David Cairns

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David Cairns (August 7, 1966 - May 9, 2011) was the Labour MP for Inverclyde from 2001 - 2011 and twice chair of Labour Friends of Israel (LFI).

Early life

Cairns attended Notre Dame High School, a Catholic school in Greenock and the Gregorian University, Rome. Between 1991 and 1994 he was a Catholic Priest.[1]

Political career

  • 1994-7: Director, Christian Socialist Movement
  • 1997-2001: Research assistant, Siobhain McDonagh MP
  • Member of the joint committee on consolidation of bills (Jan 2001 - May 2005)
  • PPS to Malcolm Wicks, minister of state at the department for work and pensions (Jun 2003 - May 2005)
  • Parliamentary under secretary of state, Scotland (May 2006 - Jun 2007)
  • Minister of state, Scotland Office (Jun 2007 - Sep 2008)[1]
  • Chair of Labour Friends of Israel twice (2004-5; Sept 2010-May 2011)

Labour Friends of Israel

Funded trips to Israel

The UK Government's Register of Interests lists Cairns reported the following trips:

  • On 30 June - 4 July 2003 'to Israel and Palestinian Authority to meet members of the Israeli Government and Palestinian Authority and others. Travel and accommodation paid by Labour Friends of Israel and Israeli Foreign Ministry. (Registered 21 July 2003)[2].
  • On 17 - 22 October 2004, he traveled 'to Israel and the Palestinian Territories with Labour Friends of Israel to meet members of the Israeli Government, Parliament and the military; the Palestinian Authority and grassroots organisations promoting Arab-Israeli co-operation. Travel and accommodation paid for by the Labour Friends of Israel. Part accommodation paid for by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (Registered 28 October 2004)'[3]
  • On 13-18 September 2009 he traveled to the region again. He described the destination as 'Israel and Palestine', and under 'purpose of visit', recorded: 'I met with Israeli and Palestinian politicians, community representatives, and visited health and social welfare programmes.' The donor was Labour Friends of Israel, registered address 'BM LFI, London WC1N 3XX', and the estimated value of the trip was £1,528 (Registered 25 September 2009).[4]

Making the Progressive Case for Israel

On 15 March 2011, Cairns was scheduled to speak at an event in the House of Commons called 'Making the Progressive Case for Israel', organised jointly by New Labour pressure group Progress, Labour Friends of Israel and the New Israel Fund and advertised as a panel discussion about 'the future for progressive supporters of Israel'. Other speakers included [[Adam Ognall], chief executive of the New Israel Fund UK, Martin Bright, political editor of the Jewish Chronicle, Debbie Coulter, former deputy general secretary of the GMB union and Jennifer Gerber, LFI director, acted as chair.[5]

John Woodcock MP delivered the keynote speech, penned by Cairns, on his behalf.[6] Cairns had been unable to attend due to illness and died weeks later. Woodcock was appointed as the new Labour Friends of Israel chair. LFI published a collection of essays under the same name as - and including - Cairns' speech: Making the Progressive Case for Israel. Gerber, in the acknowledgements, says the speech summed up 'a campaign he wanted to launch to ensure that those on the left of British politics can feel comfortable and proud in their support for the state of Israel and in the foreword, John Woodcock writes that Cairns 'had begun planning for a book on this subject'.[7]

Memorial trees in JNF forest

In Making the Progressive Case for Israel, LFI deirector Jennifer Gerber writes that on a trip to Israel LFI members, accompanied by Cairns' partner Dermot Kehoe, planted trees 'on the hills of Jerusalem' in memory of Cairns.[8] The website of the Jewish National Fund contains further details. The trees were planted by eight MPs, all LFI members and part of a delegation headed by John Woodcock, on 3 October 2011, in Aminadav forest near Jerusalem. Woodcock described Cairns as 'a proud friend of Israel'.[9]

JNF UK chairman Samuel Hayek, told the group:

We are honored to invite you to plant trees at this site, which was dedicated about a year ago when Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the chief rabbi of the UK, was elected to the House of Lords. Today we can see and appreciate the fruits of KKL-JNF's labours, which include the oxygen the 25,000 trees in this forest grove emit, along with many other ecological benefits. This is just one of the many KKL-JNF projects JNF UK is proud to support. I don't think there are many people who supported Israel like David did. True friends are those who support you in the worst of times, and that was the sort of friend David was. KKL-JNF and JNF UK are honored to have trees planted in his memory.

