UK announces conference, fund for peacebuilding efforts between Israelis and Palestinians

Britain announces it will host a “key peacebuilding conference” in March to help establish the International Peace Fund for Israel and Palestine.

In a statement, the UK government says the fund will raise the finances required for efforts “to deliver genuine change.”

Britain says the fund will “support activities that bring Israelis and Palestinians together to reduce violence, build trust, and create the conditions for a lasting and just peace.”

Citing British experience of the reconciliation process in Northern Ireland, UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper says the conference will bring Israelis and Palestinians together in the hope that they can reach common ground.

“This conference will be a crucial step in that journey, bringing together representatives of Palestinian and Israeli civil society to build common ground between their communities, challenge entrenched divisions, and work towards a future where both states can live side-by-side in peace and security,” Cooper says.

The UK says the conference will focus on practical steps, as well as the best practice that can be learned from other similar initiatives, “including the International Fund for Ireland that helped support dialogue and reconciliation between unionist and nationalist communities more than a decade before the Good Friday Agreement.”

The statement welcomes the release of all living hostages from Gaza under the US-led ceasefire agreement, but says that with regards to the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Britain is “pressing for all restrictions to be lifted so that humanitarian supplies can be delivered at the pace and volume required, especially with winter drawing in.”