Speaking in the House of Commons Gaza debate on 21 February, the Scottish National Party foreign affairs spokesperson Brendan O’Hara urged members to support his demand for an immediate and in effect unconditional ceasefire between Hamas and Israel so that the House “can put itself on the right side of history”. A failure of the British parliament to do everything possible to bring the slaughter to an end would not be lightly forgiven by future generations, he said.
Later that day, amid chaotic parliamentary scenes culminating in the withdrawal of Tory and SNP members, the House voted for a Labour motion urging “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, which means an immediate stop to the fighting and a ceasefire that lasts and is observed by all sides”. Since the beginning of the war, the military campaign ordered by the right-wing extremist Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and encouraged the murderous criminality of Israeli settlers on the West Bank. In January the International Court of Justice warned that Israel’s actions risk falling within the genocide convention passed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1951. The arguments continue.
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