Two Labour MPs Turned Back at Israel Border During Parliamentary Visit to West Bank

Two newly elected Labour MPs said they were denied entry to Israel and escorted back to Jordan on Monday while attempting to enter to visit medical and humanitarian projects in the occupied West Bank.

Simon Opher, the member for Stroud, and Peter Prinsley, the MP for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, said Israeli authorities stopped them as they crossed from Jordan on a three-day visit organised by the Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU). The pair said they were held in a passport office, given a legal form requiring them to leave the country and then escorted to a bus that returned them to Jordan.

Opher told the BBC the pair were informed they were not being admitted on "public order" grounds and that representations from the Foreign Office to Israeli authorities had been rejected. "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. The MPs said they had also been due to meet the British consul general in Jerusalem and to visit Palestinian and Israeli human rights organisations.

CAABU director Chris Doyle said the group has organised parliamentary visits for many years and described the denials as "regrettable." He said it was important for British politicians to observe conditions on the ground to help inform UK policy and assess humanitarian and medical needs.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Israeli Embassy in London were approached for comment.

Both Opher and Prinsley were first elected to Parliament in 2024. The denied entry follows previous incidents this year in which parliamentarians travelling with CAABU were refused access to Israel and the occupied territories. In April, Labour MPs Abtisam Mohamed and Yuan Yang said they had been denied entry on a similar visit; Israeli authorities at the time said the pair had "accused Israel of false claims" and were "actively involved in promoting sanctions against Israeli ministers." The then-foreign secretary, David Lammy, described those denials as "unacceptable, counterproductive and deeply concerning."

The recent turnbacks add to a series of travel restrictions faced by British parliamentarians abroad: earlier this year Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse was barred from entering Hong Kong while attempting to visit a family member.

Israeli authorities routinely assert security and public-order reasons for restricting entry to certain foreign nationals and delegations, while advocacy groups say such denials impede independent observation of conditions affecting civilians and humanitarian workers. CAABU said the trip to the West Bank was intended to examine medical and humanitarian provision carried out by organisations including Medical Aid for Palestinians and to enable MPs to assess how UK engagement might support those services.

Opher and Prinsley said their aim was not to undermine Israel but to understand and, where possible, offer support for healthcare provision in the West Bank as conditions there become more difficult. The MPs said they will continue to press for access to meet officials and organisations involved in health and human rights work in the region.