UK to Host International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace Meeting, March 2026, Lancaster House

A surprising sense of momentum runs through the UK’s latest diplomatic move, almost as if the political establishment finally caught up with what so many ordinary people have been quietly insisting for years. With public backing at levels that politicians usually only dream of, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has confirmed that she will convene the inaugural meeting of the International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace this coming March at Lancaster House. The tone of the announcement felt unusually confident for a government that often treads cautiously on foreign-policy landmines, probably because the numbers make the argument for them: 84% of UK respondents who expressed an opinion support the creation of the Fund, and 87% say Britain should put in at least £5 million. The global polling mirrors this mood almost eerily, with 88% supporting their own country’s participation in peace efforts.

Cooper cast the moment as an opportunity to push beyond technocratic peace-talk rituals and bring Israeli and Palestinian civil society leaders to the centre of the process. She emphasised that the UK is “well placed” to host and facilitate the conversation, though the real novelty here isn’t the venue—it’s the idea that people working on the ground, the ones actually stitching trust back together in neighbourhoods and towns, should be treated as essential architects rather than sentimental add-ons. Her colleague, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, picked up the same thread hours later at the LFI’s annual lunch, reiterating that the March gathering is designed to ensure civil society groups sit at the forefront of efforts to rebuild prospects for a long-term peace and a viable two-state horizon. The sync between Foreign Office and Treasury messaging is rare enough to notice; it signals political will rather than mere polite rhetoric.

The Fund itself is not a spontaneous invention. It fulfils a pledge Prime Minister Keir Starmer made last year after he sat down privately with peacebuilders Ibrahim Abu Ahmed and Barak Talmor, alongside ALLMEP’s John Lyndon and Rachael Liss. During that meeting, he heard something political briefings don’t always successfully convey: that even in a climate dominated by despair, people on both sides are still reducing violence, running joint initiatives, and quietly creating the human resilience any real peace will ultimately rest on. Starmer’s promise to elevate their work has now materialised in this institutional form.

The announcement lands at a highly sensitive moment. A ceasefire agreed in October holds, but only just, with the diplomatic pathway beyond it still foggy. Historical parallels from other conflicts—Northern Ireland, Colombia, the Balkans—suggest that the period immediately after a truce is the most fragile and the most decisive. Without sustained engagement with local communities and long-term investments in rebuilding relationships, the political process tends to grind back into stalemate. The International Fund is designed to fill that gap, backing multi-year grassroots programmes that change attitudes, support joint projects, and—slowly but steadily—build constituencies for peace that political agreements alone cannot summon into existence.

On the global stage, the UK’s move places it at the leading edge of commitments made in the 2024 G7 Leaders’ Communiqué, which called for coordinated support for civil-society peacebuilders as a core pillar of diplomacy. It also aligns comfortably with the New York Declaration and even the Trump 20 Point Plan, each recognising in their own way that without public buy-in, no negotiated settlement lasts. For once, the international frameworks, the domestic polling, and the government narrative all point in the same direction.

ALLMEP’s regional director, Nivine Sandouka, welcomed the announcement warmly, highlighting that genuine, lasting peace has to be driven by Israelis and Palestinians themselves—people who already hold many of the ideas necessary to build a future grounded in mutual security and equality. The upcoming conference won’t resolve decades of conflict in one sweep, of course, but it gives those voices a platform and the backing of an institutional fund with the potential to scale their impact at a moment when the region desperately needs new paths forward.

If anything, this step feels like the UK acknowledging that peace isn’t just negotiated—it’s built, nurtured, and grown from the ground up. And right now, that shift in focus feels overdue.

Israel News