General Election: Gaza one of Bedford's biggest issues says Green Party candidate

Ben Foley said: “It’s unusual for a foreign policy issue to be so important to people, but there are a lot of people where it matters and it matters deeply.

“For those of us that have followed the news the situation in Gaza is just so, so distressing.

“Tens of thousands of people are losing their lives at the hands of an army that shows no mercy against civilians.

“There’s no doubt that what Hamas did was despicable, but the reaction by the Israeli army is vastly, vastly, disproportionate.

“I’m convinced it amounts to collective punishment of the population of Gaza.

“I’m proud that I was one of the councillors that put forward the motion in [Bedford Borough] Council calling for a bilateral ceasefire, the release of hostages, and calling for an arms embargo against Israel.

“It was absolutely the right thing to do and I was very disappointed when it got severely watered down,” he said.

But how would a council or an MP in the UK have any effect on another country’s policies?

“The British government actively supports the Israeli regime and so Parliament could decide to end that support,” he replied.

“Parliament also could decide to implement a regime of sanctions which is absolutely what I’d be calling for [if elected].

“Those sanctions should start with an arms embargo, but they shouldn’t end with an arms embargo – we shouldn’t be supplying arms to war criminals.

“There’s a role for diplomacy as well,” he added.

“If we got to the situation where the Israeli regime said ‘okay, we’ve heard your opposition and we’re prepared to to go for it for a ceasefire’.

“It would then be a question of trying to persuade them to actually implement a full two states solution which gave peace and security for both the Israeli population and the Palestinian population,” he said.

The other candidates standing in Bedford are:

Prince Sadiq Chaudhury – Workers PartyPinder Chauhan – Conservative Lib Dem Henry VannTarek Javed – IndependentMatt Lansley – Reform UKHenry Vann – Lib DemMohammad Yasin – Labour

The election will be held on July 4.