1 Introduction
1. The UK's development assistance programmes have
traditionally prioritised poorer countries in sub-Saharan Africa
and South Asia rather than the middle income countries of the
Middle East. In recent years, the Syrian Civil War and consequent
humanitarian crisis have led to a significant increase in DFID
activity in the region: The UK has committed £600 million
in humanitarian assistance since the crisis began.[ 1]
2. In addition, DFID has a long-standing bilateral
programme in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs), comprising
the West Bank, the Gaza Strip (Gaza) and East Jerusalem.[ 2]
DFID's expenditure on its Palestinian programme was £87.7
million in 2012-13.[ 3]
Its programme focuses on three areas: state building, wealth creation
and poverty and livelihoods.
3. After the 1967 conflict, the OPTs were under the
full control of Israel, the occupying power. During the 1990s
the Oslo Process gave the newly-formed Palestinian Authority control
over some areas of the Occupied Territories as a precursor to
a full and final peace settlement,[ 4]
but an agreement over the permanent status of the Territories
remains elusive. Israeli-Palestinian talks aimed at achieving
a "two-state solution" (i.e. the establishment of an
independent and viable Palestinian state living side by side in
peace and security with the State of Israel) were recently suspended
indefinitely.
4. The two issues (the Syria crisis and the situation
in the OPTs) are in some ways connected. For example, among those
displaced by the Syrian crisis are many Palestinians, descended
from those who were themselves displaced during the 1948 Arab-Israeli
War. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in
the Near East (UNRWA), one of DFID's key partners, provides assistance
to Palestine refugees throughout the region, including in Syria.
5. While there are connections between the humanitarian
work consequent upon the Syrian Civil War and DFID s programme
in the OPTs, we have decided to produce two reports: the first,
on UK support for humanitarian relief in the Middle East was published
on 2 July 2014.
6. We launched our inquiry into DFID's development
work in the Middle East in December 2013. In the report on humanitarian
relief we list the written and oral evidence we took. On the OPTs
we received written evidence from a range of individuals and organisations
including academics, UN organisations and NGOs. We also held three
oral evidence sessions. Witnesses at the oral sessions included
the Rt Hon Alan Duncan MP, the Minister of State for International
Development; Daniel Levy, Head of the Middle East and North Africa
Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR);
and UNRWA.
7. We also visited the region in March 2014, spending
time in Lebanon, Jordan, the West Bank and Israel. While in the
OPTs, we visited many locations on the West Bank, including Bethlehem
and the check point at the wall, the E1 zone to the north east
of Jerusalem, Hebron and the Jordan valley. We had hoped to visit
Gaza, but were denied permission to do so by the Israeli authorities;
we were, however, able to go to the border crossing at Erez. We
met Palestinians, including members of the Palestinian Authority
and the Mayor of Bethlehem. In Bethlehem we were able to hear
the views of Palestinian Christians, whose numbers have been declining
for decades. Unfortunately, there was industrial action at the
Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs which made it difficult for
us to meet Israeli officials. We had arranged to meet Minister
Steinitz, but he was unable to attend the meeting; instead we
met Yossi Kuperwasser, the Director General of the Israeli Ministry
of Strategic Affairs. We also met Dov Weissglass, chief of
staff of former PM Sharon. We had meetings with several INGOs
as well as Israeli NGOs close to PM Netanyahu's Government, such
as NGO Monitor, and Israeli NGOs which work with Palestinians
such as BIMKOM. We were also able to spend time with DFID and
FCO officials.
8. We have also had several discussions in the UK,
including with the former Bishop of Exeter, Rt Revd Michael Langrish,
and, on our return from our visit, with Daniel Taub,
the Israeli Ambassador to the UK, who subsequently
provided new information that significantly contradicted the evidence
we had received during our visit. The evidence on which this report
was based was taken before the recent events in Israel and the
OPTs.
9. We are grateful to all those who helped us during
our inquiry, including Eva Svoboda of the Overseas Development
Institute (ODI) for serving as our Specialist Adviser.
10. In this report our main role is to examine the
effectiveness of DFID's programmes, not to comment on foreign
policy. It is, however, impossible to consider DFID's work in
the OPTs entirely separately from political considerations: one
of the rationales for the OPT bilateral programme is to keep the
peace process and two state solution alive. Moreover, a key issue
for the Palestinian economy are restrictions which restrain economic
development and which DFID programmes are seeking to alleviate.
1 DFID_Syria_Humanitarian_Programme_Summary_15.07.14.pdf Back
2 DFID - Palestinian programme Operational Plan Back
3 DFID Annual Report 2012/13 Back
4 http://www.ps.undp.org/content/papp/en/home/countryinfo/; Back
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