The delegation members who took part in MEMO's fact finding mission to Occupied Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israel earlier this month held a press conference this morning to discuss their visit.

Lord Nazir Ahmed, Lord Raymond Hylton and Baroness Jenny Tonge each focused on a slightly different aspect of their journey to the region. Lord Ahmed began by saying that, from what he saw and heard, there is no doubt in his mind that "ethnic cleansing has already started in East Jerusalem ." He referred to his meeting with three members of the Palestinian Legislative Assembly who are currently seeking sanctuary in the Red Cross offices in Jerusalem . They are being threatened with arrest and expulsion by the Israeli authorities in a move which entirely contravenes international law.

Lord Ahmed also made it quite clear that he does not think that a two state solution is a viable option and that given the current state of affairs "a two state solution is almost impossible to achieve."

Baroness Jenny Tonge lamented that with each new journey she makes to the OPTs she sees more and more suffering and misery for the Palestinian people. As a mother, she said, she tried to see how she would feel if it was her family being threatened with the demolition of their home and how she would face decisions such as where her children would sleep at night. This most recent visit, she said, only served to renew her anger at the injustice she saw being perpetrated against the people of Palestine .

She said that she found it "very ominous indeed" that Israel is persisting with its policy of expelling native Jerusalemites. She pointed out that Israel had imprisoned members of the Palestinian legislature, who had been voted for in free and fair democratic elections, for years on end and that now having finally been released they are facing renewed calls for their arrest on the pretext that they are disloyal to the state of Israel. This is merely an excuse to expel them from their homes. If these elected officials are forcibly transferred from their home city this will set a precedent for thousands of other illegal expulsions. The gravity of this situation should not be underestimated, she said, "this is an extremely serious situation."

Lord Hylton expressed his appreciation for the balanced nature of the visit and seemed particularly pleased to have met with local residents of Silwan, where a minimum of 22 homes are currently in danger of demolition. He emphasised the importance of Jerusalem as a Holy site for all three faiths and said that this aspect of Jerusalem 's nature should never be forgotten.

During the question and answer session at the end of the press conference Lord Ahmed made the point that he felt that within the next year the Middle East would witness the outbreak of another war. He felt that Israel would instigate some sort of event in an attempt to kill more people in the region. Baroness Tonge also felt that this was a very real possibility.

On a related note the point was made that the time really has now come for the governments of the world to engage with Hamas in direct dialogue. The observation was made that Catherine Ashton, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the EU, was visiting Gaza for the second time this year but was not going to be directly engaging with Hamas. Similarly, Tony Blair, the Quartet's envoy is based in Jerusalem and is meant to facilitate discussions towards peace in the region and yet is deliberately excluding dialogue with Hamas who are one of the main players. If the Quartet really was serious about its intentions, dialogue with Hamas would be one of their primary objectives.

The report of the delegation's visit to Jerusalem is available to download here.