UK Prime Minister Pledges Support for an International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace and Commits to Hosting an “inaugural meeting in London, to support civil society in the region.” 

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s pledge builds on growing international momentum to prioritize civil society in advancing sustainable conflict resolution.

 

The Prime Minister of the UK, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, has once again pledged his support for the establishment of an International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace, previously given as Leader of the Opposition, and now reaffirmed as leader of His Majesty’s Government. Speaking at LFI’s annual lunch on December 2, 2024, he went even further, announcing plans for the Foreign Secretary to convene an “inaugural meeting in London to support civil society in the region, as part of that work to negotiate a two-state solution.”

This commitment was made after Ibrahim Abu Ahmed and Barak Talmor – two incredible peacebuilders from the ALLMEP network – alongside John Lyndon, ALLMEP’s Executive Director, and Rachael Liss, ALLMEP’s Policy Coordinator, met privately with the Prime Minister to speak about the International Fund, and the work that Barak and Ibrahim are doing to shift dynamics on the ground right now.

We thank Prime Minister Starmer for his statement, and for his commitment, mirroring ALLMEP’s own, to “work for peace, every step of the journey.” We look forward to working with him, Foreign Secretary Lammy, and their respective teams to ensure that next year’s London convening is a landmark event in the creation of an International Fund that can scale the work and impact of peacebuilders at this critical moment for the region.

 

 

This announcement also follows the meetings that Ibrahim and Barak had this week in London with UK parliamentarians across the political spectrum, as well as multiple departments within the Foreign Office. Ibrahim and Barak were both present when Prime Minister Keir Starmer made his announcement, which was preceded by a performance by another ALLMEP member, the Jerusalem Youth Chorus.

 

 

The UK was the first country to endorse an International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (IFP) in 2018. The fund draws on lessons from the Good Friday Agreement and aims to provide the robust, long-term funding that the peacebuilding field will need to achieve genuine societal change. The UK has sustained this backing since, including by other key leaders like Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Chancellor Rachel Reeves – who have pledged their party’s support for its creation – as well as former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the Liberal Democrat leadership.

 

 

This landmark statement builds on a wave of international momentum in support of civil society peacebuilding. Over the six months, governments worldwide have increasingly recognized the critical role of grassroots initiatives in fostering a sustainable peace.

In June, ALLMEP achieved arguably its most significant milestone in promoting civil society peacebuilding and building multilateral government interest toward the creation of an International Fund. Following a sustained, global campaign by ALLMEP, the leaders of the G7 states made an unprecedented commitment in their communiqué, adopting ALLMEP’s proposed text verbatim, to prioritize civil society peacebuilding as a critical component of any diplomatic resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and to coordinate and institutionalize support for it.

To achieve this milestone we led a letter-signing campaign which got signatures from 350 civil society organizations from around the world urging G7 leaders to make this historic change. This letter campaign culminated in a key endorsement by Pope Francis before a live audience of 12,000 people.

The G7 commitment was subsequently reaffirmed at the G7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting during the UN General Assembly in September and again at their final G7 meeting in November, solidifying their support of civil society peacebuilding as a cornerstone of their multilateral approach to the conflict.

 

 

This international progress was further echoed by EU High Representative Josep Borrell, who recently adapted his final Middle East tour after consultations with ALLMEP. He attended a high-impact event with peace NGO executives in Cyprus, during which he unveiled his legacy principles for conflict resolution that ALLMEP helped its hosts produce.