British MPs refused entry to West Bank over 'Israeli anger at Palestine recognition'

Labour politicians, both doctors, went to inspect health centres and were refused on security, safety and public order grounds

Labour MPs Peter Prinsley, left, and Simon Opher, are doctors who believe UK's Palestine policy prompted Israeli anger at border. Getty Images

Israel’s Foreign Ministry has denied entry to two British MPs despite pleas from the UK’s Middle East minister to let them in, The National can disclose.

Medical doctors Simon Opher and Peter Prinsley, who were on a trip to inspect Palestinian health centres, were turned away at Israel’s border with Jordan after entering passport control on their way to the occupied West Bank.

They contacted Hamish Falconer, Minister for the Middle East and North Africa, who attempted to contact his Israeli counterpart to grant them entry.

Dr Opher told The National that it was his understanding that the Israelis were “extremely angry about the fact” that Britain was going to recognise a Palestinian state.

“I spoke to Hamish, who said, ‘We're doing everything we can do, but I haven't got a good feeling about it. I can talk to my counterpart in the Israeli government, but to be honest, he's unlikely to listen.'”

Dr Opher added that the that the Foreign Office did not appear to “have got much leverage over the Israelis”.

“Relations are not good at the moment, and I think we're probably a victim of that a little bit as well.”

The two physicians were given a document that stated: “The above mentioned individual, will be removed from Israel” and were told that the reason for their expulsion was for “public security, public safety and public order”.

They were escorted to a bus by an immigration official and driven back into Jordan.

“We're both doctors planning to just look at healthcare facilities in the West Bank,” he said. “The Israelis are very paranoid and they clearly don't want people to find out what's happening in the West Bank.”

He said he was surprised as Dr Prinsley is a “prominent Jewish figure” in Britain.

The doctors were travelling as part of a visit organised by the Council for Arab-British Understanding to observe medical and humanitarian work carried out by groups including Medical Aid for Palestinians.

“It is deeply regrettable that Israeli authorities prevented them from seeing first-hand the grave challenges facing medical facilities in the region and from hearing the British government’s assessment of the situation on the ground,” they said.

They were members of a delegation which was also due to meet British diplomats in Jerusalem, as well as Palestinian and Israeli human rights organisations.

Mr Falconer said the decision to deny entry to the two MPs was “unacceptable”.

“I have remained in contact with both colleagues throughout and I have been clear with the Israeli authorities that this is no way to treat British parliamentarians,” he said on X.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting described their treatment as “shameful, but no longer surprising”.

The Israeli embassy in London has been contacted for comment.

Both MPs have extensive backgrounds in health care.

Stroud MP Dr Opher chairs an all-party parliamentary group on health and worked as a GP, while Dr Prinsley, MP for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, worked as an NHS surgeon.

A UNRWA worker moves a box of humanitarian aid in a warehouse of the West Bank field office. Reuters

Dr Opher told the BBC the pair were held in a passport office and given a “legal form insisting that we leave the country” before being “escorted to a bus” back to Jordan.

“It’s very disappointing. We are both doctors and we were really just going to look at healthcare facilities in the West Bank to see if there was anything we could do to support them,” he said.

“We weren’t in any way trying to undermine the Israelis, just trying to see what we could do in the West Bank” where, he said, they had been told health care was getting increasingly difficult.

He said he was not being admitted under “public order” grounds.

In April, two Labour MPs said they were denied entry to Israel, with then Foreign Secretary David Lammy condemning the move as “deeply concerning” and “unacceptable”.

Dr Opher suggested the Israeli decision would backfire. “This was a very stupid thing to do, because if we were allowed in, this wouldn't really be news, in a way. But it suggested very strongly to me that they didn't want us to see what was going on with Palestinian healthcare.”