BICOM

During a four-day visit to Israel, Minister for the Middle East, Alistair Burt promoted further bilateral cooperation between the UK and Israel and launched a new coexistence project.

Burt visited the British Embassy display at BioMed 2013, a major industry conference held in Tel Aviv, giving support to attempts to increase cooperative biomed ventures between the two countries. Coinciding with the conference, a high-level delegation of twenty British pharmaceutical and biomed companies and organisations were in Israel this week to explore avenues of potential cooperation with their Israeli counterparts. UK Ambassador to Israel Matthew Gould, who accompanied Burt at BioMed 2013 commented, “The coupling of Israeli innovation and entrepreneurship with world class and experienced British industry will be of enormous benefit to Israel companies.”

During his visit to Israel, Minister Burt also launched a UK funded coexistence project that aims to bring Jewish and Arab children together in Israel on the shared basis of football. Burt spoke at the event alongside Football Association (FA) Chairman David Bernstein, who was also on hand earlier this week to throw the FA’s support behind Israel’s ‘Kick Racism Out’ of football project, which is operated by the Israel Football Association and the New Israel Fund and aims to promote tolerance and equality between all sectors of Israeli society.

In an interview this morning with Army Radio, Burt also addressed diplomatic matters in the region. He warned that if the current effort by US Secretary of State John Kerry to bring Israeli and Palestinian leaders together for peace talks fails, then Israel may find itself increasingly isolated. He urged both sides to “act now” to re-start talks adding that this should not be subject to pre-conditions. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas insists that before talks can take place, Israel must first freeze all settlement construction, agree to 1967 borders plus swaps and release pre-Oslo prisoners.