AN INDEPENDENT MP has called on the UK Government to “halt the genocide” in Gaza in their maiden speech in the Commons.
Iqbal Mohamed, the Independent MP for Dewsbury and Batley, also criticised the “double standards” that some politicians “line up” to condemn Russian aggression in Ukraine, but “defend the most heinous crimes of Israel”.
Mohamed was one of four pro-Palestinian Independents elected after beating Labour MPs over discontent with the party’s response to the crisis in the Middle East.
He has since joined Shockat Adam, Ayoub Khan and Adnan Hussain in forming a parliamentary group headed by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
In his first speech in the Commons chamber on Tuesday, he said that some had tried to present his election and that of other Independents as “sinister or a threat to democracy.”
“My election had nothing to do with sectarian politics or caricatures about Muslim voters being manipulated by their spiritual leaders,” he told MPs.
“It did have everything to do with the state of our country and the raw anger over Tory complicity and Labour’s refusal to call out the unfolding genocide in Palestine.”
Mohamed said the “ongoing genocide was a huge factor” in his election to Parliament.
He said: “When the Prime Minister endorsed the rights of the Israeli government to cut off water and electricity to the people of Gaza, people in Dewsbury and Batley said, ‘No, not in our name’.”
The member for Dewsbury and Batley went on to say that “most British people want an immediate ceasefire” and “an end to the UK’s complicity”.
“They are sick and tired of the double standards, with politicians lining up to condemn and sanction Russian aggression in Ukraine, yet defend the most heinous crimes of Israel,” he said.
“The compassion for Palestinian lives is not inversely proportional to the compassion for Israeli lives or vice versa.
“All lives are equal, and our compassion must also be equal.
“For the Prime Minister to call for a ceasefire while arming and defending Israel is meaningless and does nothing to bring an end to the killing, and for the Foreign Secretary to yesterday deny genocide is even taking place because the Israelis have not yet killed enough Palestinians, is shameful and is to willfully misrepresent what genocide is.”
He called on the UK Government to “halt the genocide and to end the 76-year-old, long unlawful occupation”.
