Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2016-09-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the level of adherence by the Palestinian National Authority to the principle of non-violence set out in the Memorandum of Understanding between her Department and that authority; and if she will make a statement.

James Wharton

The UK deplores incitement to violence on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and takes the issue of incitement extremely seriously. When incidents of incitement to violence do occur, we do not hesitate to raise and condemn these with the Palestinian Authority. The UK raises the issue of incitement as part of the FCO-led UK-Palestinian strategic dialogue, most recently in February this year. HMG’s assessment is that the Palestinian Authority is not in breach of the Memorandum of Understanding. The UK continues to encourage the leaderships of both the PA and Israel to re-engage in the Trilateral Committee on Anti-Incitement.