The Rt. Hon. Sir John Major KG CH

Tag: 1995

  • Mr Major’s Speech to Business Round Table Meeting – 14 March 1995

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s speech at the Business Round Table meeting in Gaza on 14th March 1995.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Let me just say a word or two before we get to questions in a few moments, following which there are other meetings to go to, and I hope we will all see one another later today.

    I am very pleased to be here today with the Chairman for the first British/Palestinian Business to Business Round Table. The Chairman mentioned the European Union, and I think from wherever one stands, from whatever direction one comes, whether political or geographic, there is a communal interest in playing a role to try and find a satisfactory and lasting solution to the problems that have existed across the Middle East. They are not problems that can just be solved by politicians talking, they cannot just be solved by businessmen investing, they cannot just be solved by goodwill, they cannot be solved sometimes without perhaps an act of faith and risk or two. But it is in everyone’s interest, whether in this room or beyond this room, that one is able to move towards a general solution.

    I believe my colleagues in the European Union will be sensitive to some of the points that we have been discussing this morning, and I will certainly take those back and discuss them with my colleagues, both the political and the economic points that we have been discussing.

    This morning we have a very large collection of businessmen, and I think the business community does have a role that it may be able to play in contributing to the reconstruction, the enormous challenge of reconstruction, which clearly is faced here at the moment. I have with me perhaps undoubtedly the strongest team of British businessmen ever collectively to leave British shores together. They represent some of Britain’s largest companies, and the representatives who are here today are at the top of those particular companies, and all of those companies in different ways have demonstrated the ability of their enterprises to succeed, often in very difficult economic climates. A number of them are already big players in the Middle East, others are not, some have rightly been encouraged by the future prospects if the peace process were to be carried through to a satisfactory conclusion, to have a look for themselves and to see what new opportunities may exist. And I am very pleased of course that several who are with us are already extensively involved here in Gaza, including Mithan [phon] one of Northern Ireland’s most successful companies.

    Upon one thing I don’t have any doubt at all, and that is the potential vibrancy of Palestinian entrepreneurs. A large number of Palestinian companies have taken a leading role already in developing the infrastructure of the Gulf, and clearly that infrastructural development is critical to the investment that may then follow it, but is unlikely in significant sums to precede it. There are a very large number of Palestinian businessmen who operate from the United Kingdom, so we are familiar with their potential abilities. And one of the aims, I hope, of this particular Round Table this morning will be to encourage new partnerships between British and Palestinian firms so that those abilities might be used for both economic, and through economic, for political benefit as well.

    Later on today I will be announcing the establishment for this region of a Know-How programme, it is a system that we have used elsewhere in the world to very great effect. The purpose of the programme is to deliver Know-How, as the title itself suggests.

    The programme is designed to transfer expertise to the Palestinian authority in fundamental areas that they will need to deal with in the future – health, water resources, sewerage and public sector management – all of those are vital areas of infrastructure for general well-being and in turn will help the private sector to invest and trade as those skills and as that infrastructure begins to get put in place.

    One very remarkable tribute to the people of this area is the fact that the Palestinian community has the reputation for being the best educated across the Arab world, and I think that is a very impressive achievement when one considers the difficulties against which that has actually been achieved.

    What I would like to see is that British education and training, and I am delighted that Pauline Perry is with us this morning, will help further to develop the human resources of business and industry in the area, and in this too the Know How Fund is going to help.

    Let me also say that the Minister of State will be talking later about the provision of increased export credit to support trade between ourselves and the area. Richard will deal with those details a little later on this morning.

    You have a very ambitious agenda, it is an ambitious agenda both in scope and ambition in terms of seeking to achieve something for the future from the difficulties that exist today. I am immensely encouraged at the people who are here today, not just the numbers of them but who they are, the people who are here today. I think there is a contribution they can play. Businessmen are hard-headed, they have to be hard-headed, they also have to be long-sighted, they have to look not just at the immediate return but at the long-term future of their enterprises, and one thing I can say to you, amongst those businessmen with us today that I know and in many cases have known for very many years, they are where they are because they are prepared to take a long-term view and their companies have shown that in their own activities time and time again.

    The principal discussions today will not be, Mr Chairman, what you and I say to colleagues here today, but what they say one to another. So I will say no more at this moment, though of course you and I will be happy to answer any questions that colleagues may have before we leave them to their deliberations, So let me simply say it is immensely encouraging to see you all here today and I for one am deeply grateful that you are.

     

    QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:

    QUESTION:

    [Inaudible].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    They are saying we would like to know where the aid is going and where is the visible expression of what the aid has done to enable us to put our money into this area.

    QUESTION:

    Precisely this was the point.

    [Small section indistinct].

    States, via the European Union who I think have a bigger role to play than they have played yet, in order to deal with precisely the problems that you have raised, and I suspect others will raise after we have gone.

    So you may be, if I am right in my judgement of what you will say, seeking a message that I fully understand, expected to hear, have heard even in this brief visit, and will certainly take back to where it needs to be. But I will not elaborate on that just now because the Chairman and I should have been elsewhere sometime ago.

  • PMQT – 14 March 1995

    Below is the text of Prime Minister’s Question Time from 14th March 1995. Tony Newton responded on behalf of John Major.

    PRIME MINISTER:

     

    Engagements

    Q1. Mrs. Liddell: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 14 March.

    The Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Mr. Tony Newton): I have been asked to reply.

    My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister is currently on an official visit to Israel, the occupied territories and Jordan. He is accompanied by a large delegation of British business people.

    Mrs. Liddell: The visit of the Prime Minister to the Gaza strip and the donation of equipment and aid are to be welcomed, but why have the Government chosen to donate police equipment when the entire community could have benefited from the excellence of British manufacturing facilities to provide clean water facilities, better health facilities and educational facilities?

    Mr. Newton: The hon. Lady clearly was not listening. I said that a large delegation of British business people was with the Prime Minister precisely to see whether we can help with the kind of opportunities to which she refers.

    Sir Anthony Grant: Does my right hon. Friend share my disgust at the blatant and continued misrepresentation by press and media of the case of the 10-year-old leukaemia sufferer? Is he aware that Cambridge health authority’s decision to refuse treatment had nothing to do with money but was taken because the overwhelming number of doctors and specialists were not prepared to inflict further suffering on that poor little girl?

    Mr. Newton: It certainly has been made clear by the health authority that funds would have been available if the view of the doctors responsible had been that treatment would have been in the best interests of the child. It is first and foremost a matter of clinical judgement. I think that, however sad, that should be acknowledged. The other thing that should be said is that the whole House will want to wish the girl well in the treatment that she is undertaking today.

    Mr. Prescott rose —

    Hon. Members: Hear, hear.

    Madam Speaker: Order. That is a warm enough welcome.

    Mr. Prescott: Can the Leader of the House confirm the leaks that are emerging from the Prime Minister’s tour of the middle east that the Greenbury committee proposes to recommend absolutely nothing to curb the greed of the bosses in the privatised utilities?

    Mr. Newton: What I can confirm is that the Prime Minister and, indeed, all my right hon. Friends have made it clear that they attach importance to the work of the Greenbury committee and that they will want to study its conclusions with care and then consider whether it would be appropriate to make any legislative change.

    Mr. Prescott: Whatever the right hon. Gentleman may say, is not the Prime Minister’s support for legislation against pay excesses a sham? Only yesterday the President of the Board of Trade once again defended boardroom greed. When will the Government realise that people in Britain want a fundamental shift so that power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many and not the few?

    Mr. Newton: It sounds to me as though the right hon. Gentleman will need to undertake another rewrite of clause IV before the ink on this one is dry.

    Mr. Wilshire: Last December, our right hon. Friend the Prime Minister stated that Ministers would not talk to Sinn Fein-IRA before huge amounts of weapons were surrendered. This morning, I received a letter from our right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland stating that talks would take place with Sinn Fein-IRA before weapons were handed in. Which is current Government policy?

    Mr. Newton: My hon. Friend has indeed received a letter from my right hon. and learned Friend today. I have a copy of it before me. It makes it absolutely clear that, before Ministers will engage in talks in the way that Sinn Fein currently seeks, there must be a clear and reliable assurance from Sinn Fein that constructive discussion, especially in achieving substantial progress on decommissioning arms, would be facilitated and accelerated by Ministers joining that dialogue. No such assurance has been received, and I think that what is being said and done is entirely consistent with what my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister and my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State have said before and, indeed, with what is sensible and practicable in seeking a way forward in Northern Ireland.

