‘Stop the excuses' and recognise state of Palestine, SNP tells UK government
The party's comments follow a speech by French President Emmanuel Macron during his recent state visit to the UK, in which he said recognising the state of Palestine was 'the only path to peace'.
The SNP also called on the UK Government to stop the sale of arms to Israel, saying that failure by the Government to 'use the power it has' to end the conflict in Gaza would make it 'totally complicit' in what it called a 'slaughter'.
SNP Middle East spokesman Brendan O'Hara MP said that if the UK Government 'could muster just a shred of conviction and courage they would have the power to act'.
He went on: 'After witnessing another week of slaughter, the Labour Party could, and should, begin this new week by taking two concrete steps,' he said.
'They should start this new week by finally stopping all arms sales to Israel and finally recognising the state of Palestine.
'President Macron was crystal clear that he is preparing to join other European nations in recognising the state of Palestine and that he is pressing the UK to join this 'political momentum' towards a ceasefire and a permanent peace.
'Keir Starmer should stop the excuses and join him in recognising the state of Palestine without any more damaging delays.
'That would send the clearest of signals that we are prepared to protect and guarantee the right of the Palestinian people to their own homeland – and that all diplomatic levers will be used to prevent any plan that effectively proposes ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
'It is also blindingly obvious that anyone claiming to support a two-state solution must back immediate recognition of Palestine, otherwise their words ring hollow.
'If after this week Westminster stays sitting on its hands and fails to use the power it has to act, then they will be totally complicit in giving the (Benjamin) Netanyahu government impunity to commit week upon week of slaughter, even deadlier than the one Palestinians have just suffered.'
The party pointed out that 144 members of the UN, including Ireland, Spain and Norway, have already moved to recognise Palestine.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said earlier this week that the UK Government remained 'completely committed' to recognition, but refused to set a time frame for it, saying it was a 'moving, live situation'.
A FCDO spokesperson said: 'From day one we have taken decisive action – suspending relevant export licences, suspending trade negotiations, restarting UNRWA funding, sanctioning Israeli Ministers, providing aid to hundreds of thousands of civilians, and using our position on the UN Security Council to demand the end of this war and the full resumption of aid into Gaza.
'We continue working with international partners to end Palestinian suffering, free the hostages and secure lasting Middle East peace.'
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The Guardian
36 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘I had a home, apartment, career' … the Guardian's Gaza diarist on the life he lost – and his journey into exile
On the morning of 7 October 2023, the author of the Guardian's Gaza diary woke up planning to play tennis. 'This year I decided to take care of my mental and physical health,' he wrote in his first entry, published six days later. 'This means no stress, no negative energy and definitely more tennis.' Instead, with the news full of how Hamas had broken out of the territory, killing 1,200 people, he found himself scrambling desperately for the documents showing he owned his apartment in Gaza City, in the north of the strip. 'If our building gets bombed, I need evidence that this apartment belongs to me,' he wrote. The thirtysomething had long been used to what Palestinians in Gaza called 'situations' – escalations in the battle between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hamas. But he soon realised this situation was different. Israel's response has, so far, killed more than 57,000 and left 1.9 million people – 90% of the Gazan population – displaced. On 13 October, Gaza City's residents were told to evacuate and head south. 'It feels like 1948,' the diarist wrote, a reference to the Nakba ('catastrophe'), when 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from a newly independent Israel. 'It is group migration,' he said. 'There are many people walking while carrying their children and their bags because they couldn't find a car. Some people are leaving in buses and others in the back of trucks. Whenever they see people walking, they invite them to jump in. It breaks my heart.' His diaries were full of questions. 