Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effects of the proposed resettlement of Bedouin in Southern Israel on the peace process; and if he will make a statement.

The Government is deeply concerned about the proposals to demolish Bedouin villages in Israel. I visited the Khan al Ahmer Bedouin during my visit in October 2014 and saw at first hand the devestating impact resettlement plans had on the communities. Officials at our Embassy in Tel Aviv are monitoring the situation closely, including the case of the Um Il Hiran and Ateer. Embassy officials have been in contact with the Adalah Legal Centre who have continued to provide updates on the legal situation. They have also been in contact with other organisations that work within the Bedouin community, such as Itach-Maaki and The Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation-Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development, to best inform the UK’s lobbying of the Israeli authorities on this issue.