Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he has had discussions with (a) relevant stakeholders and (b) his international counterparts on reported terror activity within and near United Nations Works and Relief Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) facilities in Gaza.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK takes allegations of neutrality violations extremely seriously, including any incidents related to UN installations. The FCDO also monitors this closely through our annual assessment of UNRWA. When violations have been identified, UNRWA has taken action, including raising the issue with relevant parties.
We are aware that the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services and Catherine Colonna have now provided their interim reports to the UN Secretary-General. Their independent investigations include assessment of the policies and systems UNRWA has in place to ensure neutrality.
Apr. 11 2024
Source Page: Donations to UNRWA for Gaza: FOI releaseFound: The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) provides
Apr. 10 2024
Source Page: Scottish Government Aid towards the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s (UNRWA) in Gaza: FOI releaseFound: Has all the money sent by Humza Yousaf to aid Palestine been accounted for and how was it divided up?
Asked by: Baroness Deech (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the level of support among Arab residents of Jerusalem for Israeli control of the city; and to what extent this is a consideration for their policy towards Israel and Palestine.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We have not made a specific assessment of this.
We support a two-state solution that guarantees security and stability for both the Israeli and Palestinian people. A political horizon which provides a credible and irreversible pathway towards a two-state solution is one of the vital elements for a lasting peace, with Jerusalem as shared capital of both Israel and Palestine.
Urge the USA to support a ceasefire in Gaza
- 50 Signatures
(Estimated Final Signatures: 425 - 28 added in the past 24hrs)
I think that the UK should use its diplomatic tools to encourage the USA to support a lasting sustainable ceasefire in Gaza, as called for in the recent UN Security Council resolution. If the USA fails to respond positively, we want the UK to raise a formal dispute via the UN.
Found: special interest groups and the military-industrial complex are influencing US foreign policy relating to Palestine
Asked by: Lord Lexden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have issued guidance to public institutions and universities concerning security arrangements for the protection of historic portraits of past statesmen.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The vandalism against the portrait of A.J. Balfour at Trinity College, Cambridge, last month is rightly being investigated as a criminal act by Cambridgeshire Police. The shoddy sense of history by those who perpetrated and promoted it is also a reminder of the importance of historic portraits in improving our awareness and understanding of the past.
The famous declaration made by Balfour as Foreign Secretary in November 1917 made clear that ‘nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country’. At the time Balfour issued it, the man who had painted his portrait three years earlier, Philip de László, was (despite having become a British citizen, with the former Prime Minister as one of his sponsors) interned, having been arrested on suspicion of treason on account of letters he had written to family members in Austria. As the historian Giles MacDonogh has noted, it appears ‘the fact that de László was born of Jewish parents had some bearing on the case’; his interrogation by Special Branch dwelt on his Jewish ancestry, and an unsympathetic biography included in the recommendation from MI5 to the Home Secretary that he be interned noted that de László was the ‘son of a Jew tailor’. In May 1919, his case was raised in a debate in Your Lordships’ House; the following month, it was brought before the Certificates of Naturalisation (Revocation) Committee, which took just fifteen minutes to throw it out and exonerate him.
It is thanks to portraits like this that such fascinating insights into our past can be gleaned.
I have spoken to the Vice-Master of Trinity College following the attack, and hope that this magnificent portrait can be swiftly repaired and shared with students and visitors to the college for many years to come.
Apr. 04 2024
Source Page: Training and exercise deaths in the UK Armed Forces: 2024Found: personnel who have died in Service since 1st Jan 1948 and for those who were killed or who died in Palestine
Apr. 04 2024
Source Page: Training and exercise deaths in the UK Armed Forces: 2024Found: personnel who have died in Service since 1st Jan 1948 and for those who were killed or who died in Palestine
Apr. 04 2024
Source Page: Training and exercise deaths in the UK Armed Forces: 2024Found: personnel who have died in Service since 1st Jan 1948 and for those who were killed or who died in Palestine
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Worcester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on the humanitarian relief effort in Gaza and the West Bank of the decision to suspend aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Our decision to pause future funding to UNRWA has no impact on the UK's contribution to the humanitarian response. We remain committed to getting humanitarian aid to people in Gaza who desperately need it, including through other UN agencies and British charities. We trebled our aid commitment this financial year and we are doing everything we can to get more aid in as quickly as possible by land, sea and air. UK funding has supported the work of partners including the British Red Cross, World Food Programme, UNICEF and Egyptian Red Crescent Society (ERCS) to deliver vital supplies.