By, Marcus Dysch
2 min read
ByMarcus Dysch, Marcus Dysch
MPs are preparing to vote on Palestinian statehood following a series of rows which have divided Labour’s shadow cabinet and threatened Israel's relationship with Britain's Jewish communal leaders.
The backbench debate on recognising Palestine alongside Israel will take place later this afternoon, with a vote expected to follow this evening.
Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs will be allowed a free vote, but Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander has encouraged his party’s MPs to back the motion.
Labour MPs will not be forced to attend the vote but those who are present in the chamber will will be expected to back the motion.
A series of pro-Israel shadow cabinet members are understood to have complained to leader Ed Miliband about the approach being taken. Senior figures such as Ed Balls, Jim Murphy and Rachel Reeves are leading supporters of Labour Friends of Israel.
Those opposing the motion say it is more proactive to encourage negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians than to back the creation of a state without a peace settlement.
The stance taken by the party leadership has again thrown the spotlight onto Mr Miliband’s leadership.
Meanwhile Israeli Foreign Ministry officials are said to have reacted angrily to the response of British Jewish community organisations to the impending vote.
One campaigner helping to co-ordinate the community's reaction admitted to the JC last week that the response had been slow off the mark, with activists and leadership groups pre-occupied by the party political conferences.
That led senior Israeli figures to complain that letter-writing campaigns and approaches to MPs had not been co-ordinated with Jerusalem.
Israeli Labour party Knesset members have lobbied their UK colleagues, urging them to abstain or vote against the motion.
Hilik Bar, Israeli Labour party general-secretary, wrote to Labour MPs urging them to oppose “unilateral moves”.
But hundreds of Israeli public figures, including prominent former foreign affairs figures, ex-ministers and diplomats, have also written to MPs encouraging them to back the Commons motion.
In a statement the Board of Deputies said all sides should work on the best way to find a two-state solution.
“We understand the desire on behalf of some MPs and the Labour leadership to demonstrate support for Palestinian statehood, but ultimately this will not be achieved through unilateral action,” the statement said.
"While recognising the motion before the House as a symbolic statement of intent - with which many supporters of Israel will have sympathy - its likely effect is to retard the negotiations, actually setting back the cause it seeks to promote.
“Quite rightly, therefore it will have no bearing on government policy or timing.”
A letter from the leaders of the Zionist Federation, Bicom, Jewish Leadership Council and Board was sent to all MPs on Monday and was also published in the Telegraph.
It stated: "Compromise, conciliation and negotiation are the only routes to reaching a lasting agreement that brings security and stability to both sides.
"We urge MPs to ensure that the weight and authority of the Commons remains behind encouraging a negotiated and lasting peace, rather than supporting steps that might make peace more difficult to secure."
The proposal of the motion was led by Labour backbencher Grahame Morris, who was forced to apologise earlier this year for seeming to compare Israel to the Nazis.
He was later attacked by Prime Minister David Cameron for likening British Jews who fight in the IDF to Syrian and Iraqi jihadists.
