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Foreign Office Minister visits Israel, West Bank and Gaza
UK Foreign Office and International Development Minister Alistair Burt is on the second day of his visit to Israel for diplomatic meetings and trade talks after visiting the West Bank and Gaza on Monday and Tuesday.
The Middle East Minister met yesterday with Regional Cooperation Minister Tsachi Hanegbi, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Michael Oren and Joint List MK Ayman Odeh.
Burt travelled to the Gaza Strip on Monday, where he met local businessmen and community leaders and also visited the Cemetery in Gaza that contains 3,217 Commonwealth graves from the First World War. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the battles for Gaza.
Yesterday, Burt met with Saeb Erekat, secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organiation’s (PLO) executive committee, as well as Palestinian Authority (PA) Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki at the Ministry’s headquarters in Ramallah.
In a statement issued after his meeting with Burt, Erekat called on the UK to “accept the principle of a two-state solution on the borders occupied in 1967 and East Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Palestine”.
He also asked the British Government to recognise the state of Palestine and to conduct a comprehensive review of its intentions to mark the centenary of the Balfour Declaration. PA President Mahmoud Abbas called for Britain to apologise for issuing the Declaration during a UN General Assembly speech in September 2016. In April, the British government said that it was “proud of our role in creating the State of Israel. The task now is to encourage moves towards peace.”
Since the House of Commons voted in favouring of recognising the State of Palestine in 2014, the Government and the Opposition have continued to disagree over the usefulness of unilaterally recognising the State of Palestine. According to its 2017 elections manifesto, Labour stated that it would immediately recognise the State of Palestine if elected.
However, current UK Government policy is that it “reserves the right to recognise a Palestinian state bilaterally at the moment of our choosing and when it can best help bring about peace”.
Burt gave an interview to Jerusalem-based newspaper Al-Quds, which it said will be published in full this Thursday.