A fatal terror attack that killed two Israeli citizens in the Barkan industrial park in the West Bank has cast a renewed spotlight on the Palestinian Authority’s policy of paying salaries to convicted terrorists. Last Sunday a Palestinian worker at the industrial park killed two of his colleagues. Kim Levengrond Read more…
The fragile working relationship between Israel and Russia in Syria – which gave Israel freedom of manoeuvre in Syrian skies – has come under severe strain after the downing of a Russian Ilyushin military intelligence plane, killing the 15 servicemen on board. The incident, which occurred in mid-September, saw Syrian Read more…
Labour Friends of Israel held its biggest ever reception at Labour party conference in Liverpool this week. Over 400 delegates attended a packed event addressed by deputy leader Tom Watson, Israeli Labor MK Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin, Ambassador Mark Regev, and LFI chair Joan Ryan. In a stirring address, Mr Watson declared: “I Read more…
Following the Trump administration’s decision to end all funding for coexistence projects in Israel-Palestine, over 50 Labour MPs have written to DFID Secretary of State Penny Mordaunt to express their serious concern and to call on the UK to help fill the void. You can view a PDF of the Read more…
The Trump administration is to end US funding to coexistence programmes that bring Israelis and Palestinians together, it has emerged. The US currently provides $10m for the projects – one quarter of the money invested globally in civil society peace and reconciliation work between Israelis and Palestinians. The American move is Read more…
The Trump administration has decided to stop funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), a body which provides humanitarian assistance for Palestinian refugees. The decision amounts to a $350m cut from the organisation’s $1.2bn annual budget. Evaluation of the Trump administration’s decision often balances the agency’s vital humanitarian Read more…
Jeremy Corbyn is involved in a fresh row over antisemitism in the Labour party following the discovery of a 2013 speech in which he claimed that Zionists do not understand “English irony”. The Labour leader was speaking at a conference endorsed and advertised online by Hamas’ military wing and which featured Read more…
Jeremy Corbyn’s past links with Hamas have come under intense scrutiny this week, as the fallout from Labour’s failure to adopt the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-semitism continues. On Monday, it was revealed that the Labour leader had chaired a panel at a conference in Doha in Read more…
LFI chair Joan Ryan MP welcomed the announcement of a new UK aid programme to support Palestinian economic development in Gaza and the West Bank. She said “the humanitarian situation for the people of Gaza is particularly desperate and deeply concerning, with electricity supplies highly restricted; water and sewage facilities Read more…
LFI chair Joan Ryan wrote this week to Jeremy Corbyn asking him to explain his apparent decision to honour the terrorists behind the Munich massacre during a 2014 visit to Tunisia. Ms Ryan also called upon the Labour leader to apologise to the bereaved families of the 11 Israeli athletes who were Read more…
LFI chair Joan Ryan MP has written to Jeremy Corbyn MP regarding the images in this weekend’s newspapers which appear to show Mr Corbyn taking part in a ceremony in Tunisia in 2014 honouring Black September terrorists who were responsible for the 1972 Munich massacre. Ms Ryan calls for Mr Read more…
Following Labour’s decision not to adopt the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism last month, a further wave of reports concerning antisemitic and anti-Zionist incidents in Labour have rocked the party. In response to Mr Corbyn’s role in many of these incidents, Labour Friends of Israel chair Joan Ryan has Read more…