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Why is the Speaker of the UK House of Commons on a trip to Israel?

The Speaker of the UK House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, has been on a trip to Israel – apparently to show “unity” with the rogue state over Hamas’s alleged killing of 1,200 Israelis on 7 October 2023. However, on X (formerly Twitter) people have been questioning why the supposedly impartial speaker is showing a clear biased line on international politics. Moreover, some people were downright seething.

Hoyle: visiting Israel – or doing propaganda for it?

Hoyle was visiting Israel in late November – the timing of it is so-far unclear. Israel’s far-right ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely shared a video clip of his visit online. Hoyle was at kibbutz Kfar Aza, where Hamas reportedly killed around 50 residents, and took others hostage.

He said that:

Unless you witness and come here to see what’s happened, you cannot imagine the atrocity took place.

The video Hotovely shared was more clumsy Israeli propaganda – not least the using of the colour red across certain caption text to accentuate it and increasing the font size on words like “death”. She also shared photo ops from the trip:

Meanwhile, the number of Israelis Hamas killed has been disputed. Israel itself claims the figure is 1,200. However, there is growing evidence that some Israelis were killed by the IDF. As the Grayzone wrote:

reporting by the Israeli paper Haaretz confirmed a viral Grayzone investigation which highlighted disclosures by Israeli helicopter pilots and security officials of friendly fire orders throughout the fateful day.

One came from a member of the security team for Kibbutz Be’eri, who told Haaretz that “the commanders in the field made difficult decisions – including shelling houses on their occupants in order to eliminate the terrorists along with the hostages.”

A tank battalion commander recalled receiving the same orders when he arrived on the scene, stating in a video interview, “I arrived in Be’eri to see Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram and the first thing he asks me to do is to fire a shell into a house [where Hamas members were sheltering].”

The decision to use heavy weapons on the small homes of Be’eri wound up costing many Israeli lives.

So, firstly Hoyle’s implication that Hamas committed the only atrocity on 7 October is likely incorrect. Then, you have the question of whether Hoyle should even be there in the first place.

Impartiality out of the Speaker’s window

As the UK parliament website states:

role is to act as a neutral referee between the different sides of the House of Commons ensuring that the rules are followed, and order is maintained.

Speakers must be politically impartial. Therefore, on election the new Speaker, who is a sitting MP, must resign from their political party and remain separate from political issues even in retirement. However, the Speaker will continue to represent a constituency and deal with their constituents’ problems like a normal MP.

So, it would appear that Hoyle getting involved in the ongoing debate around Israel and Hamas is not remaining “politically impartial” – even if the majority of Israel-supporting, war crimes-enabling MPs in parliament might agree. People were pointing this out on X:

Others questioned whether or not accepting official Israeli hospitality as a serving Speaker (assuming the Israeli state paid for his visit) was right and proper:

Some people wondered if Hoyle would be visiting Gaza while he was there:

That was highly unlikely, given that Hoyle was back in the UK hosting Elton John by late on Wednesday 29 November – and had already done that day’s Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs):

Overall, as one person on X summed up:

This brings Britain’s law-making body into disrepute… The Speaker is, in theory, the neutral presiding officer of the world’s oldest Parliament. Yet here he is endorsing a government that’s defied international law for decades.

How can he tell people to respect the law now?

If you needed any clearer indication of Westminster’s disregard for Palestinian people’s lives – and its toxic support for a rogue, genocidal regime – then look no further than Hoyle’s visit to Israel. Sickening – but unsurprising.

Featured image via Tzipi Hotovely – screengrab

By Steve Topple

This post was originally published on Canary.