Said Khan: Israel's response disproportionate
The Mayor of London says that many people have concerns about the "disproportionality" of the response by the Israeli government to the attack by Hamas last weekend. Visiting the ‘Medical Aid for Palestinians’ charity in North London Sadiq Khan also says that "no child is part of Hamas" and too many civilians are caught in the cross-fire. Mr Khan does admit though that Israel has "every right" to defend itself and is "right" to retaliate against the terrorist organisation Hamas. Report by Czubalam. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Well, of course Israel must have a right to defend itself.
00:03 Of course Israel is really worried, as indeed we all are, about those hostages taken by
00:08 Hamas who still are in Hamas's hand.
00:12 I think the concerns many of us have is the response from the Israeli government and its
00:17 disproportionality in relation to the suffering in Gaza.
00:21 No child has joined Hamas, to my knowledge.
00:24 Those people who are in hospitals as patients are members of Hamas.
00:29 The practitioners, the doctors and others who work in hospitals who have been affected
00:33 aren't anything to do with Hamas.
00:34 And the concern that many people have, including this charity, is that ordinary people are
00:39 caught in the crossfire.
00:40 And of course Israel must go after Hamas.
00:43 Of course Israel must get those hostages released.
00:46 But what's happening in Gaza is a suffering of a scale this charity here has never seen.
00:51 But one of the things about our city is on a weekly basis there are protests that take
00:56 place, demos and so forth, because the right to protest is an intrinsic part of a democracy.
01:02 But it's really important people don't break the law.
01:05 It's really important people don't divide communities, incite hatred, intimidate members
01:09 of our community.
01:10 We're a city that is incredibly proud of our diversity.
01:14 What we can't have is a situation where people, because they've got strongly held views, intimidate
01:19 others or incite hatred.
01:22 And the police, police without fear or favour, they enforce the law.
01:27 And if people break the law, the police will respond.