My speech in the debate on the Palestine/Israel debate at the Lib Dem Conference

Last week I took part in the debate at Conference on the Policy Motion – Towards a Lasting Peace in Israel and Palestine.  You can watch the whole debate on YouTube (from 2:05:00 with my contribution at 2:20:30).

Here is the speech I wrote and, more or less, delivered:

Conference, 

With respect to Layla and those who signed this Motion, it isn’t the one about Palestine / Israel I had hope we would be debating this morning. 

While I can’t oppose in it, it suffers from all the usual defects that has plagued Motions on the issue we have debated over the years at Conference.   

Too bland, too afraid of upsetting the groups supporting one side or the other. 

I had hope we could use this opportunity to talk about a real change in our Party policy on Palestine / Israel, one where we move from simply commenting from afar to one where we can actively engage with those from both sides who want to find a settlement to the conflict that has plagued in the Land between the River & the Sea for over 100 years. 

The most important part of the motion are lines 75 to 80.  This International Fund for Peace, similar to the International Fund for Ireland which preceded then laid the foundations for the Good Friday Agreement, is aimed at helping bring Israelis & Palestinians together to talk with each other to work on joint projects to improve the lives or ordinary people in both nations.   

At last night LDfPME event we heard from John Lyndon, Executive Director ALLMEP, and Doubi & Huda the two Regional Directors on the ground on the work they are doing and how through that, they are training the leaders of tomorrow on both sides, leaders who will have worked with and are friends with people on the other side. 

What is in this for us?  To paraphrase what Huda said last night, helping to combat antisemitism & Islamophobia by removing one of the excuses for such hatred anywhere.  

I should declare my interest in this subject.  I am a Jew, a Zionist and an Israeli citizen.  I believe passionately in a homeland for the Jewish people.  I have family and friends who still live in Israel.   

However, it is my experience visiting refugee camps seeing the hatred of us as Jews & Israelis, the conditions the refugees were living in, that convinced me the Israeli occupation of Palestine had to end, that Palestinians also deserve and need a homeland of their own.   

Over the years since, the more I have talked with Israelis and Palestinians, the more I was convinced that at the heart of the conflict is a lack of understanding between the two people brought about by a lack of proper dialogue between them.  All too often the only contact is through violence, be it the terrorism of Hill Top Youth or Hamas or the daily harassment of Palestinians by the young Israeli soldiers.   

Most Israelis & Palestinians do not sit down with people from the other side and talk about their hopes and fears, their ambitions for their children, their desire to live and grow old without the threat of violence.  When they do, unsurprisingly, they find they have much in common and start to relate to each other as people not just as the enemy. 

Colleagues, we need to support Palestinians & Israelis who want to change the situation who are calling for an end to this bloody conflict.  We can help do this by changing the dynamics of the conversation so it isn’t about victimhood but about how to end the conflict 

This Motion will not make a difference to Israelis or Palestinians, the International Fund for Peace will.  It is time to stop talking about what Israelis & Palestinians should do, it is time to give them something to live for rather than to die for.