Palestine: UK
Aid
(Harlow) (Con): What
steps he is taking to ensure that UK aid to the Palestinians
facilitates peace-building with Israel.
The Minister of State, Department for International Development
( ): As my right
hon. Friend knows, the UK is committed to making progress towards
a negotiated two-state solution. Meanwhile, UK aid to
Palestinians helps to meet immediate needs, deliver key services
and promote economic development. It supports stability in the
development of a capable and accountable Palestinian Authority
who can act as an effective partner for peace with Israel.
: UK
taxpayers’ aid pays the salaries of teachers in Palestinian
Authority schools, yet at least 31 official PA schools are named
after terrorists who killed innocent citizens. Does the Secretary
of State share my concern that the children studying in those
schools are being taught that it is honourable to commit violent
acts against Israelis? Does he agree that, instead of prolonging
the conflict by supporting such rhetoric, we must do more to
press the Palestinians to stop glorifying terrorists and to use
our aid as it is meant to be used?
Dr Murrison: My right hon. Friend is right to raise this
matter. We are clear with the Palestinian Authority on how we
expect UK aid to be spent. Last week, I had a further meeting
with the Palestinian Authority Education Minister, Professor
Awartani, following our meeting in Ramallah last year. He
expressed his commitment to the EU’s review of teaching
materials, as well as to the PA’s own review, which will be
available before the start of the academic year.
Education means hope, and we need to be careful about removing
hope from the OPTs, because hope is what is preventing people
from falling into the arms of those with mischievous intent for
the future of that part of the world
Prime
Minister's Questions
: Speaking of failing to
take a global lead on climate change, the US Secretary of State is
visiting later today. President Trump’s latest middle east peace
plan is not a peace plan. It will annexe Palestinian territory,
lock in illegal Israeli colonisation, transfer Palestinian citizens
of Israel, and deny Palestinian people their fundamental rights.
When the Government meet the US Secretary of State later today,
will they make it clear that they will stand for a genuine,
internationally backed peace plan rather than this stuff proposed
by Trump yesterday?
The Prime Minister: Let us be clear that this is a problem that
has bedevilled the world, and the middle east in particular, for
decades. No peace plan is perfect, but this has the merit of a
two-state solution—it is a two-state solution. It would ensure
that Jerusalem is both the capital of Israel and of the
Palestinian people. Rather than being so characteristically
negative, I urge the right hon. Gentleman to reach out to his
friends and my friends—our friends—in the Palestinian Authority,
and to Mahmoud Abbas, for whom I have the highest respect, and,
for once, to engage with this initiative and to get talking
rather than to leave a political vacuum.
: I have the
greatest respect for President Abbas and those in the Palestinian
Authority; I have met them many times—[Interruption.] This is
actually a very serious issue. The Prime Minister should
acknowledge that President Trump’s plan will not bring any move
towards peace and that it has no support from any Palestinian
anywhere in the world. Perhaps this would be a good opportunity
for the British Government to say frankly and candidly to the US
that, on this, it is wrong. There needs to be a two-state
solution with international support.
