Calling Ministers to Account, or trying to

Let’s see if democracy works to the extent our servants in Parliament respond at least in word if not action to ordinary peoples’ concerns.

by Stuart Littlewood

Here’s an easy test of our much vaunted western democracy… you know, the kind we want to impose on everyone else, especially those nasty uncivilized regimes in the Middle East that go around attacking other nations instead of quietly minding their own business like the US and Britain.

…its subjects will receive full rights from the Parliament!

Every so often MPs at Westminster are allowed to put Parliamentary Questions to ministers.

On Tuesday of this week there is a session for questions to Foreign Office ministers, and I have been told by several people that they are asking their MP to challenge ministers about the continuing injustice in Palestine.

I hope they will also suggest questions about the sabre-rattling and bully-boy tactics that are designed to hurt the Iranian people economically, for no good reason any of us can see.

… we continue to work hard for a Middle East free of nukes!

Whether or not MPs will agree to table the questions remains to be seen. And whether or not they receive an intelligent reply is anyone’s guess.

Let’s see if democracy works to the extent our servants in Parliament respond at least in word if not action to ordinary peoples’ concerns.

So I’ve written to my MP Henry Bellingham, who recently lost his job as a Foreign Office minister, asking him to kindly table these two written questions (which require written answers)…

Question 1.

Israel refuses (unlike Iran) to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and open its nuclear programme to international inspection. It has not signed the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. It has signed but not ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, similarly the Chemical Weapons Convention. The Israeli regime continues to defy international law and UN resolutions with its illegal occupation, ongoing confiscation of Palestinian lands, destruction of homes, arrest and imprisonment of civilians, its inhuman blockade of Gaza and many other crimes against humanity – including lethal assaults on peaceful shipping on the high seas bringing humanitarian aid. Instead of rewarding Israel with pledges of everlasting protection and special trade agreements, should not Britain and the international community now discharge their obligation to make Israel accountable?

Question 2.

As Iran presents no existential threat to the UK why has HMG [Her Majesty's Government]not made friends and developed trade with that country – the positive way to influence others – instead of embarking on a plan of economic warfare that is bound to harm its innocent population and needlessly make us more enemies? And how many visits have been made to Iran by senior British ministers in the 33 years since the Islamic Revolution of 1979? What is HMG now doing to re-establish high-level direct diplomatic links?

If I get a reply I’ll let you know.

Stuart Littlewood’s book Radio Free Palestine, with Foreword by Jeff Halper, can now be read on the internet by visiting: www.radiofreepalestine.org.uk

Radio Free Palestine series:

• A Wake-up Call — Stuart Littlewood

• A Story of Betrayal – 1

• A Story of Betrayal – 2

• A Story of Betrayal – 3

• One Land, Two Peoples, Three Religions – 1

• One Land, Two Peoples, Three Religions – 2

• One Land, Two Peoples, Three Religions – 3

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