A year ago I stood in the conference hall and delivered a speech imploring us to act, to listen to the cries of Palestinians, to see your shared humanity with them and the hostages and to do what we can to stop the slaughter and the complete destruction of Gaza. Today as I stand before you Beit Hanoun in the north of Gaza lies flatten, an apocalyptic landscape, completely destroyed by Israel. And now Gaza City burns. The confirmed death toll has exceeded 65K, 20K of them children, and at least 166K are injured.

From satellite-image analysis, an estimated 70% of the structures that supported 2.3m Palestinians in the strip have been destroyed or damaged beyond use. Homes, schools, universities, hospitals, shops, offices, water, electricity, sewage infrastructure, roads and pavements. Whole communities gone. But what really matters are the people. Bombed, shelled, burnt, displaced and starved in scenes that challenge every one of us that care to look and comprehend the true horror of what they are seeing. Feel your humanity. Scenes brought to us by brave Palestinian journalists, who pay a heavy price for doing so.

A year ago in my speech I asked us to call on Israel to lift the ban on foreign journalists accessing the Gaza strip. Until the international media has access, it should be assumed that Israel has acts it wishes to hide, which means the conduct of genocide is all the more plausible. Israel has not lifted the ban on foreign journalists entering Gaza And it has not undertaken any of the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice in January and March 2024, obliging Israel to take action to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza and allow for unimpeded access to humanitarian aid.

Today we call Israel’s war on Gaza genocide, and in doing so we amplify the voices of international and Israeli NGOs, many governments – but not the UK – and the UN Human Rights Council and with this comes responsibility to take immediate action to prevent Genocide.

But Israel’s war on Palestine is not just in Gaza. Less well understood is the sheer misery of life for Palestinians in the illegally occupied West Bank, where they are subject to a ruthless apartheid regime, dispossessed, dominated and oppressed, subjected on a daily basis to settler and IDF violence. Less well known than the plight of the Israeli hostages is that of 10K Palestinian prisoners, including children, held in notorious Israeli prisons and detention centres without any semblance of a fair justice system and subjected to well documented, evidenced, widespread torture and death.

The UK is expected to at long last recognise the State of Palestine and in so doing Palestinians inalienable right to self-determination. In anticipation of such a move Israel is moving forward with it massive E1 settlement project in the West Bank, with Israeli Finance Minister, Smotrich, declaring, “The Palestinian state is being erased from the table not by slogans but by deeds. At the same time, Netanyahu has announced a vision for a “Greater Israel’ which includes occupied Palestinian territory as well as parts of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

What is crystal clear is that Israel shows no sign of meaningful change to its illegal occupation of Palestine or of its conduct in the war on Gaza. Breaking international law by bombing the Hamas negotiators in Qatar shows that Israel has no interest in a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to war and remember it was Netanyahu who abrogated the last ceasefire in March.

The change needed will not be triggered from within Israel but from outside, from international pressure. It must be forced to change. This is Israel’s South Arica moment. We need wide- ranging economic and other sanctions, a total ban on arms sales, and visa restrictions especially on settlers.

The UK government policy needs to change:

• Recognition of the State of Palestine is welcome but not enough.
• We must now avoid complicity in genocide and war crimes and follow obligations triggered by the ICJ advisory opinion.
• All military cooperation must end, including British people serving in the IDF .
• Active steps need to be taken to arrest people accused of war crimes so they can be charged/tried
• All trade that facilitates the illegal occupation must be halted
• Allow students and severally injured children from Gaza to study and be treated in Britain

I am reminded of a Mahmood Darwish quote. Regarded as national poet of Palestine who died over 17 years ago he said: “The Palestinians are the only nation in the world that feels with certainty that today is better than what the days ahead will hold. Tomorrow always heralds a worse situation.”

We must change this reality for Palestinians. We must give hope to Palestinians and Israelis that they can live in peace, dignity, justice and equality. We must pressure Keir Starmer to change UK Policy, and change the course of history, and call an Opposition Day to force a vote.

A recording of the debate is available here.