Andy Slaughter
MP for Hammersmith and Chiswick · Labour · United Kingdom
“I welcome the Bill, and thank the Government for introducing it and bringing it back to the House before the summer recess. It is the result of years of committed campaigning, led by the families of the victims and survivors of Hillsborough.”
“I know that case means a huge amount to the hon. Lady as a constituency MP, and I thank her for all the work she does on the Justice Committee. I think we have only begun to scratch the surface. This Bill will be a transforming piece of legislation. I will make one final comment.”
“This would be a new, independent public body that collated, analysed and followed up on the conclusions and recommendations made after official investigations into deaths and state failings, in order to improve oversight and implementation of them.”
“I think I have taken enough time, but I thank the Member for that intervention. This afternoon, the Justice Committee signed off a new major report on legal aid, which will be published on Friday. Those who are interested can read more there.”
“In the time that I have, I will focus my remarks on clauses 1 to 16, which create a new appeals body for immigration and asylum cases known as the independent immigration appeals authority.”
“From that visit, our diagnosis was that these are operational problems. There are two key questions for the House: will the IIAA fix the problems with the current system, and will it be truly independent from the Home Office?”
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“They jointly need to have a plan for how to go to the Government and persuade them that we need stable and ongoing funding, lasting more than one year and covering the impressive range of services that I have mentioned. Without that, a lot of services such as Pembridge will be in doubt. A Member mentioned assisted dying, which we are debating next week. The two things are related but separate. We want the most compassionate and clearest services for people at the end of life. Part of that is ensuring properly funded hospice services, whether for adults or for children. I again thank the organisers of the debate, the hon. Members for Hastings and Rye and for Darlington, for bringing this matter to the House’s attention. I hope the Government are listening.”
“At his request, I have written to the head of my local ICB to request, in the first instance, simply that it meets, discusses and get to know the services that are better offered. One of the problems with the majority of funding coming from the voluntary sector through fundraising—I understand why that is important and we want it to continue, as it renews links with the communities—is that there is less of a connection with the statutory sector than there would be in other respects. ICBs need to work very closely with their local hospices, even if they are not based in the same geographical area, as is the case in my constituency.”
“There are other examples of charitable funding, such as for air ambulances, but I am pleased that that is not the norm in the health service. The plea that Shooting Star Children’s Hospices makes is for “properly funded paediatric palliative care across the UK”, to “create a level play field in terms of funding”. What could possibly be unreasonable about that request or—I would rather say—demand? On the back of that request, I attended—I think a number of hon. Members in the Chamber did—the recent meeting held here, which was organised by Together for Short Lives. I was incredibly impressed by it. At the meeting I met the chief executive of Shooting Star, Paul Farthing.”
“It wrote to me recently and said that it supports “700 families living across Surrey, south-west London and north-west London. Our specialist care and support are completely free of charge to families and available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It includes specialist nursing in the community, symptom management and pain relief, overnight respite stays, end-of-life care, specialist bereavement care and a comprehensive range of therapies, groups, and clinics for the whole family.” The majority of its funding—we have heard this from hon. Members on both sides of the House this evening—comes from fundraising; approximately a third is funded from statutory channels. Each £1 received from statutory channels necessitates the raising of an additional £2 to sustain its service. I cannot imagine that happening in many other areas.”
“I note that in the latest consultation, in which there are options to reopen, the NHS said: “We have heard there is still a strong desire for the Pembridge in-patient unit to be reopened and that options from the public for how we could reopen the unit could be more widely considered than they have been to date.” That is putting it somewhat mildly. It is an indication of the parlous state of some services around the country, despite the hugely high-quality service they provide. The other issue is about children’s hospice services. Those for my constituency—in fact, for the whole north-west London ICB, which covers a population of 2 million people—comes from Shooting Star Children’s Hospices, which the hon. Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson) mentioned because it is based in her constituency.”
“Those are—or at least were—not just in-patient care but telephone advice, community care nursing and therapy teams. As I said, there was a wonderful in-patient unit; unfortunately there is not at the moment. The ICB is consulting on various options, some of which would see that unit reopen. It closed allegedly not because of funding but because the consultant left and it was not possible to recruit a consultant to fill the post. I would have some sympathy with that were it not for the fact that it closed in 2018 and we are still waiting for the NHS to provide a consultant so that we can reopen the service, which is exactly what all my constituents want.”
