2 min read
ByJoan Ryan MP, Joan Ryan MP
The success of the Palestinian Authority is central to the success of a two-state solution. It is right, therefore, that under both Labour and Conservative governments, Britain has provided aid to it.
Indeed, through the Department for International Development, we have given at least £150 million since 2011.
Much of this is assigned to “state-building”, but other building blocks of a viable Palestinian state, such as wealth-creation and poverty-reduction, are supported as well.
But I believe it is now time to reassess how best British aid supports our country’s desire to support a democratic and stable Palestinian state alongside an Israel safe and secure within recognised borders.
As violence has become, once again, an apparently daily fact of life on the streets of Israel, I have become increasingly concerned about the behaviour of the Palestinian Authority.
Earlier this month, for instance, President Abbas met with the families of those who had committed some of the most appalling recent terrorist acts, including that of Baha Alian, who killed three Israelis on a Jerusalem bus in October, and relatives of Alaa Abu Jamal, who the same month drove his car into Israeli pedestrians and then proceeded to stab the victims.
The meeting, which was broadcast by the official Palestinian news agency, occurred just hours after terrorists murdered an Israeli border guard outside the Old City.
The president’s message to the families – “your sons are martyrs” – sadly encapsulates the PA’s unrelenting role in the incitement of violence against Israelis.
It is particularly tragic that a number of those who have perpetrated stabbing attacks are schoolchildren or in their late teens. They must be held accountable for their actions, but it is clear to me that the PA must bear responsibility too.
Children’s programmes on official PA television feed the young a diet of vile antisemitism, as well as teaching them that Israel is “all ours” and “it will return to us”.
The PA has named at least 25 schools, as well as dozens of sporting events and summer camps after terrorists.
Magazines aimed at young people and funded by it propagate the PA’s myths that Israel threatens the status of the Temple Mount.
Instead of helping to raise a generation of Palestinian young people ready to make peace with, and live alongside, their Israeli neighbours, the PA’s actions are, in fact, not mitigating against the conclusion of a two-state solution.
I believe that we need to continue to support the PA, but this cannot be a blank cheque. We cannot continue to repeatedly raise our concerns with them about incitement, only to see them repeatedly ignored.
Instead, we must explicitly link funding which goes to the PA to the immediate cessation of incitement.
This week I have written to David Cameron to ask him to establish an independent review into the wider question of how UK government spending in Israel and Palestine best supports the cause of peace and combats violence and extremism.
It should examine in particular the case for increasing substantially our support through the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund for co-existence projects which bring Israelis and Palestinians together.
Given that there is a long-standing consensus across both government and opposition in favour of a two-state solution, this should be an issue that we debate on a cross-party basis.
Joan Ryan MP is chair of Labour Friends of Israel
