Earlier this week, the Liberal Democrat Conference debatedthe Israel – Gaza conflict. Although we are not yet a formal Affiliated Organisation of the Party, LDfPME were consulted on the text and made a number of suggestions to improve the original draft, some of which were accepted. The final version is here.
The full debate is available on YouTube, with Layla Moran, in here final appearance a our Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, make a great speech. I was call immediately after and you can see my contribution here. For completeness here is the text of my speech:
Conference, this isn’t the motion I wanted us to be discussing today, it has all the usual drawbacks of a Motion decided by a competing interests and meeting none of them fully, but it is the one we have.
So even if you have quibbles about this clause or that phrasing, feel there is more that could, even should, be included, please support it as it is important we make a statement where we as a Party stand, even though other Parties struggle doing this.
As a Jew, as a Zionist, as a former IDF soldier. with family living in Israel, with friends in both there and in Palestine, I want to talk about why it is important to find a just solution to the Arab – Jewish, Palestinian – Israeli conflict that has afflicted that small sliver of land.
This conflict didn’t start in October last year or in June 1967 or with the Nakba & founding of Israel in 1948, it can be traced back over more than 100 years.
In all that time, there have been too much violence, too many killed and too many atrocities committed by both sides for which there can never be full justice.
But there is one injustice that we can deal with.
The injustice the conflict does to the young people on both sides, in forcing them to learn to kill, in denying them the future they deserve, by giving them a stunted upbringing full of stories of hatred and of past terrible events.
By allowing the conflict to continue, by not helping those working for peace on both sides, by only seeing the conflict from one side, we are damaging the future of both Palestinians & Israelis.
If nothing else, we should agree that, as a Party, we must get behind the many groups in both nations working for peace, understanding and compromise and to allow all the young people on both sides to flourish & achieve their potential.
I would like to end with the chorus of the song written by the members of the Jerusalem Youth Chorus, a choir made up for young people from both side of Jerusalem, Palestinians & Israelis, Jews, Muslims & Christians, a song that talks about their experiences and the future they face.
But when the day is done
What will be left behind?
Only you and me
with our future intertwined.
We live within the wars
We feel each other’s pain
Because of you I know
we must choose a different way
Conference, it is time to help Palestine & Israel’s young people, it is time to help both nations to choose a different way.
The debate was very interesting and worth listening to. The Motion was passed overwhelmingly.
I received a lot of very positive feed back for my speech and, even though we still need to increase our membership to get AO status, it seems the Party is welcoming our contribution to the wider debate on the Palestine – Israel issue.
After the debate, I was invited to the ALDE International Reception where I was able to carry on talking about the work of LDfPME to Ambassadors & other Liberals from around Europe.