“I welcome the debate, because it allows us to pay tribute to the wonderful work that hospices do in all our constituencies across the country, while raising the peril that some of them are in, the insecurity they are facing and the fragile nature of their funding. I am mindful of your caveat on time, Mr Deputy Speaker, so I will make just make two points, if I may. The first point is about adult services for my constituents. For many years, those services have been provided by the Pembridge palliative care unit, which is an adult community-based specialist palliative care unit just over the border in North Kensington. It is a fantastic place—I have visited friends who have been dying there—and I am aware of its wide range of services.”
“Some 500 health-care workers have been killed in Gaza in the past six months. That is more than the total number of healthcare workers killed in all conflicts around the world in the previous two years. Does the Minister agree with Professor Nick Maynard, the British surgeon recently returned from Gaza, that healthcare workers are being deliberately targeted? If so, why is the UK still supplying arms to Israel?”
“Trhas Teklehaimanot Tesfay is one of the elite female cyclists chosen to lead RideLondon next month. She is also an asylum seeker, living in a hotel in my constituency where the food is so bad it makes her sick and unable to compete. Last month, an investigation by Sustain found food for asylum seekers that was undercooked, past its sell-by date and infested with insects, which in some cases left them malnourished and hospitalised. Could the Secretary of State investigate this scandal and the responsibility of the contractor Clearsprings, so that asylum seekers such as Trhas are not subject to such dangerous and degrading conditions?”
“The Prime Minister rightly calls for restraint and de-escalation in the middle east, but is there not more chance that his words will carry weight if a ceasefire is advocated for all sides, including the warring parties in Gaza?”
“Those are good points because vulnerable people are already being targeted by the Government, if on a voluntary basis. I recently had a young man in my constituency, with severe health problems, whom the Home Office has tried to persuade to go voluntarily to Rwanda, and it was severely traumatising for him. For somebody who has suffered previously in coming to the UK and in the experience they have had in their home country, to then have that degree of what they perceive as pressure—and possibly bribery as well, in a sense—is extremely traumatising. If this is the way the Government are going, these amendments are essential.”
“The fees for civil legal aid are half what they were in 1996 and the number of providers has fallen by 40% in the past 10 years. If the Minister actually wants to do something about civil legal aid, why has he kicked the civil legal aid review into the long grass?”
“On that matter, the Government do sometimes publish legal position statements. According to the Cabinet Office, on 11 December 2023 the Government published a statement of the legal position in relation to the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, and it published a similar legal position statement when introducing the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill in July 2022. Will the Minister publish such a statement setting out any breaches of international law by any parties in the Israel-Gaza war?”
“We know the Prime Minister has received advice about the legality of the Israel-Gaza war, that he has had time to consider it, and that Governments can and do publish such advice. Will he tell the House what steps he is taking to act on that advice in reviewing UK arms sales, in supporting the proceedings of the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court, and in exercising the UK’s vote at the UN Security Council?”
“Every month in Hammersmith, we hold “Ukrainian open house” to bring together all those supporting Ukrainian families who have fled that war. Every month, I am asked why there are not similar visa schemes to allow Palestinians to join their relatives in the UK, or to be hosted by families who wish to give them refuge here. What is the Government’s answer to that?”
“It is something that we treasure and a hugely important part of our culture. It is great that some of the greatest artists in the world have come and shared that with us in west London, but that is just so typical of the Irish diaspora, which has brought joy as well as talent across the world. That is what we should pay tribute to today.”
“Anyone who has not done so should go on the Yeats walk, which begins in Hammersmith and takes you on a journey down the river and into Chiswick, because Yeats lived for a number of years in Bedford Park and composed some of his most famous works while he was living there. Chiswick Eyot is the model for “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”. That is my contention; I am not sure that everybody would agree, but that is certainly what we believe in west London. Cahal Dallat, himself a very well-respected poet, has championed the cause of Yeats. We not only have the Yeats walk and a wonderful sculpture called “Enwrought Light”—people might recognise the literary reference there—in the grounds of St Michael’s church, but we have the Yeats app, so people can go round and visit all the sites that Yeats made famous as part of his life there.”
