26 nov 2017
Britain has agreed to pay its annual contribution of 20 million pounds to support the Palestinian Authority (PA) budget, Minister of Education Sabri Saydam said on Saturday.
According to Saydam, part of the contribution will go to education as proof of Britain’s support for the development of the education sector.
The decision was announced during a telephone call Saydam received from the British Minister of State for International Development and Minister of State for the Middle East at the Foreign & Commonwealth, Office Alistair Burt.
Saydam said that the continued support of education by donor countries demonstrates the high level and confidence in the Palestinian educational system and its ability to achieve qualitative results.
He stressed the need to maintain this kind of support which helps strengthen the educational system.
He further pointed out that such support serves development goals and ministry plans for advancement especially after the recent first meeting for donors and international partners for education in Gaza, which recommended paying greater attention to the education sector in the blockaded Gaza Strip.
According to Saydam, part of the contribution will go to education as proof of Britain’s support for the development of the education sector.
The decision was announced during a telephone call Saydam received from the British Minister of State for International Development and Minister of State for the Middle East at the Foreign & Commonwealth, Office Alistair Burt.
Saydam said that the continued support of education by donor countries demonstrates the high level and confidence in the Palestinian educational system and its ability to achieve qualitative results.
He stressed the need to maintain this kind of support which helps strengthen the educational system.
He further pointed out that such support serves development goals and ministry plans for advancement especially after the recent first meeting for donors and international partners for education in Gaza, which recommended paying greater attention to the education sector in the blockaded Gaza Strip.
20 nov 2017
The Palestinian Forum in Britain (PFB) organized, on Sunday in London, a popular event which managed to raise donation for the people of Gaza.
The event, which came as part of the Palestine day campaign, have collected donations estimated at one hundred thousand dollars.
During the event, head of the PFB Hafez Al-Karmi renewed his demand to the British government to apologize for the Balfour declaration, which he described as “one of the worst promises in history.”
The organizing committee chairman Adnan Hmidan pointed to the diversity of this campaign’s activities for this year which included two films about the Balfour declaration and Gaza siege.
The activities also included an exhibition presenting a variety of Palestinian products as well as traditional foods in addition to children programs, he added.
The event was concluded with performances made by singers and dancers as well as a short theatrical show.
The Palestine day campaign is an annual event which started since the establishment of the PFB in 2004.
The event, which came as part of the Palestine day campaign, have collected donations estimated at one hundred thousand dollars.
During the event, head of the PFB Hafez Al-Karmi renewed his demand to the British government to apologize for the Balfour declaration, which he described as “one of the worst promises in history.”
The organizing committee chairman Adnan Hmidan pointed to the diversity of this campaign’s activities for this year which included two films about the Balfour declaration and Gaza siege.
The activities also included an exhibition presenting a variety of Palestinian products as well as traditional foods in addition to children programs, he added.
The event was concluded with performances made by singers and dancers as well as a short theatrical show.
The Palestine day campaign is an annual event which started since the establishment of the PFB in 2004.
12 nov 2017
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Priti Patel secretly visited Israel to court donors in exchange for promoting Israeli policies in the UK.
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by Benjamin Jenkins, London Economic/Days of Palestine
The Jewish Chronicle just revealed that “Number 10” WAS aware of British Minister of Development Priti Patel’s extra meeting with an Israeli minister – but she was told to keep them quiet.
As Priti Patel aborts an official visit to Uganda to return to the UK in a growing crisis over secret meetings with Israeli ministers and plans to divert foreign aid to Israeli Defence Force administered projects, this latest revelation raises serious questions about Theresa May’s actions.
Theresa May refused to sack the International Development Secretary for breaches of Ministerial Code after it emerged that she had used what appeared to be a family holiday this summer for secret meetings with 12 Israeli politicians including premier Binyamin Netanyahu. – Potential breaches of Ministerial Code.
She had kept the meetings hidden from the foreign office, and Theresa May said that she did not know about Patel’s off-the-radar high-level meetings this summer, announcing that Patel had apologised to her.
But just a few hours later it was revealed that Patel had met two Israeli ministers again this autumn: Israeli public security minister Gilad Erdan in Parliament on September 7 and foreign ministry official Yuval Rotem in New York on September 18.
As in the Summer meetings, it appears no British officials accompanied Priti Patel, and she did not mention them to the Foreign Office or Government as ministerial procedure dictates. As the scandal deepened, the Development minister was recalled to the UK amid speculation that she is about to be fired.