'Is the abnormal going to become the normal? Is two weeks of misery all it takes?' A gentle man, he looks back at what he wrote at that time and says: 'I see all these questions I was asking. I had no answers back then. Now I've seen how it turned out. And it was horrible.' I've known him for perhaps five years, so find myself in the odd position of interviewing someone who exudes life – but who now, afraid for that life, is retreating ever further into secrecy and darkness. The prospect of these diaries, which ran over six months and 48 columns in the Guardian, being published as a book has been causing him panic attacks. More than 180 journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 2023 (some sources suggest that figure is closer to 210). So the book is credited to Anonymous – not even a pseudonym. So, forgive me if certain details here are hazy. The diarist and I first met because I try to help young journalists in authoritarian states and war zones to get published in English language media. He was the perfect candidate, wanting to tell the stories we normally don't hear from Gaza – of musicians, sportspeople, even the trouble Palestinian men have with crying. He says of his life then: 'I had a home, an apartment, a career, friends, normal things that no one thinks about, like the pharmacist in my street handing me my medicine, knowing I'd pay on my next visit.' He's in his 30s, and one of Gaza's intellectuals: middle-class Palestinians are known for their education throughout the Middle East. His parents are dead, and he lived with his sister, their cats and a goldfish. 'Before 7 October, there were many places around me that had witnessed me feeling happy, laughing, crying,' he says. As the IDF began its assault, first in retribution, then in annihilation, he sent me news of his new life between falling bombs. At the time, I was struck by how his diary entries arrived devoid of the sectarian fury that sticks like phosphorus to all opinions on Israel/Palestine. What emerged were descriptions of the reality of the people around him, innocent people, told in his simple poetic style. Now, he talks of how important it was for him to portray Palestinians in Gaza as normal – particularly the men, who are often seen as monsters. 'The men are nice people, they have feelings. They are not some kind of a different species.' In the first fortnight of the war, he had to evacuate three times, to a friend's house, to another friend's house and then, when they, too, had to evacuate, to a house in a town in the south of the Gaza Strip, belonging to a man called Ahmad, who didn't know them but took them in regardless. 'My sister and I are among the lucky ones,' he wrote. The unlucky were those collecting in the schools and open spaces, who he would visit with fresh water. 'The school is no longer an educational entity,' he wrote. 'It is literally a camp.' He wrote about the changes in those around him. 'Making decisions was the most difficult thing,' he says now. 'I know people who distributed their children among different homes, so that if one house got bombed, the rest would live. Too often, they were right to do so.' His goldfish didn't last, but he and his sister went to great lengths to keep their cats alive. They became a motif that attracted a remarkable number of the Guardian's readers. Saving them, even putting himself in danger to do so, became an act of faith and a point of dark humour. A friend wrote to say she had created a 'prayer bubble' to keep him safe, and he asked for the cats to be included. There were other stories: 'I go with Ahmad to get some stuff for the house. On our way, we see a boy of about 14 walking with what seems like his two younger sisters. They are holding bags of crisps in their hands, unopened. He tells them: 'Eat your crisps before we get bombed and die.'' And, of course, there was news of deaths: 'I wonder how scared my friend was. Was he hugging his girls when they all died?' He settled into his anything but routine life with his host family, all the while expressing his luck to have such shelter. At moments of despair, he would refer to a piece of poetry, such as Mary Elizabeth Frye's Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep. 'Do not stand by my grave and weep / I am not there. I do not sleep / I am a thousand winds that blow.' There were moments of intense fear, when bombs landed nearby, or further moves were contemplated. And there were moments when the internet was cut, leaving him isolated. Worried messages would then flood in from readers, and I would hear from Tracy, the outwardly hard-bitten editor on the Guardian who became his most concerned and loyal supporter. He never lost his spirit, though. 'There was this awful seed of hope inside of me,' he says now. 'It never died. But deciding to remain hopeful was very difficult and it took a lot of energy.' Ahmad's family was large. At times there were 35 people in the house. There was Ahmad's mother, grandmother to three children who were also there. She kept everyone alive, somehow creating at least one meal a day. 'Gaza's children hadn't been able to go to school because of Covid,' he tells me. 