Video Infoblog: “Get out of Palestine, it's not your country” Sir Alan Duncan to Israel

17 Jul 2024

Former UK minister Sir Alan Duncan has called on Israel to end its occupation of Palestine, stating, "Get out of Palestine, it's not your country." He criticised the British government's rejection of the International Criminal Court (ICC) legal processes, stressing, "If we are signatories to an international treaty which sets up a court, we should follow and support that court. The same applies to the United Nations." Duncan condemned the rise of politicians undermining institutions they are part of and emphasised the need to distinguish between legitimate criticism of Israel and antisemitism. "Unjustified accusations of antisemitism to silence legitimate comments on Israel are damaging to the Jewish community," he said. Duncan noted that he and like-minded individuals are a minority within the Conservative Party, as most prefer to avoid controversy. "There's a real lack of understanding about the history and the facts," he said, "and it's very difficult to teach people when so many have been on paid trips to Israel, funded by the Conservative Friends of Israel."

Transcript

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the principal message to Israel is get

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out of Palestine it's not your country I

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thought the recent comments from what

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was then the conservative government

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effectively rejecting the ICC uh and its

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process was itself not acceptable if we

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are signatories to an international

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treaty which has set up a court it we

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should follow and support that Court the

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same applies to the United Nation

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so what we've seen uh over the last few

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years is the rise of politicians who

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think they can challenge the propriety

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of institutions of which they are a part

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or to which they are a signatory that's

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not acceptable where

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anti-Semitism definitely exists it

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should be rooted out I feel that very

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very strongly it's unacceptable in any

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form but where there is not

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anti-Semitism the accusation of such

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should not be used to try and stop

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legitimate comment on Israel and we all

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know there is a difficulty of the

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conflation between domestic Jewish

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opinion or what people claim to be

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Jewish opinion and the conduct and

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defense of Israel the two in large part

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are separate and should remain so and so

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what I sometimes call abuse semitism is

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where an

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unjustified accusation of anti-Semitism

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is used to bully or silence is not

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acceptable so there are some equal and

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opposite forces in play here I think

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that unjustified accusations of

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anti-Semitism used for other purposes is

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very damaging to the Jewish community

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and I find that um upsetting uh and

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uh I I think it is really very worrying

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it's not in their interests and I think

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that some of those who claim to be the

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voice of the Jewish Community are

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particularly extreme and do not

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represent the Jewish Community who where

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I think we should be supporting moderate

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Israelis and moderate Palestinians and

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those who are the vast majority in this

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country who go about their daily

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business as Jewish people uh not feeling

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the same uh sort of aggressive

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sentiments as those who keep on

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releasing aggressive press releases I'm

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in a

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minority because most people don't

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dare because they'd rather have an easy

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life but most people don't

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know I think there's a real lack of

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understanding about the history and the

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facts and it's very difficult to teach

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people when so many of them as

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candidates now members of parliament

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have been on paid trips to Israel um

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support or paid for by the conservative

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friends of Israel well they're basically

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brainwashed and then they don't dare

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depart from that for fear of aggressive

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attacks on so many levels so a lot of

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people are bullied into this