70th Anniversary Of The Nakba

EDM number 1258 in 2017-19, proposed by Richard Burden on 11/05/2018.
Categorised under the topics of Asylum, Human rights, International politics and government and Middle East.

That this House notes that 15 May 2018 marks 70 years since the Nakba catastrophe in which more than 750,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes; further notes that Palestinian refugees' right of return as recognised by UN Resolution 194 has been blocked by successive Israeli governments; notes that there are now over five million Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and overseas, as well as internally displaced Palestinians living in Israel; notes the restrictions on civil and political rights for refugees in some of those countries and the extreme vulnerability of Palestinian refugees to the conflict in Syria; calls on the UK Government to work to improve the wellbeing of Palestinian refugees in host countries, without prejudice to their rights under international law, and therefore to respond positively to the UN's appeal to offset the funding crisis now facing the vital work of UNRWA, which has been dramatically worsened by the US' decision to withhold $65 million from the Agency; believes that a just solution for Palestinian refugees based on human rights and international law will be an essential ingredient of durable peace in the Middle East; and further calls on the UK Government to pursue that objective in its international diplomacy.

This motion has been signed by a total of 28 MPs.