Revealed: MPs spend more time on average talking about Israel than any other foreign nation

This time, there were two, just as there were two on Sudan.

More questions and statements were debated on Ukraine and on the negotiations between the UK and Mauritius regarding the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands (three each).

However, MPs spent an average of 83 minutes on the UQs and statements relating to Israel, in comparison to an average of just under 43 minutes discussing other foreign countries.

There is no limit on the number MPs allowed to ask follow-up questions following a statement or UQ.

As a result, sessions where more MPs are keen to ask questions of a minister take longer to conclude.

For instance: MPs spent just 54 minutes discussing the 1000-day anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in November last year.

In the same month, they spent 70 minutes discussing the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-defence minister Yoav Gallant.

Earlier this month, MPs spent 97 minutes discussing “the situation in Northern Gaza”. 

During that debate, of the 29 Labour MPs that spoke, only one, Labour Friends of Israel chair Jon Pearce, did not make some sort of criticism of Israel.

One Jewish communal source told the JC it was a “complete disgrace that the mother of all parliaments is regularly reduced to a twisted obsession with Israel.”

They continued: “How can it be right that more time is spent discussing the sole Jewish state than the conflict on our doorstep in Ukraine? These ritual condemnations of Israel are pure virtue signalling, pandering to the anti-Israel extremists who won't be satisfied until Israel is destroyed."

Even though, according to the US State Department, the conflict in Sudan unleashed the world’s largest humanitarian catastrophe –  leaving an estimated 638,000 Sudanese experiencing the worst famine in Sudan’s recent history and over 30 million people in need of humanitarian assistance – ministers did not feel the need to provide a running commentary on the ongoing situation, nor were there many Urgent Questions on the topic.

MPs spent 46 minutes discussing Sudan on November 28 last year during a ministerial statement and a further 43 minutes on Monday following a UQ.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared in early January that he thought “genocide” had been committed by rebel group RSF and their allies.

The British government didn’t share the American assessment and Development Minister Annelise Dodds told MPs on Monday that “it is for the courts to decide whether genocide has occurred”.

UQs are granted at the discretion of the Speaker of the House of Commons and are a way for MPs to get answers from government ministers in the chamber on current issues.

Ministerial statements are at the discretion of the government and are a way for the House to be updated on developing matters, global or domestic.

Excluding the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the longest session debating a foreign country was a statement on the situation in Syria, held on 9 December last year – a day after the fall of the Assad regime, which MPs spent 94 minutes discussing.

Although some MPs still used the occasion to criticise Israel.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn failed to mention the Assad regime during his question to Foreign Secretary David Lammy, something the JC revealed he was heckled for by a Labour MP.

Russell Langer, director of public affairs at the Jewish Leadership Council told the JC that although it was important MPs have the ability to question ministers on British foreign policy, “it is clear questions and debates regarding the world's only Jewish state attract a disproportionate amount of attention compared to other major conflicts.”

He continued: “Unfortunately, many of these sessions also fail to address the complexities of the conflict given they are at best, performative.”