PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE
Christians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories - 3 July 2025 (Commons/Commons Chamber)

We continue to see the Christian community attacked by Israeli soldiers and settlers, as happened as recently as last week. Anglican aid agencies are providing financial assistance to Church institutions, including the Princess Basma Centre in East Jerusalem, St Luke’s hospital in Nablus and the Arab Evangelical Episcopal school in Ramallah. This work is ongoing, and there is a global appeal for support for these aid agencies.

The UK Government have begun to issue visas for critically injured and sick Gazan children in need of specialist expert medical treatment, but only a handful of children have been granted visas and brought to the UK for urgent treatment. What support can the Church provide to not just Christian children, but all children in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in desperate need of medical evacuation?

I thank my hon. Friend for his important question. There is no safe space for children in Gaza, where we know that over 56,000 people have lost their lives, including more than 17,000 children. The Church has rightly condemned the attacks on hospitals and civilians, but we can certainly do more and the Church must do more. The Church must continue to be a voice for the voiceless, and Gazan children are the voiceless. I encourage the Government to enable medical evacuations, heed calls for the creation of a Gaza family visa scheme and take concrete steps to ensure Israel allows vital medical aid into Gaza.

I call the Father of the House.

The Christian town of Taybeh is the same town as Ephraim in John’s gospel where Jesus went before his passion. This town is entering a new passion: there was a violent attack by extremist Israeli settlers on the town on 26 June. There is a continuing pattern of crops being destroyed and outposts being set up, and it is happening all over the west bank. This is outrageous racial cleansing, deliberately designed to prevent a two-state solution and to drive out the people who have tended their crops there for 2,000 years. Will the Church of England call out this outrage every day of the week in an attempt to put some sort of pressure on the Israeli Government?

I thank the Father of the House for his question. He is absolutely right: the attacks that took place in Taybeh last week were outrageous and should not have been allowed to happen. If we are all going to be the hands and feet of Jesus, we have to speak out when we see such atrocities happen. We must be a voice for the voiceless. I hear him when he says that the Church must speak out every day against what is happening in Gaza, and indeed across the whole occupied territories.