Northern Ireland Protocol Deal: Sunak has Recognised Peace is Hard & Conflict is Deadly

I’ve been following the latest round of violence in the West Bank with a weary, disheartening, sense of déjà vu. It is incalculably depressing and sad to watch this latest flare up in tensions between Israelis and Palestinian residents, resulting in deaths on either side. This cycle of clash and counter-clash repeats itself over decades, with seemingly no end in sight. 

It was the situation of Palestinians living under occupation in Gaza and the West Bank which first motivated me to apply to become a British diplomat.

In the mid-1980s I specialised in Middle East studies at Durham University. During the summer of my final year, I spent three months at Birzeit University in the West Bank to do research for my dissertation on the situation of Israeli Arabs – Palestinians who live in Israel proper and are Israeli citizens. 

This was my first exposure to the realities of life under conflict. As I travelled around the West Bank with Palestinian friends, we had to pass through numerous Israeli checkpoints. I observed them being asked humiliating questions about where they came from and the purpose of their journey, and regularly being subject to body searches. My friends always kept a beach towel in the car so that they could say they were just going for a swim…

Alexandra Hall Hall for the Byline Times.