MPs call for financial penalties to combat Palestinian ‘anti-Semitic incitement’

Labour MPs have pressed International Development Secretary Priti Patel to use the UK’s financial leverage to combat “anti-Semitic incitement” from the Palestinian Authority.

It follows an announcement earlier this year that £25 million of annual UK assistance to Palestinian territories would stop pending an investigation into allegations that the money is used to pay salaries to Palestinian terrorists.

The last time the UK sent the PA funds was in March 2016, and in October a spokesman for the Department for International Development said “the timing of future disbursements is subject to [Patel’s] examination of UK assistance to the Occupied Palestinian Territories”.

This week Labour Friends of Israel chair Joan Ryan and Ian Austin MP met Patel “to raise ongoing concerns about whether British aid is best supporting a two-state solution,” discussing prisoner payments and Palestinian adherence to principles of non-violence.

Austin said the UK should “use our financial leverage to tackle the PA’s involvement with anti-Semitic incitement”.

The pair also raised additional support for coexistence projects and asked Patel to support LFI’s campaign for the creation of an International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace.