Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports about recent remarks by Israel's Ambassador to the United Kingdom about (1) the Nakba, and (2) the displacement of Palestinians since 1948.

The Minister for the Middle East and North Africa met with the Israeli Ambassador to the UK on 15 December and reiterated the UK's position on the Middle East Peace Process, including our commitment to a two state solution with Jerusalem as a shared capital. The UK is clear that the status of Palestinian refugees must be agreed as part of wider peace negotiations. Until that time, the UK remains firmly committed to supporting the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and Palestinian refugees across the Middle East. We support a just, fair, agreed and realistic settlement for refugees in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1515. In practice, this means that any such agreement must be demographically compatible with two states for two peoples and a generous package of international compensation should be made available. Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict, UNRWA was established by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 302 (IV) of 8 December 1949 to carry out direct relief and works programmes for Palestinian refugees. The operational definition of a Palestinian refugee is any person whose "normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948 and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict".