Foreign Secretary David Miliband visited Israel on 16-17 November on the first stop in a regional tour that also took him to Ramallah, Damascus and Beirut.

In Israel, the Foreign Secretary met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Secretary Tzipi Livni and Leader of the Opposition Benjamin Netanyahu. He flew down to Sderot with Defence Minister Ehud Barak where he met outgoing mayor, Eli Moyal, and his successor, David Busskila, and visited a primary school where he saw how the children were given the tools to cope with trauma caused by rocket fire from Gaza. Mr Miliband also went to the local police station where he saw piles of spent Qassam rockets and was briefed on the situation by the local police chief.

From there, the Foreign Secretary flew back to Jerusalem where he visited the Max Rayne School, a Hand in Hand School for Bi-lingual Education built recently by The Jerusalem Foundation, where Jewish and Arab students study together in Hebrew and Arabic.  

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office currently provides financial support for Hand in Hand's educational project in Jerusalem. 

 

  

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