     

    Q2. Ms Eagle: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 14 March.

    Mr. Newton: I have been asked to reply.

    I refer the hon. Lady to the reply I gave some moments ago.

    Ms Eagle: On executive pay, will the Leader of the House admit that the public know that the Greenbury committee is a con, because it is full of the very fat cats who are earning millions of pounds, who are protecting their own pay and positions? Does he not realise that asking that bunch to legislate to curb excesses of executive pay is like asking Dracula to guard the blood bank?

    Mr. Newton: The answers to the hon. Lady’s questions are no, no and no, in that order.

    Mr. Elletson: Would my right hon. Friend care to speculate on the possible reasons why the historic commitment to full employment, endorsed by generations of Labour party members, has now been abandoned by the right hon. Member for Sedgefield (Mr. Blair)?

    Mr. Newton: It is perhaps not for me to speculate about the causes of Opposition policy changes, but, if I were driven to do so, I would venture the opinion that the penny has finally dropped that their commitment to a minimum wage, a social chapter and a further renewal of trade union powers is incompatible with full employment.

     

    Q3. Mr. Callaghan: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 14 March.

    Mr. Newton: I have been asked to reply.

    I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply I gave some moments ago.

    Mr. Callaghan: Will the Minister note that the former and the present Secretary of State for National Heritage have not replied to the Select Committee on National Heritage report, “Privacy and Media Intrusion”? As it is now exactly two years since the Select Committee presented its report, why have the Government have failed to respond to it? What is he afraid of, and will he apologise to the House for the delay?

    Mr. Newton: I have no doubt that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for National Heritage will seek to reply as soon as the very difficult issues involved have been thoroughly considered and studied.

    Mrs. Lait: Does my right hon. Friend agree with the hon. Member for Hackney, North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott) that the rewritten clause IV is 400 words of waffle– [Interruption.]

    Madam Speaker: Order. I have been very tolerant today, but I remind hon. Members that we holding the Executive to account for their policies, not for the policies or the activities of any other party. If the hon. Lady can rephrase that question, I will give her an opportunity to do so, but she must seek to bring the Government to account.

    Mrs. Lait: Does my right hon. Friend agree that, if we were ever to have a clause IV, it would not contain 400 words of waffle?

    Mr. Newton: I am afraid that my hon. Friend’s question was slightly lost in Opposition Members’ baying. I am certainly aware that the hon. Member for Hackney, North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott) has described the new clause IV as 400 hundred words of waffle. It is absolutely clear that it takes us no nearer to what we really need: some clarification of Labour’s policies.

     

    Q4. Mr. Wilson: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 14 March.

    Mr. Newton: I have been asked to reply.

    I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply I gave some moments ago.

    Mr. Wilson: We can understand the reluctance of the Leader of the House to answer questions about executive pay and share options, so perhaps we can move the debate forward a little. Do the Government intend to devolve other areas of Government policy to sub-committees of millionaires appointed by the CBI? Will the recommendations of those committees be final and, if so, is that what is meant by the “smack of firm leadership” from the Government?

    Mr. Newton: I do not think that I have shown any reluctance to answer the questions–it is just that Opposition Members do not like my answers. As the main thrust of the question refers to a matter that is principally for shareholders to decide, it seems entirely correct to consult and to take the views of such a committee.

    Mr. Peter Ainsworth: Will my right hon. Friend join me in welcoming the news that prizes from the national lottery now amount to almost £500 million? Is it not excellent news that a substantial amount of money has been allocated to the good causes supported by the lottery?

    Mr. Newton: Indeed it is very good news. The national lottery is certainly giving pleasure to many people and it is yielding both large prizes for the winners and large amounts of additional money for the arts, sport, heritage, charities and the Millennium Commission. It has been a huge success, which is very much to the credit of my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister, and I think that that success will continue and will grow.

     

    Q5. Mr. Fisher: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 14 March.

    Mr. Newton: I have been asked to reply.

    I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply I gave some moments ago.

    Mr. Fisher: On executive pay, will the Leader of the House answer the question of my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull, East (Mr. Prescott) and explain what the Government intend to do about it? What sort of Prime Minister says that he finds something distasteful but then says that he does not have the first idea of what he wants to do about it and simply leaves it to the CBI to tell him what Government policy should be? What sort of Government do that?

    Mr. Newton: What the Government are going to do is what I have said at least twice this afternoon and what my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has said on many other occasions: we will study the recommendations of the Greenbury committee with care and we will then decide what action to take, including the possibility of legislation if that seems appropriate.

    Mr. Couchman: Does my right hon. Friend agree that President Clinton’s decision to meet Mr. Adams on Thursday and to allow Mr. Adams to raise funds on behalf of Sinn Fein-IRA is a grave blow to the United States’ special relationship with this country, and indeed to the cherished links with the Republic of Ireland and the majority of the Irish people who are opposed to Mr. Adams’s violence and terrorism?

    Mr. Newton: My hon. Friend will know that my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has made his views very clear to the President. The United States Administration are in no doubt about our views. I hope that everyone will now acknowledge that it is important to maintain pressure on Sinn Fein from all sides to engage in substantive constructive discussions along the lines that my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has indicated. I hope that the need for Mr. Adams to engage in such constructive and substantive discussions will be emphasised firmly and vigorously in any meetings with the United States Administration.

     

    Q6. Mr. MacShane: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 14 March.

    Mr. Newton: I have been asked to reply.

    I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply I gave some moments ago.

    Mr. MacShane: In view of the fact that most independent jurists do not consider the courts of Singapore to be independent of the Executive and in view of the desire for a full judicial spotlight on the Barings affair in London, will the Leader of the House assure us that every effort is being made to extradite Mr. Nick Leeson from Germany so that he can stand trial in London?

    Mr. Newton: The House will understand that I do not think it right to get drawn into commenting from the Dispatch Box on the legal position in other Commonwealth countries. The Government are determined to make every effort to ensure that the Barings events are properly and thoroughly investigated and that appropriate action is taken in the appropriate courts.

     

    Q7. Mr. David Atkinson: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 14 March.

    Mr. Newton: I have been asked to reply.

    I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave some moments ago.

    Mr. Atkinson: Is my right hon. Friend aware of a letter of appreciation that I recently received from an Anglican clergyman in my constituency, who does not often support the Government’s policies but who greatly appreciates the education that his daughter has received as a result of the assisted places scheme? He knows of many other low-income families in his parish whose children have benefited in the same way. How shall I respond to my constituent’s request to learn whether the assisted places scheme has a future and whether it is safe?

    Mr. Newton: I am sure that my hon. Friend is right that not only his constituent but many thousands of other parents throughout the country welcome the assisted places scheme, which has provided an excellent education in independent schools to many able pupils from low-income families. It has been outstandingly successful. The assurance I can give my hon. Friend and his constituent is that the assisted places scheme is safe under us. It is certainly not safe under the Opposition.

  • PMQT Written Answers – 13 March 1995

    Below is the text of the written answers relating to Prime Minister’s Question Time from 13th March 1995.

    PRIME MINISTER:

     

    Executive Remuneration

    Mr. Burden: To ask the Prime Minister what plans he has to ensure co-ordination between Ministers and regulatory bodies in monitoring levels of executive salaries and share options in privatised industries and services.

    The Prime Minister: The role of regulators is to protect consumers. Regulators cannot be expected to judge the merits of individual board members, set their pay effectively and determine the appointment of boardroom executives. We await the conclusions of the Greenbury committee on the best practice for companies on executive remuneration.

     

    Water and Sewerage

    Mr. Nicholls: To ask the Prime Minister what is the cost of his Department’s expenditure on water and sewerage in (a) the current year and (b) each of the previous years.

    The Prime Minister: For this purpose my office is part of the Cabinet Office. I refer the hon. Member to the answer given today by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary, Office of Public Service and Science.

     

    Ministerial Resignations

    Dr. Wright: To ask the Prime Minister if he will provide a list of those ministers who have left his Government since 1992 and give in each case the reason for their departure.

