HYNDBURN MP Greg Pope has spoken of his fury after part of a fact-finding trip to the Middle East was blocked by the Israeli government.

Mr Pope was due to visit the Gaza Strip as part a Foreign Affairs Committee visit to the region last week.

The MP, who has visited the region several times in the last few years, said: “I want to know what are the Israelis trying to cover up.

“We wanted a rounded view of the situation on both sides of the conflict, both Israeli and Palestinian.

“The Gaza Strip is an area of great humanitarian concern but the Israelis have blockaded the area and would not let us in.

“It was supposed to be part of a wider visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories but banning us from entering Gaza from their land was an appalling act of censorship.”

Mr Pope and the committee stayed in Jerusalem for the duration of their trip to the region last week and visited Israeli politicians and Palestinian representatives as well as going to Tel Aviv and Ramallah.

The visit was part of work towards a peace process in the Middle East, something that is currently being headed by former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Mr Pope said conditions in the region had worsened since the committee’s last trip to the region last year.

He said: “It was really depressing but in the end we know what the solution needs to be.

"There must be an Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian settlements, there must be negotiations that involve Hamas, the Palestinian ruling party, and there must be a plan put forward for the creation of seperate Palestinian and Israeli states.”

Mr Pope also visited the West Bank village of Ni-Lin where the Israeli security wall encroaches into Palestinian settlements, and spent some time in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.