Article published by Council for Arab British Understanding 19th January 2015

A delegation of senior British Labour Members of Parliament met with Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in Ramallah on the last day of three-day visit to Palestine.

The Prime Minister praised the British Parliament for its historic vote to call on the British government to recognise the state of Palestine in October 2014. He told the delegation that “We count on you to take a lead, Britain has an historic responsibility”. He briefed the MPs on Palestine’s plans regarding the International Criminal Court and the United Nations Security Council. He stressed that it was now “time for all the international community to be involved not just the Americans.”

The Rt Hon Liam Byrne MP, the shadow Secretary of State of Universities and Gavin Shuker MP, the shadow minister for international development were on a fact-finding visit organised by Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) and the Council for Arab-British Understanding (Caabu). Both MPs recently voted in favour of Palestinian Statehood in the British Parliament.

Liam Byrne MP said: “There is a shared determination to speak out on the injustices in Palestine. We need to be better at building bridges, not building walls. The conflict in Gaza has given this issue a new profile in Europe and particularly in Britain, over the next few years it will only get bigger and bigger.

Gavin Shuker MP said: “Travelling to the West Bank secured in me a sense that this is the right time to go further in terms of recognition and supporting the two-state solution, the key moment is now”

The delegation has had meetings with diplomats, UN agencies, local and international Non-Government Organisations. They visit Palestinian communities under threat of displacement and home demolition in the Jordan Valley and also at the village of Al Walajeh.

Details of the visit were also published by Thisting for Justice:

In January a delegation led by the Council for Arab British Understanding (Caabu) and Medical Aid for Palestine (MAP) including British MPs Liam Byrne and Gavin Shuker visited Furush Beit Dajan in the Jordan Valley. The visit, coordinated by EWASH member Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee (PARC), heard how the Israeli occupation was choking the community’s access to water.

“Water is the single biggest issue facing us” Said Azzem, a PARC representative and Furush Beit Dajan resident. He explained to the delegation that while the Israeli settlements surrounding the village faced no restrictions on accessing water resources, Palestinians are only able to extract water from their wells up to a depth of 80m, leaving farmers unable to obtain the quantity or quality of water necessary to effectively irrigate their crops.

Azzem also explained that following the occupation of the West Bank in 1967 the Israeli army seized all agricultural lands in the area and that the farmers now have to face the indignity of renting their own land back from the Israelis.

The delegation were shown projects completed by EWASH members Save the Children and ACCP including the establishment of a women’s farming cooperative.

Liam Byrne, a Member for Parliament and the Shadow Universities Minister, told local farmers and PARC representatives that people in the UK were becoming more switched on about what was taking place in the occupied territories and that “no injustice can last forever”.