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| Labour MPs in a show of support for Yang and Mohamed |
Labour MPs posed for a group photo on Monday in a big show of support for the two members detained in Israel over the weekend. Almost a quarter of the party's 403 MPs stood behind Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed, including frontbenchers Wes Streeting, Darren Jones, Rushanara Ali and Hamish Falconer. Others voiced their support on social media.
In another choreographed display, Yang and Mohamed sat together directly behind the despatch box, as Foreign Office minister Falconer delivered a statement on their detention. Falconer contradicted Israel's version of events, claiming that the pair had 'been granted entry clearance prior to travelling'. He went on to describe how the pair feared they would be locked up overnight on Saturday, without access to their mobile phones (oh, the horror). However, thanks to the intervention of both himself and the Foreign Secretary, the MPs were released and put on a plane back to the UK. He noted that 161 Westminster MPs from various parties had previously visited the Palestinian territories, without incident.
Presumably Lammy was too busy jetting off somewhere to have delivered this statement himself.
Yang and Mohamed were greeted by cheers in the Commons chamber when they rose to their feet, milking the occasion for all its worth. Yang linked her detention directly to what she had said previously about the conflict: "If my experience has proved anything, it is that what we say in this chamber matters."
Mohamed said she was 'desperate' for peace via a two-state solution and described her ordeal thus: "This was not about security, this was about control and censorship." Quite right, but will she make a stand when it comes to her own government's control, censorship and oppression of the British people? Don't hold your breath.
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