Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the statement made by the UN on 12 July that: "The forced eviction and displacement of the Ghaith-Sub Laban family and many other Palestinian families in east Jerusalem may amount to a war crime of forcible transfer".

The UK is clear that in all but the most exceptional of circumstances, demolitions and evictions are contrary to international humanitarian law. As David Rutley, Minister of State for the Americas and the Caribbean said in Parliament on 18 July, the practice causes unnecessary suffering and is harmful to efforts to promote peace. The UK is appalled by the eviction of the Ghaith-Sub Laban family from their home of over 70 years in the Old City of Jerusalem. Any judgment on whether serious crimes under international law have occurred is a matter for judicial decision, rather than for governments or non-judicial bodies.