We need an international fund to bring a lasting peace to both sides of the Green Line, writes Labour Friends of Israel chair Joan Ryan MP

The fact that neither Israeli nor Palestinian representatives were present at last weekend’s Paris peace conference tells you everything you need to know about the flawed approach of the international community towards an Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Grandiose international conferences, hollow United Nations declarations, and impassioned speeches by secretaries of state will never restart the peace process so long as they treat Israelis and Palestinians as people who peace can be forced upon, rather than people who need to be brought together to negotiate a series of difficult compromises.

The catch here, of course, is that neither Israeli nor Palestinian leadership are serious about making progress towards a two-state solution. Isaac Herzog, leader of Israel’s Labor-led opposition, was correct in blaming the obstinacy of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for Israel’s embarrassment at the UN. Mahmoud Abbas, meanwhile, continues to reject Netanyahu’s offer of direct negotiations with no preconditions.

Such weak and ineffective leadership is, however, no excuse for inaction or despair. Britain’s advocates of a negotiated two-state solution can make a real contribution to peace by backing Labour Friends of Israel’s campaign for the creation of an international fund for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Labour Friends of Israel’s campaign, ‘For Israel, For Palestine, For Peace’, calls on the government to support the creation of a $200m fund for coexistence projects that bring together Israelis and Palestinians, building constituencies for peace on both sides of the Green Line. The United States, Europe, the rest of the international community and the private sector would each contribute $50m to the fund. 57 Labour members of parliament from across all parts of the parliamentary Labour party recently signed a letter to Priti Patel, secretary of state for international development, in support of the fund.

The campaign’s core assumption is that a long-lasting peace requires support from Israeli and Palestinian civil society. It is an assumption that has been proven to be true. 12 years before the Good Friday Agreement was signed, the International Fund for Ireland was created by the British and Irish governments. The fund spent over $1bn over 20 years to build grassroots support for peace and it continues to operate today.

It is astonishing that Israeli and Palestinian civil society receives no such support. There are a huge number of organisations that do incredible work every day campaigning for peace and building bridges between Israelis and Palestinians. Women Wage Peace, for example, recently organised a peace march from Rosh Hanikra to Jerusalem that drew the support of thousands. The Parents Circle Friends Forum – an organisation of more than 600 Palestinian and Israeli families who have lost a family member in the conflict – found that 70 per cent of all participants had increased trust and empathy and 84 per cent were motivated to participate in peacebuilding activities in their communities. While it is true that coexistence projects are no panacea – the creation of this fund will not lead to an immediate peace deal – it is hard to envision any peace deal succeeding without it.

So where does this Tory government stand on coexistence projects? Despite its proclaimed support for an Israeli-Palestinian peace, it has cut department for international development funding for coexistence initiatives from a pitiful £150,000 last year to zero for 2016-17. This is unacceptable.

I am attempting to remedy this in parliament this week. Today I presented a cross-party bill to the House of Commons requiring the secretary of state to promote the establishment of the international fund and I urge all my parliamentary colleagues to support this campaign.

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Joan Ryan is member of parliament for Enfield North. She tweets at @joanryanEnfield

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