Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much overseas development assistance funding has been spent on Palestinian schools in the occupied territories which have been (a) demolished and (b) threatened with demolition by Israeli authorities in the last five years .

As I [Minister of State for the Americas and the Caribbean] said in the House of Commons on 18 July, the UK is clear that in all but the most exceptional of circumstances, demolitions and evictions are contrary to international humanitarian law. Our opposition to the demolition of Palestinian property is long-standing. The practice causes unnecessary suffering and is harmful to efforts to promote peace. We repeatedly call on Israel to abide by its obligations under international law and have a regular dialogue with Israel on legal issues relating to the occupation. On 7 May, The Minister of State for the Middle East, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon wrote to the Israeli Ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, to express the government's opposition to the demolition of Jubbet Adh Dhib school. Lord Ahmad has also visited a school under threat of demolition in Masafer Yatta during his visit to the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) in January.

The FCDO aid budget is allocated in accordance with UK strategic priorities against a challenging financial climate. It is not possible to calculate the exact figure for UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) funding spent on schools in the OPTs that have been demolished (or are at risk of demolition) because ODA funding for this area goes into a multilateral pooled fund. However, there is a robust framework in place for allocating ODA. Data on ODA spend in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is available on DevTracker (https://devtracker.fcdo.gov.uk/countries/PS).