    The Prime Minister: The following Ministers have resigned from the Government since the end of 1992:

    The right hon. Norman Lamont MP

    The right hon. Tristan Garel-Jones MP

    The right hon. Sir Archie Hamilton MP

    Edward Leigh MP

    Sir Kenneth Carlisle MP

    Robert Jackson Esq. MP

    Michael Mates Esq. MP

    The right hon. the Lord Hesketh

    Tim Yeo MP

    The right hon. the Earl of Caithness

    Michael Brown MP

    The right hon. the Lord Wakeham

    The right hon. John MacGregor OBE, MP

    The right hon. Peter Brooke CH, MP

    The right hon. John Patten MP

    The right hon. Sir Timothy Sainsbury MP

    The right hon. Sir Wyn Roberts MP

    The right hon. Sir Peter Lloyd MP

    The right hon. Sir Nicholas Scott KBE MP

    The right hon. Sir John Cope MP

    The hon. Sir Mark Lennox-Boyd MP

    Patrick McLoughlin MP

    Robert Key MP

    Sir Irvine Patnick OBE, MP

    Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne

    Viscount St. Davids

    Lord Annaly

    Tim Smith MP

    Neil Hamilton MP

    Earl of Arran

    Allan Stewart MP

    Charles Wardle MP

    Robert G. Hughes MP

    There were a number of different reasons for these resignations.

     

    G7 Summit

    Mr. Dowd: To ask the Prime Minister when he expects to respond to the letter to him of 3 March from the Secretary of the Japanese Labour Camp Survivors Association concerning its attendance at the G7 summit in July; and what his response will be.

    The Prime Minister: A reply will be sent shortly. The arrangements for the G7 summit are in the hands of the Canadian authorities, who hold the chair at the moment, but there would normally be no objection to the presence in Halifax of non-governmental groups and organisations.

     

    Animal Protection, South Korea

    Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Prime Minister if he will raise the issue of the illegal cat and dog meat industry operating in South Korea when he meets the President of Korea later this month; if he will press the President of Korea to introduce stricter animal protection laws; and what action he has taken to stop the illegal cat and dog meat industry in South Korea.

    The Prime Minister: I met the President of the Republic of Korea on Wednesday 8 March. We discussed bilateral trade and investment, science and technology, and other issues of mutual interest. We did not discuss the issue of animal protection but the South Korean Government are aware of the concerns of the British public on this issue.

  • Mr Major’s Speech at Jerusalem Business Seminar Speech – 13 March 1995

    Below is the transcript of Mr Major’s speech given at the opening of the business seminar in Jerusalem on Monday 13th March 1995.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Looking around this room at the people who are here, I think it is, if the Trade Minister will forgive me saying so, almost an impertinence for us to talk to you about the development of investment and the development of trade. And I don’t propose to say very much this morning. We are here, Mr Hareesh and I, as facilitators, to try and bring this Round Table together, to make sure that the opportunities that we both believe are there, opportunities for British investment and trade with Israel, and Israeli investment and trade with Britain, that those opportunities, having been there for a long time, are crystalised and are taken. That is really the purpose of this meeting this morning. It has not always been the situation that the political vibes were right for that sort of exchange. They are now, and I need not set out yet again why that is the case, self-evidently it is or the businessmen who are present here this morning would not be present this morning. So the point scarcely needs to be made beyond mentioning it.

    Where are the areas that the greatest opportunities may lie? Again, I think you only have to look at the vast range of interests represented by the British delegation here this morning, and their hosts, to see that the range of opportunities stretch right across the range of industrial and commercial endeavour. Some of them of course to an extent are fresh. We have leaders of some of the most successful privatised industries in the United Kingdom here this morning. We say without a blush on our cheeks in the United Kingdom that privatisation began there and we believe we have developed the most successful mode of privatisation, and we developed the most successful privatised industries that anyone has yet developed anywhere across the globe. We believe the scope for their assistance, and also the scope for assistance from the City of London in advice upon how to privatise also in Israel, is a very valuable resource that I hope will be made full use of in the discussions that will be here this morning.

    I need not emphasise the virtues of the City. I would like to talk not just about large industry but also about small industry. I look forward in the United Kingdom at a range of indicators that will happen in the future. Within a very short period of years, a measurable number of years, we will find the overwhelming majority of British citizens actually working in small companies that have employees up to 100, perhaps 150 employees, the vast majority of people will work in firms like that. And those firms will be significant exporters. The trade gap, Mr Hareesh mentioned the trade gap with Israel, I must say our exporters have done remarkably well in recent years, we will happily leave one of two of them behind perhaps to illustrate how they have done so well. We have an open market, we are keen to purchase from Israel as well as to sell to Israel. We are keen to invest in Israel and we are happy to accept Israeli investment in the United Kingdom. We don’t see trade as a one-way option, and neither do the businessmen who have accompanied me on this particular visit this morning.

    I don’t think I need elaborate upon those points. What I do want to do is to make something of a plea to those of you at this Round Table. It is very agreeable to meet together, very agreeable perhaps to do a single piece of business together. But if I may say so, that is to underplay what I have in mind and what I believe the Israeli government has in mind. We see this particular occasion, this particular Round Table, not as the end of a process to produce a single series of one-off deals, but perhaps as the beginning of a process that will enable a much closer business relationship between the business community in Israel and the business community in the United Kingdom, with the aim of increasing business not just in the short term but in the medium and long term.

    Howard Davies, who is with with us here today sitting at the table, will recall very well the arrangements that we set up when I took a similar team of businessmen to India some time ago, permanent mechanisms were established to try and facilitate trade between the two countries, led by businessmen, supported by the CBI and the governments and by appropriate organisations in India. And since that happened there has been a very dramatic increase in investment from the United Kingdom to India, and vice versa, and trade between the United Kingdom and India, and vice versa. So although the Trade Minister and I come here as facilitators as well, I think it is open to this Round Table this morning to make themselves facilitators, to decide that they would like to replicate that sort of identity between the United Kingdom and Israel to ensure that there is a continuing follow-up.

    The follow-up is important, a continuing business dialogue, building on whatever may come out of this particular Round Table, taking the opportunities that exist and building them into larger opportunities for the future, identifying today not just short-term advantages but long-term advantages.

    So apart from the individual deals that may emerge, if we are really to take advantage of the opportunity that is clearly offered by the gathering together of so many senior businessmen this morning, what we really need to determine is to see a practical workplan coming out of today’s meeting, to set an agenda, to agree a timetable, to agree a series of objectives, and to agree a mechanism to make sure that the relationship that might be established this morning is a relationship that is built on in the future.

    It will take a commitment from some of you, it will take time from some of you, it will take a lot of effort from some of you, but judged on the basis of what has happened elsewhere where we have tried precisely the same mechanism, there will be very substantial rewards for everyone present if that is able to be done successfully, and I very much hope that they will and I have no shred of doubt whatsoever but that the British government will support such a mechanism, I am absolutely certain that the Israeli government will and I am sure that Howard Davies will express his own views perhaps after I have gone. But as a facilitator of trade and industry, I am sure the CBI and the IOD, David Young is here as well, will be very happy to play a part in making sure that we can do that.

    So that really is the essential point that I want to make this morning, not that self-evidently there are opportunities for business around this room, of course that is the case, that is why everyone is here, but that in addition to those immediate short-term investment or trading opportunities there is the opportunity given by this visit, by this meeting, by this Round Table, by the gathering together of these people, to establish a more permanent mechanism for the growth of trade and investment between the United Kingdom and Israel. And that I think would be a substantial prize to come out of this meeting and I very much hope that that is something that you will be able to agree to do.

    I am able to stay here this morning alas for only a very few moments, I am due at Yad Vashem, indeed I may have been due there some moments ago from the agitated expression on the face of the British Ambassador, either that or the wrong horse was backed yesterday, but I suspect it is that I am late. So I hope you will forgive me if I am unable to stay here this morning, but I look forward to getting a full report later of what happened and I wish you every success today in your discussion. There is an opportunity, I hope that everyone will be prepared to take it, and thank you for gathering here today.

  • Mr Major’s Doorstep Interview at Yad Vashem – 13 March 1995

    Below is the transcript of Mr Major’s doorstep interview following his visit to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem on Monday 13th March 1995.

    QUESTION:

    Prime Minister, can you share your feelings with us after your visit?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    It is difficult to express very clearly and succinctly the variety of emotions you feel in seeing this remarkable monument. I suppose that I have just written in the book illustrates the point: “Those who forget the past may be condemned to re-live it”, and I think it is right to remind people of precisely what happened, precisely the depths of horror that can occur. And I believe that the memorial here expresses that very vividly, I have heard a great deal about it, I had not seen it, I have now seen it and I very much doubt that I will ever forget it. So I am delighted to be able to be here today.

