Sir Keir Starmer is pushing ahead with a major Middle East peace initiative to bring a long-term solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict based on his experience in Northern Ireland.
The Independent has learned that Downing Street and the Foreign Office held meetings last week with figures behind an international fund for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
It follows a pledge made by the prime minister in December at the annual Labour Friends of Israel lunch that the UK would lead the G7 nations’ efforts with the fund to bring long-term peace to the Middle East.
On Saturday, Hamas released three more Israeli hostages as part of the ceasefire agreement, while Israel released 183 Palestinians. The initial six-week truce, which began on 19 January, is planned to see 33 hostages released in total, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees, many of whom have been held without charges, in some cases for years.
With the fragile ceasefire holding, sponsors of this peace initiative are keen to seize the opportunity to push forward with plans based on the near-identical programme that helped bring long-term peace to Northern Ireland.
Supporters of the scheme – which would bring together people on both sides of the conflict – believe that it could give Sir Keir an important legacy as an international peace builder as well as help deal with divisions over the issue domestically in the UK and the Labour Party itself.
Anger over the Israel-Hamas war saw splits in Labour and independent pro-Gaza candidates win safe Labour seats in areas with high Muslim populations including against former frontbencher Jonathan Ashworth.
Two senior cabinet ministers – health secretary Wes Streeting and justice secretary Shabana Mahmood – also almost lost their seats in the general election.
The plan is for foreign secretary David Lammy to host a conference later this year to bring together international funding for the project and start to get it into place.
Sir Keir served as human rights adviser to the Northern Ireland Policing Board, which supervises the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), from 2003 to 2007. In the role, he worked to ensure that the PSNI was compliant with its obligations under the 1998 Human Rights Act in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement.
He witnessed the impact of the International Fund for Ireland (IFI), an instrument that helped shape the societal and political conditions leading to the Good Friday Agreement.
It began its work in the late 1980s, when Northern Ireland’s Troubles were at their worst, but by pooling resources and bringing together peacemakers and young people from both communities they were able to lay the foundation for the agreement in 1999.
Tony Blair’s chief negotiator Jonathan Powell – serving today as Sir Keir’s national security adviser – once called the IFI the “great unsung hero of the Good Friday Agreement”.
The government meetings last week were with the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP), which represents a network of over 160 organisations engaged in civil society peacebuilding between Israelis and Palestinians.
John Lyndon, ALLMEP’s executive director, told The Independent: “It’s encouraging to see the government begin to think through how the prime minister’s endorsement of an international fund for Israeli-Palestinian peace – and the pledge that the foreign secretary would hold an inaugural meeting in London – can relate to the rapidly changing environment. With a fragile ceasefire and hostage deal in place, we need to see initiatives like this predicated on conflict resolution, non-violence and diplomacy gather momentum.
“Last year saw the G7 commit to exactly this sort of coordination and institutionalisation of Israeli-Palestinian civil society peacebuilding in their leaders’ communique. We are delighted to see the UK step forward to lead and shape that urgent priority. Which can address the deep societal trauma in both Palestinian and Israeli society – but also support and strengthen any diplomatic strategy to resuscitate the two-state solution.”
No 10 and the Foreign Office were approached for comment.