'Then came the war. So there are children who are eight years old who don't know how to write their name. The grandmother used to dedicate an hour of her day to teaching her grandchildren. How come she's not known as one of the most impressive people ever?' Early in the diaries, he revisited a subject, reporting that Gazan men do cry: 'I saw one collapsed building with three men standing opposite, looking at it, and heavy tears were falling from their eyes.' Then came the day the diaries stopped. The diarist, his sister and the cats had crossed Gaza's southern border, to become exiles. I asked him to keep writing, and he has, but he no longer wanted to publish. He said he was too identifiable, that the danger was far from over. 'And what about when I return?' he asked. There was also his overwhelming guilt that he had managed to survive and get out. 'Ahmad's family, who hosted us, are still in Gaza. And you know what? In this very tough moment, when people are starving, every time I talk to them, they say, 'We are fine. We are managing.' And I know that they are not managing – they weren't managing when I was there. Those great people, who helped others, who welcomed me and my sister, oh my God, I will always be for ever in debt to them.' He pauses to collect himself, then adds: 'It seems that those who were killed were the lucky ones, because they did not have to see what came next.' He prefers not to reveal too much about his life now, or where he is, but is happy to talk about exile. 'It feels like your soul has been snatched out of your body,' he says. 'What are we as human beings, if not our stories and memories and moments? If you walk by a street and remember: 'Here, I met my friends,' or: 'Here I held someone's hand who I was in love with,' or: 'Here I cried,' or: 'Here I buried my mother.' If those things are taken, what is left?' Having looked after his family within Gaza, he now finds himself struggling to look after himself. 'A friend gave me a plant and I had a panic attack. I cannot commit to a plant.' At present, he is surrounded by fellow refugees, and has noticed a new decisiveness. 'I know people who decided to get a divorce. When they were in Gaza, they couldn't because of the traditions. Now they say, 'We were about to be wiped off the earth, so at least let me live the life I wanted.'' Others have taken different directions. He has heard of people turning to drugs, alcohol, sex, 'or hurting the people in their lives, being physically aggressive'. He instead has returned to sport. 'So I'm blessed, until this moment.' He has to keep moving, he says. His sister tells him they have to stay ahead of tragedy. 'She says, 'This is history repeating itself. It's not something new.'' And all the while, he swings from hope to despair. 'I met a guy, not Gazan, who is working hard because he wants to get an apartment, and I said, 'Please take time to smell the flowers. Take time to enjoy your life. You can lose it all in a moment.'' His hopes of returning to Gaza have been fading. He tells me to look at Google satellite images of Gaza. I do and it is horrifying, but he says it's more about the people. A friend was talking about how entire peoples can be eclipsed – the Native Americans, say, or Indigenous Australians. 'I replied, 'Are you telling me that in 100 or 200 years, when people think about the culture in this land next to Egypt, they will say, 'Well, there were people here called the Gazans, but then a new culture came. We should apologise to those Gazans'? Are you telling me we will end up being a line in someone's story?' Having received his diaries in real time, I have of course spent much of the last 21 months thinking about my friend, a bit like a helpless idiot calling down to someone at the bottom of a well. But I believe, strongly, that while his instinct has been to write as an anonymous everyman, this is no diary of a nobody. It has felt like the diary of a point of light, moving through a darkening landscape, one among millions of points of light, being eclipsed one by one. The clock has ticked round to 1am as we talk. I ask who he hates. 'Believe it or not, I don't hate anyone,' he says. 'It is not my nature, hating people.' I ask about the cats. 'Oh, they have grown fat!' It's late, but he wants to keep talking. 'I miss sleeping well,' he says. Who Will Tell My Story? by Anonymous (Guardian Faber, £12.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
Telegraph
36 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Transgender former Tory MP demanded £350,000 from his wife
