Matthew Pennycook – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Pennycook on 2016-10-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Israeli counterpart on demolitions that took place on 9 October 2016 in the community of Khan al-Ahmar in the Palestinian Occupied Territories.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

While we have not had any discussions with the Israeli authorities on this specific issue, on 7 September, during a meeting with Israeli Defence Minister Lieberman in London, I raised our concerns about demolitions. The UK’s positions on demolitions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is clear: such 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 law.