Peter Soulsby (Leicester South, Lab)
When he (Jack Straw) last met representatives of the Palestinian Authority to discuss progress on the Middle East peace settlement.

In his initial response to the question, the Foreign Secretary indicated that this is indeed a unique opportunity to move forwards in the middle east and to move towards a two-state solution that protects the interests of the Israeli Government while securing justice for the Palestinians, but in his response to the supplementary he dealt with one of the issues that threatens that progress.

I hope that he can assure us that he will press the Israeli Government to cease the construction of their separation barrier and to cease the mass arrests, because both those things threaten the continuation of the process and also give succour to the militants, who could so easily undermine the success of that process.

Will he press the Israeli Government to desist on both fronts?

Jack Straw (Secretary of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office)
As I have explained, we have already made, and will continue to make, strong representations to the Government of Israel about the building of settlements other than on Israeli land and the siting of the route of the separation barrier, again other than on Israeli land.

On arrests, I simply say to my hon. Friend that in recent weeks some hundreds of prisoners have been released by the Israeli Government as part of the steps that they have taken, in co-operation with the Palestinian Authority, to rebuild better confidence between the two sides and, not least, to improve collaboration when Israel starts to withdraw from Gaza on 16 August.

I also say to my hon. Friend that it is important that we should not be rosy-eyed about the terrorists—Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah—who are continuing to commit violence not only against Israeli civilians and Israeli forces but, in doing so, against the Palestinian moderates who wish to see a peaceful solution to the conflict that has continued there for nigh on 60 years.