Speeches

Mike Kane – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mike Kane on 2016-01-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the UK Embassy in Israel has taken to monitor attacks on Christian places of worship.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

Our Embassy in Tel Aviv is in regular contact with representatives of churches on a range of issues, including to discuss concern about attacks on places of worship. The last attack occurred on 17 January 2016 where the Dormition Abbey compound of the Orthodox Church in the Old City of Jerusalem was vandalised with anti-Christian slogans. The ‘Tag Meir’ organisation has listed 44 cases of vandalism and arson on Christian and Muslim places of worship in Israel and the West Bank since December 2009.