“We have had the privilege of welcoming a number of Irish Prime Ministers, Deputy Prime Ministers and Cabinet Ministers, and I think we will again this week. I am indulging myself a little bit, Dame Siobhain, because the centre is a very important institution for not just the Irish community, but the whole community, and not just in Hammersmith, but in all of west London. I will finish by touching on one other aspect. My seat is changing: if I am successful in the next election, I will keep Hammersmith but gain Chiswick. There are many links between Hammersmith and Chiswick, and one of them is Yeats.”
“They bought the site, knocked down the existing centre and built an even better centre, which is there today, with about five floors of social housing on top of it. It is a real tribute to the community that that all came together in the way it did. The key parties to that happening were the Irish embassy and the Irish Government, which, even during a time of great austerity, was able to find the resources to support it. I pay tribute to not just Martin Fraser, the current ambassador, but his predecessors, for everything they have done to support Irish culture and the Irish diaspora in the UK. They really understand the importance of that. They do not just pay lip service to it; they put in their money, resources and enthusiasm. I hope that will long continue.”
“My association goes back to when we first commissioned and built the Irish centre back in the early 1990s, when I was deputy leader of the council. It was principally the project of the then leader of the council, Iain Coleman, who was my predecessor as MP for Hammersmith and Fulham, and the councillor Sean Reddin. That was a time of austerity as well, but they found the site and the money, they put it together and they built the Irish centre. It was opened by the then Tánaiste, Dick Spring, and it was hugely successful. Unfortunately, that centre did not survive—for political reasons I will not go into, the site was going to be sold—but a group of people who wanted it to survive came together. That included, in the end, the local authority, then led by Stephen Cowan, and Shepherd’s Bush Housing Association, led by Paul Doe.”
“Just to prove that they do not just do administrative tasks, a couple of weeks ago I went to see Brian Friel’s fantastic play, “Lovers”, which some may be familiar with, and William, the director, starred, and Ros, the artistic director, directed. A lot of what we do at the centre is home-grown. On Friday afternoons and evenings, there are music sessions. Anybody can come along with an instrument and join in—that is an open invitation to Members present, but it is surprisingly melodic and harmonious, so maybe they should check their level of ability. It is fantastic. Any member of the public can wander in and just sit for three or four hours every Friday and listen to some of the most beautiful Irish music. These things do not happen by accident.”
“It is rather invidious to name people going back over the 30 years that the centre has existed, but I cannot not name the previous director, David O’Keefe, who sadly died tragically young in 2019; Ivan Gibbons, Hilda McCafferty, Mary Walker—people who have made the centre a lasting success—and, last but not least, Jim O’Hara, who for 13 years was the chair of trustees. The centre runs a brilliant arts programme all year round, particularly in the weeks of St Patrick’s day and St Brigid’s day, and it includes not just music and theatre, but painting. Members should go to the centre if only to see the paintings illustrating the text of “Ulysses”, which are fantastic and a day out in themselves, in one of the best libraries of Irish books in the country.”
“It is a real pleasure to be here and to have you chairing this debate, Dame Siobhain. I compliment those who have brought the debate forward—I think it is important that we do this every year. It is a privilege to represent one of the largest and longest-established Irish communities in England, and indeed one of the most talented. From W. B. Yeats to the Pogues, Hammersmith has represented the best of not just literature and music, but many different forms of arts and science. I want to talk a little about the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith, which is rightly recognised as one of the centres of Irish culture in the UK. I pay tribute to the current team: William Foote, the director; Ros Scanlon, the artistic director; and Peter Power-Hynes, the chair of trustees.”
“7. What discussions she had with her Israeli and Palestinian counterparts on compliance with international humanitarian law during her visit to the middle west in February 2024.”
“The UK Government’s less than wholehearted endorsement of the ICJ process and the International Criminal Court war crimes investigation, which is led by British lawyers, means that the alternative is that people increasingly turn to violence. That is the view of the Israeli civil society organisations that came to meet us yesterday, with the co-operation of Yachad. We have to uphold international law. Will the Attorney General recommit to both those processes?”
“This tweet was liked by Sir Paul Marshall: “Civil war is coming. There has never been a country that has remained peaceful with a sizeable Islamic presence…Once the Muslims get to 15-20% of the population the current cold civil war will turn hot.” Many other incendiary tweets were liked or retweeted by Marshall, a substantial donor to both the Tory party and the Secretary of State personally, according to a recent investigation by HOPE not hate and “The News Agents”. How does the Secretary of State square his definition of extremism with accepting money from someone like Marshall?”
