Bishop's broadside over Middle East

"Promises of peace and prosperity have failed"

A leading churchman has attacked Western governments over the continuing bloodshed in the Middle East.

Bishop of Exeter, the Right Reverend Michael Langrish, singled out the United Kingdom for special criticism, saying its policies were partly responsible for the conflict.

Bishop Langrish was speaking at a meeting in the House of Lords at the launch of Christian Aid's highly critical new report on Palestinian poverty.

He said promises made to both Israelis and Palestinians of peace and prosperity, statehood and economic security had failed.

Bishop Langrish: 'Self serving' governments to blame

He blamed the Palestinian Authority and successive Israeli governments.

But he also attacked the "wider international community, and especially countries such as the United Kingdom whose own history has done so much to shape and mis-shape the events and politics, not only of Israel and Palestine and of the Middle Eastern region as a whole".

He said: "It is quite impossible to engage in any serious study of the history of the present conflict, without becoming aware of the self serving and at times deeply duplicitous policies of various Western governments, which have made victims of Israelis and Palestinians, Arabs and Jews alike."

Palestinians protest in the West Bank

Prime Minister Tony Blair responded to the report, calling for a major international effort to win peace in the Middle East.

He called for "detailed negotiations over a long period of time," warning no progress could be made in the crisis without "a huge amount of activity, politically and diplomatically on three fronts".

International Development Secretary Clare Short earlier warned that if there was no speedy action, the possibility of a Palestinian state would be "eroded".

She said most people agreed that two states could exist side by side in which the populations felt safe and secure but, she said, there would need to be a great deal of international intervention to make it work.