Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations his Department has made to the Israeli government about the restrictions on construction in government-planned Bedouin towns.

Officials at our Embassy in Tel Aviv are monitoring the situation closely and will continue to demonstrate UK concern by regularly visiting Bedouin communities in the Negev. The Embassy has arranged for the Arab Centre for Alternative Planning to meet Israel’s Minister of Construction to discuss the issue of restrictions on construction in Negev Bedouin towns. The Ambassador plans to raise this issue with the Minister of Construction in January.