“Last week, the Prisons Minister and I visited Wormwood Scrubs, where we found doubling up in single cells, with unshielded toilets, and overcrowding affecting people’s time out of cell and access to work. The education service was described as poor, and food budgets are £2.70 a day. Staff told us that assaults on officers are not being prosecuted. What is the Lord Chancellor doing to improve conditions in our Victorian prisons, as that is vital for the welfare of staff, the rehabilitation of prisoners and the protection of the public?”
“I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. He has clearly touched a nerve, given the number of people here. I think digital exclusion is often about rationing. I came across that with the legal aid cuts, where a lot of services are online and not accessed by people. It is now happening with GP services. There are 2 million people in north-west London who, from April, might have to go through a GP hub to access where they go. Already we have practices deciding that people have to send an online form and photographs before they can even get access to a GP. It excludes so many people from basic services.”
“The weakness in the Minister’s statement is that it makes his Government a commentator rather than an actor in the situation in Gaza. If this House and our international partners speak with one voice in calling for an immediate ceasefire, it would carry more weight with the Government of Israel. If he accepts that the absence of a ceasefire has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands, and the horrific suffering of 2 million Palestinian civilians, does he not have a duty to call for a ceasefire now? Would that make the Government’s case stronger?”
“A more comprehensive view of how SLAPPs act is important in relation to resources. I do not want to disagree with my hon. Friend, but we need to look at the point that the Anti-SLAPP Coalition and the NUJ have raised—and the hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Richard Foord)—about a subjective or objective test. That is not easy. Obviously, there are subjective as well as objective tests throughout the legal system. Nevertheless, there is a real fear that the need for a defendant to show subjective elements will be a path for the claimant to tie proceedings up in knots, complicate things and drag them out. I do not know what the solution is, but we should at least explore that and listen to the expert organisations, particularly the National Union of Journalists and the Anti-SLAPP Coalition, which are urging us to take that course.”
“Friend mentioned, is the issue of SLAPPs taking place in the dark—pre-issue, as it were. There has been some attention by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to that in issuing guidelines, but there is still quite a strong feeling that many SLAPPs were effective long before getting to the courtroom because of the intimidation—which we should not underemphasise—placed on individuals. They may be authors or journalists, but they may just be individual members of the public. The intimidation may even be of corporations, and yet they cannot take the risk because they are up against people with not just deep, but bottomless, pockets. We heard about the £1.5 million cost for Catherine Belton in relation to “Putin’s People”. That was pocket money for Abramovich, but for a publisher—let alone a journalist—it is a significant sum of money.”
“We have heard about what is in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, dealing with the issue of SLAPPs, but in a particular way and for a particular type of offence—that is, around economic crime—and the anti-SLAPPs taskforce also meets, but it is somewhat disappointing that the Government have not brought forward their own comprehensive legislation on the issue. I hope they will use the agency of my hon. Friend the Member for Caerphilly to get something on the books in the time available in this Parliament. Nevertheless, we have not done the entire job. That is no criticism at all of my hon. Friend, and I do not know whether that is an invitation for me to be on the Bill Committee as well. I will deal with three points that need slightly further attention. The first, which my hon.”
“Member for Haltemprice and Howden (Sir David Davis) held his January 2022 debate on lawfare and the UK court system; as with everything American, the terms “SLAPPs” has taken over the language here, but lawfare is effectively the same thing. On that day, which was really the issue’s first run-out, I replied for the Opposition. There were many strong contributions, and the debate put the issue on the map, including on the Government’s map. Let us give the Government a little bit of credit, although not too much; there has been some progress.”
“It is a pleasure to take part in the debate, particularly with you in the Chair, Mr Speaker. This is essentially a debate about free speech, which I know is of great concern to you not only in this Chamber but outside it. It is also of particular concern to my hon. Friend the Member for Caerphilly (Wayne David), and I congratulate him on bringing the Bill forward. He is quite busy with his other hat on, as the shadow Minister for the Middle East, so it is good that he has time to be here on a Friday to promote his Bill. I hope he has the Government’s support. I would say that this became a live issue for the House when the right hon.”
