Palestinians are being set back by lack of elections, UK minister for Middle East warns

Christians, Muslims and Jews are 'joined at the hip', Lord Tariq Ahmad says

Lord Tariq Ahmad, UK Minister of State for the Middle East, during his visit to Abu Dhabi. Khushnum Bhandari / The National

Palestinians have been set back by their leaders because of a lack of elections and democratic processes, the UK's Minister for Middle East and North Africa, the UN and South Asia has said.

"What's important in the Palestinian territories is that there have been no elections there for years and people feel disenfranchised," Lord Tariq Ahmad told The National.

"Democracy and its fundamentals are key and people have to feel that the leaders that serve them are people who are able to make their representations true and reflect their concerns and priorities."

Lord Ahmad said he had spoken to Palestinian children in the occupied territories during a recent visit.

"I asked them for two requests: one for the Palestinian government and one for the Israeli government. One of them said that they understand the need for security around their school and sometimes see Israeli police having to use equipment like [tear] gas canisters.

"We'd like it if they didn't throw them in front of our playground, they said. What an innocent request."

He said the child requested that the Palestinian government show the same kind of care that Lord Ahmad showed them during his visit.

The Palestinian Authority was expected to hold elections in 2021, but the vote failed to go through despite enormous expectations of change and a lack of trust in the country's leaders, polls showed.

Lord Ahmad visited Abu Dhabi's Abrahamic Family House before speaking to The National. He said Christians, Muslims and Jews are "joined at the hip".

"We've got to make sure those fundamentals come together and the political will is created [for the resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict].

"That requires the efforts of near-neighbours of Israel and the Palestinians and key partners around the world, including the UK."

Lord Ahmad said it is not up to the international community to negotiate on behalf of the two sides.

"The role of the international community is to create the space and facilitate those negotiations, but the political will itself must come from the Palestinians and Israelis."

Violence has been escalating in the West Bank among Palestinians and Israelis in recent months.

Seven Palestinians were killed during an Israeli raid in Jenin. Palestinian 15-year-old Sadil Naghnaghia was shot in the forehead and later died.

Israel also used Apache helicopters to launch an air attack for the first time in 20 years.

On Friday, the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, warned against Israel's use of this type of machinery.

“This week’s violence in the occupied West Bank risks spiralling out of control, fuelled by strident political rhetoric and an escalation in the use of advanced military weaponry by Israel,” he said.

Lord Ahmad recalled words said to him at a young age by his mother, when he came home from his Catholic school, as a practicing Muslim, and asked her about Judaism.

"When we build a house, we lay the foundation and the walls go up and the roof completes the house, and there are doors and windows," he said.

"As Muslims, we believe the foundations of our faith are Judaism and without the foundation of Judaism, the walls of Christianity wouldn't have been erected and without the walls of Christianity, the roof of Islam wouldn't have completed what we know as the House of Ibrahim."

For Lord Ahmad, the solution is not only tolerance, but "respect and celebration of differences".