Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the reply by the Minister of State for the Middle East on 15 May (HC Deb, col 138) confirming the Government’s support for Israel’s right to defend its borders, what they consider Israel’s borders to be.

The UK is clear that we support Israel's right to defend its borders from attack. We distinguish between the State of Israel within the 1948 armistice lines and the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. We are also clear that the permanent borders between Israel and a future Palestinian state should be based on pre-1967 lines with equal land swaps to reflect the national, security, and religious interests of the Jewish and Palestinian peoples. The final status of these borders must be determined by the parties as part of a negotiated two-state solution.