Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to Israeli authorities about reports of further demolitions of EU-funded structures in Jabal al Baba.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

We condemn the demolition of Bedouin homes at Jabal Al-Baba, which is a particularly vulnerable community in East Jerusalem. We have not specifically raised the issue, but we are extremely concerned at the large increase in demolitions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories since the start of 2016, compared to the monthly average in 2015. Our Embassy in Tel Aviv continues to raise our concern about demolitions regularly with the Israeli authorities, most recently on 15 May. We call on Israel to provide a legal route for Palestinians to obtain building permits.