Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Visit

Lord Evans of Rainow Excerpts

Tuesday 29th April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

Our position is that the settlements are illegal under international law and harm prospects of a two-state solution. Settlements do not offer security to either Israel or Palestinians. The settlement expansion and violence that we see has reached record levels. The Israeli Government seized more of the West Bank in 2024 than in the past 20 years, and we think that is completely unacceptable.

[Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)]

Given that Israel’s peace agreements with the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt and Jordan have all been the product of direct negotiations between the relevant parties, does the Minister agree that this model has a proven track record of delivering peace and security in the region, and that unilateral declarations will not resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I am generally not in favour of diplomacy by declaration. I think that the right way to go about this is negotiation, and we encourage all parties who either involve themselves directly or may have influence over the parties who are involved to encourage the reinstatement of the ceasefire and peace and negotiations to proceed, as the noble Lord says.