- At a meeting of foreign ministers hosted by the UK, the UK government, along with partners Australia and Canada, has announced the establishment of a new International Peace Fund for Israelis and Palestinians. The fund will prioritise long-term peacebuilding to build new constituencies for peace, and foster the values of trust, empathy and dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians on which a future two-state solution depends.The announcement includes a pledge of £3m in initial funding from the three countries.
- LFI has advocated for Britain to support an International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace for the past decade, with Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and David Lammy endorsing the fund at LFI events in both opposition and government. The fund has been pioneered and promoted internationally by the Alliance for Middle East Peace, a coalition of Israeli and Palestinian grassroots peacebuilders.
- According to a joint announcement by the three governments, the new fund will support existing programmes to improve their reach and capability, invest in new ventures, spanning all levels of society, from local community projects to support for dialogue between future leaders. Funding will go to a range of projects, particularly those that include youth groups, civil society organisations and women, with an emphasis on relationship building and creating opportunities for engagement that can underpin future peace negotiations.
Peacebuilding works
- Research by ALLMEP, published by LFI last year, shows that, by pooling their limited resources into a dedicated multilateral fund, states can scale up peacebuilding efforts tenfold without spending more. The fund will protect civil society from political volatility, align fragmented donor strategies and finally ensure funding matches the scale of the problem.
- Civil society is essential in building and maintaining peace, as seen in the International Fund for Ireland, which was established in the mid-1980s with contributions from the UK, Ireland, USA, EU, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Britain’s chief negotiator, Jonathan Powell, described it as the great “unsung hero” of the Good Friday agreement.
- Recent polling shows the most frequently cited obstacle to peace is a lack of trust between Israelis and Palestinians, with 75 percent of Israelis calling thisa “major” obstacle to a lasting peace.
- Rigorous academic research shows peacebuilding initiatives in Israel and Palestine are highly effective at fostering empathy, building trust, and countering extremism. Survey data repeatedly show the transformative effects on individuals’ attitudes and behaviour. But the projects have long lacked the resources to reach and sustain society-wide engagement and impact. And they have never been connected strategically and deliberately to meaningful diplomacy aimed at true conflict resolution. This new fund aims to address these issues.
- Foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Too often Middle East peace is seen as an issue only of international diplomacy. When generations of Israelis and Palestinians have grown up with cycles of conflict and violence, we also need to support the local community organisations who are building dialogue, peace and trust across communities.”
LFI’s involvement in the International Fund for Peace
LFI has been advocating for the International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace since 2016. Some of the milestones in the path to today’s announcement include:
- Former LFI chair Joan Ryan introduced a cross-party bill requiring the government to promote the establishment of an International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace to support coexistence projects and civil society programmes in January 2017.
- As deputy leader of the Labour party, Tom Watson pledged Labour’s support for an International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace at LFI’s annual lunch in November 2016.
- Luciana Berger, vice-chair of LFI, secured the UK government’s commitment to an International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace in February 2018.
- As prime minister, Keir Starmer announced Britain would host an inaugural meeting of the International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace at LFI’s annual lunch in November 2024, with the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, reiterating her longstanding support at our annual lunch in November 2025
LFI statement
LFI welcomes launch of International Peace Fund for Israelis and Palestinians Labour Friends of Israel warmly welcomes launch of the International Peace Fund, backed by the UK, Australia and Canada, to support grassroots peacebuilding between Israelis and Palestinians.
The announcement includes a pledge of £3m in initial funding. LFI has advocated for Britain to support an International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace for the past decade, with Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and David Lammy endorsing the fund at LFI events in both opposition and government.
The fund will support civil society projects, including youth groups and women’s organisations, that build the civic society foundations of a future peace process, create new constituencies for peace, and foster the values of trust, empathy and dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians on which a future two-state solution depends.
Mark Sewards MP, LFI honorary parliamentary chair, said: “This is a hugely welcome step and the result of years of campaigning by LFI and our friends at the Alliance for Middle East Peace. As the International Fund for Ireland showed in the years before the Good Friday agreement, peace is built from the ground up. The task now is to bring in partners from the US, elsewhere in Europe and the Arab world and scale up this fund to match the size of the challenge, so that peacebuilders in Israel and Palestine finally receive the backing they deserve.”
