West Bank and East Jerusalem: Illegal Settlements (Hansard, 15 January 1997)

§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Chalker of Wallasey)
My Lords, we warmly welcome the draft agreement on redeployment of Israeli troops in Hebron. It is an essential step to unblocking the peace process.
187 Our position remains that Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories are illegal and an obstacle to peace. The Israeli Government know this. We continue to press both the Israeli and Palestinian authorities to avoid actions which could prejudice the success of final status negotiations. I shall be repeating this message in the region next week.

§ Lord Hylton
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that Answer and wish her well for that visit. I suspect that the whole House agrees with what the Minister has said about the Hebron agreement and other related points. Nevertheless, when a government are in breach of international agreements and obligations such as the fourth Geneva Convention, does it not follow that there must be penalties imposed on that government? Will Her Majesty's Government use their full diplomatic skill and power to make sure that that happens if such breaches continue?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, I can assure the House that Her Majesty's Government will use—and, indeed, are already using—their full diplomatic powers and skills to prevent the continued breach of the fourth Geneva Convention. I repeat that all settlements in the Occupied Territories are illegal and an obstacle to peace. That position is shared by all our European partners and the rest of the international community. Steps forward need to be taken, but that is unlikely to come about by the imposition of measures. Whenever such measures have been imposed, those most frequently imperilled by them are ordinary people—and it is the economic livelihood of ordinary people that we must try to safeguard. There needs to be a balance between the diplomatic effort that can be made in order to achieve success and any measures which might be useful. In fact, most measures are not useful.

§ Lord Wright of Richmond
My Lords, is the Minister aware that this subject was last raised as a result of a Starred Question tabled by the late Lord Mayhew? Does the noble Baroness agree that his consistent and courageous advocacy of the rights of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories will be sorely missed both in this House and in terms of world opinion?
I welcome the Minister's assurance about the illegality of settlement policies. In the light of press reports that the United States Government may be considering moving their embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, can the Minister also assure the House that Her Majesty's Government have no such intention?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, I agree wholeheartedly with the noble Lord's first comments. The late Lord Mayhew will, indeed, be sorely missed. He managed to get people who were perhaps not originally sympathetic to the Palestinian cause to focus on the real needs of those people and on the truth of what was actually happening in the region.
188 On the noble Lord's question about the United States' embassy, I have no evidence of what the noble Lord has implied, but we have no plans to move our embassy. We have an excellent Consulate General in Jerusalem looking after our affairs there. I believe that that is the way it should remain.

§ Lord Haskel
My Lords, is the Minister aware that according to the Oslo Agreements the question of the settlements is for the permanent status agreements which are yet to come? Would it not be best in the meanwhile to draw a huge sigh of relief that an accord was signed last night and might not a little generosity of spirit be in order today?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, like the whole of the Government, I am very prepared to be generous in spirit. We are absolutely delighted about the draft agreement reached last night. I have not heard the reports of the Cabinet meeting this morning, so I do not know whether the draft agreement has been finalised. It is important to move on swiftly on the Interim Agreement because matters are outstanding from it. Although we welcome what Prime Minister Netanyahu has obviously agreed to, there has to be more than this. It must include the early resumption of the final status talks and, above all, a free passage between the West Bank and Gaza. Noble Lords will remember my deep concern in the latter part of last year when we found that we could not get help to people in very dire need because of the impediments placed on the workers who were trying to help them.

§ Lord Jakobovits
My Lords, does the Minister agree that on a day such as this, when possibly the greatest and most significant breakthrough in peace in the past 48 years since the founding of the state of Israel has occurred, the rest of this House and the nation should join with her in welcoming last night's development, in the hope that the spirit that it engenders will enable goodwill and amicable relations to be established? The Question dealt with legality and illegality. Does the Minister agree that we must be most careful not to discriminate against one form of illegality and ignore others? Surely, the declaration of war with the avowed object of destroying an entire people cannot be legal. To this day, the charter of the Palestinians demands the destruction of a member state of the United Nations. Surely, that cannot be legal. Therefore, will we not aid the cause of peace and goodwill much more by being even-handed and encouraging progress towards the establishment of amicable relations, wherever we see them developing, rather than allowing partisanship and taking a one-sided view of illegality only in one camp but not in another? Will we not then reach an understanding more quickly?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, my welcome was unlimited. All wars are destructive. We know how destructive some of the activity in the past 189 few years has been. It must stop. We must now move from the interim agreement to the final talks with all speed.