy and other photographers went
into Bergen-Belsen and the other concentration camps, I said, “We
have to go there and take pictures, so that the world knows this
really did happen.” We have had people saying that it did not
happen, but I can assure you, Madam Deputy Speaker, that it
did.
I would be one of those hawkish Members who wants to see the
issue in Gaza resolved, but I do not believe a ceasefire now
would achieve that. I do not want to see any deaths on any side,
but when Members said recently in a debate that there had been
30,000 civilian deaths, I tried to challenge that. We do not know
how many of those people are civilians and how many are Hamas
fighters—the Foreign Office said that it has not made a
prediction of that number—but we do know that 80% of people in
Gaza support Hamas, and Hamas has got to be removed.
The decision of Ireland, Norway and Spain this week to recognise
an independent Palestinian state is not only wrong, but allows
the conclusion to emerge that terrorism works, and we cannot
allow that. It is simply impossible to recognise a state that has
never existed in any meaningful form, so what exactly are those
countries recognising? I gently say to the premiers of Spain and
Ireland that they have never particularly recognised their
minority communities.
My right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May) said
that you should never ask a question in this place if you do not
know the answer. There was an occasion when I asked the former
Prime Minister—now Lord Cameron—if he would visit Israel I have to say
that one of the best experiences of being in Parliament was the
moment when I visited in his suite at the King David
hotel. We walked past the guys with machine guns guarding him,
and we sat and drank whisky with him. I have to say that it was
not that different from sitting on the throne in Saddam Hussein's
palace in Baghdad—of course, without Saddam Hussein, and with
whisky...
