THE UK Government has announced the creation of an “International Peace Fund for Israelis and Palestinians” – and said it will give it £330,000 in funding this year.
The fund, jointly announced by the UK, Australia, and Canada on Thursday, aims to “support peacebuilding efforts to establish the conditions for a lasting peace”.
The three nations have each pledged to put £1 million into the fund over three years.
A joint statement said that the fund was being announced “at a moment of acute crisis in Israel and Palestine”.
The British, Australian, and Canadian foreign ministers said: “The last three years have exacted a devastating and dehumanising toll on civilians and deepened mistrust and division between communities. At the same time, civil society has faced increasing restrictions and unprecedented pressure.
“As prospects for a two-state solution remain challenging in the short term, there is an urgent need to invest in the conditions that can make future peace possible, through sustained dialogue and vital grassroots engagement.
“We remain committed to a just and lasting resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, based on a negotiated two-state solution in which Israeli and Palestinian people can live in peace, security and dignity.
“The fund will help strengthen the voices of moderates and marginalise the extremists, including Hamas.”
The “Peace Fund” will invest in programmes that “advance a two-state solution, help reduce division, strengthen civil society, and support dialogue and cooperation within and between Israeli and Palestinian communities, building the foundations for peace”.
Once it is running, the fund will be open to “additional financial contributions from international partners committed to advancing peace”, the countries said.
It comes in a week in which two major reports have shed light on Israel’s illegal actions in the West Bank, where Palestinians are being driven from their homes and replaced with Israeli settlers.
On Thursday, analysis from Oxfam found that more Palestinians had been killed by Israeli settlers and state forces in the three years to 2025 than in the 17 before that. Around one in five of those killed over the entire 20-year period were children.
On Wednesday, Amnesty International published an investigation into Israel’s illegal expansion into the West Bank, finding that it is being driven by the government and not rogue extremist settlers, as is often portrayed.
On Tuesday, the UK Government joined five allies – Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, and Norway – in sanctioning five organisations and one individual over their involvement in the illegal Israeli annexation of the West Bank.
Rohan Talbot, Medical Aid for Palestinian’s director of advocacy and campaigns, said the sanctions “will barely move the dial on ending Israeli annexation and apartheid in the West Bank and fall well below the government’s obligations to uphold international law”.
