Photo: Chris McAndrew, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A group of Labour parliamentarians have written to the foreign secretary urging a “comprehensive, internationally backed, programme of assistance to help stabilise the Palestinian economy”
They also urge “medical and humanitarian assistance to help ensure that efforts by Palestinians and Israelis to contain the spread of the virus, in the West Bank, are maintained as restrictions are lifted and Palestinian workers return to Israel.”
The letter welcomes recent progress but states that “international support must be coupled with a clear and unequivocal message that battling the virus requires cooperation and that it’s utterly wrong for senior figures in the PA to claim Israel has played some role in deliberately spreading the virus.”
Furthermore, the signatories say that “cooperation witnessed during this crisis is also an opportunity to reinforce efforts to end the conflict. Investment in civic society work, which brings Israelis and Palestinians together and builds constituencies for peace, should be encouraged. We urge the British government to recommit to investment in coexistence work and actively support development of an International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace.”
The letter also makes clear their opposition to unilateral steps such as annexation of parts of the West Bank.
Click here to read the letter in full.
