CFI is delighted to announce that former Home Secretary Rt. Hon. Suella Braverman MP will be our new Parliamentary Chair in the House of Commons, joining Rt. Hon. The Lord Pickles who continues as CFI’s House of Lords Chair.
Suella is a staunch supporter of Israel and has been unwavering in her determination to stand with the Jewish State.
Suella first joined a CFI delegation to Israel in 2015, shortly after her election to Parliament.
Rt. Hon. Suella Braverman MP said: “I am honoured to become CFI’s new Parliamentary Chair in the House of Commons. There has never been a more important time to be a friend of Israel and CFI’s work is critical. The new Labour Government’s actions are harming the vital UK-Israel relationship and we will continue to hold the Government to account at every turn”.
CFI Honorary President Lord Polak CBE and CFI Chair Jeremy Brier KC said: “We are thrilled to have Suella as our new Parliamentary Chair in the House of Commons. She will lead CFI’s new Parliamentary Group from the front, bringing her invaluable experience as a former Home Secretary and Attorney General. Suella’s support for Israel is well established and we are delighted to welcome her to this new role”.
Conservatives warn abuse of aid is “unacceptable” after Labour Government pledges £13 million to UNRWA
Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel warned that it is “unacceptable for British aid to be abused, used by terrorists”, calling on the Government to “prove” that the funds pledged to UNRWA are truly being used to assist those in need, after the Prime Minister pledged a further £13 million to UNRWA at a meeting with the body’s Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini on Wednesday.
“UNRWA had to fire nine staff after investigations into their involvement in the appalling attack on Israel on October 7 last year. All links to the Hamas terrorist group must be severed. It is critical that UN bodies ensure adequate vetting of personnel and activities and Catherine Colonna’s reforms need to be fully implemented”, the Shadow Foreign Secretary said.
“Securing the release of hostages in Gaza, getting more aid in to alleviate the humanitarian crisis faced, and establishing a sustainable peace must be a priority for the Government. The Prime Minister needs to explain how these priorities were advanced in his discussions with Philippe Lazzarini”, Ms. Patel added.
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said that the UK “should not be providing any aid to UNRWA until it has ridded itself of Hamas operatives”, whilst Nick Timothy MP asked whether the Prime Minister challenged the UNRWA Commissioner General about “UNRWA complicity in the 7 October attacks and the role its employees played in hiding the hostages”. Former Foreign Minister Lord Goldsmith echoed the sentiment, asking whether the Labour leader “at least” asked about “UNRWA employees participating in the rape, mutilation, murder and kidnapping of innocent civilians”, “or about their educational programmes (funded by us) which teach hate and praise terrorism”.
The Conservative Government stopped funding for UNRWA in January after reports emerged of its staff kidnapping and killing Israelis. However, the Labour Government has resumed UK funding after July’s general election and supported the organisation with £21 million prior to the new announcement. Foreign Secretary David Lammy welcomed the recent move and called UNRWA “the backbone of humanitarian operations in Gaza”.
On Wednesday, the UK Government voted in favour of the UN General Assembly resolution demanding an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire, to be respected by all parties, and further reiterates its demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages”.
Mandy Damari, mother of British hostage Emily Damari, wrote on X that the Prime Minister last week “told me that Britain would not support a ceasefire without the release of Emily and the hostages. This week the UK voted yet again for an unconditional ceasefire. A message to Hamas that they can kill Emily. Another nail in her coffin. I am devastated”.
Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel echoed Mandy’s statements on X, saying that “Emily and all hostages held by the Iran-backed Hamas terrorists must stay in all of our thoughts and prayers. We must never forget the heinous crimes Hamas committed on 7 Oct 2023 and their continued cruelty and brutality. We must never let terrorism win. All hostages held must be released”.
Baroness Foster DBE called the UK’s decision “disgraceful”, highlighting that the UK “should be voting with our real allies Israel and the USA”.
Shadow Home Secretary at Speaker’s House Chanukah Event: The “unconditional” release of the hostages is a “moral imperative”
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp addressed a Board of Deputies Chanukah reception at the Speaker’s House last week, stating that “we should remember the families that have an empty chair at the table” this Chanukah and calling for the hostages in Hamas captivity to be released.
He added that “the hostages and victims of the 7th October attacks are in our minds” and said that there is a “moral imperative” to call for the “unconditional release” of the hostages held captive by Hamas.
The Home Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister also spoke at the event, alongside the President of the Board of Deputies, the Chief Rabbi and the Israeli Ambassador and other speakers.
The Shadow Home Secretary had addressed a Chanukah event hosted by the APPG Against Antisemitism in Westminster Hall earlier on Wednesday, sending his support and well wishes to the Jewish community.
New report finds Palestinian death toll “systematically” inflated to vilify Israel
The Palestinian death toll during the war in Gaza has been “systematically” inflated by Hamas in “failing to distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths, over-reporting fatalities among women and children, and even including individuals who died before the conflict began”, according to the Henry Jackson Society in their investigation “Questionable Counting: Analysing the Death Toll from the Hamas-Run Ministry of Health in Gaza”, published on Saturday.
By using these techniques, Hamas has successfully established “a narrative where the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are portrayed as disproportionately targeting civilians, while the actual numbers suggest a significant proportion of the dead are combatants”.
The report found some 5,000 Palestinians of the 44,000 killed or presumed dead by the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry in fact died of natural causes, including cancer patients who later appeared on a list of those still receiving medical care, whilst HJS raised that both Israeli and US military intelligence estimates that 17,000 of the casualties were Hamas fighters.
Moreover, many of the men killed between the ages of 15-45 had their ages lowered by a year, compared to the Palestinian Population Register, which author Andrew Fox said was “potentially influencing sentiment and media coverage” by skewing the data.
Other deaths, attributed to errant terrorist rocket fire or in the delivery of food aid, are also included in Hamas’ casualty figures.
The Fifty Research Group, in a separate report also published on Saturday called, “Mislabelling on the Battlefield: How Mass Media Misrepresents Combatant Casualties as Civilian Deaths in Gaza Coverage”, found a systemic failure to scrutinise casualty figures across major global media outlets such as the BBC, CNN, and The New York Times, with 98% of 1,378 articles relying on casualty figures provided by Hamas and only 5% citing Israeli or US intelligence data.
