*** CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY *** Rt Hon Emily Thornberry MP, Shadow Foreign Secretary, speech to Labour Friends of Israel Annual Lunch 2017 Chief Rabbi, Ambassador Regev, Parliamentary colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is an honour to be here today. Sir David, thank you for that kind introduction, and on behalf of Read more…
Rt Hon Joan Ryan MP, LFI chair, speech to Labour Friends of Israel Annual Lunch 2017 Chief Rabbi, Ambassador Regev, friends Thank you to all of you for being here today. In particular, I want to thank Sir David Garrard and Isaac Kaye, our long-standing lunch sponsors. I also want to Read more…
Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry returned to Britain this week after visiting Israel with LFI. During a four-day trip to Israel and the West Bank, she was accompanied by the shadow minister for peace and disarmament Fabian Hamilton. Ms Thornberry met with the new leader of the Israeli Labor party, Read more…
LFI chair Joan Ryan MP’s speech to the Knesset Conference: ‘Centenary of the Balfour Declaration: Historical Context, Contemporary Implications’ CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY Thank you, Avi, for inviting me to be with you today at this special event to celebrate the centenary of the Balfour Declaration. It is a huge honour Read more…
On the eve of the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, polling commissioned by a UK think tank has revealed support for Israel in Britain is at a seven-year high. The poll, carried out by Populus for BICOM, asked respondents for their views on a range of issues relating to Israel Read more…
Labour MPs hailed Britain’s contribution to the creation of the State of Israel in a Westminster Hall parliamentary debate this week. MPs were debating the 1917 Balfour Declaration, when Britain declared its support for the establishment of a Jewish national homeland in the land of Israel, ahead of its 100th anniversary Read more…
Joan Ryan MP, parliamentary chair of LFI, has written a reply to Richard Burden MP regarding a letter to Middle East minister Alistair Burt on the Gaza crisis. Ms Ryan writes that she shares Mr Burden’s concern for the humanitarian situation in the Gaza strip and agrees that the recent deterioration in Read more…
This week’s warning by Hassan Nasrallah that Jews should flee Israel before it is devastated by war is just one of the Hezbollah leader’s many sabre-rattling utterances. In February, he warned that there would be “no red lines” in any future conflict between the terror group and Israel. In April, he Read more…
Labour should stand by its friends on the Israeli left, Labor MK Stav Shaffir told a packed LFI reception on Tuesday night. Ms Shaffir, a rising star in the Israeli Labor party, was in Brighton for the Labour party’s annual conference. “When sister-parties turn their backs at the progressive camp, they Read more…
The link between anti-semitism and anti-Israel attitudes has been long debated and hotly contested. To some the connection is self-evident. Seeking to demonise and delegitimise Israel, to question the right to exist of the world’s only Jewish state to exist and to deny the Jews’ right to self-determination is the very essence Read more…
The humanitarian situation in Gaza is reaching crisis point. 96% of water in the enclave is unfit for human consumption, and the strip receives only four to six hours of electricity per day. A significant portion of the money pledged for reconstruction in Gaza after the 2014 war between Hamas and Israel has Read more…
The bland statements issued from Jerusalem, Ramallah and Washington last week gave no hint to the success of otherwise of the US’ latest attempt to push a peace initiative in the Middle East. Following talks last week in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Israel and Palestine by the Read more…