  • Mr Major’s Press Conference in Jerusalem – 13 March 1995

    Below is the transcript of Mr Major’s press conference in Jerusalem on Monday 13th March 1995.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Let me just say a few words about the trip so far which to date has certainly exceeded my expectations. We have been met with a great deal of friendship and kindness, a great deal of hospitality, and I would like to express my gratitude to our host for that at the outset.

    There has also been a substantial personal dimension to much of what we have seen and done. This morning at Yad Vashem, the first time I have had the opportunity to visit there, showed two things I think very clearly, it reminded one of the depths of depravity of human behaviour, but also the extent to which the human spirit can overcome it, and I found it a very remarkable experience to go there.

    What has struck me very forcibly in the meetings thus far is the extent to which the ties that exist between the United Kingdom and Israel are so numerous, so personal, so widespread, that in many aspects of them the role of governments in many ways seems superfluous. Over the years official relationships have had their ups and downs, but despite that, the personal relationships have continued to improve right across the board. And those relationships, I discover, have their own momentum.

    But if I can just return to the role of government, I think that properly is to pave the way for the enterprise and resourcefulness of individuals, and that was very much the initiatives I have announced thus far during my visit: the UK/Israel Arts Fund; a doubling of the science and technology research fund; and the new award scheme for excellence in the English language.

    Beyond that, I have brought with me more than 20 top captains of British industry to open new doors in what is already a rapidly growing commercial relationship. And to put the size and potential interest of those companies into a proper perspective, perhaps I should mention that collectively they represent companies whose turnover is in excess of 100 billion dollars each and every year. They were meeting with their Israeli counterparts this morning and I had the privilege of opening the UK/Israeli Round Table. That went on long after I had left the meeting to go on elsewhere, but both sides have continued their meeting and I believe it has been extremely successful.

    They have agreed to establish more regular links, they have agreed to set up, as I had hoped they would, an Israel/Britain Business to Business Council, precisely the sort of result which can ensure that the business relationship continues to improve.

    I have just returned in the last few minutes from the Tefen High Technology Industrial Park which, apart from the remarkable opportunities offered, provided a glimpse of the future. I have seen robotics factories before, but I think the robotics factory I saw there was as good as any I have seen anywhere in the world, robots undertaking each and every function. No doubt at some stage in the future we would not need a press conference like this, robots could accurately report everything that had been said, and you can imagine the surge of optimism that passed through me when I thought of that possibility.

    I have no doubt, on the basis of what I have seen already in this visit, that there are remarkable prospects for new and improved trade and investment between the United Kingdom and Israel, and that British industry, if I may speak for them, is ready, willing and able to seize those opportunities.

    On a political front I had the opportunity yesterday and this morning of some very substantive discussions with the Prime Minister, and with the Foreign Minister, and they both gave me an account of Israel’s negotiations with the European Union for a cooperation agreement. I made very clear to them that Britain very strongly supports the liberalisation of trade and very strongly supports free trade. We welcome without equivocation the prospect of a cooperation agreement between the European Union and Israel, and we are pressing for early conclusion of that agreement. I know there have been some difficulties in that and I have invited the Israeli government to let me have the details of the particular problems that have arisen in the negotiations and, where that seems appropriate, I agreed to take them up and discuss them with our European Union partners.

    Discussion of a range of economic matters led to a wider point upon which the Prime Minister and I were very firmly agreed, and that is the development of economic activity, and the increasing prosperity and employment that follows that growing economic activity, is the best and surest antidote to terrorism. I took the opportunity of repeating Britain’s unswerving support for the peace process here in the Middle East, I very strongly welcome the agreements reached recently between the Foreign Minister and Chairman Arafat. Elections in the Palestinian autonomy, which now seem likely to take place this year, would be a huge boost to the peace process.

    The European Union I believe has its own role to play in that and underpins its support for that process with very substantial aid, it is the main provider of assistance to the Palestinians, it has pledged thus far nearly 600 million dollars, of which the United Kingdom’s share is around 100 million dollars. I will myself be announcing some further assistance to the Palestinians and Jordan in the next couple of days.

    Of course in our discussions there is one thing that remains key for Israel, and understandably so, and that is the question of security and I think no-one would contest the importance of that. At the same time I think the Palestinians need to see real improvement in their lives, both politically and economically, if their support for the peace process is to be sustained, and that is why we are concerned about the effects of repeated closures of the border. We hope that security conditions will permit them to be re-opened and then kept open.

    As you may imagine, our discussions were informed by a common revulsion for terrorism and I was able to confirm to the Prime Minister that we will continue to give appropriate protection to Israeli and Jewish premises in the United Kingdom.

    This visit is very far from over. This afternoon I look forward, after our brief press conference, to meetings with President Weizman, with the Speaker of the Knesset, the Leader of the Opposition and the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee. Tomorrow morning I will visit the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery at Mount Scopus. And I suppose that this, the 50th year since the end of the Second World War, reminds us more vividly perhaps than on previous occasions of the debt we owe to the people who lie there.

    One overriding impression of the visit, I think that is the extent that Britain and Israel have to offer each other. A number of opportunities and new openings have presented themselves in the last couple of days. I daresay there are many others that exist that have not presented themselves on this occasion but will, I hope, as the relationship develops. I intend to see that these opportunities are exploited to the full because I believe that will be to the benefit of Britain, to the benefit of Israel and to the benefit of relations between us. There will be lots of gainers and no losers.

     

    QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

    QUESTION (Channel 2 News):

    My question is about the Carlucci Point, while standing at the Carlucci Point and watching the region and the sensitivity of the region of the Eamun Mountain, taking into account that this mountain will be given back to Syria in our negotiations, what is your impression concerning the security of Israel which you just mentioned?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think it is essential that we make progress, that Israel and Syria make progress down the Syrian track. The concept of land for peace – land for security, to put it more aptly I think – is one that has been around in the negotiations for some time. I doubt that there are many people who believe that we will be able to carry this process to a conclusion unless there is progress down the Syrian track. I hope that the meetings that Warren Christopher has had in the last couple of days will help provide a key that will move it forward. But what is clear is that the Golan will be handed back providing there is an agreement that satisfies Israel’s security. Israel will need to be satisfied on that and I was reassured about that point this morning.

    QUESTION (Steve Edwards, IBA News, Israel TV):

    What role do you foresee for the UK to play in the current peace process?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think we can assist. We cannot make the peace and we cannot negotiate the peace. The peace will only be reached if an agreement can be reached between the Palestinians and the Israeli government, that is the only way peace can be reached. But I think there is a role for large nations around the world and I think the role perhaps can best be expressed in two ways. Firstly, to give an unqualified support to those people who are seeking to progress the peace process. It is not easy, whenever one moves down a particular path like this there are domestic difficulties, domestic fears, old worries, old problems to overcome, it takes a great deal of courage both for the Palestinian leaders and for the Israeli leaders to march down that particular road. So firstly I think the diplomatic support that the international community can give is very valuable, it is more than ephemeral. The second point of course is the practical aspect of aid and practical assistance. There is no doubt, as I indicated a moment or so ago in what I had to say by way of opening remarks, that if you can remove many of the causes that feed people into a terrorist background, the very low quality of life, the very low standard of living, to raise some hope and opportunities where none existed before, then you have made a significant contribution towards it being possible for a settlement to be reached. And that I think is a legitimate role for the rest of the G7 and the rest of the world, hence the financial support I mentioned, and that was something I spent some time discussing with the Foreign Minister this morning and also the Prime Minister yesterday.

    QUESTION (ISRAEL INSIGHT MAGAZINE):

    A century ago, Queen Victoria said that the Bible was the greatness of the British Empire and a few years later Britain fulfilled a Bible verse “I will bless them that bless Israel and I will curse him that curses it!” by uttering the Balfour Declaration and she was blessed a month later with the liberation of Jerusalem and a year later with victory in World War I. Only 25 years later, in this hotel, because of her betrayal of that Declaration, the British Empire reached a climax of being dissolved.

    Has Britain learned her lesson yet of Genesis 12.3 and the power, truth and certainty of the Bible?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I am not sure I would see cause and effect in quite the way you describe it. I think there are many aspects to the historical events you refer to. What concerns me is not to look back at different interpretations of past historical events; what concerns me here today is what we can do in practice to remove a sore that has plagued the Middle East for far too long.

