Rochdale MP Tony Lloyd addresses photos of him with leader of terrorist organisation

Rochdale MP Tony Lloyd has spoken out about pictures published showing him shaking the hand of the leader of a terrorist organisation.

Pictures published on the Mail Online last week show the Rochdale MP and shadow Northern Ireland secretary with Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh and senior Hamas MP, Ahmad Bahar.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6080339/New-picture-emerges-Jeremy-Corbyns-key-ally-Hamas-leader-terror-list.html

The EU has designated Hamas as a terrorist organisation.

Haniyeh, who has been jailed several times for his involvement in the Intifada, was added to the US terror list earlier this year, whilst Bahar called on Arab inhabitants of East Jerusalem to follow in the footsteps of a terrorist who murdered two people.

Mr Lloyd said: “I was one of a number of British MPs who visited Gaza in 2011 at the invitation of the Council for European Palestinian Relations.

“During that visit we met many different groups including United Nation’s officials, women’s groups, NGOs, students, small businesses, as well as local politicians including those from Hamas, the governing party there.

“We also visited local facilities such as one of Gaza’s hospitals.

“Gaza is often the flashpoint for violence between Israel and Palestinians. Indeed, fighting had erupted shortly before the 2011 visit when Hamas fired rockets into Israel wounding a young Israeli boy, and Israel retaliated killing at least fourteen Palestinians. No one should try to justify this too often repeated cycle of violence.

“Any visit to Gaza is controversial, precisely because of Hamas’ control of Gaza but it is important that the world knows what is taking place there. Two million people live in Gaza which is a tiny coastal strip with very limited natural resources.

“Life is totally controlled by the Israel authorities, which is still legally responsible for the wellbeing of all Palestinians.”

Hamas has waged war on Israel since the group's 1987 founding, most notably through suicide bombings and rocket attacks. It seeks to replace Israel with a Palestinian state and also governs Gaza independently of the Palestinian Authority.

Mr Lloyd continued: “Israel has placed a devastating economic blockade on activity in and out of the area. Palestinian fishermen cannot work properly being restricted to fish within a limit (recently changed from six to nine miles) from the shore. Gaza’s water is massively polluted and is not fit to drink, but the blockade has prevented the importation of the infrastructure which could help bring clean water.

“The hospital we visited couldn’t import vital parts necessary to make its medical equipment work and save lives. Even people are denied the right to move in and out of Gaza. The blockade is immoral punishing innocent people indiscriminately.

“Interestingly, former Prime Minister, Tony Blair has said he and other world leaders were wrong to give in to Israeli pressure to boycott Hamas after it won the Palestinian elections in 2006. He is quoted as saying: “I think we should have tried to pull (Hamas) into a dialogue at the very beginning” - and he is right.

“I have met many politicians and others round the world whose views I profoundly disagree with, like Robert Mugabe, the now-deposed leader in Zimbabwe, jailed former President Fujimori of Peru, both of whom made war on their own people, or President Milosevich of Yugoslavia who was tried at the International Criminal Tribunal charged with war crimes.

“You don’t change the world by talking to the people you agree with, but you can be part of a process of change with the kind of critical dialogue that condemns Hamas for the rocket attacks into Israel which it licenses.

"Equally it would be dereliction to fail to condemn the policies of the Israeli government which offer no hope to and cause so much suffering to the Palestinian people.”