UK is quietly scaling back support for Palestinians, government memo shows
An explosive internal memo released through a Freedom of Information request has shown that the British government’s stated support for the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian state-building has been quietly dropped in the past year.
Tracked changes on an internal Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) memo released this week show that the government no longer says that the UK is “a strong supporter” of the Palestinian Authority’s state-building efforts.
It also reveals that the government has dropped its claim that the Palestinian Authority (PA) has “made important progress” on state-building, and no longer claims that the PA “has the capability to run an effective, inclusive, accountable state”.
The memo was sent to Scottish officials on 17 January 2020 from an Israel Desk officer at the FCO’s Near East Department in Whitehall. The post-holder’s name and contact details have been redacted.
It was sent in response to a request from Scottish officials asking whether Westminster’s “commitment to prevent public institutions from imposing their own international boycotts” announced on 19 December 2019 alongside the Queen’s speech also applied north of the border.
In an email, the desk officer said they “work in the Middle East Peace Process team” and that they had “made some edits” to information provided to the Scottish Government team by a colleague last year. The colleague’s name is also redacted. The desk officer then writes: “Please see changes below in red.”
The deleted statements about the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian state-building are then shown in red with whole sentences struck through, under a section called: ‘When will the UK recognise Palestine?’
The deleted section states that “the PA has made important progress in state-building which has been recognised by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund”.
Further deleted sentences say that “the UK also believes that the PA has the capability to run an effective, inclusive, accountable state… That is why it is so important that the PA now returns to Gaza to ensure that good governance is extended throughout the territory which will become a Palestinian state”.
The final deleted sentence states that “the UK is a leading donor to the PA and a strong supporter of its state-building efforts”.
Although the Scottish Government recipient of the memo was also redacted, it is believed to have been sent to the Directorate of External Affairs (DEA) which, in late February, wrote that the Scottish Government “strongly discourages trade with companies active in Israeli settlements”.
News that the UK has quietly dropped referred support for the Palestinian Authority would fit a growing theme of disquiet across Europe, with the Netherlands having discontinued direct aid to the PA in November last year.
In January honorary president of Conservative Friends of Israel Lord Polak accused the PA of paying “over £260 million, or around seven percent of its annual budget, on salaries to killers and murderers” and urged the Government to “look closely” at following the Netherlands in ceasing UK aid.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has been approached for comment.