Mhairi Black’s incredible speech demanding a ceasefire in Gaza

thank you Mr speaker now I I want to begin um with something that Frankie Bo actually said and he pointed out that it makes no sense to say that the situation in Gaza is too complex for a ceasefire because ceasefire is one of the oldest and simplest terms to understand it means stop firing in fact it's so simple that it's actually designed to be heard and understood in the middle of a literal battle so there is no middle ground when it comes to a ceas fire you either follow the order or you don't you either stop firing or you don't now during the 2014 crisis there was an estimated 2,251 Palestinian deaths the then prime minister rightly called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire but if we fast forward 10 years to the current conflict we have a death pole of nearly 30,000 and that's not including the bodies that have yet to be recovered from underneath the rubble and yet the very same man now foreign secretary is failing to support a ceasefire and that and nearly 70,000 people have also been injured so according to Amnesty International the death rate in Gaza right now is one death every 4 minutes it won't just be bombs that are killing Palestinians it's poor sanitation and malnutrition as well now yeah we know that people are starving people being reduced to eating grass and animal feed in January last month over half of all Aid deliveries were denied access and could not get through to those who currently need it less than half of hospitals in Gaza are even partially functioning and the few that are will quickly run out of supplies unless Israel allows Aid through now since 2008 is Israel have refused entry to any UN agency individuals which to me is a giant red flag in and of itself abely but despite these attempts to Shield themselves and hide from any accountability we know that war crimes are being committed in Gaza churches Sheltering hundreds of innocent Palestinians being bombed to the ground there's been strikes against people in refugee camps and hospitals just earlier this week there was reports the Israeli forces ordered the evacuation of a hospital only to start sniper fire on those who attempted to leave leaving 2,500 folks still trapped in the hospital Israel's own Minister of Defense said that there would be and a quote a Complete Siege on Gaza no electricity no food no water no gas now as the occupying power Israel has an obligation under international law to ensure the basic needs of gaza's Civilian population are met they are not doing that now the international court of justice specifically directed Israel to take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance they are not doing that yet Israel still refuses to reinstate the water supply they so cruy shut off months ago they're stopping medicine getting in they're stopping food entering Gaza and despite the growing likelihood of famine that they will have created they still are not budging now the actions of Hamas let's be absolutely clear they were horrific and unjustifiable but as I said earlier to the shadow Minister the people of Palestine are not Hamas Israel's disproportionate and indiscriminate bombing of civilians combined with everything else that we know has got to be the very definition of collective punishment which as we all know is illegal under international law it's a war crime and this is why it's so important how this place responds because in many respects the ending of the violence in Gaza rests in the hands of the countries supplying the money and the weapons to Israel now the arms trade treaty bans the sale of weapons where there is a cons that they may be used to breach international law well given the international court of justice has found that there's a plausible risk that Israel is committing genocide it is upon the UK to revoke all arms licenses and military equipment to is otherwise we break the own treaties that we've signed up to frankly warm words and platitudes will not cut it only action will that's one death every four minutes and the time that this debate happens today and we all Talk Amongst ourselves a 100 more people will be dead that were alive this morning the least we can do is call for a ceasefire because if we don't we will be morally and directly complicit in every single life lost and every single family destroyed in Gaza the root to peace the root to Justice the root to any humane inclusion to this begins with an immediate and unconditional ceasefire because anything less from us and future Generations will quite rightly never forgive us or forget

Channel: PoliticsJOE

Views: 215,889

Keywords: Politics, UK politics, British politics, Parliament, Government, Westminster, news, breaking news, conversation, politics news, politicsjoe, joe songs, boris johnson song, boris johnson speech, keir starmer song, keir starmer speech, new media, novara, rishi sunak, labour party, conservative, tory party, conservatism, brexit, snp, indy ref, scotland, gaza, ceasefire, IDF gaza, israel gaza war, israel ceasefire, political news

Id: oyl1Q1-DUMg

Length: 6min 4sec (364 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 21 2024