January 2018

The UK Government remains focussed on achieving a two-state solution to the conflict in the region. It is the only way to see a safe and secure Israel coexistent alongside a viable, sovereign Palestinian state. A long term political settlement, one that ensures a safe future for all, is the only way to resolve the conflict so that the Israeli and Palestinian people can live in peace.

It has long been the UK position that Israeli settlement activity is illegal under international law. Settlement activity by Israel undermines the viability of the principle of two states for two peoples.

Demolitions and evictions of Palestinians from their homes cause unnecessary suffering; call into question Israel's commitment to a viable two-state solution; and, in all but exceptional cases, are contrary to International Humanitarian Law.

I know my colleagues, at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), remain particularly concerned about the treatment of Palestinian children detained in Israeli prisons. In 2012, the FCO funded and facilitated the independent report on Children in Military Custody by leading British lawyers. Since its publication, Ministers and our Ambassador to Israel have strongly urged the recommendations of the report to be implemented, and the current Minister of State, Alistair Burt, raised the issue of children in detention with Israeli authorities when he visited the region last August.