    If you look at what is happening around the world, unless the Middle East is able to reach a settlement – I speak of it in its generality, not just in the specificity of Israel – then many people who live in the Middle East will find their relative standard of living falling increasingly behind people in other parts of the world; that is dangerous politically and it is wrong morally so what concerns me is to see what can be done here and now today, not looking back historically, to try and assist those who are seeking an accommodation, seeking a peace, so that the advantages of inward investment can appear and the advantages of cooperation across the Middle East can become more evident. I think that is more fruitful for a modern political figure to deal with.

    QUESTION (VOICE OF ISRAEL RADIO):

    Mr. Major, I would like to ask you about another peace process, not the one in our region. Gerry Adams in the United States challenged you and said you should follow President Clinton’s and the government of Dublin’s example and accept Sinn Fein’s democratic mandate and he also said six months of the cessation of hostilities of the IRA. What is going to be your response and Britain’s next step in that domain?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    The road is open to Mr. Adams to progress this. If Mr Adams is concerned about peace and wishes to see it move forward, then he has no need of weapons. He has no reason not to enter into discussions on the modalities of decommissioning weapons, no reason at all and what we are saying to the political representatives of Sinn Fein in our discussion is let us discuss not just broad waffly views about what one actually needs to do about arms, let us actually discuss the practical modalities of disposing of the arms that no peaceful body needs.

    That is what I wish Sinn Fein to enter into. I wish them to enter into it with a clear commitment that they are entering into discussions on the decommissioning of arms with the intention of reaching a conclusion to those discussions. I don’t want to hear, as I heard from Mr. McGuinness on the radio the other morning, that the new statement meant nothing new, that it was exactly where Sinn Fein had been before.

    We need progress. There have been six months of peace and it has been a blessed boon, that is certainly true; it has revolutionised the way of life in Northern Ireland. That everybody in Northern Ireland wants to ensure is that it isn’t just six months, that it is going to go on and that nobody is going to return to violence and that the fear that is excited on both sides by paramilitaries on both sides having weapons can go away because the paramilitaries will remove their weapons and that is what I am talking to you about today, that is what I wish to see Sinn Fein do, it is what I wish to see the Protestant paramilitaries do.

    In order to achieve that, let them discuss properly the practical modalities of decommissioning weapons so that those weapons can be taken out of service and then the other political parties will be in a position to sit down and talk to Sinn Fein to hammer out a permanent agreement that will remove the horrors Northern Ireland has seen for the last quarter of a century from the scene for good. That is what I wish to see.

    CHRISTOPHER WALKER (THE TIMES):

    Mr. Prime Minister, as a result of your experiences here, when you return to London have you in mind to suggest that Her Majesty the Queen should reinforce and cement the improvement of Anglo-Israeli relations by taking up an invitation that has been made to her fairly repeatedly over the 48 years since the state was founded?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Prince Philip had a very successful visit here and I can’t anticipate what decisions Buckingham Palace will take but I have no doubt that in due course the Queen will visit.

    JEREMY BOWEN (BBC):

    We heard you yesterday dismiss any suggestion of any similarity between your meeting with Mr. Arafat and President Clinton’s invitation to Mr. Adams but do you have any sympathy with people who see certain parallels in the peace process here and the peace process in Northern Ireland?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Not on those grounds. I don’t think the similarities are there when one actually looks at where we are in the process. We are at a different stage in the process in the two sets of negotiations.

    If one takes the Middle East process, the Israelis and the Palestinians have been meeting at senior level for a long time; Chairman Arafat and the Prime Minister of Israel have met on a significant number of occasions; Chairman Arafat has also met other significant Israelis, that has been happening regularly for some time so there is certainly no reason why I shouldn’t meet Chairman Arafat as indeed I did at Downing Street last year; some people seem to have forgotten that that meeting took place and that it was actually December 1993.

    As far as the relationship with the Irish peace process is concerned, as you will have heard from the answer I gave a few moments ago, we are rather earlier in the process and I think I made those points last evening and there is no point in me reiterating them now.

    COLIN BROWN (THE INDEPENDENT):

    Prime Minister, we understand that you have sent a letter to President Clinton. I wondered if you could perhaps give us something of the flavour of the contents of the letter and perhaps characterise your feelings towards the President at the moment. Also could you say how soon it will be before ministers actually start meeting Sinn Fein representatives?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I am in touch with Bill Clinton on many occasions over many subjects and I haven’t yet reached the stage where I need to express my views to him using your good offices, Colin, and I don’t intend to on this particular occasion.

    We are in touch on this issue and on a range of other issues because we have got a very large number of interests in common with the United States I have no intention of elaborating upon the exchanges we have had on this or indeed on any other subject.

    We have got a huge degree of common interests with the United States and a huge degree of areas where there is very close cooperation; peace and stability in Europe, there could scarcely be closer cooperation than there is between the United States and Britain in NATO; in the Middle East and I think this trip indicates that particular point; in the G7, in the G8. I could extend that list for some time, The relationship of mutual interests between two of the great English-speaking democracies is very close and I don’t intend to delve into the details of my exchanges, tempting though your offer may be.

    QUESTION:

    The Foreign Minister this morning said he had asked Great Britain to help support an industrial park, one of the eight that is planned for the borders of West Bank and Gaza. Is Great Britain interested in supporting such a park and if so, could you discuss what type of financial commitment that would involve?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    We don’t know the answer to that yet. We discussed the idea and a number of other ideas in the generality, we haven’t yet got down to the specifics. We will examine the specifics, we will look at it with an open mind and see whether it is practical. The idea is not just that Britain should do this but that a number of other countries should as well and I can see some attractions in it but as yet it hasn’t been costed, it hasn’t been considered, it hasn’t been prepared. There are many things that we need to examine and we will certainly examine them.

    JOHN CRAIG (DAILY EXPRESS):

    But your reluctance to disclose the contents of your letter to President Clinton does rather suggest the tone was somewhat frosty and it does appear that his feting of Mr. Adams has rather soured the relationship between Britain and the United States at a time when you are due to go there in three weeks’ time. Have relations been damaged and are you still going?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    John, I don’t tell you what my private letters are to a whole range of people and I have no intention of starting with Bill Clinton, that doesn’t seem to be the right place to start publishing my correspondence so I don’t think you should draw those particular conclusions. I just indicated a moment ago a whole series of areas where Britain and the United States have very close interests and will continue to have very close interests. I don’t suppose we are always going to agree on each and every subject on each and every occasion and there is nothing new about that, that has always been the case but it isn’t going to affect the overwhelming degree of mutual interest that exists between the United Kingdom and the United States and the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Great Britain,

    SIMON WALTERS (THE SUN):

    But Prime Minister, be honest! As you have said yourself, this is a matter which affects life and death in Britain and Bill Clinton has stabbed us in the back by the way he has treated Gerry Adams, hasn’t he? It might wreck the whole peace process.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I am not going to add to what I have said already, Simon. I am concerned to make sure that we are able to carry forward as far as we can, as safely as we can, a process that I believe if successful will change for good the whole way of life in Northern Ireland. Sometimes, that means you don’t say all the things you may be doing in public, it is necessarily the case. I think it is important to keep this process on track, I think it is important that pressure is put on Sinn Fein so that they will agree to examine the modalities of decommissioning their weapons and then proceed beyond the modalities to actually decommission those weapons. There is no doubt that that is going to be necessary and for anyone who is talking about peace, it ought to be a step, it seems to me, that they would be prepared to take and I very much hope Mr. Adams will be prepared to take it and I hope that course is urged upon him.

    JIM COOPER:

    Mr. Major, can you tell us what the British role is going to be in promoting trade, economic development and cooperation on employment between the autonomoustic regions and Israel?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think that is a matter that is still going to be the subject of a great deal of discussion between the Israelis and the embryo Palestinian authority. I think this is classically an area – to go back to one of the earlier questions that I was asked – where there can be a good deal of external assistance both in terms of resources and perhaps more practical assistance as well.

    It is certainly going to be necessary, as you imply, that a great deal is done to improve employment and other prospects within the Palestinian autonomy; that, I think, is true beyond doubt. That is self-evidently in the Palestinians’ interests. I believe and so does the Israeli government that it is very much in their interests as well to see the quality of life and employment prospects improve there and for any external government who wishes to see peace in the Middle East, they too have a direct interest in it but the mechanics of how that will be brought about are still to be the subject of a great deal of discussion both between the Palestinians no doubt and external donors – very probably I will discuss some of these issues tomorrow – and also of course between the Israeli government and the Palestinians.

