Britain-Palestine All Party Parliamentary Group
Richard is Chair of the Britain-Palestine All Party Parliamentary Group which seeks to foster good relations and understanding between Britain and Palestine and to promote a just and durable peace in the Middle East.
Richard has had an active interest in this region since writing his university dissertation and visits the area at least once a year to see for himself the situation on the ground and to meet key players. Richard regularly speaks on this issue in Parliament as well as writing articles and commenting on developments. This section of his website has these articles available to download as well as any press releases issued.
The secretariat of the APPG is managed by the Council for the Advancement of Arab British Understanding. Their website is www.caabu.org.
Articles on the Middle East
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International Development Committee Report on Palestine
‘The international community must seize new opportunities to tackle the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and help to help achieve a lasting peace between Israel and Palestine’, Richard Burden MP has said today. Mr Burden is a member of the UK’s House of Commons International Development Committee. Today the Committee has published a new report on the Humanitarian and Development Situation in the Occupied Palestine Territories. Speaking after the launch of the Report in the House of Commons today, Mr Burden said: ‘This is the third report in four years which the International Development Committee has produced on the situation in Palestine. All of us would have wanted to be...
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Terror and territoriality - The House Magazine
Richard interviewed Lorna Fitzsimons of the British Israel Communications and Research Centre for the House Magazine in January 2008. Read the article below. Terror and territoriality The House Magazine 14 January 2008 Differentiating offensive from defensive military action has been the crux of many a Middle East crisis. Richard Burden wades through a rich stew of psychology and security with Lorna Fitzsimons, head of the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre There are few issues that generate as much passion as the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. As one of the world’s most long-running political face-offs, the Middle East question is the focus...
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Uphold international law in Gaza, say MPs as death toll rises - March 2008
MPs have expressed their revulsion at the mounting death toll in Gaza and called on the international community to take immediate action. An Early Day Motion (EDM) on Gaza was tabled by Richard Burden MP on 3 March 2008 and has been signed by 68 Members of Parliament. Richard, Chair of the Britain-Palestine All Party Parliamentary Group, said: ‘The last six days have seen horrific attacks carried out by the Israeli military in Gaza. Israel says these attacks are supposed to deter rocket attacks on their citizens but they are actually achieving the opposite. There has rightly been widespread international...
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Parliament debates Gaza Crisis - January 2008
25 January 2008 A debate on Global Security in the Middle East took place in Westminster Hall yesterday. The debate followed the publication of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee report on the issue in August last year and the Government’s response in October. The debate focussed in particular on the situation in Israel and Palestine. Speaking in the debate Richard Burden described the current situation in Gaza and the damaging effects of the blockade. Richard highlighted that: 80 per cent of people are living below the poverty line; malnutrition is a real and present threat; fuel shortages are threatening...
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New Year in the West Bank. Siege in Gaza.
A short visit to the Middle East over the New Year brought home to me the contradictory environment in which the Palestinians find themselves following the Annapolis summit in November. At one level, economic activity within the major towns of the West Bank was more buoyant than I have seen it for a long time. The markets were busy and shop owners appeared to be doing a reasonable trade in Nablus, Ramallah and Bethlehem. Judging by the level of bookings in hotels in both East Jerusalem and Bethlehem moreover, the tourist trade seemed to have seen something of a revival....
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Parliamentary Questions on the Middle East - January 2008
Richard spent several days in Palestine over the New Year period. He has written a short article about his visit and the contradictory environment in which the Palestinians find themselves following the Annapolis summit in November. Click here to read the article. Back in Parliament Richard has asked several Parliamentary Questions to the Chancellor, the Foreign Secretary and the Secretary of State for International Development about the situation in Palestine. These questions, with their answers, are listed below. To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what information his Department holds on movement restrictions in the West...
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Speech to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign Rally - November 2007
We should not be starry-eyed about Annapolis, but neither should we reject it Speech to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign Rally House of Commons, 28th November 2007 On 28th November 2007 Richard Burden, MP and Chair of the Britain-Palestine All Party Parliamentary Group, gave a speech to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign Rally at the House of Commons. Richard said that he understands the scepticism about the meetings in Annapolis, and indeed shares some of it himself. But he went on to say that whilst we are right to be sceptical, we must not allow that scepticism to debilitate us or to...
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Richard raises Gaza situation in Commons: October 2007
Richard Burden (Birmingham, Northfield) (Lab): May I tell my hon. Friend that last month I discussed with businessmen in the north of Gaza their plans just to export like businessmen in any other part of the world, but that their ability to do so is being strangled by the Israelis’ continuing blockade of the Karni crossing? The blockade does not affect the firing of rockets from Gaza, but does collectively punish the innocent people of Gaza. What are the Government doing to ensure that the excuses are put on one side and that the Karni crossing is opened as it...
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Richard attends 'OneVoice' event: July 2007
On Wednesday evening, July 25th, outside the Houses of Parliament on Abingdon Green, Richard joined hundreds of members of the public and Parliamentarians who gathered to send a unique message to the people of the Middle East. The event was organized by OneVoice, a grassroots Israeli-Palestinian conflict resolution group which has taken the approach to engage Palestinians and Israelis in greater civic involvement to promote the message of the moderate majority: that they both desire a peaceful solution and the realization of a two-state solution. The Department for International Development Minister Shahid Malik and Shadow Foreign Minister David Liddington...
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Situation in Gaza - June 2007
Please see the article Richard has written on the current situation in Gaza and the West Bank....
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