Brendan O’Hara – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2015-10-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Israeli counterpart on the demolition of the Samra School in Khirbeit Samra on 20 August 2015.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

Whilst we have not raised this particular demolition with Israel, our position is clear; demolitions cause unnecessary suffering to ordinary Palestinians; are harmful to the peace process; and are, in all but the most exceptional of cases, contrary to international humanitarian law.

We regularly raise the issue of demolitions with our Israeli counterparts. For example on 24 September, Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Israel raised demolitions with Israel’s Justice Minister Shaked and on 10 September the Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (David Cameron), and the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Runnymead and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) raised this issue with Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.