Robert Marshall-Andrews: I welcome the statement from my right hon. Friend, and given the fact that this extra-judicial murder was an affront to British interests and British subjects, it was quite inevitable. However, this action was not aberrant-it was a measure of the impunity and illegality with which Israel acts. At this very moment, as we speak, 1.5 million Palestinians are illegally trapped, blockaded and...
Robert Marshall-Andrews: As some form of peace process starts again in the middle east, my right hon. and learned Friend will be aware that 1.5 million Palestinians remain trapped, blockaded and increasingly destitute in Gaza. Will she find time in the course of the next two weeks or before Dissolution for the House to debate that continuing atrocity?
Robert Marshall-Andrews: In a busy week, will my right hon. and learned Friend find time for the Prime Minister to come to the House to make a statement on the principles of universal jurisdiction and, in particular, to explain the serious and, indeed, colossal error contained in the article that he wrote in today's edition of The Daily Telegraph, where he maintains that arrest warrants for crimes against humanity...
Robert Marshall-Andrews: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he was informed of the content of the speech made by the Attorney-General to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem on 5 January 2010.
Robert Marshall-Andrews: To ask the Solicitor-General what (a) groups and (b) individuals the Attorney General met on her visit to Israel on 5 January 2010.
Robert Marshall-Andrews: To ask the Solicitor-General whether the Attorney General's recent visit to Israel was arranged before 12 December 2009.
Robert Marshall-Andrews: Will my hon. Friend give way?
Robert Marshall-Andrews: I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Battersea (Martin Linton) on obtaining this important debate. I should like to touch briefly on the important legal implications of the Goldstone report rather than its content, which has been dealt with extensively by my hon. Friend with his usual clarity and articulation. Goldstone is unique; there has never been such a meticulous and judicial...
Robert Marshall-Andrews: Yes, and stamina. We now ask each other who has read Goldstone. I have, and found it a harrowing and dreadful experience. Worse than the destruction of schools and hospitals and the wanton blowing up of civilian targets is the wanton destruction of 40 per cent. of the agricultural output of Gaza. I have one rhetorical question that I wanted to ask when I tried to intervene on my right hon....
Robert Marshall-Andrews: I agree entirely with my hon. Friend. Democracy, laudable though it undoubtedly is, is only one hallmark of civilisation; how one behaves in that democracy is another. The Third Reich started out as a democracy; Hamas is a democracy; democracy is not the only thing. The repetition of the phrase, "This is the only democracy in the middle east", with Israel therefore deserving some special...
Robert Marshall-Andrews: That interpretation of Goldstone is highly selective, but let me answer the real question, which came at the end: do I not accept that some of the evidence in Goldstone is questionable? Of course I do. I have been a criminal barrister for a long time and have prosecuted and defended-I am happy or unhappy to say-some of the most venal, serious, dangerous, nasty and on occasion violent crimes...
Robert Marshall-Andrews: It is not just our courts, but all the courts of any country that has signed the fourth Geneva convention and its protocol. That is the point; the jurisdiction is universal, which is the precise opposite of colonial. It is a universal jurisdiction, so that those who commit war crimes and atrocities know that their movement will be restricted in the world. Ironically, those who denied the...
Robert Marshall-Andrews: I agree. The perception of partiality in respect of Israel has long dogged not just this Government but British Governments generally. It is high time that such partiality finished, with the way that is articulated-the semantics used-carefully chosen.
Robert Marshall-Andrews: Will my right hon. Friend give way?
Robert Marshall-Andrews: Will my right hon. Friend give way?
Robert Marshall-Andrews: On the subject of the Geneva Conventions Act, will my right hon. and learned Friend take this opportunity to reassert the principle of judicial independence and, in particular, the power of the courts to issue criminal process against anybody-whatever side they are on, whatever their status, rank or influence against whom good prima facie evidence has been laid?
Robert Marshall-Andrews: It is a privilege, as always, to follow the right hon. and learned Member for North-East Fife (Sir Menzies Campbell), and a privilege to be given the opportunity to spend 12 minutes reflecting, if I may, on the greatest British failure of foreign policy for 40 years. There are, unhappily, many worthy candidates for that particular plinth in our political pantheon: Iraq, certainly;...
Robert Marshall-Andrews: Yes, I do, and I found the excuse for that situation-that the wording of the resolution was partial-to be deeply unsatisfactory and unmoving. The truth is that the debate was about Goldstone and everyone knew that-Goldstone being one of the most respected and distinguished South African judges, with an extremely long pedigree of dealing with matters of civil liberties within his own country...
Robert Marshall-Andrews: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Robert Marshall-Andrews: May I put to the right hon. Gentleman the same question that I put to the Foreign Secretary about the Goldstone report? That report identifies a large number of flagrant breaches of the Geneva convention-the fourth convention and its first protocol. In this country, as a result of the Geneva convention Acts, we have a duty to pursue and prosecute those breaches. In those circumstances, will...
