David Norris (Independent)

Like my colleagues, I welcome the decision of the United States Supreme Court. I was at a lecture by a distinguished member of the Australian Supreme Court in the Incorporated Law Society when the announcement was made and it brought a round of strong applause from many distinguished judges, barristers, solicitors and legal authorities.

It is tragic that we are surprised and overjoyed by this judgment. It should have been a matter of course. It has reasserted the role of the Geneva Conventions which was weakened deliberately by this US Administration, as the attorney for the appellant in this case made perfectly clear. He was a navy person and he stated that when he graduated in 1984 the Geneva Conventions were held in great regard and there has been an attempt to dismantle them. It has been a wicked and evil attempt led by President Bush and his cronies.

It is worthwhile looking at the dissenting judgments of those tainted judges, Clarence Thomas over whom a cloud hung at a time of his nomination and Samuel Alito. Mr. Thomas suggested that the courts should not second guess the political leaders in a matter of human rights. That is an astonishing statement. It merely confirms the view I have held for a long time, namely, that President Bush and his cronies are engaged in a slow-motion coup against the American people.

There is another serious situation in which there is a baleful American influence, namely, the situation in Israel and Palestine. I reiterate the calls made yesterday for a discussion on this appalling situation. I ask the Leader that a strong protest should issue from all of us and all parties in this House, as parliamentarians, about the arrest of a large number of duly elected members of the Palestinian Parliament. This is a disgrace. I am a member of the IPU, as we all are. Many of us have been to the IPU's meetings and one of the items continuously on the agenda is the human rights of parliamentarians and their immunity from this kind of political interference. We should make a strong protest.

I was disappointed to hear Mr. Peres's unwise words on the radio yesterday and remembered his phrase some years ago about Mr. Arafat, that he was the kind of man who would never lose an opportunity to lose an opportunity. That phrase is now applicable to the Israeli Government. I do not know whether that Government is deliberately stirring this up so it will not have to face the consequences of a shift in policy by Hamas.

I ask the Leader to arrange a debate on Tibet, on which there is a motion on the Order Paper. It is over half a century since the immensely powerful, military dictatorship of China attacked, invaded, colonised and annexed an independent country in a classic example of imperialism. Since then, we have witnessed a cultural genocide. A couple of weeks ago the authorities put in place the largest statue of Mao Tse Tung on the way into the capital, Lhasa.