Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I listened carefully to the speech. In one section, it refers to the kidnapped, captured and arrested members of the Hamas Government and urges Israel to either release or charge them. I say to that, "Hold on for one minute". Israel invades another country, arrests members of the Government of that country and we presume it has the right to charge them. Is that even-handed? Imagine if the Palestinians arrested a member of the Israeli Government, brought him or her to Jericho or Gaza and charged him or her with some of the offences that everybody accepts Israel has committed under international law. There would be international outrage at the mere suggestion that the Palestinians had the right to charge that person.

The speech also contains a peculiar request to Israel to find a way to resume the transfer of taxes, but to whom? The Minister of State will not say because what that request really means is that we wish that Israel would find some way of giving the Palestinian taxes back, but it must not give them to the Hamas Government because we are not giving money to that Government. Who is Israel to give the money to?

We try to be unequivocal about whatever Government is elected in Israel. We do not make distinctions. While we would all probably wish for a Labour Government in Israel, it does not have one, yet. However, we are now saying that one political leader, namely the President in the Palestinian territories, is acceptable but another political leader, the Prime Minister, is not. That is known as interfering in the internal affairs of another country and if it were anywhere else we would accept that it was a gross intrusion on sovereignty.

The fundamental disagreement between me and the Government is not about what we say, have done in the past or hope to do in the future in terms of aid or support, but about the fundamental fact that we punish the Palestinians and their elected representatives when they do not do what ——