Abbreviation | CfoP |
---|---|
Formation | May 2023 [1] |
Founder | Sayeeda Warsi, Flick Drummond |
Location |
|
Chair | Sayeeda Warsi, Baroness Warsi [2] |
Affiliations | Conservative Party |
Website | www |
The Conservative Friends of Palestine (CFoP) is a parliamentary group within the British Conservative Party that promotes and advocates for "peace and justice" in Palestine [3] and is currently chaired by ex-cabinet minister Sayeeda Warsi, Baroness Warsi [2] who co-founded it with Flick Drummond. [4]
Within the first two months of founding, there were 35 Conservative MP and members of the House of Lords in the group, making up just 6% of the total, in contrast to Conservative Friends of Israel which represent two thirds of Conservative parliamentarians. [1]
It was founded in May 2023 [1] with the view of being a vehicle "to provide accurate and balanced information to parliamentarians on the issue of Palestine and Israel" and was originally intended to be named the Conservative Friends of Palestine and Israel to reflect this. The perceived lack of balance within the party led to its current name. [5] It's founding was welcomed by Ben Jamal, the Director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign stating that "any counter to the dominant voice of Conservative Friends of Israel in the Conservative Party is to be welcomed." [5] It was founded as a "platform to engage and learn beyond the narrow remit" of Conservative Friends of Israel. [6]
Since its founding it has engaged directly with the British-Israel and British-Palestinian communities [6] and currently works with the pro-Palestinian [4] Conservative Middle East Council to helping "lawmakers grasp the region as a whole." [5]
An unrelated, grass-root group previously existed with the same name but disbanded in late 2022, [5] which Flick Drummond claims that she and Warsi "re-founded". [6] [4]
As of 2024, the parliamentary members of the group are: [7]
MP | Constituency |
---|---|
Flick Drummond | Meon Valley |
Richard Fuller | North East Bedfordshire |
Leo Docherty | Aldershot |
Jonathan Lord | Woking |
Neil O'Brien | Harborough |
Mark Pritchard | The Wrekin |
Edward Leigh | Gainsborough |
Palestinians or Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinian Arabs, are an ethnonational group descending from peoples who have inhabited the region of Palestine over the millennia, and who today are culturally and linguistically Arab.
Palestinian Christians are a religious community of the Palestinian people consisting of those who identify as Christians, including those who are cultural Christians in addition to those who actively adhere to Christianity. They are a religious minority within the State of Palestine and within Israel, as well as within the Palestinian diaspora. Applying the broader definition, which groups together individuals with full or partial Palestinian Christian ancestry, the term was applied to an estimated 500,000 people globally in the year 2000. As most Palestinians are Arabs, the overwhelming majority of Palestinian Christians also identify as Arab Christians.
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is an ongoing military and political conflict about land and self-determination within the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine. Key aspects of the conflict include the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the status of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements, borders, security, water rights, the permit regime, Palestinian freedom of movement, and the Palestinian right of return.
Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in the southern Levant region of West Asia. It encompasses two disconnected territories — the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, collectively known as the Palestinian territories — within the larger region of Palestine. The country shares its borders with Israel to north, west and south, Jordan to the east and Egypt to the southwest. It has a combined land area of 6,020 square kilometres (2,320 sq mi) while its population exceeds five million people. Its proclaimed capital is Jerusalem while Ramallah serves as its administrative center and Rafah is currently its largest city. Arabic is the official language. The majority of Palestinians practice Islam while Christianity also has a significant presence.
The one-state solution is a proposed approach to resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, according to which one state would be established between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean. Proponents of this solution advocate a single state encompassing the currently recognized state of Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The term one-state reality describes the belief that the current situation in Israel/Palestine is de facto a single state. The one-state solution is sometimes also called a bi-national state, owing to the hope that the state would be a homeland for both Jews and Palestinians.
Sayeeda Hussain Warsi, Baroness Warsi, is a British lawyer, politician, and member of the House of Lords who served as co-chairwoman of the Conservative Party from 2010 to 2012. She served in the Cameron–Clegg coalition, first as the Minister without portfolio between 2010 and 2012, then as the Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and as the Minister of State for Faith and Communities, until her resignation citing her disagreement with the Government's policy relating to the Israel–Gaza conflict in August 2014.
Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) is a group in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that advocates a strong bilateral relationship between the United Kingdom and Israel, and seeks to strengthen ties between the British Labour Party and the Israeli Labor Party. LFI says it supports a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, with Israel recognised and secure within its borders, and the establishment of a viable Palestinian state. As of July 2020, it comprises around one quarter of the Parliamentary Labour Party and one third of the Shadow Cabinet.
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The United Kingdom does not recognise Palestine as a state. The UK has a non-accredited Consulate General in Jerusalem that "represents the UK government in Jerusalem, West Bank, and Gaza", and works on "political, commercial, security and economic interests between the UK and the Palestinian territories". Husam Zomlot became head of the Palestine Mission to the United Kingdom in 2018. The State of Palestine was represented in London by Manuel Hassassian, the Palestinian General Delegate to the United Kingdom between 2005 and 2018. Another former Palestinian General Delegate to the UK was Afif Safieh, who began in that role in 1990.
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The New Arab or Al-Araby Al-Jadeed is a London-based pan-Arab news outlet owned by Qatari company Fadaat Media. It launched an Arabic-language website in March 2014 and an Arabic language daily newspaper in September 2014. The English version of its website is The New Arab.
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Anti-Palestinianism or anti-Palestinian sentiment, also called anti-Palestinian racism, refers to prejudice, collective hatred, and discrimination directed at the Palestinian people for any variety of reasons. Since the mid-20th century, the phenomenon has largely overlapped with anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia due to the fact that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians today are Arabs and Muslims. Historically, however, anti-Palestinianism was more closely identified with European antisemitism, as far-right Europeans detested the Jewish people as undesirable foreigners from Palestine. Modern anti-Palestinianism—that is, xenophobia with regard to the Arab people of Palestine—is most common in Israel, the United States, and Lebanon, among other countries.