Today I will cast my vote in Parliament to support UK recognition of the State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel. The principle at stake here is a simple but key one for anyone seeking a just and durable solution to the conflict in the Middle East. Do we treat Israelis and Palestinians as equals or not? For Israelis, recognition of their state is something they have expected from the …
Ahead of the recall of Parliament tomorrow, I want to update local people about my view on IS and the current situation in the Middle East. Like many British people, I opposed the US/UK invasion of Iraq in 2003. I believe that some of the chaos we now see in that part of the world today is, at least partly, a legacy of that action. But I do not believe that affects the urgency of the situation in …
As the Referendum on Scottish Independence has got closer, the words “solidarity” and “self- determination” have come into my head time and time again. I guess like many on the Left in England, for a long time I reckoned my commitment to principle of self-determination meant that I should hold back. Surely, I thought, independence was a matter for people in Scotland to decide, not something for …
Nobody can fail to have been affected by the TV images that we have seen of Yazidis stranded without shelter on Mount Sinjar in Northern Iraq. The brutal persecution of Yezidis, Christians, Shia Turkmen and other minorities by The Islamic State Group (formerly known as ISIS) is nothing short of horrific. So too is the totalitarian rule they are imposing on the areas they currently control. A …
Responding to the expiry of the ceasefire on the 8 August 2014 Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Britain-Palestine Richard Burden MP said: “The expiry of the latest ceasefire means that civilians will once again be those who will suffer most. Those in Israel will again take to shelters from rockets, and those in Gaza will again have nowhere to go which is safe from missiles and …
Richard Burden MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Britain-Palestine sets out what the international community must to do to stop carnage continuing in Gaza.
I was Labour Member of Parliament for Birmingham Northfield between 1992 and 2019 and a former Shadow Transport Minister. I now chair Healthwatch in Birmingham and Solihull, and the West Midlands Board of Remembering Srebrenica. I also work as a public affairs consultant. I am an effective community advocate and stakeholder alliance builder with a passion for human rights. I am a trustee of the Balfour Project charity and of Citizens Advice Birmingham, and a former Chair of Medical Aid for Palestinians.