MATT RODDA, Reading East’s MP condemned the recent move by US President Donald Trump to formally recognise Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel. President Trump has cited the statement as being ‘long overdue’ and necessary to seek to achieve peace, adding that Israel was a ‘sovereign nation’ and had ‘every right to to determine its own capital’. His position was emphasised by the announcement of plans to relocate the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

To add to the growing and widespread condemnation in the national and international media, Matt Rodda MP urged a response from the debating chamber in Westminster Hall who were sitting on the issue of Israeli demolition of Palestinian communities. The debate, convened to represent a pro-human rights and pro-justice standpoint in the continuation of a possible Israeli-Palestine situation, was held under the chair of Mark Pritchard, the MP for the Wrekin in Shropshire.

 Matt said:

“On Jerusalem and the unfortunate and misguided announcement from the US President, will my honourable Friend comment on the restatement of British policy at Prime Minister’s Question Time today that Jerusalem should not be dealt with in the way the US President suggests?”

 In response, Stephen Kinnock, MP for Aberavon who brought the debate to the chamber said:

“I thank my honourable Friend. I very much welcome the Prime Minister’s comments at Prime Minister’s questions. That was a very important restatement of very important principles. Let us just hope that she may be able to have some form of constructive conversation with the President of the United States about that, although having a constructive conversation with that particular gentleman seems to be a difficult thing to do.”

 He continued:

“Jerusalem, the city of three faiths, is under constant threat as a political pawn. There is the separation of the west bank and Gaza, with a 2 million population trapped in the tiny Gaza strip, in what some have called the world’s largest open-air prison, thanks to the land, sea and air blockade of Gaza. One third of the 2 million people crammed into Gaza’s 139 square miles are under 15, and almost half are under 25. A 10-year-old child will already have lived through three major wars. That is no way to grow up. In short, any young person born at the time of the Oslo accords has seen only diminishing rights and freedoms, less security and a fragmented territory that pushes the possibility of a two-state solution even further away.”

 Following the debate, Matt said that he sincerely hoped many more people would join with him in the censure of President Trump’s position statement from the White House, saying that such remarks were only likely to make it harder to achieve a two-state solution.