In Foreign Office Questions this week, CFI Parliamentary Chairman (Commons) Rt. Hon. Stephen Crabb MP praised “powerful and uplifting” health projects that bring Israeli and Palestinians together, and called on the Government to support them.
Rt. Hon. Stephen Crabb MP said that Israeli NGO Save a Child’s Heart “has now seen or treated around 6,000 Palestinian children”. He asked Middle East Minister Rt. Hon. Alistair Burt MP whether he agrees “that these kind of projects—which bring together Palestinian and Jewish medics, and bring Israelis into contact with Palestinian families—are incredibly powerful and uplifting? Will he look at what more we can do to support such projects?”
Minister Burt said: “It is an often understated fact of the complex relationship between Israel and its neighbours that there is cross-border work, and that medical treatment takes place in Israel for those from both the west bank and Gaza—some of it is very high level and done in the most important circumstances”.
He added: “Save a Child’s Heart is not directly supported by the United Kingdom, but we certainly support all efforts to make sure there is even more contact between the Palestinians and the Israeli authorities, particularly in healthcare matters”.
Philip Hollobone MP cited a recent Human Rights Watch investigation revealing routine arrest and torture of critics by Palestinian authorities. He asked whether the Minister would “condemn this deplorable abuse of power and make appropriate representations to the Palestinian Authority”.
In response to a question by Labour MP Dame Louise Ellman on the political implications of recent events at the Gaza border, the Minister Burt said that it had become clear that Hamas has “much greater” control over demonstrations at the Gaza border, stressing that “Hamas has in effect completely taken over the committee that was responsible for the protests and the march on the right to return, and it is now taking people, including children, to the border. That is a practice that must end”.
Read the full exchanges here.
