Middle East Peace, Security and Development and UNRWA Debate

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Department: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

Middle East Peace, Security and Development and UNRWA

Esther McVey Excerpts
Wednesday 15th June 2022

(2 years, 5 months ago)

Westminster Hall
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Esther McVey Portrait Esther McVey (in the Chair)
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I will call Sarah Champion to move the motion and I will then call the Minister to respond. There will be no opportunity for the Member in charge to wind up, as is the convention in 30-minute debates.

Sarah Champion Portrait Sarah Champion (Rotherham) (Lab)
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I beg to move,

That this House has considered peace, security and development in the Middle East and the role of the UN Relief and Works Agency.

Thank you for chairing this session, Ms McVey; it is always a pleasure to serve under your guidance.

At the end of last year, I met the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, Philippe Lazzarini, who was in London for his first official UK visit. UNRWA is the UN agency that helps millions of Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the west bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, providing them with humanitarian and developmental services. I have seen at first hand its work helping Palestinian refugees in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. I am hugely grateful for what it does, and I do not doubt that it is a good example of Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office money being well spent.