Hamble Valley Labour Party has written to Paul Holmes MP seeking his support for a parliamentary motion to stop arms sales to Israel:
Paul Holmes MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
(sent by email to: paul.holmes.mp@parliament.uk)
Dear Paul,
At the last month’s meeting of the Hamble Valley Labour Party the following motion was agreed upon and forwarded to the Labour Party National Policy Forum.
Hamble Valley CLP is pleased to support the “Joint statement from the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Canada on the situation in Gaza and the West Bank. 19 May 2025 and the comments and action taken by the Foreign Secretary David Lammy 20 May 2025.
We do not however believe that these comments and actions go far enough.
Hamble Valley CLP believe that the concrete actions and sanctions must include:
The UK government should name the actions being taken by Israel as a genocide – which the UN defines as action “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”
The suspension of all UK arms exports licences (including parts and technology) to Israel as there exists a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of International Humanitarian Law.
Sanctions against members of the Israeli government and senior Israeli military leadership
The UK should also proceed immediately to recognise the State of Palestine in line with 147/193 UN member states.
In line with above motion we note that there is a cross-party EDM (Early Day Motion)1310: tabled on 21 May 2025 (https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/63689/arms-exports-to-israel), which in brief calls for the “the Government to immediately suspend all arms exports to Israel in line with majority public opinion …”.
MPs from Labour, the Liberal Dems, the Greens, the SNP, the SDLP, Alliance, Plaid Cymru have signed the EDM, alongside a number of independents.
Whilst not in any way condoning the abhorrent attacks of Hamas on October 7 2023 and recognising Israel’s legal right to defend itself, we would urge you, as the elected MP for Hamble Valley, to add your signature to this cross- party EDM to evidence your support for the motion and the strength of local support for it.
The time for warnings has passed, the time for action is now.
on behalf of the Executive Committee and members of Hamble Valley Constituency Labour Party
Proud to be on the right side of history