What are we supposed to make of last week’s JC story by my colleague Jennifer Lipman, which showed that MPs had signed up to 21 early day motions about Israel, compared to just eight on Iran, three on Egypt, two on Syria and just one on Libya?
For the uninitiated, early day motions, or EDMs, are an obscure piece of parliamentary business which call for a debate on the floor of the House of Commons, although, in practice they are more like mini-petitions from backbenchers on pet topics. They are important because they provide an insight into the interests (and obsessions) of individual MPs and an indication of the level of support among fellow backbenchers. The rules state that the motion must be expressed in a single sentence. Each EDM has a primary sponsor and can be signed by any number of backbenchers.
For those readers who are not versed in the mysteries of the early day motion, those focusing on Israel include EDM 57, congratulating the Co-Operative group on its decision to boycott Israeli goods, EDM 280, welcoming the report into the inquiry into Palestinian children in Israeli military custody, EDM 640, expressing concern at Israel’s threat to attack Iran, EDM 728 condemning Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and EDM 806 opposing Israeli settlement building.
One conclusion might be that MPs are simply reflecting the fact that Israel is the worst human rights abuser on the planet. But even Amnesty International doesn’t believe this to be the case. Under any objective measure, this is simply not true. The Freedom House Civil Rights index, which give countries a mark out of seven (one for the countries with best records and seven for those with the worst) gave Israel a two. Where are all the EDMs on Syria, Eritreia, Saudi Arabia and North Korea, which all scored seven on the Freedom House measure in 2012?
Another explanation for the disproportionate number of EDMs on Israel/Palestine might be that MPs recognise the importance of the conflict for the geopolitics of the region. Many of the motions express quite genuine, widely-held concerns. But this doesn’t quite get to the heart of the matter either. It is difficult to argue that developments in Egypt with the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, the killing of 30,000 civilians in Syria’s civil war or the nuclear threat of Iran should not be of equal or more concern.
In reality, this slew of EDMs is the product of a small number of MPs who make it their personal mission to attack Israel. A strange coalition has developed which contains Respect MP George Galloway, Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn, Caroline Lucas of the Green Party, Liberal Democrat Bob Russell and Tories Peter Bottomley and Nicholas Soames.
Israel is not always innocent of the human rights abuse of which it is accused. Its government and military are not beyond reproach and British MPs should raise their concerns when they see fit. But perhaps MPs could use 2013 to become more even-handed in their condemnation, and inform themselves a little more about abuses happening elsewhere in the world.
