15 December 2008

Political Affairs Brief A daily summary of political events affecting the Jewish Community

Scottish Council of Jewish Communities

SCoJeC

Contents Home Affairs Consultations Israel

Home Affairs

Department for Communities and Local Government Delivering Prevent – Responding To Learning Overview of how Prevent is responding to recent learning and research exercises into the local delivery of Prevent (Preventing Violent Extremism). http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/communities/pdf/1098129.pdf

Treasury Consultation on the legislative framework for the regulation of alternative finance investment bonds (sukuk) (closes 4 March 2009) Consultation paper: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/consult_sukuk101208.pdf Summary: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/consult_sukuk.htm TOP

Israel Downing Street Press Release: Stable Palestine economy is crucial - PM http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page17784

Press conference with and Salam Fayyad, Palestinian Prime Minister http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page17791 includes: Gordon Brown: A Two-State solution lies at the heart of our vision for peace. A democratic Palestine must exist peacefully next to a secure Israel. Establishing a viable Palestinian State with a stable economy and a flourishing private sector is a crucial part of this process. … ...

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Salam Fayyad: We have had an opportunity to discuss that this morning with Prime Minister Brown as well as the overall context in which all of this is happening, this effort to build towards Palestinian statehood. …. we talked about the importance of the Arab Peace Initiative and the period ahead in terms of providing an overall framework within which the objective of seeing that this conflict is brought to an end with the occupation that took place in 1967 is brought to an end with the emergence of an independent, viable Palestinian State on the territories occupied in 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital. … Today’s discussions provided me with an opportunity to thank Prime Minister Brown for the principled and sensible position his government has taken on this issue. It is very important for there to be full compliance with Road Map obligations, key amongst which on the Israeli side is a complete freeze on settlement activity. This is critically important to the continued viability of the solution concept that became a matter of international consensus in 2002. For that to be preserved, clearly settlement activity has to stop. We need to work more on that. We need full compliance by both sides, by us and by Israel with Road Map obligations. We need close monitoring. We need for the monitoring exercise that emerged after the Annapolis Conference to be turned from an exercise in accounting to an exercise in accountability. This is very important as we move forward in the period ahead. … Gordon Brown: ... I have had a number of very intensive meetings with leaders in the Arab world. I am meeting Prime Minister Olmert tomorrow. I will be putting some suggestions to him that have arisen from the talks that I have made. I think it is important to recognise that the Arab Peace Initiative, the 22 Arab States calling on President-elect Obama to prioritise the achieving of a comprehensive plan, is a very important development indeed. It is the 22 Arab countries coming behind that can happen quickly in their view. Asking the new Presidency in America to take this as an urgent priority, and we are very much of the same view and we will do our best to promote that initiative. … Well we have consistently called for Israel to dismantle settlements. I spoke to the Knesset only a few months ago and made it absolutely clear that Israel should freeze settlements and withdraw from settlements and I stated that a future Palestinian State should be based on the 1967 borders with Israel (sic) (?Jerusalem) as a capital for both Israel and Palestine. ... Salam Fayyad: : …it is not going to be possible for us to build a state without that state being comprised of both Gaza and West Bank including East Jerusalem. And that is another reason - not the only reason - why everything that can be done should be done in order to reunite the country and end the current state of drift and ….. But what we have been able to accomplish over the past year in the West Bank provides me with every bit of assurance that the same can be done in Gaza as soon as we are given the opportunity to do in Gaza that which we have been doing in the West Bank for the past year. ... Gordon Brown: …I approve of the improvements in security in the West Bank. It is unfortunate that the Gaza security situation is so much more difficult and that the Israelis are threatened by that. The UK is providing £100 million to the UN Relief and Works Agency to help Palestinian refugees in the region and Gaza will also benefit from our funding to public services through the World Bank and the European Commission to pay for teachers and doctors and engineers.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office Press Release: Closer trade ties between the UK and Palestine http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/newsroom/latest-news/?view=News&id=10729113

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Scottish Parliament Advance notice for 18 December 2008 Members Business Debate on the motion: Pauline McNeill (S3M-2878): Dignity for Palestinians —That the Parliament welcomes the passage of the boat, Dignity, which travelled from Cyprus to Gaza with 11 European parliamentarians including three members of the on board; recognises that this is the third boat to challenge the siege of Gaza, which has become a permanent blockade and which has affected every aspect of Palestinian life to the point where they are now in receipt of the largest food aid programme in the world; is concerned about the impact of the blockade on ordinary Palestinians, denying them basic health care rights as there is a shortage of medicine, proper medical equipment and severe restrictions on leaving Gaza for referral treatment, which has resulted in many deaths as recorded by the World Health Organisation; supports the efforts of Direct Aid to send aid to Gaza, and recognises that action by the international community, to secure an end to the siege of Gaza and implement international law, is key to encouraging long-term peace in the Middle East. Supported by: Dr Richard Simpson, , Bob Doris, , Alasdair Allan, , , Bill Wilson, , Roseanna Cunningham, Sandra White, , Liam McArthur, Gil Paterson, Robin Harper, , Joe FitzPatrick, Patrick Harvie, Ms , , , Shirley- Anne Somerville, Alex Neil, Jamie Hepburn, , , Mr Frank McAveety, , Bashir Ahmad, , , Mike Pringle, David Stewart http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/businessBulletin/bb-08/bb-12-15f.htm

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Consultations

Monitoring of Cross-border charities (closes 23 December 2008) http://www.oscr.org.uk/DocumentViewer.aspx?id=6990ead9-bbfc-427d-9f8c-3f3495363092 Appendix 1 http://www.oscr.org.uk/DocumentViewer.aspx?id=0be569cc-6efc-45f9-9829- 43a784b3c6b7 Appendix 2 http://www.oscr.org.uk/DocumentViewer.aspx?id=11a26977-b23e-4c67- b083-6e3bd00c2d90

Equality and Human Rights Commission: Strategic plan, Equality Scheme and Grants Programme (closes January 2009) Consultation guides http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/policyresearch/consultations/pages/consul tnov08.aspx

online consultation http://equalityhumanrights.dialoguebydesign.net/

Identity Cards Act secondary legislation (closes 13 February 2009) http://www.ips.gov.uk/identity/downloads/NIS_Legislation.pdf

End of Life Choices () Bill (closes 9 March 2009) http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/MembersBills/pdfs/EndOfLifeChoicesConsultati on.pdf TOP

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