In Foreign Office questions yesterday, Minister for the Middle East Tobias Ellwood called on Palestinian President Abbas to condemn the murders of 36 Israelis and 4 foreign nationals by Palestinian terrorists in the recent wave of violent attacks.
In response to a question from CFI’s Parliamentary Chairman, Rt. Hon. Sir Eric Pickles MP, Mr Ellwood affirmed that the Palestinian leadership needs to “make it clear that those actions must be condemned”.
The Middle East Minister said that he had raised the issue of Palestinian incitement at the Paris summit last month and expressed his “concern” that “with all the other distractions and concerns in the Middle East, we have lost sight of something that needs to be resolved”. He assured Sir Eric that “the actions of the Palestinians do not go unnoticed”.
The former Communities and Local Government Secretary referred to the death of 40 people in the last eleven months in terror attacks, underlining that “instead of condemning the murders, the Palestinian Authority glorified them”.
Sir Eric asserted: “Surely, when just this weekend the Israeli Prime Minister said that he would meet without conditions, we should urge the Palestinian authorities to do precisely that and have direct talks”.
