Dear Friends,

Thanks to all of you for your responses to my speech in the House of Commons last week on the violence in Gaza. I spoke again in the Commons today about the UK government’s decision on Friday to abstain on the UN Human Rights Council’s resolution calling for an independent international commission of inquiry into the violence, because – instead – they believe the Israeli authorities should be allowed to investigate themselves.

I reminded them of what happened when Israel was allowed to investigate itself over the deaths of four children on Gaza beach in 2014, and I said any sense that a repeat of that travesty was the right way to respond to the violence in Gaza was nothing short of a disgrace.