Eastwood praises Miliband for most powerful, principled speech’ on Palestine
Colum Eastwood has praised Ed Miliband for delivering the ‘most powerful, principled and important speech by any British Minister for many years on the issue of Palestine’.
The Foyle MP was speaking after the British Foreign Secretary announced restrictions on trade with illegal settlements in the Occupied West Bank.
Mr. Miliband announced the restrictions amid what he described as ongoing ‘settler terrorism’.
“May I commend the Foreign Secretary for making what I think is the most powerful, principled and important speech by any British Minister for many years on the issue of Palestine?
"The people of Derry understand well that it is in the moments of greatest despair that those who are committed to hope come to the fore. Will he continue to travel in hope, to hold together the coalition he has built and to do everything he possibly can to bring peace to the people of Palestine and Israel?” asked Mr. Eastwood.
Mr. Miliband replied: “My hon. Friend is absolutely right. This is just the beginning of what we must do in this endeavour, and there is so much more to do.”
The British Foreign Minister prefaced his remarks by referring to his own heritage as ‘a proud British Jew’ who was deeply grateful to Israel for providing refuge to his grandmother after ‘she lost her husband, my grandfather, and 60 other family members at the hands of the Nazis’.
Mr. Miliband said he remembered visiting Tel Aviv in the 1970s and some of his fondest memories were of picking oranges on a kibbutz as a boy.
He referenced the October 7 attacks and antisemitic outrages in Britain and said he was ‘unwavering in [his] support for the state of Israel’.
“It is precisely this belief in the rights and freedoms of the Israeli and Palestinian people that leads many, including me, to a deep sense of shame about what has unfolded in Palestine under the eyes of the international community.
"In Gaza, we have seen the most unimaginable trauma and suffering in the last three years—death, destruction and dehumanisation on an appalling scale; a stain on the conscience of the world and of this country too,” he said.
He spoke of a surge in illegal settlements in the West Bank.
“At the time of the Oslo peace accords [signed by the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and Israel] in 1993, around 270,000 settlers lived in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Today it is some 770,000.
"More settlements have been approved under the four years of this Israeli Government than in the previous 20 years,” he said.
Mr. Miliband said a red line was crossed when tenders were issued for 1,200 settler homes in the E1 area between East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which would, cut ‘through the heart of Palestine’.
"On top of official state policy, settler terrorism is rampant. The UN reports an average of six violent settler attacks against Palestinians per day this year—the highest on record,” he said.
The Foreign Secretary said there was ‘ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists’ and that ‘all too often, the Israeli Government have turned a blind eye to that’.
On genocide he said he support the International Court of Justice in coming to its determination in the case brought by South Africa.