Oral Answers to Questions

Wayne David Excerpts

Tuesday 26th April 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

4. What diplomatic steps she is taking to ensure that the UK has a role in the international fund for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

[Wayne David (Caerphilly) (Lab)]

6. What diplomatic steps she is taking to ensure that the UK has a role in the international fund for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

[The Minister for Asia and the Middle East (Amanda Milling)]

We welcome the US’s Middle East Partnership for Peace Act and the proposals for increased international funding for Israeli-Palestinian peace. We share the objective of advancing economic, social and political connections, and peaceful co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians. We stand ready to co-ordinate and collaborate further.

[Amanda Milling]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her question. UK officials remain in close contact with the US Government about how our existing peace-building projects and funding can better support the goals of the Act. We stand ready to co-ordinate and collaborate further, including regarding the advisory board, as additional information about their plans and priorities become available.

[Wayne David]

Recent violence in the west bank and in Israel itself underlines the need for an international fund for Israeli and Palestinian peace, but such a fund will not just happen. It actually requires positive support from Governments around the world, including and especially this Government, yet the truth is that our Government are paying only lip service to it. When will the Government remember the success of the International Fund for Ireland and learn the lessons of that success?

[Amanda Milling]

As I say, what we all want to see is a safe and secure Israel, and we want to have a two-state solution that enables us to do that and also delivers Palestinian self-determination. We are working with the US Government on these projects and the funding that can support the Act, and as and when we have more information about the plans and the priorities, we will co-ordinate with them.