Israel and the Peace Process — [Mr Charles Walker in the Chair]

Part of the debate – in Westminster Hall at 3:40 pm on 27 March 2012.

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Photo of Ian Lucas Ian Lucas Shadow Minister (Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs) 3:40, 27 March 2012

It is very important to recognise that Israel is a democracy and that it has an independent judiciary. We applaud those types of decisions and the fact that, within Israel, those decisions are being taken. However, pressures are coming from the Israeli Government. In the past year, they have talked about withdrawing funding from non-governmental organisations that do not support Israeli Government policy. That sort of thing does not help Israel, but the independent judiciary, to which my right hon. Friend refers, does. It is important that that is preserved. We have a situation in which some progress is being made, but that progress is not within the peace process at the present time. That is intensely frustrating.