“The Serious Fraud Office launched the action in good faith, and there was what I would call retaliatory SLAPP action. Although the original action by the SFO has been discontinued, the SLAPP continues. It really does look like a topsy-turvy world when organisations that we should rely on to regulate society—in which I include investigative journalists, Members of Parliament, and certainly criminal investigation organisations—themselves become the victims of those they wish to call out. That is why we urgently need a much more comprehensive approach to SLAPPs, and that is why I fully welcome the Bill and will support it today. However, I think we can do more work on this. In responding today, I hope the Government will express their strong support and their desire to go further.”
“It takes huge courage for someone to risk everything simply in the course of prosecuting their employment, when there is the risk of bankruptcy or being dropped by their publisher—although that was not at risk, I have to say, in Tom’s case. We heard about the case of Charlotte Leslie, a former colleague of ours, who was effectively persecuted through the courts. We are lucky; we have the protection of privilege here. However, when we step outside this place, we can become a victim in that way, just like anybody else who is, with good intent, simply trying to tell the truth. This even affects organisations such as the Serious Fraud Office, which is still being prosecuted through the courts by the Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation.”
“It also protects the innocent victims of press abuse because the press magnates—not journalists and small publishers but major publishers—also have bottomless pockets. In his response or during the passage of the Bill, could the Minister think again, at the very least, about how the Government will approach the issue of small publishers and journalists being sued in order to protect the so-called privacy—often the nefarious activities—of very wealthy individuals and corporations. This can affect anyone, including journalists like Tom Burgis, who won his case. The experience did not discourage him, because next week I am hoping to go to the launch of his latest book, “Cuckooland: Where the Rich Own the Truth”. Let me give him a little plug—it will soon be available from all good bookshops.”
“We have just discussed the Media Bill in the House, and the repeal of section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013, which in effect takes Leveson part 1 out of the equation with regard to having a level playing field for victims of press abuse—if I can put it that way. On SLAPPs, the Government appear to support legislation such as this to prevent costs being used as a weapon to prevent people getting their just deserts and their day in court, but there is a different situation when it comes to the media itself—I cannot for the life of me see the difference. Of course, Leveson cuts both ways; Leveson also provided a formula for protecting small publishers against exactly the sort of people who take part in SLAPPs—indeed, he could have used the word “SLAPPs” in his report.”
“It sounds like the hon. Member wants to be on the Bill Committee and is drafting his amendments in his head. I have never known a private Member’s Bill Committee to be so popular. I am not a legal draftsman and I do not know the answer to his question, but we need to bottom out this issue, because it seems to be attracting the most attention. Other issues have been raised about overlaps with the Defamation Act, and costs. There are provisions on costs in the Bill, but it is about whether they are driving down costs as far as they can, and about public interest. A number of areas could be further explored, even in this short Bill. Costs are a vital but often neglected part of the legal process. This is a hobby-horse of mine.”
“The wife of a remand prisoner at Wormwood Scrubs wrote to me recently to say that the prison is so cold that prisoners are shaking, that they have to choose between work, social time and showering, and that the food is lacking in basic nutrition. I can explore these matters with the Prisons Minister in a couple of weeks’ time during our joint visit to the Scrubs, but does the Secretary of State agree that such conditions are not conducive to rehabilitation?”
“There is clearly a targeting of civil society bodies, records, courthouses, Parliaments and business districts, which can have no military significance whatever, in a way that punishes and degrades the entirety of the Gaza strip. I want the Government to speak out against that more and, above all, take many more steps to ensure that aid is delivered in secure circumstances in the course of a ceasefire.”
“For those of us who are familiar with the region, it is possible to imagine it, but probably not on the current scale. The suppression of information coming out of Gaza is being used to disguise the full horror of what is happening there. Despite that, it is clear from every polling exercise and from the correspondence that every MP receives— I have had more than 5,000 emails on this subject, calling for an immediate and full ceasefire by a ratio of 100:1, and others have had considerably more than that—that the public in this country are deeply concerned about what is happening and want to see their Government take action to stop the killing, particularly of children, and the destruction of a whole civilisation.”
“We may differ on what that cessation should involve and on the terminology, but it would be good to hear from the Minister that the Government wish to see an end to the hostilities between Gaza and Israel until such time as the famine and disease that are running rife are ended, and the wounded and others who are suffering in Gaza have received proper medical attention, food and other supplies. Surely that is the least that we should demand. The way that Ukraine is reported in the UK differs from the reporting of Gaza. There is rightly a high degree of access to what is happening in Ukraine, so we get a good picture of the atrocities visited on the Ukrainian people by Putin and his forces. Despite the brave efforts of many journalists, many of whom have been killed, we do not get a full picture of what is happening in Gaza.”