But now the Jewish Chronicle reports:
Jewish Chronicle Senior Reporter Lee Harpin writes: “Last night I wrote on the JC site that something didn’t add up about Number Ten’s claim that it had no idea about Priti Patel’s meetings with senior Israelis.
“As I put it: “Well before last week’s James Landale scoop about Ms Patel’s meetings with Israeli politicians, I was told very matter of factly that there would soon be an announcement of cooperation between the UK and Israel over aid in Africa – that we would divert some of our aid money to the Israelis to fund some of their aid work there. I was told that it had been signed off between DfID and Number Ten, but that the FCO had kicked off because it felt its toes were being trodden on.”
“After that story went up, I was contacted by two senior and reliable sources. Both gave exactly the same story: that although Patel had clearly messed up and had to go, the real story was about Number 10.
“Far from being unaware, Number 10 knew in full about her meeting with Mr Netanyahu, because Ms Patel had discussed it with the Prime Minister in September, prior to the UN General Assembly.”
So now as well as Priti Patel facing questions about breaking Ministerial Code with undisclosed meetings, there will be calls for the Development Secretary who once co-authored a Tory MP’s report that British workers are “among the worst idlers in the world” to explain why their taxes should be diverted to fund Israeli aid work.
– As well as calls for the Prime Minister to make clear exactly what she knew about the whole affair.
The Jewish Chronicle just revealed that “Number 10” WAS aware of British Minister of Development Priti Patel’s extra meeting with an Israeli minister – but she was told to keep them quiet.
As Priti Patel aborts an official visit to Uganda to return to the UK in a growing crisis over secret meetings with Israeli ministers and plans to divert foreign aid to Israeli Defence Force administered projects, this latest revelation raises serious questions about Theresa May’s actions.
Theresa May refused to sack the International Development Secretary for breaches of Ministerial Code after it emerged that she had used what appeared to be a family holiday this summer for secret meetings with 12 Israeli politicians including premier Binyamin Netanyahu. – Potential breaches of Ministerial Code.
She had kept the meetings hidden from the foreign office, and Theresa May said that she did not know about Patel’s off-the-radar high-level meetings this summer, announcing that Patel had apologised to her.
But just a few hours later it was revealed that Patel had met two Israeli ministers again this autumn: Israeli public security minister Gilad Erdan in Parliament on September 7 and foreign ministry official Yuval Rotem in New York on September 18.
As in the Summer meetings, it appears no British officials accompanied Priti Patel, and she did not mention them to the Foreign Office or Government as ministerial procedure dictates. As the scandal deepened, the Development minister was recalled to the UK amid speculation that she is about to be fired.
But now the Jewish Chronicle reports:
- Number 10 WAS aware of the New York meeting with Yuval Rotem and instructed Priti Patal NOT TO INCLUDE it in a list she was forced to publish of 12 secret meetings with Israeli politicians. This was to avoid embarrassment with the Foreign Office.
- The paper also reports that though Priti Patel’s meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister was not authorised in advance, Theresa May’s government “WAS MADE AWARE OF IT WITHIN HOURS.”
- What’s more – Theresa May discussed and AGREED with the International Development Secretary’s plan to share UK foreign aid with Israel. – A plan that appears to have emerged over Patel’s undisclosed meetings on ostensibly a family holiday often attended by honorary president of the Conservative Friends for Israel lobbying group Lord Polak.
Jewish Chronicle Senior Reporter Lee Harpin writes: “Last night I wrote on the JC site that something didn’t add up about Number Ten’s claim that it had no idea about Priti Patel’s meetings with senior Israelis.
“As I put it: “Well before last week’s James Landale scoop about Ms Patel’s meetings with Israeli politicians, I was told very matter of factly that there would soon be an announcement of cooperation between the UK and Israel over aid in Africa – that we would divert some of our aid money to the Israelis to fund some of their aid work there. I was told that it had been signed off between DfID and Number Ten, but that the FCO had kicked off because it felt its toes were being trodden on.”
“After that story went up, I was contacted by two senior and reliable sources. Both gave exactly the same story: that although Patel had clearly messed up and had to go, the real story was about Number 10.
“Far from being unaware, Number 10 knew in full about her meeting with Mr Netanyahu, because Ms Patel had discussed it with the Prime Minister in September, prior to the UN General Assembly.”
So now as well as Priti Patel facing questions about breaking Ministerial Code with undisclosed meetings, there will be calls for the Development Secretary who once co-authored a Tory MP’s report that British workers are “among the worst idlers in the world” to explain why their taxes should be diverted to fund Israeli aid work.
– As well as calls for the Prime Minister to make clear exactly what she knew about the whole affair.
