Roger speaks in Westminster Hall debate in support of Palestine and says Tel Aviv needs to start listening
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On Monday 1 December Roger spoke in a Westminster Hall debate to condemn the current “tourniquet around Palestine”. He argued that while America continues to support Israel, the UK Government or even the EU will not be able to stop the ongoing misery in Palestine.
Roger, who tabled an Early Day Motion calling for an embargo on arms sales to Israel in response to this summer’s appalling violence, pointed out that the American Government provides more than $2.5 billion-worth of arms to Israel every year.
Said Roger: “The Israeli Government have no interest whatever in negotiating with the Palestinians or in trying to reach a settlement. I wish I could have better hope for the future of the middle east, but I despair—day by day, more and more—of whether there will be a solution. I fear that the only resolution will be through conflict. That is not what I want, and it is not what the people of the middle east want, but that is what is going to happen.
"I can see no desire on the part of the Israeli Government to negotiate and I cannot see the American Government doing anything to undermine the position of Israel. I say again, therefore, that I view the situation in the middle east with despair. I hope that I am totally wrong, and that at the end of the day there will be negotiations—including with Hamas, which has to be involved—but I simply cannot see any of that happening. We may wring our hands in this Chamber, saying that we should do this or that, but I am afraid that people in Tel Aviv are not listening.”
You can read the full debate here.
