Jim Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-10-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has received from his Israeli counterpart on the recent violence in that region; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

As I said in my statement of 13 October, the UK Government remains extremely concerned by the violence that we have seen across Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories so far this month. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) also made a statement on 9 October condemning the violence.

Since the start of the current violence we have spoken regularly to the Israeli government, urging them to de-escalate the tensions.

On 16 October, the Prime Minister’s National Security Adviser spoke to Israel’s National Security Adviser and reiterated the need for both sides to do everything in their power to calm the situation. On 19 October, the Director of the Middle East and North Africa Directorate in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office spoke to the Israeli Chargé D’Affaires to London, including about the recent violence.

Our Embassy in Tel Aviv receives regular updates from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On 19 October, our Ambassador to Tel Aviv raised our concerns on the recent violence with the Israeli Cabinet Secretary. Most recently, our Defence Attaché to Tel Aviv received a briefing from the Israeli Defence Forces on 21 October on the number of attacks they have so recorded in this latest outbreak of violence.