HL Deb 06 July 1989 vol 509 cc1271-2

3.6 p.m.

Lord Mayhew asked Her Majesty's Government:

What financial contribution they make through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency to the education of Arab children in the West Bank; for how long such education has been prohibited by the Israeli Government; and what action they now propose.

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Glenarthur)

My Lords, our annual contribution to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, including our share of the EC donation, is approximately £8.5 million, of which the United Nations Relief and Works Agency devotes more than half its educational programme. West Bank schools have been closed, with brief exceptions, for 16 months. We have repeatedly pressed the Israeli authorities to open them and shall continue to do so.

Lord Mayhew

My Lords, is the noble Lord aware that the Government protest, but do nothing? Further, is it right at this time that we should continue the normal relationship with the Israeli Ministry of Education as though nothing was going on, and as though we approved of their conduct?

Lord Glenarthur

My Lords, the fact is that if we were to remove this sort of support, then I think it is felt by many that it would do more harm than good.

Lord Mellish

My Lords, can the Minister say why it is that all we have heard up to this moment is an anti-Jewish argument? Why are the Israeli Government doing this? Is there not a good reason for it? Is it perhaps due to the fact that they are frightened that at the end of the day they will be stoned, have abuse hurled at them, and so on, by these people?

Lord Glenarthur

My Lords, that is certainly often expressed as a view. So far as concerns Israel, we are committed to its right to secure existence; but Israel's security is not enhanced by either a refusal to recognise Palestinian rights, or by the sort of actions we have seen in this case.

Lord Beloff

My Lords, can my noble friend the Minister persuade the noble Lord, Lord Mayhew, who has undoubted influence in the Arab world, to ask them not to use children in the front line of assaults against the occupying forces, which in itself produces the fatalities which all of us in this House regret and which were referred to in yesterday's Question Time?

Lord Glenarthur

My Lords, I am sure that the noble Lord will have noted my noble friend's remarks. The fact is that we deplore the actions which have prevented these schools from opening and we shall continue to do so.

Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos

My Lords, will the noble Lord agree that our gratitude is due to the British-based agencies—namely, Christian Aid and Oxfam—for the splendid work which they have done, and are continuing to try to do in this difficult area? Further, can he say whether those two agencies have made representations to Her Majesty's Government and, if so, what was the nature of those representations and what was the Government's response to them?

Lord Glenarthur

My Lords, I certainly agree with the noble Lord that those agencies, and others, have done a great deal to try to help the situation. We have regular contact with them through the Overseas Development Administration, but I cannot say what recent representations have been made. However, I shall certainly inquire into the matter.

Lord McNair

My Lords, does the Minister agree—I am sure that he must if he has ever visited a Palestinian school—that the cruel irony of the situation is that those children, unlike some nearer home, have an avid hunger for knowledge, which means that for them exclusion from school is a real punishment?

Lord Glenarthur

My Lords, I fully understand that point, which is why we and the 12 have made our views known on several occasions.

Lord Mayhew

My Lords, is the Minister aware that not only the British Government, but the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers, have all strongly condemned the fact that those Palestinian children have been prevented from having any education for 18 months, and have equally condemned the killing, as he stated, of 90 children and the wounding of 20,000 others by shooting and beating? Does he agree that it is extraordinary that such conduct can find defenders in the House?

Lord Glenarthur

My Lords, on many occasions over the past few weeks I have made clear from this Dispatch Box the Government's views, and I hold to those views.