Israeli-Arab Dispute (Hansard, 8 June 1988)

§ 2. Mr. Robert Hicks
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he intends to take any new initiatives to try to resolve the Israeli-Arab dispute; and if he will make a statement.

§ The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Sir Geoffrey Howe)
We continue to work for the convening of an international conference as a framework for negotiations to resolve the conflict, and we urge all parties to respond positively to Secretary Shultz's continuing initiative.

§ Mr. Hicks
Is my right hon. and learned Friend aware that the Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories is now entering its seventh month? Does he agree that during that period the Palestinians have shown commendable restraint? Does that not suggest that the time has come, if we are to make the progress that my right hon. and learned Friend seeks, to speak to and recognise the PLO, which represents the Palestinians in the occupied territories?

§ Sir Geoffrey Howe
I agree with my hon. Friend that the long duration of the patient protest of the Palestinian people in the occupied territories underlines the urgency of the case for action towards the settlement of this long-running dispute. We are in regular dialogue at official level with the organisation to which my hon. Friend refers. The PLO is well aware of those aspects of its policy which make renewed ministerial contact difficult. They are the need to acknowledge without qualification Security Council resolution 242, to recognise Israel's right to exist, and to eschew the use of violence.

§ Mr. Galloway
Hearing the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, and having returned only a day or two ago from the occupied territories, I wonder whether the Government are as aware as they ought to be of just how serious is the reign of terror in which the occupying forces are engaged. Bodies are being carried through the streets to hospitals and clinics. People are being shot, beaten and gassed—including indiscriminate gassing by crop-spraying aeroplanes flying over refugee camps.
I wonder whether the right hon. and learned Gentleman is aware of the case of an elderly gentleman, Mr. Mohammed Abu Shawish, who is an official of the United Nations and is the refugees services officer in Jabalia camp, and who took the Minister of State around that camp and served as his interpreter? That gentleman's elderly wife of 63—[Interruption.] Please, this is an important point.

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. I ask the hon. Gentleman, in the interests of others, to be brief.

§ Mr. Galloway
The 63-year-old wife of the gentleman who helped the Minister of State was savagely beaten by 828 Israeli soldiers three days after the Minister left the camp. Four of her ribs and her arm were broken by the Israeli occupying troops.

§ Sir Geoffrey Howe
The hon. Gentleman is quite right to remind the House of the unacceptable conduct being sustained in the occupied territories. I have discussed it in the course of the past few days, not only with Secretary of State Shultz but with the Soviet Foreign Minister, Mr.Shevardnadze. It is clear that, as Mr. Shultz said on his arrival in Israel: The continued occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza strip and the denial of political rights to the Palestinians is a dead end street … The belief that this can continue is an illusion. I share the concern expressed by the hon. Gentleman at the possibility of the use of gas in any circumstances in those conditions. As for his particular complaint about my hon. and learned Friend's guide on his visit to Palestine, I shall certainly instruct Her Majesty's consul-general in Jerusalem to contact the family and report immediately. If any kind of link can be demonstrated between the treatment received by the guide and his family and my hon. and learned Friend's visit, we shall clearly have to take an even more serious view of what may have happened.

§ Mr. Adley
Does my right hon. and learned Friend agree that the activities of the Syrians in Lebanon, particularly in Beirut, are a welcome step in the right direction towards reducing anarchy in that city? Does he not agree that it would be advantageous, if we are to make progress with the peace conference to which he has referred, for diplomatic contact with the Syrians at all levels to be maintained by countries interested in playing a part in the peace process?

§ Sir Geoffrey Howe
The time has not come, nor have the conditions been fulfilled, for us to reconsider any change in our relationships with the Syrian Government. Clearly, however, any action being taken by that Government that can help towards the promotion of peace, unity and independence for Lebanon is certainly to be welcomed.

§ Mr. Cartwright
Will the Foreign Secretary again confirm that the Palestinians are just as entitled to a homeland of their own as is any other nation on the face of the earth, and that there can be no lasting peace in the middle east until that simple fact is accepted by all concerned?

§ Sir Geoffrey Howe
Two propositions stand with equal importance alongside each other: the right of Israel and other states in the area to a secure existence, and the Palestinian right to self-determination. Those are the two bedrock principles on which, sooner rather than later, the parties must begin to negotiate for peace, on the basis of territory.