A transgender former Conservative MP convicted of harassing his ex-wife demanded she pay him £350,000. Katie Wallis, 41, who was known as Jamie before becoming Britain's first trans MP in 2022, demanded the payment from Rebecca Lovell in a phone call he made from an unknown number. On Monday, Wallis was handed a 12-month community order and fined £1,264 having admitted harassing Ms Lovell between February and March this year. During an unwanted call made on Feb 25, the former Conservative MP told his ex-wife she had to transfer £350,000 into his bank account in 15 minutes. Wallis sent separate messages accusing Ms Lovell of being 'mean', calling her a 'c---' and a 'f------ b----' and accusing her of 'c--k hunting'. Calling his ex-wife a 'prejudiced f-----', Wallis went on to hope that she would 'never have a happy moment again'. In a victim impact statement, Ms Lovell said: 'This is the hardest thing I have written, for so long I have had to fight against the tide of Jamie's behaviour, publicly and privately. 'The woman I used to be is destroyed. I will never understand what I have done to deserve the hurt I have endured.' 'Utterly devastating' She went on to describe her final six months living with Wallis as 'utterly devastating', adding she was living her life 'constantly in fight or flight'. She went on to install CCTV for fear of Wallis turning up at her home. Narita Bahra KC, appearing for the defence at Cardiff Magistrates' Court, said Wallis now used female pronouns and said Jamie was her 'dead name'. Expressing her 'disappointment' that the case had gone to court, Ms Bahra said Wallis was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as well as depressive and adjustment disorders. Wallis served as an MP between 2019 and 2024 and came out as Britain's first transgender MP in 2022, recalling a sense of gender dysphoria 'since I was a very young child'. The MP confirmed he had decided not to seek re-election in the Bridgend constituency at the end of 2023, although he briefly considered running for a different seat in the Commons. A previous hearing was told Wallis and Ms Lovell had been in a relationship for more than 15 years before their separation in 2020. The court had also been told Wallis had tried to take his own life twice and been sectioned twice in recent months, as well as experiencing a 'psychotic breakdown' and talking about crisps during a police interview. District Judge Rhys Williams said Wallis's 12-month community order was to be carried out over 12 days. Wallis had previously been fined £2,500 and disqualified from driving for six months after crashing his car and fleeing the scene in Nov 2021.
The Independent
41 minutes ago
- The Independent
GB Energy could fund solar panels on religious buildings, Miliband suggests
A scheme which will see solar panels placed on the roofs of hundreds of schools and hospitals could be expanded to include religious buildings, Ed Miliband has suggested. The Energy Secretary told the Commons he is 'enthusiastic' about widening the scope of Great British Energy's first major project, following an influx of requests to do so. A £200 million investment to put rooftop solar on schools and NHS sites was announced by the Government earlier this year, with the aim of saving hundreds of millions of pounds on energy bills and to free up cash to reinvest in frontline services. Councils and community groups will also receive funding to build local clean power projects, such as community-owned onshore wind, rooftop solar and hydropower in rivers, as part of the scheme. Speaking during a statement on climate and nature, Labour MP Sarah Owen (Luton North) said 'there is a huge part of our communities, the faith communities' who want to 'tackle' the climate and nature crisis. She added: 'So while we welcome Great British Energy's roll out of solar panels on hospitals and on schools, could he outline any support for religious buildings that also want to do the same?' Mr Miliband replied: 'Following the successful roll out to schools and hospitals, we've now got a lot of requests to expand this scheme, and I'm very enthusiastic about doing so, and it's something we're looking at.' Under the scheme, around £80 million will support 200 schools and £100 million will go to 200 NHS sites in England. Scotland will get £4.85 million, Wales £2.88 million and Northern Ireland £1.62 million for power projects including community energy and rooftop solar for public buildings. During the statement on Monday, Mr Miliband also pledged to deal with the 'grid zombies'. This came in response to Labour MP Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth), who asked: 'What steps is the Energy Secretary making to prioritise grid connections, and will he commit to reforming the grid queuing system so that projects essential to decarbonise our transport sector are brought forward more quickly?' He replied: 'We are dealing with the zombies, the grid zombies, the zombie queue, and that reordering of the queue is precisely designed to open up the queue to projects like the ones she talked about. 'And my honourable friend, the energy minister, is having a series of round tables with DfT (Department for Transport) on precisely this subject.'
