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Cabinet ministers and more than 70 parliamentarians staged a show of solidarity with two MPs who were detained and barred from entry to Israel in what was the first time British MPs had been banned from the country.
The health secretary, Wes Streeting, and the chief secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones, joined the photocall in Westminster Hall on Monday with the MPs, along with Hamish Falconer and housing minister Rushanara Ali. It was organised by the Rochdale MP Paul Waugh.
In a statement in the Commons, Falconer said both were given clearance for entrance by Israeli before travelling and said the ban “appears to have been taken on the basis of comments made in this chamber”, calling the treatment “unacceptable and deeply concerning”.
He said the UK government had made that clear at the “highest level” in Israel and praised Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed for their dignity.
Yang and Mohamed both rose in the house to cheers. Mohamed said her treatment was “unprecedented” and the views she had expressed in the House of Commons were “legitimate political opinions which are firmly aligned with international laws”. She said many Israeli people and charities had also called for change in a similar manner.
“This was not about security, this was about control and censorship,” Mohamed, the MP for Sheffield Central, said, adding that she “desperately wants to see a two-state solution, desperately wants to see peace”.
Yang, the MP for Earley and Woodley, said she had been heartened by the solidarity shown by other MPs from across the Commons. Yang said she had understood the risks of travelling the region but “I did not anticipate the risks of detention and deportation by a British ally”. She said: “If my experience has proved anything, it is that what we say in this chamber matters.”
Falconer said the MPs had initially believed they were going to be detained overnight without their phones and were eventually released after intervention by both him and the foreign secretary, David Lammy, who spoke to his Israeli counterpart.
“All members should be worried about what this decision means and the precedent it sets. We have warned that actions like this only damage the image of the Israeli government in the eyes of honourable members across the house,” Falconer said.
The minister also condemning the killing of 15 paramedics in a convoy of ambulances near Rafah, calling it an “outrage” and demanding a return to ceasefire negotiations. “This conflict cannot be won by bombs and bullets but by diplomacy, he said.
At the photocall in support of the MPs, Streeting told the Guardian he had been on a similar visit led by the Council for Arab British-Understanding (Caabu) and Medical Aid for Palestinians – and questioned why the two had been targeted.
“The way that two really excellent colleagues were treated was totally unacceptable,” he said.
“I think this is really important that this is understood in the context of two highly respected Labour members of parliament held in high regard across the parliamentary party who were going on a delegation just like the one I was on with Caabu and Medical Aid for Palestinians – without the sort of challenges they had.
“In the context of what is going on in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the moment, having insight, meeting a range of voices is really important. It’s highly regrettable the Israeli authorities have acted in this way.”
MPs joining the show of solidarity included the chair of the foreign affairs select committee Emily Thornberry, the Treasury select committee chair, Meg Hillier, Melanie Ward, the Labour MP who was the former chief executive of Medical Aid for Palestinians, and the former development minister Anneliese Dodds.
Caabu has taken a total of 161 MP and peers to the region since 1997, including Streeting, the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, the former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, the former education secretary Kit Malthouse and the Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey.
Other high-profile politicians who have visited as part of their delegations include former ministers Nick Herbert and the late Tessa Jowell and the Lib Dem MPs Alistair Carmichael and Christine Jardine.
Speaking in the chamber, Falconer condemned the comments of the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, who said on Sunday that the two MPs were not allowed entry because the Israeli authorities “did not believe they were going to comply with Israeli law”. Falconer said that was not the reason that the Israeli officials gave, adding: “The leader of the opposition should apologise.”
