Tag: illegal settlements

Foreign Secretary calls for immediate ceasefire in Gaza

David Lammy is visiting Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories to progress diplomatic efforts for long-term peace and security in the region

  • Foreign Secretary calls for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages and a rapid increase of humanitarian aid into Gaza on first Middle East visit.
  • In meetings with Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas, David Lammy makes the urgent case for a credible and irreversible pathway towards a two-state solution.
  • The Foreign Secretary announces £5.5m to UK-Med to support their ongoing work to provide humanitarian assistance and medical treatment to those in Gaza.

David Lammy visited Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories yesterday [Sunday, 14 July] on his first trip to the Middle East since becoming Foreign Secretary.   

He focused on the UK’s diplomatic role in helping to bring the conflict in Gaza to an end and making progress towards long-term peace and security in the Middle East.     

He raised the urgent need for a ceasefire agreed by both sides, which includes the release of all hostages and a rapid increase of aid into Gaza.     

The Foreign Secretary also announced that the UK will provide another £5.5m this year to UK-Med to fund their life-saving work in Gaza.

UK-Med is a frontline medical aid charity who send experienced humanitarian medics, including those working in the NHS, to crisis-hit regions to deliver life and limb-saving health care.  

This funding will be used to support the ongoing work of their field hospitals and the emergency department at Nasser Hospital. It will allow medics, including those from the UK, to continue carrying out vital work to treat thousands more patients suffering from acute respiratory illnesses, infections, and explosive fragmentation trauma cases.

Foreign Secretary, David Lammy said: “The death and destruction in Gaza is intolerable. This war must end now, with an immediate ceasefire, complied with by both sides. The fighting has got to stop, the hostages still cruelly detained by Hamas terrorists need to be released immediately and aid must be allowed in to reach the people of Gaza without restrictions.

“I am meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to stress the UK’s ambition and commitment to play its full diplomatic role in securing a ceasefire deal and creating the space for a credible and irreversible pathway towards a two-state solution.

“The world needs a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state. 

“Central to this is to see an end to expanding illegal Israeli settlements and rising settler violence in the West Bank. Here, in what should be a crucial part of a Palestinian state, alongside Gaza and East Jerusalem, we need to see a reformed and empowered Palestinian Authority.”

In Israel, the Foreign Secretary held high-level talks with Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Herzog to reiterate the need to end the conflict in Gaza and secure the release of hostages.

Mr Lammy met with hostage families with links to the UK whose loved ones have been murdered or taken by Hamas.   

Highlighting more than 680 tonnes of UK aid in the region and waiting to enter Gaza, including medicines, shelters and hygiene kits, the Foreign Secretary pushed the desperate need to rapidly increase aid into Gaza.    

In the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the Foreign Secretary welcomed the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to delivering reform and reiterate the UK’s support to PM Mustafa and his government.  

The UK has provided £10 million in aid to support the Palestinian Authority this financial year through the World Bank. The funding will provide vital support for key services, for example through the payment of salaries for 8,200 doctors, nurses and other health workers over two months.   

In meetings with President Abbas and Prime Minister Mustafa, he highlighted his commitment to recognising a Palestinian state as an undeniable right of the Palestinian people, and as a contribution to a renewed peace process which results in a two-state solution with a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state.

He also called out settlements in the West Bank as illegal and harmful to a two-state solution on visit to a Palestinian community.

Israel to ‘legalise’ five outposts in West Bank

The UK government has released a statement in response to Israel announcing that five outposts are to be ‘legalised’ in the West Bank.

A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) spokesperson said: “The UK strongly opposes the announcement that five outposts are to be legalised in the West Bank as well as further punitive measures against the Palestinian Authority.

“Israel must halt its illegal settlement expansion and hold to account those responsible for extremist settler violence.

“We are clear that actions by Israel to weaken the Palestinian Authority must stop. We call for longer-term measures to be put in place to ensure continued correspondent banking relations and assurance that Israel will release frozen funds without delay.

“The UK’s priority is to bring the Gaza conflict to a sustainable end as quickly as possible and ensure a lasting peace in the Middle East, through an irreversible pathway towards a two-state solution.”

Official condemnation, then – but all the while the UK continues to supply weapons to Israel.

More than 16,000 Palestinian children have been slaughtered during the current conflict. Tens of thousands of innocent families have seen their lives shattered.

I wonder if Sir Keir Starmer’s incoming Labour government will do anything different to address the plight of the Palestinian people, or will it be more of the same – business as usual for the arms dealers, words not deeds and more hand-wringing from our political leaders as the slaughter continues? – Ed.

Nations unite to call for halt to Israel’s West Bank expansion

A joint statement with France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories:

France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom, express their grave concern in the face of the continuing, growing violence in the occupied Palestinian territories.

We strongly condemn recent terrorist attacks that killed Israeli citizens. Terrorism can under no circumstance be justified.

We also strongly condemn indiscriminate violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians, including destruction of homes and properties.

We are saddened by all loss of life. These acts can lead nowhere, except to more violence. Those responsible must face full accountability and legal prosecution. All unilateral actions that threaten peace and incitement to violence must cease.

There has been a spark of hope coming from the recent meeting in Aqaba, where Israelis and Palestinians both affirmed reciprocal commitments, including on efforts to de-escalate and work towards a just and lasting peace.

Such a result is a first in many years, and we thank the United States of America and Kingdom of Jordan for making it possible. We urge all parties to refrain from making this fragile process derail, and call on all parties to make good on the commitments they made in the Aqaba meeting by de-escalating in words and deeds and to restore calm, in order for those efforts to blossom and to make the next meeting in Egypt a success.

There can be no desirable outcome other than a just and lasting peace for all. In this regard, we also reiterate our strong opposition to all unilateral measures that undermine the Two-state solution, including expansion of settlements which are illegal under international law.

We urge the Israeli government to reverse its recent decision to advance the construction of more than 7,000 settlement building units across the occupied West Bank and to legalize settlement outposts.

Stop Israeli Government Violence Against Palestinians

TUC CONDEMNS ISRAEL’S EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE

The planned eviction and forced displacement of Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem to make way for settler families – could amount to a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Cpnvention, according to the UN, and must not be allowed to go ahead.

We condemn the excessive use of force by Israeli security forces against Palestinians protesting against the evictions in Jerusalem, and the Israeli air strikes on the Gaza strip, which have reportedly killed over 20 Palestinians. The storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem and violence inflicted on worshippers is equally condemned.

Palestinians have the right to peaceful protest – to protest against being forcibly evicted from their homes, to protest against being under occupation, to protest for their rights.   

It is time for the UK government and international community to take firm action and hold the Israeli government account – to stop the persistent violations of international law, to stop the excessive use of force against Palestinians, and to end the illegal occupation.

The TUC has long-standing policy in support of Palestinian rights and justice for Palestine. We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah and all the victims of the violence of recent days.