Dear Mr Morris,

It should go without saying, but it nevertheless needs to be said, that I have no doubt that we both abhor and condemn the recent killing of Israeli Jewish civilians by Hamas. Such acts can never be justified.

However, there is more that must be said. It has become clear that the responses by the State of Israel, to those atrocities, and following the awful logic of 75 years of oppression of the Palestinian people, are the war crimes of collective punishment, ethnic cleansing, and now attempted genocide. The Israeli military are indiscriminately bombing civilians, targeting hospitals, attacking convoys of those fleeing the violence, and slaughtering generations of families in their homes. The State of Israel has cut off food, water and electricity supplies to over 2 million people, who are trapped, with nowhere to go. The answer to one atrocity must never be another.

History will always judge those who were present at such moments. Did they speak out, did they cheer it on, or did they enable it through their silence? The phrase ‘right to self-defence’, for whatever meaning it may once have carried, is now an empty evasion in the face of what we can see with our own eyes playing out in Gaza. Indeed, the Israeli government has made it abundantly clear what their intentions are, and I see no reason to disbelieve them. Do you?

The responsibility to speak out against the crimes being committed falls particularly on our politicians, and most particularly on those in the party of government. You, as a Conservative MP, have more opportunity to influence government policy than most of us. To speak out is not to be a ‘friend of terrorists’. It is not antisemitic. It is decent, common humanity. To not speak out is to be complicit.

Yours sincerely

Phil Chandler