  • Mr Major’s Joint Statement in Jerusalem with Mr Rabin – 12 March 1995

    Below is the transcript of Mr Major’s speech at the arrival ceremony held in Jerusalem on Sunday 12th March 1995.

    MR RABIN:

    Prime Minister and Mrs Major, members of the British delegation, dear friends, welcome to Jerusalem, the eternal capital of Israel and the heart of the Jewish people. The history of the relations between Britain and Israel has known pleasant hours as well as painful ones. This is a very pleasant hour. We choose to remember today the pleasant moments between us, the Balfour Declaration which established a national homeland for the Jewish people in Eretz Yisrael, Britain’s courageous stand during World War in fighting the Nazi [Inaudible] and all that we have absorbed of the British culture and during the British mandate. These will forever bind us together. You have come back to us today, 47 years after you left Israel, and this time Israel extending its hand to you and embracing you warmly with open arms.

    Mr Prime Minister, we are witnessing today close and very friendly relations between Jerusalem and London. Even if in the past, and maybe in the future, there have been differences of opinion between our two countries, we know that you have always been concerned about the problems and peace and security of Israel and the Middle East, the strong and friendly ties between our countries today are largely due to your efforts, Mr Prime Minister, and we thank you for that.

    Mr Prime Minister, this is also a wonderful opportunity to congratulate you personally, the members of your government and your people, on the steps you have taken towards reconciliation and peace with Northern Ireland. From first hand experience in making peace I understand the challenges and the difficulties and I wish you every success. In the short time we have together you will get to know the Israelis as a people who pursue peace, who are building a new country with tremendous determination and with great sacrifice, while combating the difficult battle against terror and enemies who rise to murder us, a people who daily fight hardship and who are making history these days in their efforts to achieve peace.

    During your visit we will try to give you, and the delegation accompanying you on this journey, a true picture of the state of Israel, the challenges, the opportunities and the struggles. We want you to know, Mr Prime Minister, that we see you and your people as dedicated partners and sincere friends. The government and the State of Israel warmly shake your hand and thanks you in appreciation. From the bottom of our hearts we say to you, Shalom and welcome to Israel.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Mr Prime Minister, Mr Speaker, Mr Chief Justice, Ladies and Gentlemen. Norma and I have looked forward to this particular visit to Israel for a very long time. We are delighted to be here today, and to be here not only with colleagues from government, colleagues from Parliament, colleagues from industry, commerce and education, but bringing with us the very best wishes of millions of people in my country who look with admiration to what has been achieved by the State of Israel in the last few years.

    I hope to see in the brief period I am here on this occasion just a few of Israel’s remarkable achievements. Prime Minister, as you and I have discussed on previous occasions, the links between our two countries go back deep into history and they are reflected in very many ways. From time to time we have had our differences, we have had our periods of great friendship and I believe we are embarked upon that and I hope it will last perpetually in the future.

    We see great links at every level between our two societies. They are certainly reflected in very remarkable fashion in the huge contribution that the Jewish community make to British life day, after day, after day.

    You mentioned, Prime Minister, as I did, that there have been difficult times in the past. But in this year perhaps of all years, the year that marks the 50th anniversary of VE Day, we must never forget how we have fought together against common enemies. Today, 50 years on, let me say to you and all the people of Israel, we will continue to stand by your side as you build your nation and secure your peace for the future.

    We have made common cause on many occasions because we share common values. Standing here on this site as one looks around one can see the Knesset, the Supreme Court and the Prime Minister’s office. And perhaps of all the tangible and intangible symbols that bind our nations together, they are perhaps symbols of the greatest bond, that unshakeable belief in democratic principles and in the rule of law.

    I have brought a very unusual and remarkable team with me. I mentioned the range of interests that they cover a moment or so ago. Amongst the businessmen are not just businessmen from some of the largest and most efficient and effective companies in the United Kingdom, but the most senior businessmen from those companies. Many of them know Israel well, many of them do not, for some it will be their first visit here. But each and every one of them share my belief that even stronger economic and financial ties between Britain and Israel will strengthen the bonds that already unite us.

    And I believe also that they can make a contribution to the peace that you and your government have been seeking with such great courage in the Middle East. No-one ever imagined that seeking that peace would be easy, that it would not be without set-backs, that it would not face critics. But I do not believe any dispassionate or rational observer would doubt the enormous courage and commitment that you and your government have entered into, or the remarkable progress that has been made.

    One of the methods with which the international community can underline that progress is by encouraging the development of trade, the development of business links and the development of business interests to raise the living standards of all the people in the region, right across the whole of the Middle East.

    Above all perhaps, Prime Minister, the relationship between Britain and Israel is about people, about ties of family and the warmest possible friendship. So let me say to you at this moment at the outset of this visit we have looked forward to for so long, we come to Israel as friends to be among friends and we believe that we are. I am grateful for your very warm welcome and I look forward to the next couple of days with huge interest and very great delight.

  • Mr Major’s Speech in Jerusalem – 12 March 1995

    Below is the transcript of Mr Major’s speech which was made in Jerusalem on Sunday 12th March 1995.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Prime Minister, Mrs Rabin, Mr Mayor of Jerusalem, Distinguished Guests. Over the years I have attended many formal occasions. I must tell you in the confidence of this private meeting that they don’t always seem to me to be like a family occasion. But I think tonight is different. Looking around this room I see a very large number of familiar faces, so many old friends that I feel very much at home here in Jerusalem, and for Norma and I it is a real pleasure to be with you here this evening.

    To come to Israel, to come to Jerusalem at any time is a very special event. Norma and I do so together for the first, but I hope and pray not for the last, time. It is a very rare moment for us and one that we will always treasure.

    I have often thought of Jerusalem, thought of it perhaps like millions of other people in the words of the song “Jerusalem the Golden”, a holy city, a place of pilgrimage, a place of devotion. It means many different things, some expressible, some perhaps to individuals inexpressible, to people who come from many different parts of the world. But whatever their background, for everyone they can agree that Jerusalem is unique. I share that feeling again this evening.

    In my country one of our great poets, William Blake, wanted to see the sanctity and the beauty of Jerusalem in our own green and pleasant land in England. His poem “Jerusalem”, familiar I think to everyone in this room, is sung each year at the end of the Promenade concerts in London, and many of you will know it as an enthusiastic and an inspirational event.

    But Jerusalem of course is a great deal more than that, it exerts a very powerful sense of history, a history stretching back through many thousands of years, a proud history but in many ways a tragic history, but above all a history of hope and this year above all years we look back particularly to the terrible period 50 years ago of the Second World War. We have recently commemorated the liberation of Auschwitz. In April we will commemorate the liberation of Belsen by British troops, British troops who were deeply affected by what they found when they arrived there. Many of the survivors of Belsen live in Israel today, many of them no doubt in Jerusalem, others live in Britain. The horrors of the past make for a shared understanding and remembrance for the future.

    In May we shall give thanks for the end of the war in Europe and four months later we shall commemorate the cessation of hostilities in the Far East. There are many people here in Israel, some of them beyond doubt here this evening, who participated in those battles. We remember the contribution of your pilots, one of whom is now your President. We remember the heroic contribution of your parachutists dropped behind enemy lines. And some of you of course fought in the British Army under the Star of David flag, marching together as Churchill memorably expressed it in that high comradeship for freedom and for the deliverance of mankind.

    Tomorrow I shall go to Yad Vashem, a place of special pilgrimage for all mankind, to remember six million Jews murdered in the holocaust. The struggle of the survivors to rebuild their lives, so many of them here in Israel, attest movingly to the capacity for hope, ultimately for hope to triumph against the most appalling despair. Very probably, in all history, there is no greater testament for hope than the fact that so many people from that terrible background, from those terrible memories, were able to look forward and build a new life for themselves, so many of them here in Israel where they felt perhaps for the first time in their lives at home and I hope safe.

    We owe it, I believe, to those who died or suffered to find ways to carry forward that hope, to promote mutual respect, toleration, peace and reconciliation. But as we plan for the future, unless we are prepared to remember what happened in the past and take action against it, we may find ourselves condemned to re-live that past again. So we are constantly tested. The scourge of terrorism, as you said Prime Minister, has afflicted both our countries. I believe there can be no place for violence in any democratic society. I know that you share this view. We agree that terrorism is the common enemy and whatever the cost it must be implacably opposed. We must persevere in the search for lasting solutions to long-standing divisions.

