HL Deb 04 June 1980 vol 409 cc1417-8

2.46 p.m.

Lord JANNER

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps have been taken by the United Nations and the Lebanese Government to observe the Genocide Convention (which was ratified by Lebanon without reservation) to prevent the PLO, which is committed to the destruction of Israel by violence and whose headquarters are in Beirut, from carrying on its operations from South Lebanon against inhabitants of Israel.

The SECRETARY of STATE for FOREIGN and COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS (Lord Carrington)

My Lords, the Government deplore all acts of terrorism but the Genocide Convention does not cover terrorist attacks against Israel such as those to which the noble Lord refers.

Lord JANNER

My Lords, surely the noble Lord has not studied or appreciated the effect of the legislation which has been carried out by the Lebanese Government who, since 1969, have entered into agreements allowing the PLO and its murderous assassinating companions to act freely in South Lebanon? Lebanon agreed to refrain from appointing a police force in that area to prevent those with the definite object of destroying a state, which is absolutely contrary to the Genocide Convention.

Lord CARRINGTON

My Lords, the convention on the crime of genocide was adopted by the General Assembly on 9th December 1948. It was aimed not at individual acts of terrorism but to cope with the question of genocide in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Lord JANNER

My Lords, with the greatest respect, is the noble Lord suggesting that the groups to which the Genocide Convention refers—a convention which we have ratified and which Lebanon ratified without a single dissenting voice—do not include the elimination of a group like a state? Surely that is nonsense, is it not?

Lord CARRINGTON

My Lords, I do not think that the Genocide Convention applies to the acts of terrorism to which the noble Lord draws attention.

Lord BALLANTRAE

My Lords, would it be relevant or irrelevant for the noble Lord, Lord Janner—whose Questions along these lines are now very familiar to us all—to address a Question to the Government Front Bench asking what steps should be taken by the United Nations to deter the assassination of Arab mayors on the West Bank?

Lord CARRINGTON

My Lords, if that Question was addressed to me, perhaps I might answer it by saying that in the original Answer to the Question I said that the Government deplored all acts of terrorism.