The risk of all-out war between Israel and Hamas appears to have receded today. An uneasy ceasefire brought to an end an intense round of rocket attacks which threatened to blow off course a truce between the two sides which had been months in the making. Some 460 rockets were Read more…
Ordinary Gazans oppose the bloody, Hamas-led weekly border protests and want a ceasefire with Israel, newly released polling shows. The research – carried out among representative samples of approximately 500 randomly selected Gazans during early October by the Bethlehem-based Palestine Centre for Public Opinion and by a Ramallah-based organisation – shows the conflict-weary Read more…
The “machineries of repression” utilised by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas to crush their opponents and silence dissenters has been detailed in a shocking new report by Human Rights Watch. A two-year investigation by HRW, Two Authorities, One Way, Zero Dissent, accuses both the PA, which runs the West Bank, and Read more…
Rarely has an American administration invested such hope in – or kow-towed so nakedly to – a Middle Eastern state in the manner which Donald Trump’s has done since taking office last January. The president’s entire strategy for the region appears to have been shaped by a belief that Saudi Read more…
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…
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…
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…
Donald Trump’s hope of pulling off the “ultimate deal” – an end to the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians – appears to be more distant than ever, with US media reporting a significant downgrading of the US effort. This week the Washington Post suggested that, with the American Middle East peace Read more…
Labour Friends of Israel is stepping up its campaign to pressure the government to act over incitement in the Palestinian education system. LFI chair Joan Ryan secured a parliamentary debate on the matter, held this week in Westminster Hall. Opening her speech, Ms Ryan said: “Given Britain’s long-standing advocacy of Read more…