    I remember with affection our last meeting sometime ago in Downing Street. And yet only hours after that meeting on a particularly dark and dank October afternoon last year, another terrorist atrocity in the heart of Tel Aviv shocked the world. That tragedy was followed by others. Our hearts in the United Kingdom have gone out to the people of Israel. The bombers’ intention by their actions must be perfectly clear to anyone who thinks about it for about a second, it is to derail the peace process, to damage the people who seek peace, to end the prospect of trying to produce a future that is without violence and with hope. They seek to use terror for their own purposes.

    It is to your credit, Prime Minister, and that of your government and of the people of Israel that they have not succeeded in that aim. And in the future they must not be allowed to succeed, they cannot be allowed to succeed, and I have no doubt that that is a view that you and I share very deeply indeed.

    I stand today in Israel among a people for whom the yearning for peace is fundamental to their very instinct, it is symbolised in the olive branches that form part of your national emblem. In my country the people of Northern Ireland have the sane yearning. But we also know, both of us Prime Minister, that you cannot have peace without security, that you cannot make peace without patience, without tenacity, without courage and. without the will to seek it, to take it and to hold it. We know that and I believe that will is here in Israel and that it will prevail in the future.

    Relations between the United Kingdom and Israel go back of course, as you said, to the very foundation of the State of Israel and to the Balfour Declaration. You, Prime Minister, reminded me some time ago that your own father joined the British Army’s Jewish Legion as a result of that declaration, that he came here as a British soldier in 1918, which is why you yourself were born here.

    Let me speak for a moment about British/Israeli relations, the seven strands of our shared interests: in politics, defence, culture, education, science, trade and investment. Our countries have had their disagreements in the past, at times with painful and with tragic consequences. But Britain and Israel, despite those disagreements, whatever they may have been, however hard the hurt might have been at the time, Britain and Israel have always been bound together by a huge network of family ties and close personal friendships, and that is reflected in the large party of businessmen, parliamentarians, educationalists and academics who have come with me to Israel from the United Kingdom today.

    Those historic differences I believe are behind us and we are bound now by friendship, respect, cooperation and understanding. Our political relationship, as both of us have made clear again today, has never been as warm as it is tonight, we have never had so much content and so much common ground, and it is my wish, Prime Minister, and yours, that we keep that valued effect and build on it in the future.

    Since you took office, Prime Minister, there has been a marked and very welcome increase in high-level political contacts in both directions and I am delighted that you personally, Foreign Minister Perez and many of your Cabinet colleagues have been frequent and welcome visitors to London. Most recently, my friend and colleague, Malcolm Rifkind, made the first visit to Israel by a British Defence Secretary and in that context I remember with gratitude your cooperation with the Allies during the Gulf War and the resolution of your people under missile attacks.

    The fears and the uncertainties of that time, the gathering of every family in its sealed room, that made a very strong impression upon us in Britain. I vividly remember personally long nights in the Cabinet Room at Downing Street as reports arrived of further Iraqi Scud missile attacks on Israel. We waited anxiously as your people donned face masks in case the Scuds were chemically-tipped as we feared they well might be. We felt deeply for the innocent Israeli victims of violence. We rejoiced in the success of the Patriot batteries and I also authorised certain measures from London to cut off those attacks.

    In what developed into their largest and most significant operation since 1945, the United Kingdom Special Forces were charged specifically with countering the threat posed by the Iraqi Scud missiles. Those Special Forces achieved very remarkable success; significantly fewer Scuds took to the air as a direct result of their efforts. In carrying out their tasks, the Special Forces and the air crews supporting them showed a determination and a courage of the highest order. In little more than one month, Prime Minister, some forty gallantry awards were won by those involved in those operations on land and in the air and in this country of all countries in the world that so well understands the meaning of courage, the value of that contribution needs no further underlining.

    Since the Gulf war, the United Nations Special Commission has made great progress in detecting and destroying Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and this has been achieved by the firm and sustained pressure of the sanctions regime. Mr. Prime Minister, sanctions must continue until their objectives are met and met in full. Last year’s threat to Kuwait, to which the United Kingdom responded very firmly, was a timely reminder. Saddam Hussein continues policies of harsh repression to Iraq’s people, he continues to threaten the stability and the security of the whole region and there are still very serious questions to be answered about Iraq’s biological weapons capability. United Nations sanctions come up this week for renewal. The international community must not be gulled by Saddam’s tactics of evasion and deception. I can assure you that the United Kingdom will not be deceived. We shall continue with good reason to approach sanctions rigorously in the interests of Iraq’s people and of the Middle East as a whole. We are determined to ensure that the whole of Iraq’s biological capability is detected and once detected is then destroyed before there can be any question of adjustments to the sanctions regime.

    At the other end of the spectrum, Prime Minister, is our common cultural heritage. I was pleased to hear that the Royal National Theatre showed you their skills last year. Next year, the Royal Ballet will be with you and meanwhile the British Council will be bringing to Israel a host of other actors, actresses, dancers, writers, musicians and painters. There are also intense and longstanding links between us on the academic field, many of them assisted by remarkably generous private philanthropists and many of you have studied in Britain and I want similar opportunities to be available for future generations.

    With that in mind, we are providing ever more scholarships and study grants, we are training your teachers of English, we are encouraging university links. We shall be working with and helping your Ministry of Education in running English-language summer camps in Northern Israel this summer and tomorrow I shall be announcing a scheme of British awards for excellence in English.

    This evening, I can tell you that we are going to double the science and technology fund established last year for joint work on subjects where we are both pre-eminent. We are also establishing with you a new, special arts training programme which will build upon the Israeli love for British drama and British music.

    These links, Prime Minister, are underpinned by a fast-growing trading relationship that now amounts to over £1.5 billion a year. Israel is Britain’s third-largest market in the Middle East and among our top twenty five worldwide.

    I have brought with me on this occasion a team of businessmen and industrialists that I believe is beyond doubt the highest-powered business delegation ever to travel abroad with a British Prime Minister. Tomorrow, they sit down with their Israeli counterparts to discuss how the rapid development of our economies can best be tapped to our mutual advantage.

    Trade and investment go hand-in-hand. The United Kingdom now has one of the highest growth rates in Europe, rising employment and low inflation and that is recognised in every part of the world with possibly the single exception of the United Kingdom itself! [Laughter] But I live in hope!

    We are unencumbered by many of the high, non-wage labour costs that burden business in the rest of Europe. We have privatised and we have deregulated. The benefits, I believe, are self-evident. Britain welcomes investment from abroad and Britain likes to invest abroad. We have more external investment per head of population than any other nation anywhere in the world. I believe the chance to boost mutual interests is very great. Investment in the British economy of course is not only profitable in itself, it gives access to the largest single trading market in the world and I believe investment in Israel is a prudent investment for the future.

    Prime Minister, no British Prime Minister can come to Israel without being acutely conscious of the wider political changes that face you. The United Kingdom is not a party to the peace negotiations but we are determined supporters of those negotiations. The role of a friend is to support, to offer private advice and public help. We all recognise that in the longer term Israel and her neighbours must reach an accommodation and Israel must take her rightful place in the region. We welcome and we firmly support the peace process and we applaud the courage which Israel has shown in pursuing it. You have made great strides: first, in 1980, peace with Egypt; now, a peace treaty with Jordan. Difficult negotiations lie ahead with Syria and Lebanon but the goal of a lasting peace is unanswerable, it is surely right to keep on trying however difficult, however frustrating, however hard the road may be and however many setbacks you may encounter upon that road. Meanwhile, negotiations with the Palestinians will remain essential to Israel’s future and those negotiations are bound to be complex, they are bound to be difficult, they could scarcely be anything other, While you continue with that process of seeking peace, the terrorists will go on trying to destroy that process of seeking peace; that is the nature of terrorism but that violence and that extremism serve nobody’s end.

    I would say, if I may, as an external observer of what has happened, surely it can be in neither side’s long-term interest to turn back from the progress that has been made. Substantial progress has now been reached; Palestinian self-rule now includes control of their own agriculture, education, tourism and taxation and to all those like the United Kingdom who wish the peace process well, there is a great deal to be welcomed in what has already been achieved and I believe it is starting to bear a wider fruit. Israel’s contacts in the region are widening, the Arab boycott is visibly decaying, the international community widely supports your search for peace. Of course, difficulties will arise, setbacks will be inevitable and steady nerves will be needed as you carry the process forward. I have no doubt, Prime Minister, that you have the steady nerves that are necessary and the United Kingdom will stand shoulder to shoulder with those who continue that search for peace.

