Palestine and the Middle East

Palestine and the Middle East

Bernie Grant was a supporter of the Palestinian struggle for self determination, recognition of Palestinian statehood and freedom from illegal occupation. Grant’s involvement in the Labour Party’s Black Sections helps to paint a picture not only of his support for the Palestinian struggle, but also the solidarity with Palestine practised by Black socialist projects here in Britain. Black Sections was formed in 1983, and in 1988, released a publication entitled The Black Agenda , which outlined its collective stance on a myriad of issues related to the Black struggle in Britain, elsewhere, and the connected anti-colonial struggles in Ireland, South Africa, and Palestine. The Black Agenda reported on the resolution passed at Black Sections’ 1987 annual conference “condemning the repression of Palestinians in the Gaza, the West Bank and within the pre-1967 borders of “Israel””. The conference had also “expressed its solidarity with the Palestinians fighting the repression and the occupation”. Indeed, not long before The Black Agenda’s writing, 200 Palestinians had been killed during the first Intifada (uprising) against Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Of course, concerned MPs raised the issue of the Palestinian Struggle within Parliament itself. In 1992, Grant was one of 70 signatories to an Early Day Motion calling for Israel to comply with a UN resolution to withdraw from the occupied West Bank and Gaza strip, and recognition of Palestinian statehood.

Minutes of a meeting between Bernie Grant MP and Afif Safieh of the PLO [BG_P_18_2_159] (1)

This document is the minutes of a meeting between Bernie Grant MP and Afif Safieh of the Palestine Liberation Organisation on 10 January 1991, focusing on Grant’s recent trip to Iraq, the Gulf crisis, and the Palestinian struggle. It is useful for understanding Bernie Grant’s political stance on Middle Eastern issues, his concerns about media bias, his support for linking the Palestinian and Iraqi situations, and his efforts to represent Palestinian interests at a parliamentary level.

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The Gulf War took place between the years 1990-1991, and Britain participated as part of a coalition of nations against Iraq and Saddam Hussein. The foremost nations in this coalition included the USA and Israel. The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), aligned itself with Iraq, and indeed Iraq has been a consistent supporter of Palestine’s right to recognised statehood. During the early stages of the Gulf War, Grant went to lengths to assess the situation outside of pro-war media portrayals, and joined a peace mission toBaghdad on behalf of the Afro-Asian Solidarity Movement, to better “establish” Iraq’s position. In the aftermath of this trip, Grant met with the PLO’s Afif Safieh on the 10th January 1991, who was also serving as Palestinian Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Much of their meeting revolved around discussions on the likelihood of successful international negotiations and the bringing about of peace. It was at this meeting that Grant offered to represent the PLO in Parliament, and having been recently elected chair of the Socialist Campaign Group, invited Safieh to join, which he did. Later, in 1992, Safieh wrote to Grant to thank him for his continual support for “peace in the Middle East and justice for the Palestinian people”. Grant was concerned throughout the conflict, to represent a socialist and non-Eurocentric perspective, and convey the repercussions the conflict would have on third world nations.

On 10th January, he wrote to the Speaker of the House requesting he be called to speak at an upcoming debate on the Gulf Crisis. When the debate took place, on the 15th January, Grant relayed his perspective based on observations from the peace mission: “We were there to find out what the Iraqis thought because the media over here had not been putting the Iraqi point of view…I am opposed to much of what has been said tonight and to sanctions against Iraq. I think that there should be an Arab solution. If the Arabs got together without any pressure from the West, they would be able to resolve the issue”. His campaign against sanctions continued throughout the conflict, and in October of the same year he organised a meeting at the House of Commons titled ‘Sanctions Against Iraq: The Human Cost’, which presented academic research and a documentary film for attendees to “hear and see first hand accounts of the economic and social effects of UN-sponsored sanctions against Iraq”. Hostile relations between Iraq and the West of course continued into the late 1990s, and during a House of Commons debate on Iraq in 1998, Grant called out the hypocrisy of the British government for condemning the atrocities committed by Iraq and Saddam Hussein, and not that of Israel against Palestinians: “I find it amazing that hon. Members can, quite rightly, condemn Saddam Hussein for his atrocities but say nothing about Israel and its atrocities against the Palestinians and others”.