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Absolutely. Let's take another call. And this one's from Harrow and it's William
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Morning, William. Good morning, Mr. Mayor. I just want to know, as an eminent member of the Labour Party
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can you explain to me, please, the silence over the slaughter in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank
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The Israeli army now are knocking down houses and bringing in bulldozers
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Is there a word about it? No. The Gaza Strip has been bombed, I think, for the third time
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Children's blood is all over the place and in the rubble. Is there a word about it? No. Why is that
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Look, William, I'm somebody who does believe that what Hamas did on October 7th was wrong
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and I think the hostages should be released and the bodies of those who were taken should be released
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At the same time, I think the behaviour of the Israeli government and the IDF is not acceptable
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I think when you speak to those who have either been in Gaza or indeed the West Bank, they will tell you some of the horrors over the last few years
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I think when you have a situation where humanitarian aid, this is not, you know, luxury suits being stopped and getting into Gaza or televisions
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This is food and medicines now being stopped by the Israelis getting into Gaza
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We got experts saying there are now people on the cusp of starvation the potential of epidemics being caused You got to call it out And I think the behaviour of Netanyahu the behaviour of his government the behaviour of the IDF should be called out
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And I think what's really important is people like you carry on reminding the world
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about what's happening in Gaza and the West Bank, because they'll be forgotten about because of the geopolitics
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You can see President Trump in the Middle East today. I'm hoping when he's in Saudi Arabia today
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he's in Qatar over the next few days and the UAE, that'll be an opportunity for president trump to hear loudly and clearly uh the views of those
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respective countries and he uses his influence over netanyahu to stop this it is heartbreaking
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and heart-wrenching when you see and hear these stories every day and by that i began this answer
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william by deliberately talking about the hostages because some people say you can't be sympathetic
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to both i think you can i think you can criticize hamas and condemn them but also say netanyahu is
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behaving in a way that's despicable. I think he was asking more about the silence from
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the Labour government. Look, William, the way diplomacy works, I'm sure, I'm sure the Foreign
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Secretary and the Prime Minister are speaking to their respective colleagues in Israel and elsewhere
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to exert their influence. I know from the media, and it discusses with the Foreign Secretary or
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Prime Minister, but that, you know, David Lambert was meeting with France and Germany and other
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countries to discuss the issue very recently. You'll see, William, what President Macron has
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in relation to Palestine as well. So you know don forget we only get to see what you know what happens in the public forum But I no doubt at all both the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary are raising the concerns that I articulated behind closed doors
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That's a bit, I mean, it may be true, but it's unlikely to satisfy William and many other people listening that the things that aren't being done in public, which many people want to see in public, include a defence that, well, they're almost certainly being done in prime
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I just don't know. I wasn't being disengaged. I just simply don't know what's being done, what happens
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What would you do if you were Foreign Secretary? You've got the senior members of the United Nations now using the word genocide
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I had Kenneth Roth on my podcast a couple of weeks ago who, as you know, spent 30 years running Human Rights Watch
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No one's done more to stand up to despots and appalling conduct than he has
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And he used the word genocide in my interview. And you see what the ICC and ICJ have respectively said and things have got worse, not better since their primary judgment
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William, let me tell you two personal experiences. I spoke to somebody during Ramadan who was here from Gaza and separately I met somebody recently who's here from West Bank
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And they said, don't underestimate the fact that when we hear about people talking about Palestine outside of Palestine, the difference it makes to us, the fact that people haven't forgotten us
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So I'm not patronizing you, William, but the fact that you're raising this in a public radio show is really important
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Secondly, we've all got the power to lobby the government, me included
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If we think the government aren't doing enough on this issue, we can lobby the government. And I'd encourage all your listeners, James, and I've said this before in terms of the
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white paper you know we live in the joy of a democracy and the joy of pluralism is we can lobby our politicians to ask them to do more And I think it is important that we put pressure on you know all governments to say to Israel listen you know the view people have of the Israeli government is not going up as a consequence of your actions going down
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But on a daily basis, people are dying. You know, starvation and the death because of illness aren't inevitable
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They're preventable and they're manmade. The catastrophe in Gaza and the West Bank is man-made
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And you can go further than the government can because you're not involved in any diplomatic attempts
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to stay the hand of Benjamin Netanyahu. No, I can answer the question as truthfully as I can
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and as openly as I can, as I always try and do on Speak to Sadiq. One more call, I think. Yeah, great
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The next caller is from Westminster and it's Hassan. Good morning, Hassan. As-salamu alaykum
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Wa-alikumsalam. Good morning. Since we're talking about Israel, do you think what is happening in Gaza is genocide
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and then one I actually wanted to ask about the rise of reform but please if you can clarify the
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genocide question well I said as I said to James when the preliminary judgment came out from the
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ICC and ICJ they said it's plausible I think things have got I think things have got worse
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not better since then so is it genocide Sadiq I've been quite clear he thinks it is Corbyn thinks it
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is there's lots of people in ICJ Human Rights Watch others are saying this can you say the word
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Well, Hassan, it's quite clear what ICJ and ICC said. They said it's plausible genocide
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And what I'm saying to you, things have got worse, not better since then. Okay, so you're not saying the word
