To the Foreign Office:
Thank you for replies to some nine questions for Written Answer. I would like to comment on some of them.
Afghanistan (HL5349)
You are quite correct about responsibility for prisoners and detainees lying with the US and Afghan authorities. Nevertheless, General Stone’s report and other evidence, suggest that prison conditions and treatment of detainees are still far from ideal. May I urge HMG to make representations, especially to the US Government, asking for urgent improvements? The minds and hearts of the Afghan people will never be won over for peace and democracy as long as Afghans are suffering in prison and their relatives are itching to take revenge. HMG should surely understand this simple point, from their long experience with terrorism and civil strife in Northern Ireland. (I am still president of the Northern Ireland Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders.) This matter has a direct bearing on the lives of our soldiers in Afghanistan.
Israel and Palestine (HL5213)
It is surely pathetic than only 24 truckloads of construction materials have been allowed into Gaza since January. This works out at only three per month – an amount probably insufficient for the needs of UNWRA alone, not to speak of urgent repairs and improvements to the sewage system. The latter is in Israel’s interest since raw sewage is carried by the tides and currents onto beaches in Israel. It is appalling and indeed a humanitarian crime, that the people of Gaza, after devastating military bombardments, are still being subjected by both Israel and Egypt to a form of blockade, which only allows in bare subsistence rations of food and minimum medical supplies. This matter has been out of recent headlines, but is no less urgent. While progress on negotiations over Corporal Shalit is most welcome, will HMG step up their pressure on both Israel and Egypt until fully adequate supplies of food, medicines, fuel and construction materials are allowed into Gaza?
A large majority of public opinion in both Israel and Palestine wants peace and a sustainable overall agreement. This puts a heavy responsibility on all external parties, to make sure that processes are not strung out endlessly and that the desired result becomes possible. Just as Israeli settlers and colonists have to be taken into account, so also does Islamic opinion in Palestine generally and Hamas in particular. Neither political extreme should be excluded from negotiations, since both probably have the power to wreck agreements that might be reached by more moderate elements. Will HMG do more than just follow behind the efforts of the US Government?
The points raised in Question 5240 concern Israel’s obligations under the Road Map. It has failed to implement these in full, just as it failed to adhere to the 2005 Movement and Access Agreement and other earlier agreements. Given this non-compliance by the larger, stronger and better organized power, how can anyone expect full compliance from the weaker one? At the present time, Israel should be asked to show goodwill and give a lead by taking steps, especially symbolic ones, of a sort that would improve the negotiating climate. These could include:
(a) Handing over to the Palestinian Authority the site of former settlements near Jenin, which were evacuated in 2005.
(b) The re-opening of Orient house and the premises of the Jerusalem Chamber of Commerce, both in East Jerusalem.
(c) Improvements in access for people of all faiths to Rachel’s Tomb near Bethlehem.
(d) Removal of further road-blocks and check-points in the West Bank, thus allowing the Palestinian economy to revive.
(e) The provision of passing points in the separation Wall and Barrier to allow better access for Palestinians on either side, who are now cut off from their nearest schools, hospitals and clinics.
I make the above points having just returned from another visit to Jerusalem.
Yours sincerely
Hylton
Lord Hylton,
As has been thcase with many of the Peers who have sat in your House over the centuries I tend to believe both that people are capable of really good things and sheer goodness and that in fact the human race is not distinguished for its goodness. In the run of things you seem to be a morally superior to the norm sort of man.I do think however that for many reasons your vision of the Israeli-Palestinian Question is flawed.
1.I believe that all these decsades of negotiation have been starting from unjust premises.
2. A Greater Israel Trust should be established to receive payments of Reparations from both the Governments of Austria and Germany and from those corporate entities which have survived and which profited from the Third Reich. These collected funds should be brokered indivdualy in several parts. One large part to buy as much of the Sinai Peninsula as Egypt can be persuaded to sell and to have these new landscertified as sovereign territory of the new Greater Israel.
4.The second part of the reparations should be a development fund from which German and Austrian interests would be preferred vendors to recoup some of the cost of the sims of their ancestors.
5.The Republic of Israel would become a senior state wuth special privileges in the areas of diplomacy and war. This state would receive triple the area surrendered to create a Jerusalem Capital District for the new Greater Israel in new land in the Sinai.
6.Palestine would become a single but federated state with three constitutional districts: Gaza, the West Bank and a district the size of Gaza in the Sinai.
7.The remainder of Sinai would be the last state in the federal constitution of the new Greater Israel. This would also be comprised of federated districts like Palestine. These districts would run their local affairs according to charters approved for various groups of Jews (including self acknowledged Hebrew groups who practice Christianity or Islam) and some reserved for those currently living in the Sinai.
8. That would leave 4 unequal states:
Israel (the senior and specialy privileged state), Palestine, Jerusalem and Sinai. The Constitutional Legislature like that of the USA would have a chamber with seats allocated by state and one with seats allocated by population.
The international community could then support the efforts of this new society to establish peace and admit that its behavior up to this point has been quite bad. Weakening Israel gratis is just finishing Hitler’s work and I am afraid that however popular it is I find it objectionable.
“Will HMG do more than just follow behind the efforts of the US Government?”
I think I can guess at the response..
Well done for trying Lord Hylton.
‘Dyfal donc a dyr y garreg’ as we say in Wales.
Where you aware that Ridley Scott’s film ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ is a story about Jerusalem at the time of Baldwin IV (the leper) sometime around 1184?
The etymology of the word Jerusalem is interesting because its origins are not Hebrew but became accepted because it meant ‘Rain of Peace’.
Although a fictional account, its main characters are based on real people and his team did research first editions of Muslim writings. The cast of historic characters in the wiki link is an education in itself.
The film is available as a directors cut on DVD although as he admits it could have stretched out to four or five hours given the amount of work that went into its making.
When you have a few hours to spare it is best viewed on a large screen with a surround sound home-cinema system turned up loud.
Ref: Cast of Characters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Heaven_(film)
Jerusalem, meaning, origin and etymology
http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Jerusalem.html
Q. Can you comment on that scene, especially in relation to its historical accuracy?
http://www.indielondon.co.uk/Film-Review/kingdom-of-heaven-the-directors-cut-ridley-scott-interview