Matthew Offord: ...lectures and in the university itself are things she refuses to leave unchallenged. I have known her for many years and she is not a belligerent person, but students have told her that there are no Arabs in Israel, all Jews are wealthy and Jews control the world—all the usual tropes that we are now hearing more and more. She has pushed back but has been shunned by the other pupils, who...
Matthew Offord: ...for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he is taking diplomatic steps to support the proposal by the Israeli government to construct a land bridge to connect Israel to United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
Matthew Offord: ...peace, but we should take this opportunity to ensure that it lasts. The diversity of the region shows that a governance system can exist among people of different religions. Most ethnic Kurdish and Arab people adhere to Sunni Islam, while ethnic Syrian people are generally Syriac Orthodox, Chaldean Catholic, Syriac Catholic or adherents of the Assyrian Church of the East, and there are...
Matthew Offord: ...for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the Blue and Green Prosperity Memorandum of Understanding signed between Israel, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
Matthew Offord: ...have demonstrated a level of tactical and strategic attitude, with ISWAP combatants better armed and trained than their predecessors. There are unconfirmed reports that many are heard to speak Arabic instead of Hausa, which indicates the growing participation and influence of extremists from the Sahel and beyond. The decision to reduce attacks on civilian targets has resulted in a rise in...
Matthew Offord: ...will not have any peace in the state of Israel. Some hon. Members have in these debates evoked the apartheid in South Africa, which is a distortion that we must call out and condemn. Senior Israeli Arabs themselves have rejected the apartheid smear, with the leader of the Islamist Ra’am party, Mansour Abbas, stating that he “would not call it apartheid” and pointing out that he leads...
Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the refusal by the Arab League to condemn the peace agreement signed between Israel, Bahrain and the UAE as requested by the Palestinian Authority.
Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the number of Arab League countries that have recently normalised relations with Israel.
Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential of the deal signed by the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Israel to normalise relations between those countries and the Middle East peace process.
Matthew Offord: ...Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will publish the outcomes of the Warsaw Conference on 14 February 2019 in Poland that was attended by representatives of Israel, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Morocco, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Tunisia, France, Germany, the US and the United Kingdom.
Matthew Offord: ...been imprisoned, but I wonder whether hon. Members know what she said on Facebook straight after slapping an Israeli soldier. Out of earshot of the soldier, Ahed turned to the camera and said in Arabic: “I wish that everybody all over the world would unite, so we can liberate Palestine...Be it stabbings, martyrdom-seeking operations, throwing stones, everyone must do his part and we must...
Matthew Offord: ...”. Well, they are no friends of mine. Hezbollah is a creation of Iran. It is one of Iran’s most important and powerful international terrorist proxies, and it gives it extensive access to the Arab world. Iran has provided hundreds of millions of pounds for Hezbollah’s weapons and technology, and salaries for tens of thousands of fighters. In June 2006, Hezbollah secretary general,...
Matthew Offord: ...as a bastion of freedom and democracy in a region where liberties cannot be taken for granted. By accepting the United Nations’ partition plan for Palestine in 1947 and absorbing up to 200,000 Arabs who remained in Israel after the war of independence in 1948, the Jewish leadership upheld Balfour’s principle of protecting the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish...
Matthew Offord: I agree with that understanding of the declaration, but I will move on. Arabic is Israel’s official second language—I thought it was English. Many of the road signs are in Hebrew and Arabic. Just like all Israelis, the Israeli Arab community have freedom to practice their faith. The Palestinians today refer to Israel’s war of independence as “al-Nakba”, meaning the catastrophe, when...
Matthew Offord: ...to the land, so too do the Palestinians, who deserve a sovereign state of their own. A viable, thriving Palestinian state could offer much to the region. With the highest education rates in the Arab world and the potential for a seaport in Gaza trading with the world, a sovereign Palestinian state would have enormous potential, living in peace alongside a safe and secure Israel. The two...
Matthew Offord: ...co-existence with other parts of Israel, but gives a great opportunity to the very people who need assistance. I very much agree with my hon. Friend. It is time that the Palestinians and their Arab brothers reversed the fateful decision in 1947 to reject the internationally endorsed partition plan. It was a historic mistake, which began the cycle of violence that continues today. That is...
Matthew Offord: .... The legal legitimacy of the state of Israel is simply not up for debate. The Palestinian people, Israel and the wider international community continue to live with the consequences of the Arab leadership rejecting the internationally endorsed UN partition plan in 1947. The establishment of a Palestinian state is long overdue. I hope that we can see some progress in peace talks; that...
Matthew Offord: ...mentions. The Iranian leadership has cited Syria as being Iran’s 35th province, with President Assad’s Alawite minority-led regime being a crucial buffer between the influence of Saudi Arabia and the United States, so it can be of no surprise to any of us that Iran has chosen to involve itself in the conflict in Syria. The response of the Syrian regime to the Arab spring was a brutal...
Matthew Offord: ...has been through Oman, which neighbours Yemen. The US navy disclosed in April 2016 that it had confiscated an Iranian weapons cache headed to the Houthis in Yemen from a small fishing craft in the Arabian sea, seizing 1,500 Kalashnikov rifles, 200 rocket-propelled grenade launchers and 21 .50-caliber machine guns. That was the fourth such seizure by the US navy in the region since...
Matthew Offord: ...and disseminating accurate and up-to-date information about the systematic violation of human rights in the OPT, by raising public awareness”. In October 2013, members of Yesh Din took part in an Arab celebration on the ruins of a Jewish community in Homesh, with attendees desecrating Jewish symbols and waving anti-Semitic posters, including one depicting a Jew with a spear through his...