    Very soon, you will be celebrating the Festival of Purim. It is a happy time, a time of giving gifts, a time for charity, a time for joy, a time for revelry, a time to celebrate historically the defeat of evil, a time to remember that evil can be defeated, a time to recall that across the centuries people have arisen to destroy the Jewish people but they have failed to destroy the Jewish people. The celebration reminds us of your survival and your strength as a nation.

    If I have a wish as a visitor to your country, as a friend, I hope, of your country, it is that the spirit of happiness and rejoicing that is characteristic of that celebration will always be here in Israel, that the spirit of peace will flourish in the region, that the drive for peace – so hard to achieve but so hard-pushed for so long – will succeed. That, I think, is a prayer that all the friends of Israel and all friends of the Middle East can willingly subscribe to.

    Thank you for inviting Norma and I to join you at this dinner this evening. Thank you for inviting us to Israel for what is already turning, out to be a memorable visit. We looked forward to it before we came and I believe the reality is matching up to our expectations.

    May I, as your guest, ask you to rise for the toast that I would wish to propose: a toast to the Prime Minister of Israel, to the United Kingdom-Israeli relationship and to the future success of the peace process for all the people of Israel. [Applause]

  • Mr Major’s Joint Doorstep Interview with the Israeli Prime Minister – 12 March 1995

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s joint doorstep interview with the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Yitzhak Rabin, held in Jerusalem on Sunday 12th March 1995.

    MR ARAFAT:

    Prime Minister of Britain, I would like to welcome you here in your official visit as the Prime Minister of Britain to Israel and to the Middle East. You have come in a very crucial period, in the peace process I believe that we have made tremendous moves in which we brought the beginning of a solution between Israel and the Palestinians, we signed a peace treaty with Jordan, and we are committed, Israel is committed, to implement its DOP with the Palestinians, of course hoping that the PLO will overcome the terror. The peace treaty with Jordan needs cultivation and assistance and we hope that negotiations with Syria and Lebanon will be resumed.

    These issues were discussed today with Prime Minister John Major, in which we put the way that we see what are the hopes, what are the dangers. We discussed bilateral relations between our two countries, stating on my side that we believe that today we have improved tremendously the bilateral relations between the two governments, between the two peoples, and will try to do even more in every aspect in which we can find common bases and common interests.

    We discussed also the relations with the European Union, that Britain is one part of it, an influencing part in the policy of the European Union, and other issues related to these three categories: the peace process, the bilateral relations and the relations between Israel and Europe. It was only the beginning of the talks, only the beginning of the visit. On Tuesday we will have a meeting again in which we will try to conclude what has been discussed, what will be discussed, and in what ways we can get assistance from Britain to the peace process and to develop the bilateral relations between our two countries.

    Welcome, Prime Minister, and thank you very much for coming.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Prime Minister, thank you very much indeed. I can echo all you have had to say in the last few moments. Let me just make a few points to drive the substance of what you had to say home perhaps a little further. I do not have any doubt whatsoever that the present bilateral relationship between the United Kingdom and Israel is better than it has been at any stage in the past. A great number of things have contributed to that and our discussions this afternoon have been looking towards areas where we can build on that for the future.

    I enjoyed our discussions over the present situation and future prospects for the peace process. A great deal has been done, a great deal still remains to be done, and I have no doubt that you will move down that path with the same courage in the future that you have shown in the past. We will have the opportunity of resuming discussion on that a little later during my visit.

    We also spent some time on bilateral matters, on how to accelerate trade, on how to accelerate investment both in Israel and in the wider Middle East in order to improve the levels of prosperity and cut off much of the grievance that tends sometimes to express itself in the sort of programmes that terrorism seek to put forward. Terrorism can be cut off by increasing prosperity, and as you have indicated Prime Minister, greater trade, greater investment, greater well-being, can do as much to undermine terrorism as political activity itself.

    I welcome those discussions and I am delighted we were able to look at a series of detailed matters. We discussed both bilaterally and as far as the European Union is concerned a number of matters that will have the effect, I hope, of increasing the trade and business relationship between our two countries. There are areas that need still to be ironed out. We discussed those, we have taken those on board, we will look at those in some detail. We discussed also some of the agreements that indicate very clearly the improved relationship between our two countries, and we have just had the opportunity of signing a couple of them.

    In the next couple of days we have some more very intensive discussions and I will have the opportunity of seeing a great deal locally myself and I very much look forward to that.

    I also have no doubt at the beginning of this visit that at the end of this visit we will have cemented even further the improved relationship we have seen in recent years. I have looked forward to this visit for a very long time and if the discussions we have just had have been any guide to what lies ahead in the next day or so then I have no doubt that it will prove a very successful meeting of minds across a whole range of subjects.

    QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

    QUESTION (John Sergeant, BBC):

    Mr Major, could I ask you about your meeting with Yasser Arafat on Tuesday? Some people are suggesting that if you are happy to meet Mr Arafat, who was regarded as a terrorist, you should welcome the possibility of President Clinton meeting Gerry Adams later this week. Can you discuss that comparison and say why you reject that comparison?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I am here in fact to discuss matters related to Anglo-Israeli relations, rather than that. But let me just say a word or two about that. Terrorism has now been renounced by Chairman Arafat; I have not seen it comprehensively denounced by Mr Adams. Chairman Arafat is now actively opposing terrorism; I am afraid that Sinn Fein are still directly associated with a fully formed terrorist organisation. Chairman Arafat has signed the Declaration of Principles; Sinn Fein of course have not yet committed themselves to the Downing Street declaration and they are not yet party to any agreement in Northern Ireland.

    Now there are a range of other difficulties, if I may make the point. The government entered the diplomatic contacts with Chairman Arafat after he had explicitly renounced terrorism and committed himself unambiguously to peace. It was only after Chairman Arafat had signed the Declaration of Principles that I met him last year at Downing Street. So I think the comparison that some people may be seeking to make is a mischievous comparison.

    QUESTION:

    [Not translated].

    MR RABIN:

    [Not translated].

  • Mr Major’s Comments on the Israel Trip – 10 March 1995

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s comments on his trip to Israel, made in an interview on Friday 10th March 1995.

    QUESTION:

    [Mr Major was asked what he hoped to achieve during his Israel trip].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think it is a visit that is overdue. It is the first visit by a British Prime Minister to Israel since about 1986, so I am looking forward to seeing the Prime Minister, I shall certainly see the President – I am looking forward to meeting the President again – and also the Foreign Minister.
    I think there are three or four different things we want to discuss. Of course, we shall want to discuss the peace process; of course, we will want to discuss the wider Middle East question; but I will also want to discuss bilateral relations and the tremendous opportunities that I think have opened up for improved trade and investment between our two countries and it is wholly with that in mind that I have such a distinguished collection of British businessmen going.

    There are three points about the businessmen really; firstly, they are going. Secondly, the quality and size of the companies and the range of areas they cover; and thirdly, the fact that it is the very top businessmen who are coming, in many cases the chairmen, and I think that speaks very highly of the changed atmosphere and the changed opportunities for the future so I am very optimistic it will be successful.

    QUESTION:

    [Mr Major was asked what would Britain offer to the peace process?].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I look forward to discussing it at length both with the Prime Minister and with Chairman Arafat in Gaza. I don’t want to anticipate those discussions. I had the opportunity of discussing it with the Prime Minister just a few months ago most recently and Chairman Arafat I think at the end of December 1993. There are several things I will wish to discuss: of course, the political aspects, but I think there are several components.

    It is a very difficult process, this peace process. They have travelled further down the road than most people imagined was possible. From time to time, they have road-blocks, they have managed to overcome them and proceed. They seem to have made a little more movement towards elections when Mr Perez and Chairman Arafat met just yesterday. I will want to discuss whether there are any diplomatic ways in which we can assist that process. I think the biggest help diplomatically is for people to know that members of the G7, members of the Security Council stand behind this process, wish this process well, will give it a fair wind and will help diplomatically where they can. Beyond that, there is more practical assistance, of course, and that is the pragmatic, practical assistance that can come both bilaterally from those countries and also from the European Union and I shall also wish to discuss that.