“Even with respect to aid, they have singularly failed to give a political lead. They have singularly failed on many of the issues that have arisen since 7 October, including on what is happening in the west bank and the wider middle east, but every time questions are raised about those things, we get the reply, “Yes, but we are prioritising aid.” Well, with respect, that does not appear to be happening. If it were, we would be working more closely with the UN, our European allies and the US, as well as bilaterally, to ensure the necessary amounts of aid are getting into Gaza through a variety of crossings and in a variety of forms, and many of the current hold-ups would be relieved. It is so obvious—and I think this is the Government’s position—that aid cannot be got into Gaza in any meaningful way without the cessation of hostilities.”
“But the idea that the whole organisation should be effectively brought to a halt by being defunded seems extraordinary. The Minister for the middle east said, and I am sure he is sincere, that he does not believe the defunding will make a difference because we have made the current financial year’s payment and are not due to make the next one until the next financial year, but will the various inquiries—there are more than one—be resolved by then? I would like a commitment from the Minister today that, as long as we are assured that investigations are being properly carried out, we will not restrict the funding we would otherwise have given to UNRWA, which itself is only a fraction of what is needed and is less than used to be given. The Government are failing.”
“UNRWA is not the only aid agency; there are many others, such as Islamic Relief and Medical Aid for Palestinians, whose local staff are working on the ground under appalling conditions. Those charities do a very good job, but they do not do what UNRWA has done since 1949 and provide whole-infrastructure support for a population that, through no fault of its own, is unable to supply it itself. UNRWA also provides education, healthcare and employment for many thousands of people. Let us not disguise the fact that what some UNRWA staff—a very small number—have been accused of has to be investigated. Those staff, quite rightly, are out of a job while that is being investigated, and if it can be proven that they played any part in the 7 October events, they must be punished with the full severity of the law.”
“Some 27,000 people have been killed, over 11,000 of them children, and we have heard about the half a million people who are in the most severe level of food crisis. A very substantial proportion of people around the world who are in that highest level of crisis are now living in Gaza, which previously had a first-world economy, in many ways, and first-world education and skills. That is the seriousness of the case, and that is why we have seen attempts to defend the victims through action in the International Court of Justice in the United Nations itself. The debate is about one narrow aspect of this crisis and conflict—aid. Whatever the Government say about aid shipments that they have authorised, it is clear that aid is not getting into Gaza in anything like the amount that is needed.”
“Undoubtedly, there are those who would like to be able to cross the border, perhaps because they are wounded or injured, they are foreign nationals or have family abroad, or they simply cannot stand what is happening, but they are simply unable to. That adds another dimension of horror to the situation. People are being bombed and shelled daily, as we have seen. We do not get the full picture, but we see that whole districts and neighbourhoods, and the majority of residences, have been damaged or destroyed in what would be an extraordinary level of bombardment in any war but is particularly so in such a narrow and small piece of land. People have mentioned some of the headline statistics, if I can put it that way. The fact that 85% of the population have been displaced is extraordinary.”
“At the same time as being horrified by the conditions that people had to live in, one could not help but admire the fact that life continued as normally as it could under the circumstances. Not only did a siege go on, but there were four or five separate land or air assaults by Israel on Gaza between 2008 and the current conflict. Life had been worn down, and people had been worn down, not just physically but mentally, over that period. The other aspect of Gaza that is perhaps unique is that there is nowhere to flee to. There is no route out of Gaza. Gazans do not want to leave Gaza. They do not want to be forced into Sinai or elsewhere, or into any of the mad schemes that extreme members of the Israeli Government have come out with.”
“What impresses me most about Gaza, as others have mentioned, is the resilience of its people, despite the utter squalor of life, caused by occupation and the control of land, sea and air borders for a long period, such that most are reliant on aid, cannot leave the country, except in very few cases, and have been living almost as stateless citizens, in limbo, for nearly a generation now. Gaza has a highly educated population, and it has become clear during the current conflict, as we have seen hospitals and other civilian infrastructure destroyed, that it was there. Indeed, many doctors and other specialists have gone out from this country to assist medics and others in Gaza in running the health service as best they can, despite the deprivation of supplies.”