The MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath \u2013 former prime minister Gordon Brown\u2019s erstwhile constituency \u2013 asked Starmer whether he agreed\u00a0that \u201cfunnelling money to Israeli settlements is extremist activity, not charitable activity\u201d and urged him to be clear that it was a\u00a0\u201cbanned\u201d practice.<\/p>\n
Starmer responded by describing Israeli settlements in the West Bank as \u201ca flagrant breach of international law\u201d, adding that \u201cno UK charity should be supporting them\u201d.<\/p>\n
The prime minister went on to say that Hamish Falconer, the Middle East minister, had met the Charity Commission on Wednesday to further discuss these concerns.<\/p>\n
Starmer also refused to rule out further sanctions against those who support settler violence in the West Bank, following on from fresh sanctions on six entities and one individual accused of financing, enabling and carrying out settler violence in the West Bank, which the government announced yesterday.<\/p>\n
\u201cBritish businesses should have no economic involvement in illegal settlements\u201d, Starmer added, describing the situation across the Palestinian territories\u00a0as \u201cdesperate\u201d and pledging that his government would \u201ccontinue to lead efforts to prevent human suffering and get aid in and preserve the viability of a two-state solution\u201d.<\/p>\n
Also yesterday, a joint statement by the foreign ministers of Australia, Canada, France, Norway, and the UK confirmed\u00a0the coordinated sanctions were imposed to \u201chold extremist settlers accountable for the horrific levels of settler violence against Palestinian civilians\u201d.<\/p>\n
It continued: \u201cFor too long, violent settlers have been able to act with near impunity, and settlement expansion and creation of outposts continue with the support and facilitation of the Government of Israel. In some cases, settler violence takes place under the protection of Israel\u2019s security forces.<\/p>\n
“We continue to urge the Government of Israel to take action to ensure meaningful accountability for violence in the West Bank.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response to the measures, rabbis\u00a0Charley Bagisnky and Josh Levi, co-leaders of the\u00a0Movement for Progressive Judaism, said: \u201cWe welcome the UK government’s decision to impose targeted sanctions on those responsible for financing, enabling and carrying out settler violence in the West Bank.<\/p>\n
“As Progressive Jews, we have consistently opposed settlement expansion, settler violence and moves towards annexation. Settler violence is not only an attack on Palestinians; it is a direct contradiction of Jewish values and of the vision set out in Israel’s Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n
“We support a liberal, democratic State of Israel, as envisaged in that Declaration, with equal rights for all its citizens. Settlement expansion, settler violence and annexation make a negotiated two-state solution harder to achieve and damage Israel’s future as both a Jewish and democratic state.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the\u00a0Israeli Foreign Ministry said: \u201cIsrael firmly rejects the disgraceful measures adopted by foreign governments against Israeli citizens, entities, and a government minister [the latter referring to France imposing a travel ban on Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich].<\/p>\n
\u201cThe real essence of these steps is the attempt to impose a political stance regarding the right of Jews to live in the Land of Israel and concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – camouflaged as measures against violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ward had also referenced the 32 charities allegedly involved with settlements in response to yesterday\u2019s statement in the Commons announcing the sanctions, during which she mentioned one of them by name.<\/p>\n
Responding, Yvette Cooper said Falconer\u2019s meeting with the Charity Commissioner was being held \u201cto pursue exactly this issue to ensure there is a thorough investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n
She went on: \u201cSome evidence suggests that rules are being broken. We should not end up with UK gift aid being funnelled to illegal settlements. That clearly breaches all the standards that anybody across the UK would expect there to be, as well as the Charity Commission rules, which is why it is essential to look at this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The foreign secretary also emphasised the government\u2019s opposition to \u201ctrade with illegal settlements\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath \u2013 former prime minister Gordon Brown\u2019s erstwhile constituency \u2013 asked Starmer whether…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43,225584,37944,225585],"class_list":["post-488017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-prime-ministers-questions","tag-settlers","tag-sir-keir-starmer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}