Kevin Bonavia

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Mansfield (Steve Yemm) on securing this debate. He alluded to precedents and I want to talk about one, because the UK has been a trailblazer for peacebuilding in complex conflicts around the world, but most notably in Northern Ireland. The attention of the world has naturally been drawn to the destruction and the suffering of the peoples of both Palestine and Israel since the devastating Hamas attacks and throughout the subsequent war. I believe that the UK has a unique contribution to make in the area of civil society and people-to-people peacebuilding in Israel and Palestine. In the mid-1980s, when a political peace process was non-existent, the international community decided to intervene at the grassroots level with the International Fund for Ireland. Expert effort was put into investing in civil society to create the social, economic and political foundations for peace. Twelve years later, the landscape in Northern Ireland was transformed, with genuine constituencies for peace. That allowed the negotiation of the Good Friday agreement. That model is one of the areas of peacebuilding in which we in the UK have unparalleled experience. Today, thanks to the tireless work of the Alliance for Middle East Peace, there is cross-party support for an international fund for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Indeed, the precedent does not just show that the UK can take a leading role in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, but that a Labour Government are particularly well placed to do so. It was Jonathan Powell, who was the Downing Street chief of staff in the 1990s and is now the Prime Minister’s national security adviser, who led the Good Friday agreement talks. Because of its investment in civil society at a moment when peace seemed distant, he characterised the International Fund for Ireland as “the great unsung hero of the peace process”. Today, we have an opportunity to play a similar role in a similarly intractable conflict. That is why I am so pleased that the Government have indicated their intention to do so, most recently in December with the Prime Minister’s announcement that the Foreign Secretary will convene an inaugural meeting to discuss next steps with partners. I end by asking whether the Minister can provide us with an update on when the meeting in London will take place and on which partners will be involved. I also ask what plans the Government have to use next week’s G7 Foreign Ministers meeting in Canada to raise the establishment of an international fund for Israeli-Palestinian peace. It is unquestionable that this summit is an opportunity to make the real progress that I believe only a Labour Government can make in these circumstances.