The silence on Gaza during this general election has been deafening
by During the course of this election, you may have heard talk of a ‘conspiracy of silence’ between the Westminster parties.
That conspiracy is referring to Tory and Labour Party attempts to avoid admitting the £18 billion of public spending cuts they are both planning and also their silence when it comes to Brexit and the damage it continues to inflict.
However, there has been a third wall of silence that the Westminster parties have erected during this campaign.
And it’s their deafening silence when it comes to the conflict in Gaza.
It has got little or no mention, and you can’t help but think it’s deliberate.
Since the horrific attacks by Hamas on October 7th last year and the subsequent 8 months of the collective punishment of the Palestinian people in Gaza by Netanyahu’s Israeli Government, Westminster’s response has been as slow as it has been shameful.
Despite a live TV feed of the deliberate slaughter of innocents in Gaza, day after day, it took the Tory Government and the Labour Party months to even muster the moral courage to call for a ceasefire.
And it took SNP MPs to consistently raise the conflict, week after week, at Prime Minister’s Questions and to use our parliamentary time to bring forward motions pressing the UK government to take concrete steps towards an immediate ceasefire.
If SNP MPs hadn’t been there, those things simply wouldn’t have happened. Westminster would have shamefully sat in silence.
Eight months on though and the conflict hasn’t ended, the onslaught in Rafah continues.
Hostages are still being held. Millions of Palestinians are being starved, deliberately. Hospitals and homes are a mass mound of rubble.
And still, weapons keep being sent from the US and the UK to assist the Israeli army in their indiscriminate assault on innocent men, women and children.
This is the horrific reality that is Gaza right now – it hasn’t ended, and it isn’t going away. It’s about time this general election campaign stopped avoiding it.
Today in Holyrood, I’m proud that our parliament is using the platform it has to keep a focus on Gaza.
The former first minister, Humza Yousaf, will bring forward a motion calling on the UK to finally recognise the state of Palestine.
That international recognition will be an important and necessary step in the road to a two-state solution and a permanent peace.
SNP MPs at Westminster will keep the pressure up by bringing forward a similar motion on the far side of this election.
Now is not the moment to allow our collective focus on this conflict to drift or to allow ourselves to be distracted.
It’s time to keep the pressure on the international community to stop this slaughter and secure an immediate ceasefire.
It’s time to release the hostages, and time to stop the collective punishment of the Palestinian people. It’s definitely time to stop arms sales to Israel.
In the remaining days of this election, it’s time for the silence on Gaza to stop.
Tommy Sheppard is the SNP This article was originally published in the Daily Record, 26th June.