Recent months have seen the British Parliament has demonstrate a significant increase in support and interest in ALLMEP’s flagship advocacy campaign toward an International Fund for Israeli Palestinian Peace. 

At CFI’s annual business lunch in London on December 12th, 2022,  the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak restated the UK Government’s support for the concept of an International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace. As he came toward the close of a wide-ranging speech, Prime Minister Sunak stated,  “Of course, the expansion of Arab-Israeli peace in the region also provides a valuable route to Israeli-Palestinian peace. It is why this Government will explore with our U.S. allies joining the International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace.”

Just last week, the UK Parliament hosted a debate focused on Israel-Palestine where multiple Lords spoke on the issue of an International Fund. Lord Collins of Highbury, for example, expressed his pleasure at the Prime Minister’s commitment to join the International Fund and remarked that the concept has cross-party support across the UK. He called on the Foreign Secretary to discuss with the House the progress being made on this front.

Similarly, Lord Stone called on the UK to make good on its commitment as the first country on earth to support the International Fund. He added that it can engage a new generation at scale in the project of peacebuilding, that the UK should push this priority at the forthcoming G7 summit in Japan, and that it should signal its opposition to any legislation that taxes and delegitimizes the work of civil society.

A week later, in Foreign Office Questions, MP Andrew Gwynne raised the International Fund for Israeli Palestinian Peace. He asked the Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, if the UK will again commit to leading on the fund and use the G7 Summit in May to get support from other international partners.

Support continues to grow in the U.K. and among other key donor states for an International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace, with significant progress since the passage of the Nita M. Lowey Middle East Partnership for Peace Act (MEPPA) in 2020 by the U.S. Congress. ALLMEP is continuing to engage policymakers around the world so that a coordinated and multilateral approach can be agreed, radically scaling the work of peacebuilders and their efforts to disrupt the escalating crisis that we are now seeing unfold.