On Tuesday 3 June 2025, the Council for Arab-British Understanding (Caabu) and Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) co-hosted our parliamentary reception to highlight the plight of Palestinians in Gaza, particularly following the most recent blockade and the horrifying scenes and rhetoric surrounding the US-Israel led “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation”, in which people were killed by IDF soldiers trying to collect lifesaving aid for themselves and their families.
Speeches were given by Steve Cutts, Interim CEO for MAP, Fikr Shalltoot, Gaza Director for MAP, Chris Doyle, Director for Caabu, Andrew Gilmour, the keynote speaker and former UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Mission Ambassador Dr Husam Zomlot.
The speeches highlighted the life saving work that MAP is doing on the ground, in both Gaza and the West Bank, as well as Caabu’s political efforts to promote a just solution.
While Fikr Shalltoot urged UK parliamentarians to act and paid attention to the hope of displaced Palestinians, including herself, to return to Gaza in order to rebuild the ruins and live in dignity, Ambassador Zomlot called for the end of all arms sales to Israel, and highlighted the need for the recognition of a Palestinian state as not a solution, but the first step on the pathway to a solution.
Chris Doyle emphasised that many experts determine that a genocide is unfolding in Gaza, where Palestinians’ options are death by bombing, death by starvation, or forcible expulsion and the need to offer them a different horizon. Andrew Gilmour meanwhile, recalled that when he was a junior UN official, he reported on the UK, France’s, and the USA’s denial that a genocide was unfolding in Rwanda as they did not want to be obliged to act, and how history is repeating itself in Gaza, despite even more evidence that is available to us, than it was back then.
Overall, this reception aimed to support the efforts of the rising number of MPs pushing for meaningful action and accountability for Palestinian people.
Photo credit: Ayman Alhussein
