Baroness Tonge – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2015-10-26.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Israel following the September UN OCHA Bulletin report that Israel has added additional restrictions on the entry of wood into Gaza, and that those restrictions have impeded the Catholic Relief Services’ installation of prefabricated wooden housing units to serve as transitional shelter solutions for the winter.

Baroness Verma

DFID is aware of the issue of restrictions on the import of wood into Gaza and senior DFID officials have raised it with the Government of Israel at the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) meeting in September this year. We support calls to ease the number of items on the dual use list whilst recognising Israel’s legitimate security concerns about the use of materials for the manufacture of weapons. We urge Israel to make the process of listing materials as dual use more transparent and in line with internationally recognised dual use items. In the interim, DFID funding to the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism is helping to ensure that construction materials reach Gaza.