A Bolton baroness says that not granting statehood to Palestine was a “missed opportunity to change the course of history.”
Baroness Trish Morris of Bolton was addressing the House of Lords when she said that granting recognition to the embattled territory in 2011 could have changed much of what came after.
This comes after the conflict taking place in Gaza.
Lady Morris, who is also President of Medical Aid for Palestinians, said: “We are of course able to make the first step towards a two-state solution and that is recognition of Palestine – and I welcome Lord Cameron’s statement on this.
“Lord Soames and I called for recognition in 2011 when the World Bank, the IMF, the UN and the EU had all said that Palestine was ready for statehood.
“And, when President Obama promised that Palestine would be a new member of the UN, we endorsed that promise.
“We missed the opportunity to change the course of history then.
“We can do better now.”
The devastating conflict, in which more than 30,000 Palestinians and more than 1,400 Israelis have been killed, has had major repercussions on the streets of Bolton since October.
Several mass rallies have been held in the town centre, attracting thousands of demonstrators.
In October five Bolton Councillors, two of them cabinet members signed an “unprecedented” letter calling on Labour leader Keir Starmer to back a ceasefire.
The following November campaigners Bernadette Gallagher and Florence Hill held a vigil on the town hall steps for the children who had been killed in the conflict.
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Also in November Labour’s Yasmin Qureshi, MP for Bolton South East quit her own party’s frontbench to call for a ceasefire.
Last month Bolton North East MP Mark Logan broke ranks with his Conservative Party colleagues to do the same.
He said: “With 28,000 people now dead in Gaza – 11,500 children – playing around with words is just playing around with people’s lives, and Israel has gone too far.
“It is disproportionate. It has not just gone too far today, it has gone too far already for months on end.”
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