According to Zochrot, an Israeli NGO, Aminadav was established on land south west of Jerusalem that was once the site of the Palestinian village of Al Walaja, home to up to 2,000 people.[10] Hasan Abu Nimah, a Palestinian who was born in the nearby village of Battir and later became a permanent representative of Jordan at the United Nations, has written that Walaja was 'attacked and occupied' by the Israeli army in October 1948 and the village's inhabitants 'scattered in every direction'. He claims to have witnessed the Israeli army systematically 'demolish al-Walajah, house by house' and says it was 'completely destroyed before Israel built the settlement of Aminadav and a park where Israelis picnic on its lands'.[11] Palestinian refugees subsequently established a new village with the same name in the West Bank whose residents are today at 'risk of a second forced displacement', due to Israeli settlement expansion and the construction of the wall, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency[12]

Tributes for support of Israel

At an LFI tribute event, Jennifer Gerber said Cairns had been 'a very supportive and hands on chair', who conceived the idea of the 'making the progressive case for Israel' project to try to 'galvanise support for Israel on the left'.

He was, from the moment he got elected in 2001, an incredibly passionate LFI voice in parliament, and was a friend to Israel in good times and bad.

She added that he 'cared deeply about the detrimental effect the constant demonising of Israel was having on elements of the left and he was always willing to take on people in his own party who were not committed to a two state solution.'[13]

Former Israeli ambassador to the UK, Ron Prosor, said:

David was a proud friend of the Israeli people, who stood staunchly by our side, never taking the easy way out. He often told how his colleagues in Parliament would urge him to be a more ‘critical friend’ – their emphasis always more on the ‘critical’ than the ‘friend’. It is a mark of the man that in spite of this, he never saw the need to dilute his support. He was a true friend.[14]

Affiliations

Resources

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Guardian David Cairns: Electoral History and Profile, accessed 22 October 2012
  2. ↑ House of Commons Register of Members Interests They Work for You.com Accessed 20th March 2009
  3. ↑ House of Commons Register of Members Interests They Work for You.com Accessed 20th March 2009
  4. ↑ Register of Members Interests TheyWorkForYou.com, accessed 25 October 2012
  5. ↑ Making the Progressive Case for Israel, New Israel Fund, accessed 25 October 2012
  6. ↑ Making the progressive case for Israel, Progress Online, 16 March 2011, accessed 25 October 2012
  7. ↑ Ben Garratt (ed.), Making the Progressive Case for Israel, Labour Friends of Israel, 2011 (n.d)
  8. ↑ Ben Garratt (ed.), Making the Progressive Case for Israel, Labour Friends of Israel, 2011 (n.d)
  9. ↑ UK MPs Plant Tree in Memory of David Cairns, Former LFI Chairman, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael - Jewish National Fund, 9 October 2011, accessed 25 October 2012
  10. ↑ Places: Walaja, Zochrot, accessed 25 October 2012
  11. ↑ Hasan Abu Nimah, Al-Walajah, a symbol of Israeli ethnic cleansing, Electronic Intifada, 9 Octber 2009, accessed 25 October 2012
  12. ↑ The story of a tree and a barrier: Al-Walaja faces a second uprooting, UNWRA, accessed 15 October 2012
  13. ↑ LFI Remembers - David Cairns MP, David Cairns Foundation, accessed 25 October 2012
  14. ↑ Marcus Dysch, Inverclyde MP David Cairns dies after illness, Jewish Chronicle, 10 May 2011, accessed 25 October 2012
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